Which Chinese dialect???

[ Reply ] [ The Indyfan Forum ] [ FAQ ]

Posted by West from spider-mtc-tj034.proxy.aol.com on May 17, 2001 at 03:48:34:

In Reply to: Lao Che and Lao Tzu are totally different names . Trust me, coz' I am a native Chinese speaker. posted by Azuma on May 16, 2001 at 22:15:11:

In China alone there exists several dialects of Chinese even today. Several individuals in Chinese history even had several different names, like Confucius has several and so do some emperiors of China. I've asked on several occasions about historical Chinese figures to my father and he had no idea whatsoever on who I was asking about until I listed the person's accomplishments and time period which the historical figure lived in. He then give me a different Chinese name all together. My father is also fluent in Chinese, since he is Chinese and born and bred in China and an advid student of history. My father currently speaks Cantonese and Mandarin and has in the past talked in other dialects which has surprised many.
Plus in my experience trying to fit the pronounciations of Chinese words into English is a difficult task that they (in Universities) have even gone so far as to make new vowel sounds for English letters, which is both confusing and (to any fluent in both English and Chinese) the wrong way of teaching Chinese. Pin-ying (the Chinese-English vowel system used at some Universities) has also been used in print and books so trying to say a Chinese word out reading it in English text form is a difficult task. (Just a side note, I may have been mistaken and confused Lao Che with another philosopher my father mentioned. The concept of the Ying yang, was also brought up that night. Boy, were we on a tangent.)
Sorry for the long message but I tend to go on tangents when I get really going on something.

West




Follow Ups:



Post a Followup:

Name:    
E-Mail:  
Subject: 
Comments:

Optional:

Link URL:   
Link Title: 
Image URL:  


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Indyfan Forum ] [ FAQ ]