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So it's similar to the regional forms of Arabic in the Middle East. People will speak with each other using a dialect, but all official and educational writing

by Cyph0n 9y ago

So it's similar to the regional forms of Arabic in the Middle East. People will speak with each other using a dialect, but all official and educational writing is in standard Arabic. When people chat informally (e.g. on WhatsApp), they would typically use Arabic characters to build words that can usually only be understood by speakers familiar with the dialect in question.

HumanDrivenDev 9y ago
The different chinese languages don't seem to be dialects in any objective sense. I have no idea how it started being called that in english (bad translation of 語/話 maybe?), but Hokkien and Mandarin seem about as different from each other as English and French, maybe more. No mutual intelligibility. What's the case with Arabic dialects? I am completely ignorant there. And that's the thing, they use characters when they have to write it, but even then native speakers struggle to read it because there's no commonly used standard way to do it. In practice, they just write in mandarin.
- Cyph0n 9y ago
  > What's the case with Arabic dialects? I am completely ignorant there. I call them dialects for lack of a better word. For example, an Algerian Arabic speaker would not be understood by an Egyptian, and a Kuwaiti Arabic speaker would not be understood by a Syrian, etc. Regional dialects may have an accent, but more importantly use different words and may even have different, informal grammatical rules. When it comes to writing, everyone uses Arabic letters, but each region may write different words depending on the regional dialect. The entry on Tunisian Arabic[1], which is my native dialect, may provide an idea on how it differs from other dialects. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_Arabic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_Arabic
Manishearth 9y ago
The different Chinese languages are not dialects.
- Cyph0n 9y ago
  Dialects may be the wrong term, but it's the term I use. Read the first two paragraphs for a better idea of what I'm talking about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varieties_of_Arabic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varieties_of_Arabic
  - Manishearth 9y ago
    The differences between Chinese languages are often more than the differences between Romance languages. But yeah, it's similar to the Arabic situation, but the scale may be different.

by Cyph0n 9y ago

HumanDrivenDev 9y ago

The different chinese languages don't seem to be dialects in any objective sense. I have no idea how it started being called that in english (bad translation of 語/話 maybe?), but Hokkien and Mandarin seem about as different from each other as English and French, maybe more. No mutual intelligibility. What's the case with Arabic dialects? I am completely ignorant there. And that's the thing, they use characters when they have to write it, but even then native speakers struggle to read it because there's no commonly used standard way to do it. In practice, they just write in mandarin.

Cyph0n 9y ago
> What's the case with Arabic dialects? I am completely ignorant there. I call them dialects for lack of a better word. For example, an Algerian Arabic speaker would not be understood by an Egyptian, and a Kuwaiti Arabic speaker would not be understood by a Syrian, etc. Regional dialects may have an accent, but more importantly use different words and may even have different, informal grammatical rules. When it comes to writing, everyone uses Arabic letters, but each region may write different words depending on the regional dialect. The entry on Tunisian Arabic[1], which is my native dialect, may provide an idea on how it differs from other dialects. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_Arabic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_Arabic

Manishearth 9y ago

The different Chinese languages are not dialects.

Cyph0n 9y ago
Dialects may be the wrong term, but it's the term I use. Read the first two paragraphs for a better idea of what I'm talking about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varieties_of_Arabic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varieties_of_Arabic
- Manishearth 9y ago
  The differences between Chinese languages are often more than the differences between Romance languages. But yeah, it's similar to the Arabic situation, but the scale may be different.