Re: Mixed writing systems (WAS: Newbie says hi)

Florian wrote:
>
> >That sound pretty hard on the Shanghainese - getting taught to speak your
>L1
> >is widely considered more-or-less a human right in this corner of the
>globe.
> >And if Mandarin and Cantonese writing are that different, then the hanzi
> >system don't provide more unit to languages than sharing the Latin
>alphabet
> >does to, say, English and German.
>Shanghainese people do not feel any restriction about using their LV1.
>shanghainese writing is not taugh because it does not exist.
>
I meant "getting taught to WRITE your L1". The lack of a written form of
Shanghainese, I'm tempted to conclude, is due to the powers that be
insisting on Classical Chinese and later Mandarin as the language of
writing. In a more "enlightened" linguistic climate, a written form of
Shanghainese would presumeably have been created long ago.


>
> >>         Mandarin being the official language of china, i see nothing
>bad
> >>in having allmost every body learn mandarin. Actualy, every british
>learn
> >>english, right? I consider the linguistic situation in china to be more
> >>free than in europe, because the offical language does not replace all
>the
> >>local speech, but cohabitate. Bretons in france, for example, did not
>enjoy
> >>such a tolerant situation.
> >
> >I don't  consider it bad teaching all inhabitants of China (including
> >Tibetans, Uighurs etc) Chinese as a L2. I do consider it bad not to teach
> >people to write their L1.
>Preventing people from learning how to write their LV1 would actualy be a
>bad thing. But the situation is a bit diferent since those LV1 actualy
>never developed any writing system of their own.
You might argue that the non-existence of written Shanghainese in itself is
a evidence of linguistic repression.

>So even if the chinese governement encouraged teaching how to write the
>dialect in schools, teacher whould face the problem that no one knows how
>to write this.
>
Then perhaps the authorities should begin with encouraging the creation of a
written Shanghainese.

> >And if local forms of
> >speech are keeping ground better in China than in Europe, I suspect that
>may
> >have alot to do with less media penetration in China.
>probably, but media penetration is improving. Quicly.
I know, and it's probably bad news for local dialects and for unwritten
languages.


       Andreas

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