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chin:

--- Quote from: hangchoi on 21 July 2010, 23:29:40 ---You mean the "Potunghau-lization" in GuangDong??  >:(

I don't know why.....Did the PRC government want to unify the pronunciation and wordings of Chinese language? That's stupid. UK has the size of Guangdong province but they have more than 20 accents of British English........

--- End quote ---

Well, I'd like to say again that you may not agree with what they do, but they are not stupid. (OK, may be they are in this case...)

I can see perfectly why SOME in the government would like to put Putonghua first. See my Tibet story below. The reason could be totally legitimate in a macro view. Again, in this case I I do not think it's necessary, and I hope the idea does not come from the top of the central government.

When I went to Tibet in 2004, one of the most striking scenes is how with ease kids would come to us asking for money. At the same time I can see that it's a very common practice to hand out small money. (Read my story, especially 32 & #7.) During and after the trip, I was thinking about how the Tibetans' may improve their lives, material well-being wise. And I think one of the ways is to improve education and integration with the rest of China. And one of the key for the improvement is learning to speak Putonghua, learning to read Chinese. I can see the the better off Tibetans in Lhasa are those who speak Chinese.

You remember our Chinese history lesson, where 秦始皇 was mean and ruthless, yet at the same time he did something of positive and of long lasting value to China - that is the unification of writings and measurements. While at the expenses of the minorities, the standardization allowed easy of trade and literature. I don't think anyone can argue against these long term positive effects, especially we are now still enjoying the benefits.

So in certain situations, standardization (or globalization-like policy), including language, could bring very positive long term benefit.

However, in the case of Cantonese, I think it's not necessary and may not be possible. Cantonese speaking regions are well developed economic wise, and Cantonese speakers, while may not speak Putonghua well, can read Chinese as well as any equivalently educated person in China. The existence of the Cantonese culture does not interfere with the grand national development. In fact the study and preservation of Cantonese can be of great value to the study of Chinese literature. One of my tea friends who teaches Chinese literature in Baptist University once told me that Tang poems 唐詩 sound better in Cantonese when reading outloud, because Cantonese has long root and influence in early Chinese language.

So, long live 掉那媽，頂硬上！

hangchoi:
Somehow I have the same feeling that reading Tang Peoms in Cantonese sounds better than in Potunghua, as I had tried both before. I really wonder what those poet's accent had in say Tang Dynasty.

Having said that, this type of "globalization" may not go too far. My sister told me a story about her trip to Middle East 2 months ago. In Egypt, she had a cruise on river Nero. That part of river oftens has crocodile around. She saw a little kid sailing on the river by a plank with 2 smaller wooden board as the paddles. The kid drove his little "boat" to their ship and held on the rim of the ship. The ship was driven by motor so that his boat will travel with the ship without paddling.

Then the kid asked to my sister "Spainish?"
My sister replied "No."
"Portuguese?"
"No"
"Germany?"
"No."
"English?"
"Yes"

After the kid confirmed my sister's tongue, he started sing an English song. My sister said after that he would be happy if you could give him some money. Then he will go for another boat and sing another song in maybe another language.

I think, language as a communication media may not need any globalization. The one who relies on it for living will find a way to adapt it. We see lot of people in Guangzhou, like my uncle there, can speak fluent Putonghua. Even us. Most of us had not learned Putonghua in school but most of us now have some business in PRC. We are "forced" to speak and learn accordingly.

Just like what the doctor said in Jurrasic Park, "Life finds its way." ;D

kido:
Almost miss this topic, just minutes ago I found that the original of 李白《靜夜思》isn't what we've learnt.

We learn:

--- Quote ---「床前明月光，疑是地上霜，舉頭望明月，低頭思故鄉。」
--- End quote ---

and the original should be :

--- Quote ---「床前看月光，疑是地上霜，舉頭望山月，低頭思故鄉。」
--- End quote ---


And surprisingly it was preserved in Japan! The original sounds more natural with Cantonese, and the Mandarin speaker somehow changed it to what we've learnt today, to make it sound better.
 :o :o

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