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The Languages of China

The Languages of China. Chapter 2: China, North & South. “Chinese” – some background information. “Chinese” is spoken by over 1B people – no other language comes close Most speakers (95%) live in the eastern half of the country, and this part is traditionally divided into North vs. South.

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The Languages of China

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  1. The Languages of China Chapter 2: China, North & South

  2. “Chinese” – some background information • “Chinese” is spoken by over 1B people – no other language comes close • Most speakers (95%) live in the eastern half of the country, and this part is traditionally divided into North vs. South

  3. North vs. South -- geography North: Treeless plain and Loess plateau with powdery yellow dust, drained by the Yellow River (which causes flooding problems), frequent dust storms, low population density, fertile but dry soil good for growing grains, supporting cuisine of breads and noodles South: Yangtze River valley, many hills and well-watered valleys, monsoons, highest population density, green and warm and excellent farmland for year-round crops, supporting rice-based cuisine

  4. North vs. South -- language North: Mandarin dialects, include all except the SE corner of China. All recently settled areas are Mandarin, and this is ¾ of the country South: Non-Mandarin dialects are confined to the lower Yangtze and border with the South China Sea

  5. Why do you think this is so? • “Mandarin has no more variety than French, say, or German. But the non-Mandarin area is extremely varied, and within it sharply divergent forms of speech are often separated by only a few miles.” • “The variety of the language in the South is so great that the dialects there can be classified into at least 6 groups, each of which is as varied as the entire Mandarin area.”

  6. North vs. South – human migration Nan chuan bei ma ‘In the South the boat, in the North the horse’ – what does this refer to?

  7. North vs. South – human migration Nan chuan bei ma ‘In the South the boat, in the North the horse’ North: unrestricted movement, even the Yellow River is so shallow it can be forded, much interregional migration due to unstable rainfall (floods & droughts) and economy, more vulnerable to invasion from North South: few roads, many barriers of water & hills, economic stability & dependable harvests, linguistic layers left by successive waves of immigrants, relatively safe from invasion

  8. The gradual drift from North to South… • 2,500 years ago, no Chinese was spoken South of the Yangtze; the Chinese (=Han) people lived in the North and the Southeast was inhabited by wild, exotic peoples. • Putonghua is a modern concept, being spread today by technology and education, but its spread is a continuation of much the same linguistic process that has been going on in China for a long time, it is consistent with the historical flow of Northern influence to the South.

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