More verbose options for Chinese languages other than just "Chinese"
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1ngoomie
There was a thread from 2009 about this, but it was so long ago I'm not sure I want to bump it, plus it kinda got derailed near the end. Here's a link for reference, though: https://www.librarything.com/topic/66504
But yes, I noticed LT only has "Chinese" as an option and no proper specification for any specific Chinese languages. Someone in the 2009 thread said this:
"The writing system is not phonemic, so the pronunciation and the writing can be completely disassociated."
This isn't totally true, I'm not anywhere near fluent in any of the Chinese languages and I'm not even actively learning any currently, but written Mandarin/Standard Chinese is very different from written Cantonese (and that's while ignoring the simplified/traditional split). One example I know from my brief experience learning both is that Mandarin has the pronouns 他, 她, and 它 for he, she, and it respectively (all pronounced 'ta1' admittedly, so I think the different hanzi is just a weird writing thing?), but Cantonese instead has 佢 that covers all 3 meanings. Mandarin also uses 們/们 for pluralized pronouns wheras Cantonese uses 哋. I vaguely recall many differences in vocabulary outside of this too but nothing I can concretely recall anymore, unfortunately.
I think what this person was thinking of is that generally speaking, anyone who speaks whichever of the Chinese languages is going to have learnt written Standard Chinese, so it is actually somewhat uncommon to find books written in other Chinese languages iirc, but they still definitely exist and that's why it strikes me as really weird to only have "Chinese" as an option. That being said, if what timspalding said is true about LT still only using MARC language codes, I understand if it's still going to stay that way. Admittedly sure still does bug the hell out of me from the perspective of someone who gets really anal about cataloguing things though :v
But yes, I noticed LT only has "Chinese" as an option and no proper specification for any specific Chinese languages. Someone in the 2009 thread said this:
"The writing system is not phonemic, so the pronunciation and the writing can be completely disassociated."
This isn't totally true, I'm not anywhere near fluent in any of the Chinese languages and I'm not even actively learning any currently, but written Mandarin/Standard Chinese is very different from written Cantonese (and that's while ignoring the simplified/traditional split). One example I know from my brief experience learning both is that Mandarin has the pronouns 他, 她, and 它 for he, she, and it respectively (all pronounced 'ta1' admittedly, so I think the different hanzi is just a weird writing thing?), but Cantonese instead has 佢 that covers all 3 meanings. Mandarin also uses 們/们 for pluralized pronouns wheras Cantonese uses 哋. I vaguely recall many differences in vocabulary outside of this too but nothing I can concretely recall anymore, unfortunately.
I think what this person was thinking of is that generally speaking, anyone who speaks whichever of the Chinese languages is going to have learnt written Standard Chinese, so it is actually somewhat uncommon to find books written in other Chinese languages iirc, but they still definitely exist and that's why it strikes me as really weird to only have "Chinese" as an option. That being said, if what timspalding said is true about LT still only using MARC language codes, I understand if it's still going to stay that way. Admittedly sure still does bug the hell out of me from the perspective of someone who gets really anal about cataloguing things though :v
