Err...what should we do today?

ㄜ，今天要幹甚麼呢？

Today let's talk about Chinese.

今天就來聊漢語吧。

No, let's talk about written Chinese.

不，還是來聊漢字(中文)吧。

No, let's talk about classical Chinese.

不然，談談文言文(古文)好了。

Or, maybe standard Chinese.

或者是談談現代標準漢語(普通話)。

No, no, we're gonna talk about various Chinese dialects.

不不，乾脆來聊各種漢語方言好了。

Okay, let's just talk about all of them.

算了，通通都拿來講一講。

[Traditional Chinese Music]

大家好，歡迎觀看 Langfocus ，我是 Paul.

Hello everyone, welcome to the Langfocus and my name is Paul.

今天我們要聊"Chinese"(漢語)。

Today we're going to talk about Chinese.

但問題是，我說的Chinese是甚麼意思呢？

But, the big question is:

"Chinese" 這個字，可以代表現代標準漢語，也就是"Mandarin"(中國官話)

What do I mean when I say 'Chinese'?

但也可以代表流通在中國各地甚至全世界的各種漢語方言，

The word 'Chinese' refers to standard Chinese which is based on Mandarin,

漢語，或叫做Sinitic languages(漢語族)，是漢藏語系的成員之一。

but it also refers to a large group of languages and dialects spoken throughout China and indeed, throughout the world.

漢語不是單一種語言，而是許多方言的集合，

Chinese languages, also called Sinitic languages, are a sub-family of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

它們有共同的書面語以及文字系統。

Chinese is not a single language, but rather a number of related dialect groups,

有些人認為它們是屬於同一種語言的"方言"，但我認為它們分屬不同的語言群，

which are united by a common written language, a common writing system.

因為有許多例子顯示出方言之間的差異。

Some people consider them all Chinese dialects, but I'm going to refer to these dialect groups as distinct languages,

所有漢語都有聲調，

because in many cases they are unintelligible.

根據聲調不同，相同的音可以有不同的意思。

All Chinese languages are tonal languages

例如，獅，十，是。

The meaning of a word depends on the tone or the tones that you say it with.

改變聲調，意思就改變了。

狮, 十, 是.

如果算上各種方言，把漢語當母語的人數超過十三億。

If you change the tone, the meaning of the word changes.

現代標準漢語，指的是Mandarin，是中國(PRC)的官方語言，

There are more than 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese, if we include all its varieties.

也是中華民國(ROC)的官方語言。中華民國又被稱做"台灣"或是"中華台北"

Standard Chinese, generally referred to as Mandarin, is the official language of The People's Republic of China,

(圖片翻譯:叫中華台北是在搞甚麼鬼？)

The Republic of China, also known as Taiwan or Chinese Taipei.

現代標準漢語也是新加坡四個官方語言之一。

And it's one of the four official languages of Singapore.

在亞洲有許多漢語使用者，分佈在馬來西亞，印尼，泰國等。

Chinese languages are also spoken in lots of diaspora communities throughout Asia,

在世界各地也有不少漢語使用者。

like in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, and in different communities around the world.

歷史。

History

漢語族從漢藏語系發展出來，

The Sinitic languages, or, the Chinese languages developed from Proto-Sino-Tibetan,

可能在西元前4000年就已經存在，

which existed perhaps around 4000 BCE.

中國最早的文字約在西元前1250年出現，

The earliest written examples of Chinese are from around 1250 BCE.

那種形式的文字被稱做甲骨文，

They were written using a form of Chinese called the Oracle Bone Script,

是刻在烏龜殼或動物骨頭上的文字，

which was carved onto turtle shells and animal bones,

用途是卜筮。

which were used for divination.

就是測運氣吉凶的。

Like a kind of fortune telling.

約在西元前1046到西元前256年，在周朝期間，發展出一種更容易辨識的古文字(篆文)，

A more recognisable form of Old Chinese

使用在同一時期的青銅器或文獻上，如詩經。

developed during the Zhou dynasty between 1046 to 256 BCE

普遍認為當時的漢語還沒有發展出聲調，

It can be found on bronze sculptures from that time period, as well as in some literature, like 'Classic of Poetry'.

聲調應該是在發展中古漢語時才出現，

It's generally thought that during this early time period Chinese had not yet developed tones.

從周朝到漢朝末年(西元第三世紀)，發展出來的漢字書寫形式，被稱為"文言文"(古文)。

Those developed later in the transition to Middle Chinese.

文言文成為官方文書的書寫方式，一直延續到二十世紀初。

The form of written Chinese that developed between this period and the end of the Han dynasty, in the 3rd century CE,

漢語繼續發展成中古漢語，

is known as classical Chinese, or literary Chinese.

中古漢語是大多數現代漢語的前身，

Classical Chinese continued to be used as the formal written language until the beginning of the 20th century

閩語是個例外，閩語大約在漢朝就出現了，比中古漢語早一些。

Spoken Chinese continued to evolve into Middle Chinese 中古汉语.

中古漢語不是指單一種語言，而是指一系列可以彼此理解的方言，

Middle Chinese is the ancestor of almost all Modern Chinese varieties.

這些方言，約在西元十世紀左右開始出現差異，

The exception is Min Chinese, which developed earlier, maybe during the Han period.

每次提到語族，類似的話你應該聽我說過好幾次，

Middle Chinese was not a single unified language but consistent of a number of mutually intelligible dialects

經過幾個世紀的分歧，方言在各地出現各種不同的變化，

that began diverging in different directions around the 10th century CE.

最終成為每個地方的獨特語言。

And you probably hear me say that every time I talk about a language family.

我之前有提到，文言文是官方書寫方式，

Those local varieties of Chinese continued to develop in their own directions as distinct languages over the centuries.

但同時，白話文也在發展著，

With a lot of local dialectal variation within each language.

白話文指的是方言口語化的書寫方式，

As I mentioned before, classical Chinese was being used as the formal written language,

使用在許多非正式的場合中。

but during this time period, written vernacular Chinese also developed alongside it.

唐宋時期(西元 7~13 世紀)，人們已經在使用白話文了。

Written vernacular Chinese refers to ways of writing Chinese that reflect the spoken language in its different varieties.

古官話

These forms of Chinese were used for some informal writing.

北宋之後，元明之間，

People were already writing in written vernacular Chinese during the Tang and Sung dynasties,

有一種語言被當作官方語言，

from the 7th-13th centuries CE.

被稱為近代漢語(Old Mandarin)。

Old Mandarin

元朝時，中國是由蒙古族統治，

古官話

蒙古的侵略戰爭造成近代漢語的使用者大量遷徙到南方，

After the Northern Sung dynasty, and during the Jin and Yuan dynasties,

使近代漢語擴散到更多地區，並影響很多新興的方言。

a language recognisable as a form of Mandarin was spoken.

明清官話。 (沒有查到Middle Mandarin的說法, 但根據後續, 應該是指明清官話)

This variety of Chinese is known as Old Mandarin.

在明清時期，

The Yuan dynasty was a period of Mongol control of China.

以首都南京的方言為基礎，夾雜一些其他方言的特徵，組成官方行政時所用的語言。

The wars leading up to the Mongol conquest caused large scale migration of Old Mandarin speakers to the South.

這是"Mandarin"成為官方語言的起點。

This spread early Mandarin dialects to more areas, and also had an influence on other emerging Chinese languages.

官話

During the Ming and Quing dynasties,

意思是官方發言用的語言。

an official administrative language was created on the Mandarin dialect of the capital, Nanjing,

我們繼續聊明清時期的官話(明清官話)，

with some features of other dialects as well.

在十九世紀末，也就是清朝末年，

This was the first point at which the language became referred to as 'Mandarin',

北京的方言越來越重要，變成一個新的主要方言，

官話

最後取代了原本夾雜多種方言的南京官話。

which means 'speech of officials'.

二十世紀初，

We now refer to the stage of the language as Middle Mandarin.

一種基於官話的白話文，被官方做為行政文書所用的書寫方式，取代了文言文。

In the late 19th century, towards the end of the Ch'ing dynasty,

在此之後，才決定把北京方言做為官話的標準，

the specific dialect of Beijing started to grow in importance and became the new high variety of Chinese,

新的標準官話，被稱做"普通話"，意指共通而普遍的語言。

replacing the older high variety which was based on a number of different dialects.

或稱做"國語"，意指代表國家的語言。

At the beginning of the 20th century,

人們稱官話為Mandarin，因為官話的基礎是北京方言Mandarin，

a form of written vernacular Chinese based on a number of Mandarin dialects

但準確的說，Mandarin其實是指北方方言中的一個系列，

was introduced as the new official written language instead of classical Chinese.

現代標準漢語(文)，或者說Mandarin，如今做的就是以往文言文做的工作，

But it was later decided that the new official language should be based specifically on the Beijing dialect.

是中國各種方言之間的溝通橋梁，一種官方文書的書寫方式。

This new standard language was called 普通話,

但，地方上仍然存在基於地方方言的白話文。

which means common language, or,

那麼，到底有多少種漢語方言呢？

國語, which means national language.

要看你打算怎麼計算，或分類。

People often refer to this standard language as Mandarin because it's based on the Mandarin dialect of Beijing,

人們說，約有200種以上的漢語方言，

but, to be precise, the word 'Mandarin' refers to a range of Northern dialects.

可以分類成13個種類。

Standard Chinese, or Mandarin, now fulfils the role that classical Chinese used to fulfil,

同一種類的方言，比較可以互相理解，

as the official written language that's used by speakers of all varieties of Chinese, for most purposes.

把一個種類當作一種語言，應該還算合理。

But, written vernacular languages still do exist and are used for some informal situations.

至少我是這樣想！

So, how many varieties of Chinese are there?

在十三種之中，有七種被認為是主要方言。

Well, that depends on how you're counting and categorising them,

它們是：

but it's often said that there are over 200 distinct varieties of Chinese,

官話，粵語(廣東話)，湘語，閩語，贛語，吳語以及客家話。

which comprise around 13 distinct dialect groups.

文字系統

The local dialects within each of these groups are often intelligible,

中文是用漢字書寫，中文字符(漢字Hànzì)是語素文字，

so it's reasonable to consider these groups as languages.

一個字符就可以代表一個詞彙，或一組意義。

At least I think so!

舉例來說，左邊這個字意思是"漢"(中國)，右邊這個字意思是"字"，

Out of these 13 groups of dialects, there are seven that are generally considered as major.

寫字的"字" (因為character有其他意思，所以特別強調是寫字的字)

These are:

合在一起的意思就是我們正在聊的漢字(hànzì)

Mandarin, 官話; Yue, 廣東話; Xiang, 湘語; Min, 閩語; Gan, 贛語; Wu, 吳語 and Hakka, 客家話.

這些字符必須一個一個學，

The writing system

因為跟英文不同，你會發音，不代表你可以拼湊出字。

Chinese is written in Chinese characters, or, 漢字.

所有漢語方言的使用者，雖然語言不同，但一般都用現代標準漢語(文)的文字系統。

Hànzì are logograms, single characters that represent entire words, or entire units of meaning.

只是他們大聲念出來的時候，他們可能會用方言的發音去念。

For example, this character means 'China', and this character means 'character',

可能因此導致人們誤會所有的漢語方言，除了發音之外，並沒有差別。

as in, a written character,

事實是，不同的漢語方言在語法，用詞，以及發音方面多有差異。

and together they mean 'Chinese character', or, hànzì, the kind we're talking about.

各種基於方言的白話文，在文言文之外獨立發展，

These characters need to be learned one by one,

今天，也在現代標準漢語(文)之外獨立發展。

because just knowing the pronunciation of a word doesn't give you any indication of how to write it.

它們只在少數特別的地方使用，

Speakers of all varieties of Chinese typically write in standard Chinese, or Mandarin,

據我所知，粵文是其中比較廣泛使用的。

even though their spoken language is different.

方言之間，大部分的字的用法是固定的，但發音可能不同，

When they're reading standard Chinese out loud,

而且可能用不同的字，去組成相似的詞意 (例如喝水飲水吃水)。

they'll probably pronounce each character the way it's pronounced in their local variety of Chinese.

另外字的排列順序也可能不同，用以表示不同的意思(語意)。

This has led to the common misconception that

發音

all Chinese languages are exactly the same except

如前所說，漢語有聲調，

for their pronunciation.

意思是發音的輕重高低，緩急頓挫，會影響這個字的意思(字義)。

The fact is Chinese languages often

同樣的字詞，不同的方言就有不同的發音，

differ in grammar and vocabulary as well pronunciation.

例如電話，

The various forms of written vernacular Chinese that developed alongside classical Chinese

官話發音是：

still exist today, alongside standard Chinese.

Diànhuà

They're only used in some limited situations,

廣東話發音是：

but, Cantonese in particular is fairly widely used, from what I understand.

Dìhnwāa

Most of the characters used are the same,

上海話(吳語的一種)發音是：

but they'll be pronounced differently, and some different characters might be used to represent the different vocabulary,

Diwū

and the order of the characters might be different to represent the different syntax.

客家話發音是：

Pronunciation

Tiēnfa

As previously mentioned, Chinese languages are tonal,

我進一步解釋一下，

that means that tones are one part of the pronunciation that can change the meaning of a word.

現代標準漢語有四個主聲調，一個輕聲。

The same written word can be pronounced very differently in different Chinese languages.

(括號中翻譯圖片，採用五度標記法，音階低1到高5) 一聲陰平(高平音55)，二聲陽平(中升音35)，三聲上(先降後升音214)，四聲去(高降音51)，五輕聲(模糊音)。

This is the word for 'telephone'.

意思是不能用聲調去區分音節。 (指的是輕聲的聲調短而輕，無法成為一個音節)

First, in Mandarin:

例如：Mā, má, mă, mà, ma.

Diànhuà

另外，廣東話有六個聲調

Next, in Cantonese:

(括號中翻譯圖片，不翻表格，另採用五度標記法) 一聲陰平(高平55*亦有人認為界於55與53之間)， 二聲陰上(中升53)，三聲陰去(中平33)，

Dìhnwāa

四聲陽平(低落21)，五聲陽上(低升13)，六聲陽去(低平22)。

In Shanghainese:

例如：詩Sī, 史sí, 試si, 時sìh, 市síh, 是sih.

Diwū

上海話有完全不同的聲調系統，

And in Hakka:

像日本話的音高重音， (音高重音：詞的音節有固定聲調，字則不一定)

Tiēnfa

至於聲調只有兩種，高跟低，

Let me explain a little further.

第一個音節的聲調(字的固定聲調)，決定了後面音節的聲調模式。

Mandarin has four main tones, plus one neutral tone.

舉例：電話Diwu

The tones are:

第一個音節是低音，因為上海話的"電"字是去聲(22)

Number 1, a high flat tone; 2, a rising tone; 3, a falling-rising tone;

所以第二個音節是高音(44)，不論第二個音節是甚麼字都一樣。

4, a falling tone; and 5, the neutral tone.

聲調只跟第一個音節的字(字義)有關。

Meaning that syllable is not distinguished by tone at all.

文法，語序

Mā, má, mă, mà, ma.

漢語方言之間，語序有相同處，也有相異處，

Now, Cantonese has six tones.

官話一般是SVO(主詞動詞受詞)，雖然有些時候是SOV.

The six Cantonese tones are:

廣東話也是SVO，而且不像官話有比較多例外，

Number 1, a high flat tone; 2, a mid-rising tone; 3, a mid-flat tone;

上海話和其它吳語則有SVO跟SOV兩種。

4, a low-falling tone; 5, a low-rising tone; and 6, a low flat tone.

舉例來說：

Sī, sí, si, sìh, síh, sih.

官話：我喝果汁

Shanghainese has a different type of tone system entirely.

意思是我喝果汁，

It's more of a pitch accent system like Japanese.

主詞(S)，動詞(V)，跟受詞(O)如圖示。

The are really only two tones: high and low,

廣東話：我飲果汁

and the tone of the first syllable determines the tone pattern of the following syllables.

一樣主詞(S)，動詞(V)，受詞(O)，

Diwu

接下來是上海話：我吃果汁

Here, the first syllable has a low tone, which depends on the character.

在這個例子，可以看到詞性的排列是一樣的，

That makes the second syllable high and it doesn't matter what character it is.

但也可以看到三種語言，用不同的字當作動詞，組成不同的詞彙，卻表達相同的意思。

Tone is only connected to meaning in the first syllable.

接下來換看語序中的另一個語格變化。

Word order

官話把間接受詞放在直接受詞前面，

There are both similarities and differences in the word orders of Chinese languages.

廣東話則放在後面，

Mandarin is generally SVO, though it's SOV in some structures.

例如這個句子，意思是給我這本書

And Cantonese is also SVO, more so than Mandarin.

官話：給我本書。

Shanghainese and other Wu dialects are both SVO and SOV.

一字一字看，就是"給我書"；

So in Mandarin, we have:

廣東話：俾本書我。

我喝果汁

一字一字看就是"給書我"。

Which means 'I drink juice'.

如果你想像句子裡有一個to, 那就是"給書to我"

Here's the subject, verb and object.

一樣可以看到這裡也用了不同的字表示"give(給)"的意思

And in Cantonese:

還有上海話：把吾本書

我飲果汁

上海話的字序跟官話一樣，但用另一個字表示"give(給)"，並用"me(我)"的同義字"吾"。

Again, subject, verb, object.

再另外一個例子：

And now, in Shanghainese:

官話(現代標準漢語)，把副詞放在動詞前面，

我吃果汁

例如"'I'll go first"這個句子，

In these examples, in turns out that the word order's the same,

官話是：我先走

but notice that each language uses a different character for the verb, to reflect different vocabulary.

一字一字看，就是"我先走"，

Let's look at another element of word order.

而廣東話則把副詞放在動詞後面，

Mandarin places an indirect object before the direct object.

廣東話：我走先

Cantonese places it after the direct object,

一字一字看，就是"我走先"

like in this sentence, which means 'give me the book'.

上海話：我先跑特了

In Mandarin:

上海話在這例子裡，跟官話一樣把副詞放在動詞前面，

給我本書

但在句子最後面加了一個沒有特殊含意的感嘆助詞。

So word for word it's 'give me book'.

另一個差異是：

And in Cantonese:

官話把形容詞放在名詞後面，

俾本書我

所以句子"strong wind"(大風)

Word for word it's 'give book me'.

在官話就變成"wind strong"(風好大)

And if you imagine a 'to' in their, it's like 'give book to me'.

廣東話把形容詞放在名詞前面，所以字面上也是"strong wind".

Also notice the character for 'give' is different here.

廣東話：好大風

And in Shanghainese:

而上海話：風老大

把吾俾本

上海話也跟官話一樣，形容詞在名詞後面，

Here the word order is like Mandarin, but notice the different word for 'give',

但形容詞中的一個字是不一樣的(副詞不一樣)，

and the variant character for 'me'.

以上只是漢語方言文法差異的一些例子，

Another example difference:

當然還有更多更細的差別，但那已經超過這個影片要討論的範圍。

Mandarin, or Standard Chinese, places the adverb before the verb.

(字幕：Pual, 還有一個差別你應該說一下)

This sentence means: 'I'll go first'.

還有一個差別應該提一下，

In Mandarin it's:

就是，漢字有兩套不一樣的文字系統。

我先走

一種是傳統漢字，就是當初文言文用的那種字。

Word for word it's 'I first go'.

一種是簡化字，是1950到1960年代為了提高識字率而創造的字。

But Cantonese places the adverb after the verb.

新加坡跟中華人民共和國都用簡化字； (附注：事實上用的是規範漢字，包含傳統漢字與簡化字)

我走先

而台灣、香港、澳門則用傳統漢字，因為當中國(PRC)採用簡化字時，它們並不受中國(PRC)管轄。

Word for word it's 'I go first'.

許多海外華僑也多是使用傳統漢字。

And in Shanghainese:

左邊是傳統漢字，右邊是簡化漢字，

我先走特了

兩者有明顯的差別，而簡化字看起來似乎比較容易寫，

Here, the main word order is the same as Mandarin, with the adverb before the verb.

雖然兩種系統不同，但以漢語為母語的人通常都看得懂。

But notice the additional particles at the end,

如上所述，漢語語系，或者稱為中文，

which are for exclamation, but don't have any core meaning.

是一群龐雜多樣，甚至彼此無法互通，彼此無法理解的語言與方言。

Another example difference:

把它們聯繫在一起的，是中古漢語這個共同的起源，以及傳統的漢字。

Mandarin places the adjective after the noun.

它們也有統一的書寫方式(文言文與現代標準漢語)，能讓所有漢語方言使用者，一起學習並理解。

So the phrase meaning 'strong wind' -

雖然用文字就能讓不同方言的人輕易的交流，

in Mandarin it's literally 'wind strong'.

但如果沒有特別學官話的話，面對面的口頭溝通還是有困難。

風好大

從以上這些原因，可以判斷漢語確實是一個語系，或者說，是一個語族。

Cantonese places the adjective before the noun, so literally it's 'strong wind'.

而不是有許多方言的單一語言。

好大風

最後，是今天的問題，

And in Shanghainese:

請問以漢語族為母語的各位：

風老大

你認為漢語是一個由許多語族組成的語系嗎？

Here, the adjective comes after the noun, just like in Mandarin,

還是認為漢語是一個由許多方言組成的單一語言呢？

but notice that one of the two characters is different.

希望你能在留言中分享並說明你的觀點，

Those are just a few samples of the variation between the different Chinese languages and their dialects.

這一題並沒有標準答案。

We could go very deeply into these differences, but that's beyond the scope of this general video.

再請問曾經學過任何一種漢語方言的各位：

One other difference we should talk about though,

請告訴大家，在你學習的過程中，感到最有趣的是甚麼？

is that there are two different systems for writing Chinese characters.

請記得在臉書、推特、IG上，關注 Langfocus，

There are traditional characters, the ones that are written as they were in classical Chinese,

我要再一次的感謝，感謝在 Patreon 贊助我的所有貴人，

and then there are simplified characters, which were created in the 1950s and '60s to increase literacy.