modern Mandarin Chinese(s) (was Re: Futurese, Chinese, Hz of NatLangs, etc.)

In a message dated 05/11/2002 09.29.39 PM, ray.brown@FREEUK.COM writes:

>I had understood that erisation was still rather fluid in modern Chinese,
>varying not only with dialect (e.g. more common in Beijing), but also in
>different styles.  Indeed, Kratochvil's figures do suggest style might
>have something to do with it:
>Everday conversation:  6.2%
>         Storyteller:  3.4%
> Political broadcast:  0.4%
>
>Maybe J Y S Czhang can enlighten us further on this.
    AFAIK, all of the above is true. And like I wrote just a couple days ago,
I don't think one can safely say there is one kind of Mandarin as there are
many variations of/on Mandarin and/or regionalects of _Putonghua_/ _
guoyu_/_baihua_. Mandarin has mutated almost as much as all the mutant
varieties of English! I guess just like some say there are different,
differing "Englishes," there are Mandarins, too ;)
    "Style" also has a lot of influence on useage (or in the more urbanized
slang-ish varieties of Mandarin - "mutant Streetwise Mandarin", abuseage).

    As to erisation in Mandarin, I guess that the more localized, everyday
Beijing regionalect has erisation while the more national version does not
--- maybe it is easier for other, non-Beijingers to hear and understand if
erisation is not emphasized or used at all.
    BTW My mum speaks Mandarin with a hybrid FooChow-Yale accent. Beijingers
find it an oddly nice accent (like Shanghai Mandarin without the distracting
"sing-song-iness").
    My dad barely speaks Mandarin at all, but what Mandarin he does speak is
influenced by the wider tonal system of Cantonese (and sometimes he messes up
the syntax as well). So to Beijingers, my dad sounds like he "is all over the
bloody map" so to speak.
    I take after my dad :) but oh so much worse... I sound like an
Americanized Britisher who learned Mandarin from a Cantonese who grew up in
Malaysia. In another words, a really truly f***ed Mandarin. So when I have to
- like in a restaurant, I rely on a mix of messed-up Mandarin, English and
sign/body-language...and leave a big tip (if I have the money to).
    My younger sister speaks a little Mandarin, but amazingly better than my
mum (she went to college near Chicago where she met up with a bunch of
Beijing native speakers and she also actively studies Mandarin in her spare
time).
    My younger brother just knows a few more words and phrases than me, but
*ROTFLMAO* his accent is pure, urban cowboy Texan (he was born and raised in
Houston, TX, & lives in Austin, TX) ... It is really quite funny when
Mandarin speakers turn to me - of all people - (or my sister) to ask what
kind of barbarian language my brother is trying to show-off {I guess this is
the Mandarin equivalent of asking "what in the retarded hell is he trying to
vainly say?"}.

Hanuman Zhang
    ~
"When you lose a language, it's like
dropping a bomb on a museum." ~ Kenneth Hale
-----------~§~-----------
en legoset _ creolego _ =
    ¡ gwerra sumtotall-morda legotaxo!
    ¡ banc poli en-haz legoplex !  creo legoplex !

trans-litteral-slice-ation into English:

in Creo-Lego word-set  <vocabulary>:
    War word-system sum-total(all)-death !  <combat/fight linguistic
extinction!>
    Save multiple in-hazard language{s}!  Create language[s]!

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