On Fri, February 11, 2005 9:41 am, Andre Engels said:
As far as I understand, the current Wikipedia is supposed to be a _Chinese_ one, not a _Mandarin_ one.
Andre Engels
Further argument against: there is no natural reason why someone whose interest is captured by a Cantonese wikipedia should be forced to work on a Mandarin one first.
Long story...
Suggested readings: [[en:Chinese language]] [[en:Chinese written language]] [[en:Vernacular Chinese]] [[en:Cantonese (linguistics)]]
In short, "standard written Chinese" has always been based on the Mandarin vernacular. Now there is a request to set up an encyclopedia based on the Cantonese vernacular. Although the latter has no official status, it has a de facto writing system popular among Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong, and is gaining popularity in Guangdong.
It is not possible to mix Cantonese and Mandarin writing in zh: like American and British English in en: because those two regional speeches of China do not enjoy equal status. Written Cantonese will be considered as substandard and corrected to conform with the vocabulary and grammar of Mandarin, which some people call "standard and proper Chinese".
Even though I support the creation of a Cantonese Wikipedia, I will oppose writing Cantonese in zh: for the obvious pragmatic reason: every literate Cantonese speaker can read written Mandarin (standard Chinese), but the reverse is not true. Unfair, but that is the fact of life.
My primary concern is that everyone here understand the facts before making the decision. We live in a real world. We may deny Cantonese Wikipedia due to political, public relation, or pragmatic reasons, but let's be honest and state the reason. If we pretend that it is just because the two writing systems are the same, people will come again and again to demonstrate that they are different.
Felix Wan