Does that mean that one day a new language will emerge borrowing from both Cantonese and Mandarin and replace them? Or even, Cantonese and Mandarin will influence each other so much that the two become indistinct as two separate dialects?
Hmm... thats quite an interesting research. Does it mean that if we dont use certain words, it will disappear and be replaced by something else? -smart
It is known linguistically to be true, words will be eliminated by lack of usage. In a few years, people cease to know what that unused word means.
hmm.. i dun really get how you linked from the article to these statements.. and are they really influencing one another? any examples? btw.. cantonese.. does it have a written form that is different from written chinese? such as books written in cantonese? and yea.. languages change over time. look at chinese.. changed so much over the thousands of years..
In fact, many newspapers and "novels" in Hong Kong uses Cantonese instead of Chinese/Mandarin. They created words and characters which did not exist beforehand. I used to have a higher sensitivity towards Cantonese novels since they are not grammatically sound according to Chinese/Mandarin grammar rules. But now, with my Chinese/Mandarin grammar deteriorate at such a horrifying rate, I don't notice them as much (or, they don't appear as glaringly wrong as they used to be)...
^ haha.. then in that case, we might see a new official written language of Cantonese, making it even more distinct from mandarin, instead of seeing them merging or replaced.
True enough, but Mandarin picked up a lot of Cantonese slangs or colloquial terms, courtesy of all the brilliance Stephen Chow shared with the Asian population. So it may just be possible that Mandarin and Cantonese may merge and evolve into a brand new Mantonese. -lol
^ haha.. mostly for cantonese speaking ppl perhaps.. like in HK.. cos elsewhere, the influence is still minimal. at least not in writing. but with the use of chinese in writing decreasing.. i do suppose changes in spoken mandarin may manifest itself in written chinese.
Mantonese! at least i wouldn't be so lost when people speak (what seems like to me) rapid Mandarin. i'd be able to understand half of what they're saying with Mantonese! -sweat hehe.
There's Singlish... with Cantonese words at the end of the sentences (methink)... So it wouldn't surprise me one bit if one day I can't understand any Hong Konger's Mantonese -tongue2
Heh, I wouldn't worry about the languages as these things often evolves over a long time, although some experts are worried about the effect of Internet slang/abbrevations in daily speech/writings of the younger generations.
hmm it's quite sad for a language to become extinct though...=X of course, it'd be hard to imagine canto or chinese being extinct now, but yep there are really quite a number of languages that are becoming 'endangered' simply because people have stopped using that language.... =\ haha anyway, it's really interesting to see how the meanings of words change with time and by the things they're associated with...
i wanted to read that, but the only thing going through my mind was... 'damn the lady in that avatar is old'
