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Chinese language
No title
One of the most common areas of misunderstanding people have with regards
to translation and interpreting is with the variations within the Chinese language.
Many people are unaware that there are different Chinese dialects and different
Chinese scripts. This article provides a simple explanation of these variations.
Spoken Chinese
There are many regional dialects and variations of the Chinese
language. However there are two main strands which cause people a lot of
confusion. These are Mandarin and Cantonese.
Mandarin
is the most used dialect of Chinese as it is the official language of the Republic
of China (mainland China). It is also used in Taiwan.
Cantonese
differs from its mainland relative and is spoken in the Canton (or Guangdong)
province in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao.
Written Chinese
As there are differences in spoken Chinese, so too are there differences
in written Chinese. Today, Chinese characters come in two forms. One is know
as 'traditional' and the other 'simplified'.
The split came when simplified
Chinese was introduced and promoted in mainland China by the government
in 1949. This was done to improve literacy rates in the population. Mainland
Chinese went on to use the modern version of characters whilst Chinese populations
outside mainland China (Taiwan,
Hong Kong
and Macao) stuck with the original traditional script.
Chinese
translation
The basic difference between them is that the traditional form is still based
on earlier characters and uses more strokes. The more modern simplified characters
are a lot simpler.
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