CHINESE+LANGUAGE

__THE CHINESE LANGUAGE__
===What are some unique characteristics of the Chinese language? What are its principal dialects today? Why was it uncommon for most ancient Chinese people to be able to read and write? Why are slight inflections or intonations of the voice important in Chinese? How has the Chinese language influenced other languages of Far East Asia?===

1. The principle dialects of the Chinese language are Mandarin, Wu, Cantonese, and Min. Eighty six percent of the languages spoken are Mandarin Chinese. Oddly enough, the dialects are not very similiar with one another. One fluent in Mandarin Chinese would have an extremely difficult time trying to communicate with another that speaks Wu Chinese. (mhu)

2. Even though the main dialects are extremely contrasting when spoken, the written text is almost identical. (jmo)

3. In the Chinese language, it is important to pay close attention to the rise and fall of the words because each word could have several different meanings. (cmy)

4. It was extremely common for Chinese people to not know how to read or write because of the many different languages spread throughout China. It would be impossible to commmunicate through reading and writing. (cmy)

5. Mandarin is the most commonly spoken dialect by the Chinese people. About sixty-five percent of the Chinese population speak this dialect, and it is promoted in the schools of the PRC Chinese communists.(lej)

6. The reason for the vast ammount of languages spread throughout the country is probably due to ancient times when all of the tribes were spread out and were divided from each other due to the geographical features of China. The separate tribes had to communicate with eah other, so it seems very likely that those tribes invented their own language to speak with each other.(hma)

7. In the Chinese language, a rise and fall in the voice during pronunciation is important because words being spoken in different dialects have the same spelling but different meaning.(ljo)

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