Ian_Lee Posted March 1, 2006 at 01:18 AM Report Share Posted March 1, 2006 at 01:18 AM Dialect Translation is a big industry in Mainland China: http://chinese.chosun.com/big5/site/data/html_dir/2006/02/28/20060228000008.html Excerpt: 中国各地的方言迥异，不同地方的人如果不使用普通话，就无法交流。但普通话的普及率仅为53%，这个缝隙市场催生出了“方言翻译”行业。据说，河北省武汉的火车站还专门配备了方言翻译。 在上海，方言翻译服务干脆直接由专业翻译公司来提供。翻译公司“上海翻译”相关人士说：“广东话翻译量最多，方言翻译费用和外语翻译相仿。 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mugi Posted March 1, 2006 at 03:11 AM Report Share Posted March 1, 2006 at 03:11 AM Interesting. Although by 翻译 I assume they mean 口译. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferno Posted March 6, 2006 at 05:37 AM Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 at 05:37 AM grr... "方言"... looks like this word isn't going to go away :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlescpp Posted March 6, 2006 at 10:57 AM Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 at 10:57 AM where is 河北省武汉? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quest Posted March 6, 2006 at 11:52 AM Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 at 11:52 AM grr... "方言"... looks like this word isn't going to go away :o What's wrong with 方言? It's only the English term "dialect" that has problems, not the Chinese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trevelyan Posted March 6, 2006 at 12:27 PM Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 at 12:27 PM What's wrong with the word "dialect"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferno Posted March 6, 2006 at 07:21 PM Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 at 07:21 PM 方言 fangyan was origionally used as just a general term towards any local speech of a region, Chinese-related or not. Western linguists influenced a kind of restructuring, they changed "fangyan" to mean dialect and "yuyan" to mean "language" but all these mutually-unintelligible languages spoken in China continued to be called fangyan - "dialects"... now dialects of a single Chinese yuyan "language". dialect implies intelligibility. A better term would be closer to the origional definition of 方言 - "topolect" or "regionalect" some have suggested 通言 tong1yan2 - the tong1 matching the Greek-derived morpheme "dia" used in the English word. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HashiriKata Posted March 6, 2006 at 08:28 PM Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 at 08:28 PM dialect implies intelligibility [...']通言 tong1yan2 - the tong1 matching the Greek-derived morpheme "dia" used in the English word. Nice joke! (even if the 1st of April is still some way off ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ncao Posted March 6, 2006 at 10:49 PM Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 at 10:49 PM I agree with Quest and Ferno. 方言 does make sense in Chinese terms, 方 as in地方(area,region) and 言(speech). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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