Re: Chinese "languages"

On Tue, 9 May 2000, Barry Garcia wrote:

>
> I have a friend whos family is from Taiwan, and she speaks fluent Mandarin
> (she helped me with the tones once, which I have now forgotten how to do).
> Anyway, she says that Cantonese sounds harsh and ugly to her, but Mandarin
> is softer. She thinks is may be due to the higher number of tones in
> Cantonese than in Mandarin.
>
It's more likely the result of the unreleased final consonants in
Cantonese, I think, more than the number of tones. (Upon reflection I'm
not so sure of the term - but they're there anyway ;-).



Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.valdyas.org