Re: chinese case in current languagechooser (was Re: Languagechooser changes)
Mandarin and Cantonese are two different spoken languages. They are as
different as English and German (or more so). Written Chinese is yet a
third language -- used by both Mandarin speakers and Cantonese speakers
for writing. As far as I know, nobody actually *speaks* a language that
maps to written Chinese. Literate Chinese from all parts of the world
can communicate perfectly well in writing, but may not be able to
understand each other when speaking.
Written Chinese was standardized thousands of years ago. Even then
there were multiple versions of spoken Chinese. The written language
was just the particular one in use at Court at the time. Spoken Chinese
languages have continued to evolve. So has written Chinese. As is to be
expected, they have taken different courses over the millennia.
As Carlos explained, there are a few different scripts for writing
written Chinese. Mainly "Traditional" and "Simplified", but there are
others, including pin-yin, which is based on the Latin alphabet. Carlos
gave a good explanation of where (geographically) the various scripts
are mainly used.
Since, as Carlos points out, computers only communicate in writing, the
existence of a variety of spoken Chinese languages shouldn't enter into
the discussion.
Politics keeps them from requesting different country-codes. "Sigh!",
indeed, but that's a fact of life and we have to live with it. Calling
the different scripts by geographic designations will be sure to offend
people. As in the West, ownership of trademarks (in this case, the name
"China") is a hotly contested issue. It would be much safer to find a
neutral designation (such as "Traditional" and "Simplified") that
everybody can live with.
If you want a practical reason, which is relevant to Debian Linux, for
using a logically aberrant but politically neutral designation, try
this: If you insist on using politically offensive codes for the
various written Chinese scripts, you may endanger the acceptance of
Debian Linux in the Far East.
Does this help?
Rick
On Wed, 2004-02-18 at 03:00, Carlos Z.F. Liu wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 07:59:19 +0100
> Christian Perrier <bubulle@debian.org> wrote:
>
> > There is also this mandarin/cantonese duality.....Indeed I don't
> > really understand how Simplified/Traditional and mandarin/cantonese
> > are related?
> >
> > Simplified is a simplified Chinese, yes. But which one? Mandarin or
> > Cantonese?
> >
> > Traditional Chinese is the "good old" Chinese language. But, again,
> > which one? Madarin or Cantonese?
> >
> > What will we do for people who speak
> > Chinese in Hong-Kong (valid locale)? Carlos mentions they speak
> > cantonese. So?
>
> Sorry for the confusion.
>
> Mandarin/Cantonese are two kinds of pronounce.
> Simplified/Traditional Chinese are two kinds of writing method.
> Because d-i can't SPEAK chinese ^_^, Please ignore what's mandarin/cantonese.
>
> --
> Best Regards,
> Carlos
>
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