>" I note Cantonese and Mandarin "dialects" have a common (formal) written form." I don't know spoken mandarin but I can read written Mandarin, I grew up knowi

>" I note Cantonese and Mandarin "dialects" have a common (formal) written form." I don't know spoken mandarin but I can read written Mandarin, I grew up knowing Cantonese. So I do think they have a common formal written form. And I did specify formal, that strips away the slang Cantonese characters. It's interesting to see the paper compared the written form to Latin.