Re: Chinese "languages"

CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
>   (She jokes that Cantonese is like the German of China according to
>some... or at least some think Cantonese is the ugliest, shrillest
>"gutter"
>dialect in China... others think Hakka is. To some, Shanghai dialect has a
>reputation of being very much in being "sing-song-y like Italian").
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.


________________________________________________

 The rattan basket criticizes the palm leaf basket, still both are full of
holes.