Post AskGiM8MLF0GfQlQps by loke@functional.cafe
 (DIR) More posts by loke@functional.cafe
 (DIR) Post #AsiDz6GltDj8D24UZk by clacke@libranet.de
       2025-04-03T11:16:43Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       if I don't know something in Mando, which is 99% of the time, I'll just say something in Canto and hope that it either happens to be close enough, or the person randomly happens to know Canto 😅
       
 (DIR) Post #AsiEGQVnsju3ufMf7A by musicman@mastodon.social
       2025-04-03T11:21:14Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @clacke this is what I told my wife to do with French and Spanish. I told her to just pronounce her French like an American and you'd probably be close
       
 (DIR) Post #AsiEGcbCwTM9Otz9Ci by tfb@functional.cafe
       2025-04-03T11:21:22Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @clacke This is me using German to try to speak Dutch
       
 (DIR) Post #AsiEGjXZ8PbOvdKq00 by musicman@mastodon.social
       2025-04-03T11:22:35Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @clacke it'd work MUCH better with Italian and Spanish but she doesn't know Italian. Apparently neither did the waiter one place when I ordered the sorbetto. That was easy to sort though 😂
       
 (DIR) Post #Ask7P0HuRPHlp7vbzU by clacke@libranet.de
       2025-04-04T09:14:33Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @tfb @musicman I should point out that it doesn't work at all well as trying to use Italian for Spanish or German for Dutch.It's really a desperate last-ditch attempt, and if the person responds in Mando, I won't understand it.Middle Chinese was 1400 years ago, and in particular Mandarin, with it's almost one billion first-language speakers, has diverged a lot.
       
 (DIR) Post #AskGiM8MLF0GfQlQps by loke@functional.cafe
       2025-04-04T10:58:26Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @tfb @clacke speaking Swedish with German grammar sound work in the Netherlands.
       
 (DIR) Post #AskKVH1uPH6ytClRPU by tfb@functional.cafe
       2025-04-04T11:30:06Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @clacke It's interesting that we're about as far from Middle Chinese as from vulgar Latin, but the change seems more than in the Romance languages ? Though I guess if French had a billion speakers, it might have diverged even more
       
 (DIR) Post #AskOFM748hvdq0qEds by clacke@libranet.de
       2025-04-04T12:15:46Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @tfb Europe never had the space for 120 Vulgar Latins to evolve and cross-pollinate. 😊
       
 (DIR) Post #AskOFOok5I3QE3I8zw by clacke@libranet.de
       2025-04-04T12:23:01Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       (number of languages in modern China, off the top of my head, probably not all Sinitic, but the vast majority would be, so ... 100+ Vulgar Latins?)
       
 (DIR) Post #AsksU4TwyDFq7pTjMG by bkhl@social.sdfeu.org
       2025-04-04T13:54:05Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @clacke Ethnologue says there are 284 living indigenous languages in China, out of which 154 is Sino-Tibetan. Those classified as "Chinese" (the closest they get to defining Sinitic I think) are "only" 21. The second largest family is Kra-Dai, the same family that Thai belongs to. https://www.ethnologue.com/country/CN/
       
 (DIR) Post #AsksUI1OdAjU7KE7nM by bkhl@social.sdfeu.org
       2025-04-04T13:59:52Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @clacke @tfb historically I think there might be that many, though Ethnologue considers there to be 45 living Italic languages now. All of them are considered Romance languages apart from the Latin spoken in the Vatican.
       
 (DIR) Post #AslyjX7NqxuqbAiED2 by clacke@libranet.de
       2025-04-05T01:50:56Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @bkhl Thanks!
       
 (DIR) Post #Asm2Xz2ebiqdXnFS9g by bkhl@social.sdfeu.org
       2025-04-05T07:23:09Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @clacke now enjoy this list for _half_ of the island of New Guinea. https://www.ethnologue.com/country/PG/