If the 1.2 billion Mandarin speakers are not in China, I’m really wondering where they are hiding.
Oops, replied to the wrong poster, that was aimed at @Dr_Milker
Hi. 
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I just want to say I love you guys otherwise where could I argue about such archaic basically useless bits of information . 
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Tell me about it. I have a degree in Chinese, and that’s basically all it’s good for. 
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You seem to have a decent life out of it, must have been good for something . Apart from milling cows anyway.
Ok Ok would you believe 1.1 billion? https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/ethnologue200
Never heard Shanghai language, but I have spent time in three different provinces where Mandarin is not the main native speech, and like I said in my experience most people I encountered could speak standard Chinese. I’ve never been to Shanghai, but I think I am pretty safe in guessing that most people there can speak standard Chinese when they need to
Shanghai is toneless in certain situations.
Not only that, but Shanghainese is actually in danger of dying out, as most residents in the city aren’t from Shanghai, or even a Wu-speaking area, making native Shanghainese a minority in their own city…
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Rebellious Chinese thinkers in the early 20th century felt your pain too.
Lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, “If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die” (漢字不滅，中國必亡).
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This is funny.
Based on just that video I guess Shanghai language is quite like Xiang
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It’s a fun language. I used to speak a little, but I’ve forgotten most of it now. That guy speaks it pretty well.
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Seems pretty close to Mandarin to me, definitely not Cantonese or Hokkien Distant. I can get 50% or more. Also sounds scarily close to Xiang (Which is after a Yangtze tributary, so maybe that’s why)
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I don’t know anything about Xiang, but yeah, Wu dialects are much closer to Mandarin than the southern languages.
Fun time : Guess what is the meaning from Giles early attempts at Pinyin? 
Numbers
‘Sahn bi sanshirt.’
‘Urshirt layo’
Actions
‘Woa yow dzow’
‘Ki men’
‘Nee kahn neety’
Special flavour from the 1870s
‘coolie yay hun lahn-tee’
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I was looking through that dictionary you posted too. Its pretty good, in a my hover craft is full of eels kind of way.
Do you know this man is
Chayka ren nee renta pu renta
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330?
26?
我要找？
開門？
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Milkers brain is working
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這個人你認得不認得？
Kind of comes and goes.
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