The name of this forum

Yoda · 19-08-2003 11:00am #1

I don't think that the "(Cantonese / Mandarin)" rubric in the forum name is necessary or correct. Chinese is a collection of languages which use the same writing system, but differ as considerably as to Romanian and Portuguese. Statistics from Ramsey's Languages of China:

71.5% are Putonghua (Mandarin) speakers (Beijing and all the North and Southwest)
8.5% are Wu speakers (around Shanghai and Zhejiang)
5.0% are Yue (Cantonese) speakers (Guangdong, Guangxi, and overseas)
4.8% are Xiang speakers (Hunan)
4.1% are Min speakers (Fujian and southern coastal areas)
3.7% are Hakka speakers (widely scattered from Sichuan to Taiwan)
2.4% are Gan speakers (Jiangxi)

Giblet · 19-08-2003 11:18am

It's alphabethical at least.

Grand_Izer · 19-08-2003 2:42pm

Well to be fair, the majority of Chinese language users in Ireland will be fluent in either Cantonese or Mandarin (or even both).

Yoda · 19-08-2003 2:49pm

Why?

Cloud · 19-08-2003 4:07pm

Removed superfluous limitations.

Grand_Izer · 19-08-2003 5:27pm

Originally posted by Yoda
Why?

This issue is sorta defunct now but ah well

The ratio of Cantonese to Mandarin speakers is a lot higher in western countries than one might expect. A sizeable majority of early Chinese immigrants to England/Ireland will have originated from Cantonese speaking areas (notably Hong Kong).
For people interested in learning a Chinese language, the 2 most common choices would be Cantonese (due to the large number of speakers overseas) and Mandarin. Also for business purposes, Mandarin is also perceived as an attractive language - the unlikely phrase "China's billion customers" springs to mind.

DEmeant0r · 19-08-2003 5:37pm

I think we should leave it as Chinese, I think it's fine.

DEmeant0r · 08-09-2003 9:18pm

The name of the boards is set and not changing, so I think there's no point in this topic. locked.

The name of this forum

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