quote: | Originally posted by Unique2701
The grammer hasn't changed. I'm trying to remember how the grammer was with the older text pieces I had to read (for history or poetry classes) but to my knowledge it hasn't changed over such a long time span either. |
I remember I read about it once, but I don't really remember much about the history of the Chinese language.
quote: | Originally posted by Unique2701
Does grammer change at all? Dutch grammer hasn't either (in the last 20 years), but the spelling did. |
Yes, it does, though it usually takes a lot more than a couple of decades to change so abruptly. For example, the future marker in most Romance language is quite recent (i.e. it developed in the last thousand years or so).
In Latin, if you wanted to say "I'll sing", you said "Canta-bo". -bo marked the future for the 1st person (that is, me ). If you wanted to say "I have to sing" you'd say "Cantare habeo" (Sing I have). Roughly speaking, all was fine and dandy until the following generations interpreted this as a future marker, because the things you have to do are invariably done in the future (you don't need to do something if you've already done it in the past). Also, some of the sounds "eroded" as you'd expect them to do over time, so "habeo" became "ho" in Italian and "hei" in Portuguese (the "h" is silent!). If you want to say "I'll sing" in these languages now, you have to say "Canter-ò" in Italian (notice that "-ò" sounds like "ho") and "Cantar-ei" in Portuguese (once again, "-ei" and "hei" are pronounced the same way). So, what used to mean an obligation became over time a future marker.
This is once again changing in my language. I won't EVER say "cantarei" in real life unless I'm drunk or in a formal environment I can't escape. I'd usually say "Vou cantar", which means "I go sing", which is a form also found in other Romance languages.
The same happened in English, but with the verb "to will"... as a matter of fact, isn't there a verb in Chinese (yao, I guess) that means "to want/to will" and that can also be used in sentences that haven't happened yet? Such as "Wo yao he cha" (I want to drink tea / I will drink tea)? It's been a while since I last studied Chinese, but I remember I saw this verb pop up every now and it's still seen as a verb by current Chinese speakers... but it's only a matter of time until it becomes an actual future marker, just like "gei" also seems to mean both the verb "to give" and the preposition "to/for"... but I'm just speculating here, because "gei wo" didn't always mean "Give me" but "for me/to me".
quote: | Originally posted by Unique2701
Hehe I don't mind, but it's challenging to explain it well sometimes. Cantonese is the first language I learned, so it all seems natural to me without thinking about it |
It's natural, I don't think that much about my own language either
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