posted by Damian98 on March 24, 2018 | 7 comments
你们好.

我叫文达。我是波兰人。我有一些问题.

1) 方言

a) Which dialect has the most combinations of Initials and finals (syllables)?

b) Which dialect has the least homonyms/homophones (where the role of tones in distinguishing words would be the smallest)?

c) Which dialect has the least tones and in which dialect using tones is the least important in mutual understanding?

d) Which dialect is the easiest to learn for 老外

2) 普通话 ≠ 官话

a) Could be 普通话 created on the basis of a different dialect than 官话, more "friendly" to 老外 (relatively small number of homonyms, less number of tones and less emphasis on their correct speaking)

3) 粤语

a) Is it possible to "maim" Cantonese tones and limit them to 3

(growing, falling, high / flat)?

2.5 Cantonese tones ⇒ as growing

1,3,6 Cantonese tones ⇒ as flat / high

4 Cantonese tone ⇒ as falling

b) Is it enough to know English in 香港 and 澳门 ?

c) Is it worth learning 粤语 and other 方言?

4) 梦想 (theoretically)

If we collect different syllables from different dialects, e.g. from seven major dialects: 官话 粤语 客家 话 吴语 闽语 赣 语 晋 语 湘 语

can we create a 普通话 v.2, in which practically there would be no tones (reduced to, for example, 2 or tonic accent) and no homonyms/homophones (because they would be more syllables), which would really (for me) reduce the difficulty of the language.

I hope for interesting answers and discussion. 谢谢
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trevelyan on April 4, 2018 | reply
There are actually multiple flat tones in Cantonese and multiple falling tones as well, so I think Cantonese is out-of-the-running for this project.