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There are so many accents of putonghua, many people had to learn it while speaking another dialect. The kids of today have a good chance of only knowing mandarin if they grew up in a big city. Would accents be gone in say, 100 years?
If kids and their kids only spoke putonghua, and on tv, its perfect putonghua, there might be less accents as time passes. Northern and southern accents is the easiest to catch, and many other areas some people can catch it while other cant. There has been 2 times in china (not in guangdong) where i just listened to someone speak mandarin, and i reply back in cantonese, and they reply back like, wow how you know? My northern chinese friends can distinguish north and south accent, while i can distinguish if the southern accent is cantonese accent or not. My northern friends can distinguish beijing accent with tianjin accent, while all i hear is northern accent with the rrrr sound.
And many times when i lived in beijing, talk to people, and they say are you from the south.
There are so many accents of putonghua, many people had to learn it while speaking another dialect. The kids of today have a good chance of only knowing mandarin if they grew up in a big city. Would accents be gone in say, 100 years?
If kids and their kids only spoke putonghua, and on tv, its perfect putonghua, there might be less accents as time passes. Northern and southern accents is the easiest to catch, and many other areas some people can catch it while other cant. There has been 2 times in china (not in guangdong) where i just listened to someone speak mandarin, and i reply back in cantonese, and they reply back like, wow how you know? My northern chinese friends can distinguish north and south accent, while i can distinguish if the southern accent is cantonese accent or not. My northern friends can distinguish beijing accent with tianjin accent, while all i hear is northern accent with the rrrr sound.
And many times when i lived in beijing, talk to people, and they say are you from the south.
Hard to say, but if you look at countries like UK, there are tons of accents...and that's just a small place. I have no idea how even a small place could eradicate all their accents, let alone a huge place.
Than on top of that, places continually change their way of speaking as well. Few would easily comprehend what English was 500 years ago, etc. Probably the same could be said for 500 years from now.
Hard to say, but if you look at countries like UK, there are tons of accents...and that's just a small place. I have no idea how even a small place could eradicate all their accents, let alone a huge place.
Than on top of that, places continually change their way of speaking as well. Few would easily comprehend what English was 500 years ago, etc. Probably the same could be said for 500 years from now.
Well maybe as time goes on, accents in china will slowly get better and will resemble perfect mandarin, as many kids who will be born in the future will not be able to speak their dialect. There are people who speak mandarin where their accent is so bad, that its hard for me to understand what theyre saying. Its different when in the past, people speak other dialects, and have to learn mandarin by looking at chinese characters, to now where kids being born amd watch tv, go to school where mandarin is used. It will be speaking mandarin and correcting the accent to more normal, compared to learning mandarin.
Kinda makes sense, in the uk, its a small place and theirs accents. America also, theres many accents, but its not at a point where i dont understand what they are saying because their accent is horrible.
I know that in Italy there has been a revival of the dialects. So people know Italian but often use their dialect among families and friends.
So who knows what will happen in China.
I know that in Italy there has been a revival of the dialects. So people know Italian but often use their dialect among families and friends.
So who knows what will happen in China.
Discrimination is big in china. Some dialects sound uneducated, rude. When people are in Major cities and just speak mandarin with little accent, at least discrimination wont be as bad. There will still be discrimination from major city locals not liking rural outsiders coming in and living there. Not sure about Italy and discrimination, but its a much smaller country.
There is only one version of 'Putonghua' which is standard Beijing - there are courses where you learn Putonghua - there aren't multiple versions of it, that's for sure.
The problem with China is eradicating actual regional languages - I think it is a shame that Hokkien is more alive outside of China than inside of it, there are no Cantonese universities or TV channels (or Hokkien for that matter). I think it is wrong that the government want to seem to eradicate the many forms of Chinese culture and history but hopefully, people will persevere to hand down their languages to the next generation.
There is only one version of 'Putonghua' which is standard Beijing - there are courses where you learn Putonghua - there aren't multiple versions of it, that's for sure.
The problem with China is eradicating actual regional languages - I think it is a shame that Hokkien is more alive outside of China than inside of it, there are no Cantonese universities or TV channels (or Hokkien for that matter). I think it is wrong that the government want to seem to eradicate the many forms of Chinese culture and history but hopefully, people will persevere to hand down their languages to the next generation.
Its only a matter of time when all dialects will go away, even with chinese people in other countries. Many chinese born in America, canada, etc cant speak a lick of chinese, maybe some can understand a little bit but cant speak it. There is also discrimination outside of China with the chinese, cantonese vs fujianese in the east coast chinatowns in america, hakka, and other dialects of Guangdong. If everyone just spoke 1 language, with little accent, there will be less issues. It will probably take another 60 years for that to happen, when the kids of today are born and speak mandarin, knows some simple words of their dialect, and everyone else passes away due to old age.
There is only one version of 'Putonghua' which is standard Beijing - there are courses where you learn Putonghua - there aren't multiple versions of it, that's for sure.
The problem with China is eradicating actual regional languages - I think it is a shame that Hokkien is more alive outside of China than inside of it, there are no Cantonese universities or TV channels (or Hokkien for that matter). I think it is wrong that the government want to seem to eradicate the many forms of Chinese culture and history but hopefully, people will persevere to hand down their languages to the next generation.
Mandarin Chinese has its own dialects and accents. Not everyone speaks like a Beijing native for sure. I had a friend from Shaanxi during graduate school who explained to me some different accents that the Shaanxi accent was different from the Szechuanese accent. Vocabulary can differ from province to province and even from district to district. A former roommate of mine was from Shandong who can speak standard Mandarin (the Beijing dialect) and I can understand her somewhat with my limited high school Mandarin, her 10 year old daughter on the other hand was accustomed to using Shandongnese vocabulary and I could not understand her at all.
And no, Guangzhou Television (GZTV) still exists, many Cantonese programs including Cantonese spoken news broadcasts are still offered, and as far as I know is still broadcast in Canton Province and on select cable listings throughout the world. I was watching GZTV while on vacation in New Jersey last week as proof. I also checked out Phoenix Television, another Cantonese language channel provider with headquarters in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. I mentioned in another post that the news anchors on these channels speak some of the most fluent and intellectual Cantonese you can ever hear in the world, so much more than the everyday speech of us commoners. As for Cantonese universities, well if you consider Hong Kong as part of China, the universities there still offer Cantonese language courses and use Cantonese as a medium of instruction in some course offerings. What may be going away is the subject matter being taught at such universities but that is another conversation for another day. The language does not seem to be disappearing. Hokkien is well preserved on Taiwan and it has not entirely disappeared from the Mainland either. Many Hokkien speakers can also be found here in the States so I do not see it going away either.
Mandarin Chinese has its own dialects and accents. Not everyone speaks like a Beijing native for sure. I had a friend from Shaanxi during graduate school who explained to me some different accents that the Shaanxi accent was different from the Szechuanese accent. Vocabulary can differ from province to province and even from district to district. A former roommate of mine was from Shandong who can speak standard Mandarin (the Beijing dialect) and I can understand her somewhat with my limited high school Mandarin, her 10 year old daughter on the other hand was accustomed to using Shandongnese vocabulary and I could not understand her at all.
Where did I say that Mandarin Chinese didn't have its own accents and dialects, show me where I say that? And no, Putonghua isn't 'Mandarin Chinese' that's just silly - as you know very well (or maybe not...), it is a standardised version of it, an accent if you like - like BBC/The Queen's English is.
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And no, Guangzhou Television (GZTV) still exists, many Cantonese programs
You're wrong.
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including Cantonese spoken news broadcasts are still offered,
They might offer 5 minute segments or one or two wildlife/travel programmes but they don't show 'many programmes in Cantonese' nor on any other regional stations in that part of the world that isn't Hong Kong or Macao.
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and as far as I know is still broadcast in Canton Province and on select cable listings throughout the world. I was watching GZTV while on vacation in New Jersey last week as proof. I also checked out Phoenix Television, another Cantonese language channel provider with headquarters in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
Phoenix Television is a multi-channel Mandarin Chinese broadcaster with over 360 million audience worldwide.
From their website.
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I mentioned in another post that the news anchors on these channels speak some of the most fluent and intellectual Cantonese you can ever hear in the world, so much more than the everyday speech of us commoners. As for Cantonese universities, well if you consider Hong Kong as part of China,
Nobody considers it part of the mainland so no, we don't consider it as part of China as part of this discussion - Cantonese still has a legal standing in Hong Kong in the same way it doesn't on the mainland.
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the universities there still offer Cantonese language courses and use Cantonese as a medium of instruction in some course offerings.
There might be ONE or two but there aren't any universities that 'offer Cantonese as a medium of instruction' for anything outside of Cantonese language studies which very few universities in China offer (now on reading up on it, there are one or two that offer a Cantonese broadcasting major) - we're talking less than a handful and no - we don't include Hong Kong and Macao in that number.
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What may be going away is the subject matter being taught at such universities but that is another conversation for another day. The language does not seem to be disappearing. Hokkien is well preserved on Taiwan and it has not entirely disappeared from the Mainland either. Many Hokkien speakers can also be found here in the States so I do not see it going away either.
You don't live here, do you?
Last edited by bejarano; Today at 06:24 PM..
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