Chinese: Simplified, Traditional, Mandarin or Cantonese (The Simple Answer)
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Re: Chinese: Simplified, Traditional, Mandarin or Cantonese (The Simple Answer)
#2Awesome; this question has been a thorn in my side for so long. It's great to get a clear picture of it!
Re: Chinese: Simplified, Traditional, Mandarin or Cantonese (The Simple Answer)
#3For techies, the font is also an important decision.
With Han typography we have:
Song(CN)/Ming(TW)/Mincho(JP) ≍ Serif
Hei(CN)/Gothic(JP) ≍ Sans
Kai ≍ Script
Re: Chinese: Simplified, Traditional, Mandarin or Cantonese (The Simple Answer)
#4I was learning Mandarin/simplified for a while and it took me some time to identify whether I should be listening in on a conversation or reading a sign or not. I don't have a good guide on Canto/Mandarin (it doesn't help that many phrases sound similar in both to a Western ear) but for writing I zeroed in on identifying the 'i' on the left side of simplified 'shuo' (说) versus the 'stack of pancakes' in traditional shuo (說). Since the 'i' appears frequently enough in characters in signs, I found it to be a pretty good signifier that what I was looking at was simplified.
Re: Chinese: Simplified, Traditional, Mandarin or Cantonese (The Simple Answer)
#5I was learning Mandarin/simplified for a while and it took me some time to identify whether I should be listening in on a conversation or reading a sign or not. I don't have a good guide on Canto/Mandarin (it doesn't help that many phrases sound similar in both to a Western ear) but for writing I zeroed in on identifying the 'i' on the left side of simplified 'shuo' (说) versus the 'stack of pancakes' in traditional s…
Also, the article doesn't mention that native speakers (especially ones born recently) are often able to speak or read some part of the 'other' language. It's a similar situation to French Swiss knowing some German and vice-versa.
Re: Chinese: Simplified, Traditional, Mandarin or Cantonese (The Simple Answer)
#6I was learning Mandarin/simplified for a while and it took me some time to identify whether I should be listening in on a conversation or reading a sign or not. I don't have a good guide on Canto/Mandarin (it doesn't help that many phrases sound similar in both to a Western ear) but for writing I zeroed in on identifying the 'i' on the left side of simplified 'shuo' (说) versus the 'stack of pancakes' in traditional s…
Also, the article doesn't mention that native speakers (especially ones born recently) are often able to speak or read some part of the 'other' language. It's a similar situation to French Swiss knowing some German and vice-versa.
I am a native speaker(not born recently though). it still hard to speak or listen 'other' dialect, but more and more Mainland Chinese Speak mandarin instead of dialect， so it's more and more easy to communication.
Re: Chinese: Simplified, Traditional, Mandarin or Cantonese (The Simple Answer)
#7体 in tradition chinese should be 體. People transliterating from simplified to traditional always miss this one.
Re: Chinese: Simplified, Traditional, Mandarin or Cantonese (The Simple Answer)
#8I think the article is not a good summary. For translation work for written products, web, apps etc you need to do both Simplified and Traditional. Traditional is used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, with the rest of the world follow China's standard use of Simplified.
For spoken language, Mandarin is the standard, the official one. The rest of spoken languages such as Cantonese, Hokkien etc are dialects depending on your province in China and community.
If it is the first time you are learning about Chinese languages, learn Mandarin and Simplified/Tradition written language.
Re: Chinese: Simplified, Traditional, Mandarin or Cantonese (The Simple Answer)
#9I think the article is not a good summary. For translation work for written products, web, apps etc you need to do both Simplified and Traditional. Traditional is used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, with the rest of the world follow China's standard use of Simplified. For spoken language, Mandarin is the standard, the official one. The rest of spoken languages such as Cantonese, Hokkien etc are dialects depending on your p…
I don't think this is the point.
You may wish to offer both Simplified and Traditional Chinese, but that's a choice — and the article is clearing up the confusion that most non-Chinese have about which relates to which nations.
Re: Chinese: Simplified, Traditional, Mandarin or Cantonese (The Simple Answer)
#10I think the article is not a good summary. For translation work for written products, web, apps etc you need to do both Simplified and Traditional. Traditional is used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, with the rest of the world follow China's standard use of Simplified. For spoken language, Mandarin is the standard, the official one. The rest of spoken languages such as Cantonese, Hokkien etc are dialects depending on your p…
I don't think this is the point. You may wish to offer both Simplified and Traditional Chinese, but that's a choice — and the article is clearing up the confusion that most non-Chinese have about which relates to which nations.
Forgive me but this article seems to generate more confusion than it clears up. Statements like Cantonese and Mandarin speakers both use one of the writing systems mentioned above, and on paper, the languages can look quite similar are quite inept. Except a few subject matters (that do NOT get sent through five-cent-per-word web services --- like advertising slogans and written instructions for verbal Miranda warning-equivalents), clients NEVER need translations into Written Cantonese. They need translations into Standard Written Chinese.
Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Mainland all write in Standard Written Chinese. Hong Kongers do not expect to see Cantonese in materials translated from a foreign original, and largely do not want to. HK/TW/CN have a few vocabulary differences (e.g. "taxi" is HK's "dishi", TW's "jichengche", and CN's "chuzuche"). Orthogonal to the vocabulary differences, HK and TW use Traditional characters, SG and ZH use Simplified. But I can write "chuzuche" in Traditional, or "jichengche" in Simplified. They still mean the same thing and are still understandable to all.
While we hope to offer translations into Traditional Chinese by Cantonese speakers in the future, currently our translations are not ideal if you hope to sell your product in Hong Kong.
Traditional to Simplified mapping is perfectly surjective. That is to say, it can be done by computer with 100% accuracy. Having a Traditional Chinese and a Simplified Chinese version of a document does NOT require two separate translations from the source document, as you seem to be implying.
Let me draw an analogy, Britain says "boot" and "bonnet" and "bobby" where America says "trunk" and "hood" and "cop". That does not mean everyone needs to get separate British English and American English translations, nor separate Taiwan Chinese and Singapore Chinese translations. In one extreme, if I were a high volume group-buying website looking to expand globally, yes of course I want the whole interface and the terms and conditions done up separately for each English and for each Chinese. In the other extreme, if I ran a boutique hotel and just wanted to give my Chinese customers directions from the airport to my doorstep, I have no need for separate translations.
In between is a giant grey area where full-service Language Service Providers generally try to provide some guidance to their clients. As a low-cost LSP maybe you are not aiming at the kind of client who needs this kind of guidance --- in which case you shouldn't be purporting to offer it. You should define yourself clearly.