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Anonymous
>>10024 The writing system is EXACTLY the same for all the dialects. Regardless of location, accent, time. Someone from Beijing and someone from the rural south could have no idea what someone is saying, but they could read exactly what the other person has written. Even grammar would not be an issue thanks to the relatively simple grammar of written chinese. As far as dialects though, consider them about as far apart as English, Norwegian, and German in the most extreme cases. Some of them are similar, but some of them are nearly incompatible. Accents unfortunately tend to be more Town based in less developed areas, but like I said, Mandarin is the Latin of China in that anyone who wants to get jack shit done in their life speaks it. Mandarin, fortunately, will become even more influential as time goes on. People bitch about languages going extinct; these people are rarely the ones who have to suffer through conversations that go "Oh you speak chinese, talk to this guy! "Sorry, he speaks a dialect specific to a fishing town of 27". Fuck linguists.
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