Newsgroups: sci.lang,soc.culture.nordic
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!udel!news.sprintlink.net!news.indirect.com!bud.indirect.com!stevemac
From: stevemac@bud.indirect.com (Pascal MacProgrammer)
Subject: Chinese dialects
Message-ID: <D6Kyw0.7tv@indirect.com>
Sender: usenet@indirect.com (Internet Direct Admin)
Organization: Department of Redundancy Department
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 1995 21:11:59 GMT
X-Disclaimer: I have nothing to disclaim, deny, or disavow.
Lines: 19

Not so very long ago, rharmsen@knoware.nl (Ruud Harmsen) said...

>Does the fact that Japanese can read Chinese newspapers (I have been told) 
>mean Japanese and Chinese are the same language? There aren't even akin!

  No.  It's more like an American being able to pick out a few words of 
Latin and being able to understand them, because there are a large number 
of loan words from Latin in English.
  When a Japanese attempts to read Chinese, what he sees are the Chinese
loan words that have become a part of Japanese.  He may be able to get an
idea of what is being said, but unless he's been educated in Chinese, he
will not understand it very well.  He'll do better than the American
trying to read Latin, but not =much= better. 

-- 
                              ==----=                    Steve MacGregor
                             ([.] [.])                     Phoenix, AZ
--------------------------oOOo--(_)--oOOo----------------------------------
        Help stamp out, eliminate, and abolish redundancy!
