Chinese is such an archaic language, it will be very difficult

It does in Cantonese and Hakka though.

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Labial fricatives such as f and even v in Hakka didn’t appear until Late Middle Chinese, which would be late Ming or early Qing.

How did Cantonese and Hakka pick it up when there so distant from Beijing? And how come Daigi missed it?

You should take your compliments where you can get them. It’s kind of like when they say I look like George Clooney. :sunglasses:

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The Hakka started out in the north and gradually migrated south. That’s why they’re called 柹柶äșș(guest families).

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But by the Ming they were already settled South. Some were already in Taiwan.

Don’t even trip. Similar things have happened to me in other online settings. Just be careful what you state as fact.

Hakka is actually made up of waves of migrations across different eras from different Northern regions, so they don’t all sound the same.

They also don’t have any kind of significant presence in Taiwan before mid-Qing. Most Han Chinese in Taiwan at the time were either introduced to Taiwan by the Dutch or followed Koxinga. Those who came during the Dutch era probably came in several waves, as the Dutch killed off a bunch of them during the Gouqua Faet rebellion. They were also prominently from coastal Minnan regions. Koxinga had some Hakka generals and soldiers, but it’s pretty obvious the majority of his followers were also from coastal Minnan regions.

Hakka immigrants were systematically introduced to Taiwan by the Qing dynasty for a while after the Tsu It-kuì rebellion. Many of the Hakka leaders eventually defected to the Qing army, and the Qing government realized that pitting Hakka and Holo against one another reduces the risk of rebellion. Aside from encouraging Hakka immigration in that era, Holo immigration were even more strictly clamped down. That’s when Hakka people increased to make up about 15% of Taiwan’s total Han Chinese population.

Although I still have no idea why Hakka and Cantonese both picked up the p to f sound change. This sound change is more complete in Cantonese, and Hakka is just half way there.

For example, the following are a few characters that had a /p/ or /pÊ°/ initial in Middle Chinese:

飯: Hakka - pÊ°an, Holo - pn̄g, Cantonese - fan, Korean - ban
搠: Hakka - pÊ°ui or pÊ°ou, Holo - puÄ«, Cantonese - fai, Korean - pye
è‚„: Hakka - pÊ°ui or pÊ°i, Holo - puĂź, Cantonese - fei, Korean - bi

It is possible that Cantonese picked up the p→f change because Guangdong was the prominent sea port throughout Qing dynasty, and the Manchu officials introduced that change. That eventually began to spread to the Hakka languages in Guangdong as well.

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Mandarin is archaic perhaps in the sense that you can not construct the words through an alphabet. But it is very advanced in the sense that there is no conjugation of verbs and no tenses in the language

I could imagine if aliens were to come to earth they would be speaking Mandarin

It’s archaic in every sense of the word let’s not kid ourselves. It’s modern day hieroglyphics.
Squiggles and pictures crammed together. No spacing, no indication of names and places. The Japanese figured it out. I love the Japanese

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I don’t recall formal Japanese having spacing?

Yeah, writing with three different scripts and conjugation of verbs and adjectives. It’s so easy. Well, at least it doesn’t have tones.

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Thank God English spelling isn’t archaic :cactus:

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Plus all those politeness/formality forms.

It’s my honor to introduce you to the great country called Japan.

They have Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana

All foreign words use Katana. Easy peasy Japaneasy

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All foreign words use swords? Wait
what? :open_mouth:

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Um

images
怩ぷら

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Not foreign

Tempura is Portuguese for seasoning.

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