Re: "easiest" languages, SE Asian word-order typologies (was Rating Languages)

>From: J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...>
>Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 00:44:27 EDT
>
>     Wonder what influences coulda made Mandarin become such a
>"head-final"/left-branching language (modifier(s) + head word) ?
>
>     czHANg ponderin' the big weirdnesses & mysteries of Sino-linguistics
I've often wonderd what made Mandarin so weirdly divergent from the other
Sinitic langs in a lot of ways -- phonolgy, syntax, vocab, tone structure.
Mandarin almost seems like a pidgin.  Maybe it's the result of all those
Mongols, Manchus and other Tungusic tribes trying to learn Sinitic langs --
Which would make my French analogy even more apt.  Mandarin is Chinese in
the mouths of Mongols just like French is Latin in the mouths of Germans.

*ducking for cover*

Adam


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