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From: lckh@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Root Bear)
Subject: Re: Chinese dialects
Message-ID: <1995Apr5.095907.12789@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>
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Date: Wed, 5 Apr 95 09:59:07 GMT
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I find this discussion rather interesting; could someone knowledgeable comment
on the following: there is present division of Chinese language into
either dialects ot separate languages; but whta's the historic trend?
That is, in a country the size of China one would certainly expect
division of language into dialects (especially because the written
language is non-phonetic); are, then, the dialects more divergent now then
they were before? Or is the situation stable? Or are they actually converging?
(Radio and TV could be expected to have quite some effect..?)

In fact I would say that the question will maybe help to decide the fate
of the argument; _if_ the chinese language managed to contain this degree
of diversity for thousands of years one could hardly expect it to fall
apart now, would one?

       Serge
