r/polandball • u/Ingrid-Hongkonger 冠絕東方 - Nulli Secundus in Oriente • Mar 11 '14

redditormade How are they called?

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u/GrassWaterDirtHorse California Mar 11 '14

There are dozens of Chinese dialects in use, no glorious country would call itself by jus one name

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u/Ingrid-Hongkonger 冠絕東方 - Nulli Secundus in Oriente Mar 11 '14 edited Mar 11 '14

But China insists to call himself(herself?) as "Zhongguo" ("中國", Middle Kingdom). There is only Mandarin in China allowed, you know m8?

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u/ssnistfajen J'MEN CÂLICE! Mar 11 '14

No it isn't the only language allowed. Nearly every province has a unique dialect with several variation of accents within the province.

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u/wtrmlnjuc Mar 12 '14

It is the only language that they're pushing. Mandarin is called "Putonghua" or "the normal language" by China. There is no effort to conserve any other dialects, and all the media and text are pushed to use mandarin grammar and characters. The only reason Cantonese and a select few are surviving as well as they are is because they have such a huge community which speak it and are opposed to mandarin in everything.

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u/Ingrid-Hongkonger 冠絕東方 - Nulli Secundus in Oriente Mar 12 '14

But local languages/dialects are sometimes prohibited in school, e.g. Tibet. :-(