I think it will be good if there is a section introducing how Chinese people refer to their own language. For example, in Malaysia, regardless of Cantonese/Hokkien/Hakka people. All of them refer to China as Tongsan/Tng Snua/Tongsan. China is refered with the character 唐 (tang2 in Mandarin, meaning Tang dynasty). Not just Malaya, all Chinatown in the world is called by diff Chinese people as 唐人街, the street/town of Tang people. Language is called 唐话 ,or Tng lang oa in Penang Hokkien. Chinese writing is called 唐字，or Tng lang ji in Penang Hokkien. Cantonese and Hakka also called like that
I love your work. In your research have you ever came across the LongDu dialect, it share a colloquial layer with Hokkien and the closest dialect I have ever heard to LongDu is the Teochow dialect.
Thank you sir. Not yet. I have not gone into finding out about the Longdu dialect. Maybe in future. Right now, I am only at the video on Mandarin, so we have still a long journey to go.
Yes, Mandarin is a government official, and is. Portuguese word. If you heard Mandarin, you either were in a court, or in trouble with the law. Language of trade and business was Hokkien and Cantonese.
And the word 'Mandarin' came from the Sanskrit 'Mantri' which roughly translates as officers or officials. In modern Malay, the word for a government Minister is "Menteri" which in turn derived from Sanskrit via Tamil.
@boonteoh2346 Absolutely. China is united compared to India is because of one unifying language, Mandarin. Whatever dialect we are from, let's learn Mandarin and speak Mandarin. If we could not communicate among ourselves, foreigners would laugh at us.
To differentiate between Qin and Qing , you can't just pronounce them in one tone. They will sound the same. For Qin you have to pronounce it in a short and raised tone. For Qing you have to pronounce it in a long and sort of sing song tone. That is why the Chinese writing could not use spelling system like western languages. If they do the writing will look like present day Vietnamese with all the tone marks.
Actually, to write romanised Mandarin, the pinyin spelling must be used otherwise as mentioned it cannot be pronounced correctly. Qin is Qín, 2nd tone. Qing is Qīng, 1st tone. However, tone marked romanised Mandarin only helps in pronunciation but cannot ascertain the meaning of the word as numerous words share the same pronunciation. So a written Mandarin text is necessary along side pinyin to learn and understand Mandarin correctly. Otherwise, you need to be be very well versed in context or phrase usage to guess the meaning which would be a high level. If that standard is reach, one has already proficiently learn the language. LOL
@@tonyzhan8668 I totally agree. Within each tone, for example, qín, there may be several different words of the same pronunciation, so you end up guessing, guessing, guessing.
The word menteri is borrowed directly in Malay ftom Sanskrit mantri (मन्त्री). Several sources credit the Portuguese as having borrowed mandarin from Malay and then applied the term to officials in other Asian countries. This latter account is quite plausible since the usage of menteri in Malay predates the arrival of Europeans in South east Asia.
Your explanation is indeed possible. The word could have come with the Indian traders. The word may have originated in Sanskrit, arrived in Malacca as one of the Indian languages, maybe Tamil, and then picked up by the Portuguese which passed it on to the English.
Can you do one about the different names of Chinese people? It seem like I didn't get the memo that I am a Han Chinese. I have been brought up that I am a Tang Chinese. Now people seem to say I am Han and I don't know if I agree or not. How come I didn't get the memo and neither did my parents or my grandparents? Also sometimes when I call myself Malaysian Chinese 马来西亚中国人， i ticked off some people and they would tell me to go back to China. they say I must call myself Hua ren. Then I ask how come our malaysian newspaper is called 中国报？And how come we can call our Malaysian Indians 印度人 ? Don't they have to go back to India 印度 if a Malaysian Chinese calling himself 中国人 needs to go back to China? The names are so confusing and seem so divisive over a small matter. I suspect there is something deeper here because they go beyond just "correcting" another person's usage. And many years ago, one of my non Chinese friend asked me how come she heard another Chinese from Taiwan said, "I am not Chinese, I am Taiwanese". I don't know how to answer her. I thought people in Taiwan are Chinese. That's iike me saying "I am Fujianese not Chinese" . Huh..so oxymoronic. Fujianese are Chinese. I am so confused.
Zhung Guo refers to China, the nation. If you say Zhung Guo Ren it means citizen of China which includes the Tibetan, the Urgurs, the Mongolian etc. While Hua Ren means ethnic Chinese ( not the nation China). Hua Ren , the ethnicity, is everywhere in the world including Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and many where else. As for Han, the northern Chinese use this description while the Cantonese and Hokkien normally use Tang Ren. Maybe due to historical reasons.
@richardneo8921 then the question is why does this rule not apply to indians? We call Indian Malaysians 印度人。 we also call Indian citizens 印度人。 i also dont ever remember my parents or grandparents forbidding me from saying I am zhongguo ren, in fact I likely learned it from them. What about the Taiwanese who claims that she is not Chinese but taiwanese? That one is very strange also. Another very strange thing is why is our newspaper called zhongguo bao? Cannot be they named it wrong??? You sure these definitions are not NEW definitions that previously did not exists? It is easy to accept your explanation at face value but the many contradictions that arises hints to me there's more than meets the eye.
@@btlim4316What you have articulated have clearly showed the contradictions of the terminology used. I believed there are because of political sensitivity. If all said and accepted at face value there you are absolutely correct. China Press was founded even before the PRC. A Taiwanese claimed he is not Chinese is also political so do the 2019 HongKee black mast rioters who claimed the same eventhough HK is officially a part of China. Taiwan constitution state that China is part of Taiwan and PRC constitution also states the Taiwan is a province of China. And the USA recognised this in two Communiques signed by two US Presidents, Nixon and Carter. It is all politics. So, Zhong Guo Ren is a person of China or origin from China. We used to be called Chinaman, too. Technically, there is nothing wrong for one who is a descendent of a Zhong Guo Ren to describe themselves as one. Only politics prohibited that. But the politics are hypocrites, you can call a person of Indian origin, Indian. LOL
In the Indian case, their historical context and usage is different. While the Chinese language has a totally different history and context. So they cannot have the same application and same terminology for the different description of ethnicity, nation or nationality. As for Taiwan and the terminology for their languages and people, they wanted to differentiate themselves from mainland China. As you know their identity and status as a nation is still under dispute with the mainland. So it's another different political context. Anyway, all these differing terms and terminologys for each ethnicity, nation and/or a diaspora people from a particular mother country will be named differently by its own society or community for its own special reasons. There is no one size fits all. If you call yourself Hua Ren then you are Hua Ren. If you say Tang Ren you are Tang Ren. You can also call yourself Zhung Guo Ren as some do. You are either describing your nationality or ethnicity status to the listener, depending on your personal situation or context.
I am not sure did you cover how Russia refer to Chinese? It is "kitay" which is from Khitan, the most powerful country north of china in Song dynasty. Khitan people is not chinese anyway but this is how Russia refer it to
Kitay in Russian sound like Cathay. Actually, the old name for China is Cathay used by Marco Polo in his travel journal. Hong Kong official airlines is called Cathay Pacific denoting Old China or Ancient China.
@tonyzhan8668 Cathay and kitai came from Khitan. A non Chinese country in Song dynasty. But it is more powerful than Song. Marco polo arrived in Yuan dynasty after Song.
@@learnpenanghokkien I'm a 71 year old English educated Chinese. I too am learning and struggling with Mandarin in my old age and found it a very wonderful and beautiful language. I regretted very much not to have paid attention in my Chinese language classes whilst in primary and secondary schools.
Thank you for watching my video! If you wish to share an input, I do welcome that, but please write courteously! Thank you in advance.
I think it will be good if there is a section introducing how Chinese people refer to their own language. For example, in Malaysia, regardless of Cantonese/Hokkien/Hakka people. All of them refer to China as Tongsan/Tng Snua/Tongsan. China is refered with the character 唐 (tang2 in Mandarin, meaning Tang dynasty). Not just Malaya, all Chinatown in the world is called by diff Chinese people as 唐人街, the street/town of Tang people. Language is called 唐话 ,or Tng lang oa in Penang Hokkien. Chinese writing is called 唐字，or Tng lang ji in Penang Hokkien. Cantonese and Hakka also called like that
Thank you for the suggestion!
I love your work. In your research have you ever came across the LongDu dialect, it share a colloquial layer with Hokkien and the closest dialect I have ever heard to LongDu is the Teochow dialect.
Thank you sir. Not yet. I have not gone into finding out about the Longdu dialect. Maybe in future. Right now, I am only at the video on Mandarin, so we have still a long journey to go.
Yes, Mandarin is a government official, and is. Portuguese word. If you heard Mandarin, you either were in a court, or in trouble with the law. Language of trade and business was Hokkien and Cantonese.
Ha ha ha, how true!!
And the word 'Mandarin' came from the Sanskrit 'Mantri' which roughly translates as officers or officials. In modern Malay, the word for a government Minister is "Menteri" which in turn derived from Sanskrit via Tamil.
@@pokya-anakrantau8845
You Indian ?
Mandarin language as the main lingo, gels and unite Mainland Chinese well. 👍👍
Yes!
@boonteoh2346
Absolutely. China is united compared to India is because of one unifying language, Mandarin. Whatever dialect we are from, let's learn Mandarin and speak Mandarin. If we could not communicate among ourselves, foreigners would laugh at us.
In the Philippines, Filipino-Chinese also called Lan Nang (Hokkien dialect). Are you familiar withe this? Thanks!
Oh yes, I know. Over there they say lan1lang2 ("us").
@@learnpenanghokkien
Absolutely correct. Lan1lang2 means "us", "us all", "we all", "all of us" in Hokkien.
To differentiate between Qin and Qing , you can't just pronounce them in one tone. They will sound the same. For Qin you have to pronounce it in a short and raised tone. For Qing you have to pronounce it in a long and sort of sing song tone. That is why the Chinese writing could not use spelling system like western languages. If they do the writing will look like present day Vietnamese with all the tone marks.
Thank you sir. For a person who does not speak Mandarin, I am helped by your explanation.
That is why in Chinese there are 4 tones of the same word. Diff tone denotes a diff meaning.
Actually, to write romanised Mandarin, the pinyin spelling must be used otherwise as mentioned it cannot be pronounced correctly.
Qin is Qín, 2nd tone. Qing is Qīng, 1st tone.
However, tone marked romanised Mandarin only helps in pronunciation but cannot ascertain the meaning of the word as numerous words share the same pronunciation.
So a written Mandarin text is necessary along side pinyin to learn and understand Mandarin correctly.
Otherwise, you need to be be very well versed in context or phrase usage to guess the meaning which would be a high level. If that standard is reach, one has already proficiently learn the language. LOL
@@tonyzhan8668 I totally agree. Within each tone, for example, qín, there may be several different words of the same pronunciation, so you end up guessing, guessing, guessing.
The word menteri is borrowed directly in Malay ftom Sanskrit mantri (मन्त्री). Several sources credit the Portuguese as having borrowed mandarin from Malay and then applied the term to officials in other Asian countries. This latter account is quite plausible since the usage of menteri in Malay predates the arrival of Europeans in South east Asia.
Your explanation is indeed possible. The word could have come with the Indian traders. The word may have originated in Sanskrit, arrived in Malacca as one of the Indian languages, maybe Tamil, and then picked up by the Portuguese which passed it on to the English.
Can you do one about the different names of Chinese people? It seem like I didn't get the memo that I am a Han Chinese. I have been brought up that I am a Tang Chinese. Now people seem to say I am Han and I don't know if I agree or not. How come I didn't get the memo and neither did my parents or my grandparents? Also sometimes when I call myself Malaysian Chinese 马来西亚中国人， i ticked off some people and they would tell me to go back to China. they say I must call myself Hua ren. Then I ask how come our malaysian newspaper is called 中国报？And how come we can call our Malaysian Indians 印度人 ? Don't they have to go back to India 印度 if a Malaysian Chinese calling himself 中国人 needs to go back to China? The names are so confusing and seem so divisive over a small matter. I suspect there is something deeper here because they go beyond just "correcting" another person's usage. And many years ago, one of my non Chinese friend asked me how come she heard another Chinese from Taiwan said, "I am not Chinese, I am Taiwanese". I don't know how to answer her. I thought people in Taiwan are Chinese. That's iike me saying "I am Fujianese not Chinese" . Huh..so oxymoronic. Fujianese are Chinese. I am so confused.
Thanks so much for your suggestion!
Zhung Guo refers to China, the nation. If you say Zhung Guo Ren it means citizen of China which includes the Tibetan, the Urgurs, the Mongolian etc. While Hua Ren means ethnic Chinese ( not the nation China). Hua Ren , the ethnicity, is everywhere in the world including Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and many where else. As for Han, the northern Chinese use this description while the Cantonese and Hokkien normally use Tang Ren. Maybe due to historical reasons.
@richardneo8921 then the question is why does this rule not apply to indians? We call Indian Malaysians 印度人。 we also call Indian citizens 印度人。 i also dont ever remember my parents or grandparents forbidding me from saying I am zhongguo ren, in fact I likely learned it from them. What about the Taiwanese who claims that she is not Chinese but taiwanese? That one is very strange also. Another very strange thing is why is our newspaper called zhongguo bao? Cannot be they named it wrong??? You sure these definitions are not NEW definitions that previously did not exists? It is easy to accept your explanation at face value but the many contradictions that arises hints to me there's more than meets the eye.
@@btlim4316What you have articulated have clearly showed the contradictions of the terminology used.
I believed there are because of political sensitivity.
If all said and accepted at face value there you are absolutely correct.
China Press was founded even before the PRC. A Taiwanese claimed he is not Chinese is also political so do the 2019 HongKee black mast rioters who claimed the same eventhough HK is officially a part of China. Taiwan constitution state that China is part of Taiwan and PRC constitution also states the Taiwan is a province of China. And the USA recognised this in two Communiques signed by two US Presidents, Nixon and Carter. It is all politics.
So, Zhong Guo Ren is a person of China or origin from China. We used to be called Chinaman, too.
Technically, there is nothing wrong for one who is a descendent of a Zhong Guo Ren to describe themselves as one.
Only politics prohibited that. But the politics are hypocrites, you can call a person of Indian origin, Indian. LOL
In the Indian case, their historical context and usage is different. While the Chinese language has a totally different history and context. So they cannot have the same application and same terminology for the different description of ethnicity, nation or nationality. As for Taiwan and the terminology for their languages and people, they wanted to differentiate themselves from mainland China. As you know their identity and status as a nation is still under dispute with the mainland. So it's another different political context. Anyway, all these differing terms and terminologys for each ethnicity, nation and/or a diaspora people from a particular mother country will be named differently by its own society or community for its own special reasons. There is no one size fits all. If you call yourself Hua Ren then you are Hua Ren. If you say Tang Ren you are Tang Ren. You can also call yourself Zhung Guo Ren as some do. You are either describing your nationality or ethnicity status to the listener, depending on your personal situation or context.
In Taiwan Guo yu refer to Taiwanese hokkien similar to Zhang zhou hokkien.
Ya, thanks for sharing about that.
I am not sure did you cover how Russia refer to Chinese? It is "kitay" which is from Khitan, the most powerful country north of china in Song dynasty. Khitan people is not chinese anyway but this is how Russia refer it to
That is interesting, about how Russia refers to China.
Kitay in Russian sound like Cathay. Actually, the old name for China is Cathay used by Marco Polo in his travel journal. Hong Kong official airlines is called Cathay Pacific denoting Old China or Ancient China.
@tonyzhan8668 Cathay and kitai came from Khitan. A non Chinese country in Song dynasty. But it is more powerful than Song. Marco polo arrived in Yuan dynasty after Song.
should train the two gwei lo AI podcasters in Chinese pronunciations. They sound too Western, giving colonialist vibes 😂😅
I myself also am aware of my own limitation, not being a Mandarin speaker. But I am learning as much Mandarin as I can.
maybe it's just me but I find them annoying. I tolerate them for the content 😅
They are not train in tonal languages, don't blame them.
@@learnpenanghokkien
I'm a 71 year old English educated Chinese. I too am learning and struggling with Mandarin in my old age and found it a very wonderful and beautiful language. I regretted very much not to have paid attention in my Chinese language classes whilst in primary and secondary schools.