Chinese is often
considered the most difficult language in the world. In fact, it contains
unsuspected facilities and difficulties that are not the ones we usually think
of.
As a translation company, we regularly introduce you to the intricacies of
the languages we translate. Here is a short presentation of Chinese.
Different Chinese languages
In China, Beijing
Mandarin has been the official language in China since 1956. But there are
many other dialects in the Middle Kingdom, which remains the first language of
their region of settlement. On the other hand, Mandarin is now spoken by
all throughout China, which was not the case before its official language
status.
These important dialects include Cantonese and Shanghai. Shanghain is spoken throughout the Shanghai region, although even within this dialect there are subdivisions (actually collected under the name Wu language). Cantonese is more widespread and is spoken throughout southern China, including Hong Kong. The inhabitants of these regions will therefore speak Cantonese or Shanghain among themselves, and Mandarin with people from other regions. They can translate their dialect (everyday language, family language) with Mandarin (language of education and media) without experiencing any difficulty.
These important dialects include Cantonese and Shanghai. Shanghain is spoken throughout the Shanghai region, although even within this dialect there are subdivisions (actually collected under the name Wu language). Cantonese is more widespread and is spoken throughout southern China, including Hong Kong. The inhabitants of these regions will therefore speak Cantonese or Shanghain among themselves, and Mandarin with people from other regions. They can translate their dialect (everyday language, family language) with Mandarin (language of education and media) without experiencing any difficulty.
No conjugation
One of the
little-known facilities of Chinese is the absence of conjugation. They
will say: yesterday I eat; today I eat; tomorrow me eat. This
evocative example should not make Chinese look like an inelegant language - it
is, on the other hand, refined. But it illustrates the fact that many
forms and rules of no use exist in Chinese, conjugation and beyond.
Pronunciation difficulties
A difficulty you
never think about: tones. Chinese is a language of tones. There are
four different tones. This means that a syllable can have four different
meanings depending on how you pronounce it. This is one of the major
difficulties of learning Chinese, especially for those whose mother tongue does
not know this concept, such as French.
Chinese characters
More than anything else,
it is the characters that forge the reputation of the difficult language of
Chinese. Unlike our Latin alphabet languages, no pronunciation evidence of
a Chinese character can be drawn. Which brings them closer to
hieroglyphics. It is impossible to guess a articulation between letters
when one could with the Cyrillic alphabet even without mastering
it. Finally - a coup de grace - Chinese typography does not include space
between words even though combinations of characters form different
words. Let's add that the punctuation is famelic. So we find
ourselves faced with tight lines of characters that are very difficult to
unravel.
