The origin of Mandarin

[hong]

a good news again because a new minnan dict commentary for older book has been foundhttp://www.nihaotw.com/tfhy/news_content.asp?id=73158

[hong]

http://www.lib.lyun.edu.cn/szxb/_private/199003/chr.htm putian

[Aurelio]

Tang Loon Kong:

Sorry to disappoint you on the mouse: It's mus in Latin, mys ([mus]) in Greek, mus in Old English and Old High German, all written long before M.P. was born.


Hong:

Very interesting article on the Zhangzhou 'language fossil'. This is indeed a great find. Good to see that you're still posting!

Regards,
Aurelio

[%sig%]

[hong]

3 dict have been found last year and one this year.One for Tong An ,one for LongHai another unknown yet.This is chiangchiu.However,these dict are just for our knowledge for Ming and Qing period minnan sound because Chiangchiu people in China had changed their sound to a simple form as mentioned by Prof Mazhongqi in last 100 years.And so did all chuanchiu people in china,vowels become simpler in Tongan and other chuanchiu sects.
It is very sad that a chiangchiu lady scholar published a book catalog with a cd rom for all min languages materials from 15th centuries until 2003.If she could just wait a year for these 4 minnan dict to be added,it will be a better book.

[Aurelio]

Hong:

Now it's getting exiting: Do you have a web-link for this catalogue or an address?

Regards,
Aurelio

[hong]

http://www.ssdph.com.cn/bookinfo.php?id=1216 .I think many books on min languages are not reprinted because the author knows that there are mistakes and it will be too hard for them to rewrite.This is the same case for many theories for any subjects.

[Yisheng]

Hi Aurelio,

if you are in Singapore and do not have strong views on duplication, I could pass you a soft copy of the catalogue on CD.

Regards,
Yisheng

[hong]

It seems that tapes on various dialects mentioned in glossika.com from shanghai education have a cdrom version now.http://www.dangdang.com or http://www.hanxue.net type 现代汉语方言音库

[casey]

Mandarin is a foreign term used only in the western languages. In China it was always "官话" (Guan Hua meaning the official language) to be differentiated from various "土话" (Tu Hua or local languages) or "方言" (Fang Yan or dialects).

[Eng Wai]

"官话" is 官话 because it is "官"话. Mandarin as 官话 dates back to Ming dynasty but the emrgence of Mandarin dates back to late Song/Yuan. What is it called actually when it is not meant to be 官话?

For example Bahasa Melayu (Malay language) used to be called Bahasa Malaysia (Malaysia language) because it is the national langauge of Malaysia. Cantonese, Hokkiens etc are named after the people or the regions which speak it. So how about Mandarin?

I think Bei3 Fang1 Hua4 is more an appropriate non-political name for Mandarin but the linguists seem to prefer the term Guan Hua. I understand that the name is just for naming convenience sake. I am curious if there is any other alternative to both two. I would like to know why Guan Hua is preferred by the linguists.

Eng Wai