The Chinese Language, by Daniel Kane (4 November 2016)
The Chinese Language, Its History and Current Usage is a book by the Dr Daniel Kane, a Professor of Chinese at Macquarie University in Sydney. It is of interest to people who are keen to understand what is the Chinese language. Many of us speak at least one Chinese language, if not Mandarin, then perhaps Hokkien or Cantonese or Hakka, to name a few. But most of us do not know much about the history of the language we speak. I believe many Penang Hokkien speakers could not provide an accurate interpretation of their own mother tongue. Alas, in the absence of knowledge, many have a penchant to form opinion out of distorted information.
For those who are interested in the history of the Chinese language, it is worth reading what those who have done the research have to say. It doesn't mean we have to accept wholesale whatever issues from them, but the more we read, the more we are capable of making discerning judgment.
In The Chinese Language, Dr Kane takes us back in time to examine the history of the Chinese language. There are examples of how Old Chinese is written, and explanation on the structure of early Chinese characters. We are taken through time, to understand what is Old Chinese, Classical Chinese, Middle Chinese, and Modern Standard Mandarin. As this book is written for a largely Western audience, when referring to the Chinese language, Dr Kane means the Mandarin. But more than that, he also delves into the various other Chinese languages such as Cantonese, Hokkien and so on.
What are Chinese dialects? Although Dr Kane does use the term "dialect" to refer to the various members of the Chinese family of languages, he does state that "Chinese dialects are more like different languages than dialects".(page 94) Although I felt it is a poor choice of words to use "dialect" when referring to the varieties of Chinese, I suppose he used it because it is a commonly accepted (though distorted) term, and it prolongs the misunderstanding that the various Chinese languages, such as Hokkien and Cantonese, are dialects of Mandarin. That aside, for those who are keen to know the history of the Chinese language, it is worth going through this book.
Publishing Details
Title: The Chinese Language
Author: Daniel Kane
Year of Publication: 2006
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd
Distributor: www.periplus.com
Do you have a property for sale or to rent out? Are you looking to buy or rent a property? Get in touch with me. WhatsApp me (Timothy Tye) at 012 429 9844, and I will assign one of my property agents to serve you. I will choose the agent for you, according to your property needs. So when you message me, provide me some details of what you need, whether to sell, to buy, to rent or to rent out, and what type of property, is it condo, apartment, house, shop, office or land.
Adakah anda mempunyai hartanah untuk dijual atau disewakan? Adakah anda ingin membeli atau menyewa hartanah? Hubungi saya. WhatsApp saya (Timothy Tye) di 012 429 9844, dan saya akan menugaskan salah seorang ejen hartanah saya untuk berkhidmat kepada anda. Saya akan pilih ejen untuk anda, mengikut keperluan hartanah anda. Oleh itu, apabila anda menghantar mesej kepada saya, berikan saya beberapa butiran tentang apa yang anda perlukan, sama ada untuk menjual, untuk membeli, untuk disewakan atau untuk disewakan, dan jenis hartanah apakah itu kondo, pangsapuri, rumah, kedai, pejabat atau tanah.
Let me take you to explore and discover Penang through my series of walking tours on YouTube. You may use these videos as your virtual tour guide. At the beginning of each video, I provide the starting point coordinates which you may key into your GPS, Google Maps or Waze, to be navigated to where I start the walk, and use the video as your virtual tour guide.
Disclaimer
Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.
Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.