Identifying Proper Chinese Locales

Identifying Proper Chinese Locales

Have you ever found yourself not understanding the differences between Chinese dialects? What about spoken versus written forms? Do you happen to know its locales? Yes, you may refer to simplified Chinese, Mandarin, traditional Chinese, and Cantonese. But what is Mandarin exactly about? What is the difference between traditional Chinese and Cantonese? Do you know that you actually mean Cantonese when you say traditional Chinese?

Main points:

1)     You know that simplified Chinese text uses simplified characters, and traditional Chinese text uses traditional characters. Is that all? Absolutely not. The locales may show differences in style, especially between Mainland China and Taiwan. If you are not style sensitive, you can use a China-based linguist for assignments for target audiences in Hong Kong. This style difference is sometimes neglected. Many linguists use the Word embedded conversion tool in the production of traditional Chinese script based on the simplified one. The tool converts both characters and terminologies. For target audiences in Taiwan, however, placing an assignment with a Taiwan-based linguist is highly recommended. They use a more traditional style. The difference, however, is narrowing as both sides of the Taiwan Straight integrate in economy and culture. Both locales are borrowing words, terminologies or jargons from their counterpart. Recently, to get more and more visitors from China acquainted with the local culture, the Taiwan government posted a comparison list containing some popular wordings on both sides (go to www.chinanews.com/tw/2011/06-27/3140379.shtml for the full list). For example, we say “快餐” for “Instant Food” . The counterpart in Taiwan is “便当”.

2)     Cantonese can be written too. Some characters are exclusive for Cantonese, for example, “佢地” for “they” (compared with “他们” in Mandarin). In some cases, it is hard to put some spoken Cantonese on paper since there are no corresponding characters. A translation into Mandarin is a solution to such cases.

Most clients and agencies can tell the difference between simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese. How about the difference between traditional Chinese and Cantonese? Are you sure you are referring to Cantonese?

Then what if you can’t tell exactly which locale you or your client should specify? Should I say traditional Chinese or Cantonese? The best solution is to let the linguist have the final say. Ask yourself where the target audience is. With such input, a qualified linguist should be able to tell which locale should be a fit.