Sheng Jiong wrote:
Yes, I know that Cantonese has slight differences in the order of words compared with Mandarin.
That's like saying English has slight differences in the order of words compared with Latin. That's part of the grammatical difference. It *is* a different sentence structure.
Yes, but as I have said, Singlish has much bigger grammatical difference with standard English, compared with Cantonese and baihuawen. Shall we have a Singlish Wikipedia?
But again you are mixing Mandarin with Baihuawen.
Baihuawen is more or less the Mandarin vernacular, the grammar, the syntax, sentence structure, etc. are based on the Mandarin vernacular.
Yes, but Hong Kong still accepts it, don't they?
Hong Kongers speak only Cantonese, but they write in Baihuawen.
a) Many HKers also speak a smattering of Mandarin (and English) and we *do* write in Cantonese for memos and for online BBS, etc. The common is practice is use baihuawen for serious/complicated articles, but that's because it was considered proper. Just because it's a long-held tradition doesn't mean it's inherently right.
Same thing with Singlish. People love using Singlish in BBS, but you get an immediate F if you write your thesis in Singlish. So should we have a Singlish Wikipedia?
English (Take Singapore English as a best example: "Would you be able to attend?" in English would become "You can go or not?" in Singlish. Totally different grammar, but is Singlish a written language? No. It is still a dialect in English).
I doubt "Singlish" and English is the best analogy.
Why? What makes Cantonese or Singlish suddenly so special?
formulax