One spoken language on Earth?

MisChief said:
How do you mean more "global"?
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Sorry, my bad. Should've made myself a bit clearer. Chinese people who lives abroad such as the UK usually speak in Cantonese instead of Mandarin, hence "global". If you go to places like Chinatown everyone will usually speak to each other in Cantonese instead of Mandarin.

On the other hand those in mainland China doesn't seem to know Cantonese... :p.
 
i reckon it'll be like firefly with a combination of Chinese and English.

with one being your dominant language depending on where you're born.
 
Orcvader said:
Sorry, my bad. Should've made myself a bit clearer. Chinese people who lives abroad such as the UK usually speak in Cantonese instead of Mandarin, hence "global". If you go to places like Chinatown everyone will usually speak to each other in Cantonese instead of Mandarin.

On the other hand those in mainland China doesn't seem to know Cantonese... :p.
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Doesn't that reflect the social and cultural status of the majority of émigrés from the Chinese mainland rather than a considered decision to use Cantonese? It being the main spoken language throughout southern China and the traditional crossover regions such as Hong Kong, Macau and the Chinese communities of Souhern Asia?

Also to be considered is that Mandarin has been the state promoted official language for over a century, both spoken and written, which is reflected in the Chinese media and their state education system.
 
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Castiel said:
Doesn't that reflect the social status of the majority of émigrés from the Chinese mainland rather than a considered decision to use Cantonese?
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I suppose so, but I do know quite a few mainlanders who has taught themselves Cantonese before moving to the UK. I suppose originally the main Chinese emigrates were from Hong Kong since it was a British colony, and their main language was Cantonese. Then that kinda stuck...
 
You'd still get regional / national dialects and phrases that mean different things to different people in different parts of the world. Plus people make up words / languages all the time - txt spk being the most popular "new" language.

But yes, if every government changed all their media to 1 language and all schools taught one language, and people had no choice but to learn & use one language, we could see an 'alltongue' language within 100-150 years.
 
Orcvader said:
Sorry, my bad. Should've made myself a bit clearer. Chinese people who lives abroad such as the UK usually speak in Cantonese instead of Mandarin, hence "global". If you go to places like Chinatown everyone will usually speak to each other in Cantonese instead of Mandarin.

On the other hand those in mainland China doesn't seem to know Cantonese... :p.
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In the UK probably, as there are a lot of Hong Kong families who have immigrated to the UK. However you'll also find a lot of more Mandarin speaking illegal immigrants in the UK now, as well as the rich Mandarin speaking students from mainland China.

Places like Canada and the US, the majority are Mandarin speaking as they mostly come from countries like Taiwan.

I think Mandarin is more common/"global" than Cantonese. You'll find that many Cantonese speaking people know Mandarin, but Mandarin speaking people don't know much Cantonese...
 
Orcvader said:
I suppose so, but I do know quite a few mainlanders who has taught themselves Cantonese before moving to the UK. I suppose originally the main Chinese emigrates were from Hong Kong since it was a British colony, and their main language was Cantonese. Then that kinda stuck...
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Absolutely. English is another good example of this.
 
sbweightman said:
But yes, if every government changed all their media to 1 language and all schools taught one language, and people had no choice but to learn & use one language, we could see an 'alltongue' language within 100-150 years.
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that rarely works.....China has actively promoted Mandarin as the educational and cultural standard for over a century and there is still huge divergence in Chinese dialects throughout China.
 
MisChief said:
Places like Canada and the US, the majority are Mandarin speaking as they mostly come from countries like Taiwan.
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Canada is almost exclusively Cantonese speaking amongst Canadian Chinese....the US was similarly the same until recently and the standard Mandarin seems to be the prevalent language of a large influx of Chinese immigration, however the main communities and Chinatowns in New York, LA, San Francisco etc are all still predominantly Cantonese speaking while the smaller and newer communities are favouring Mandarin (or the standard version of it at least).....I was reading an article not long ago that was concerned about recent segregation of Chinese communities (based largely on language differences) in the United States and the impact that is having on social cohesion within those communities and the wider community. I don't know if the same is happening in the UK.
 
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Castiel said:
Canada is almost exclusively Cantonese speaking amongst Canadian Chinese....the US was similarly the same until recently and the standard Mandarin seems to be the prevalent language of a large influx of Chinese immigration, however the main communities and Chinatowns in New York, LA, San Francisco etc are all still predominantly Cantonese speaking while the smaller and newer communities are favouring Mandarin (or the standard version of it at least).....I was reading an article not long ago that was concerned about recent segregation of Chinese communities (based largely on language differences) in the United States and the impact that is having on social cohesion within those communities and the wider community. I don't know if the same is happening in the UK.
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I still disagree, however I don't have any facts as my opinions are just based on my own experience and the people I/my family know over there so I won't challenge you on this :p
 
In China you get 10yrs hard labour for using 'of' instead of the correct 'have', 15yrs hard labour for using 'women' instead of the correct 'woman' and I'm afraid it's death by firing squad for all you superfluous 'literally' users.
 
Sefirosu said:
Fixed.
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Do grow up, it was actually referencing an article in either the Amerasia Journal or Chinese America by Min Zhou, Ph.D., I can't recall which, and in any event Wikipedia is an acceptable source of information if used as reference and not simply as the basis of your argument.

I suppose we all could simply use profanity and make nonsence posts as you eminently illustrated in your earlier contribution instead. :rolleyes:
 
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I dunno how Manderin and all Asian languages are still going. A language system that doesn't use letters but archiac 'symbols' must be a nightmare.

I was watching something on Youtube that had Chinese subtitles and just a small sentence required a longer, intricate series of 'pictures' for it. How big are their books, they must be huge.

Here is what a keyboard looks like that supports Chinese 'characters'

chinese-keyboard.jpg


Ridiculous language system if you ask me.
 
It's rather odd to imagine the language of China being universal given many parts of China have people who speak local dialects and do not engage except via official business in either the 'national common' language Cantonese or the official mainland language Mandarin. Chinese people who move to other places or do business with the West etc are more likely to speak Cantonese or Mandarin as a first dialect as they are more wealthy and better educated.

There are few places where one common language exist in a single nation let alone in terms of something that could be rolled globally.
 
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