Re: THEORY: Expanding in translation?
| From: | Eugene Oh <un.doing@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, March 13, 2008, 3:42 |
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On 13/03/2008, Philip Newton <philip.newton@...> wrote:
>
> In this case we might be talking about different things; the written
> Cantonese I've heard uses a fair number of ad-hoc characters (often
> with the "mouth" radical to indicate a "dialect" word) which, as I
> understand, are not common to other dialects. Especially for particles
> of various kinds.
>
Ah, that would be written _colloquial_ Cantonese. Like any other
language, Cantonese has its acrolectal and basilectal registers, as
well as everything in between. Yes, the one you're referring to would
be the equivalent of Yorkshire and Valley-girl then. Just with the
added distinction of writing. (: Though whereas I believe Yorkshire
and Valley-girl are not admissible written as, say, a police
statement, Hong Kong Police regulations actually require written
colloquial Cantonese if the witness gave his/her statement in such.
Eugene
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