reply to post by diamondsmith
interesting
though i believe it would be more along "ethnic" lines
the "chinese" are actually a collective of kindred tribes
despite emperor Chin [Qin] and the CCP efforts at unification
a newspaper from hong kong is perfectly legible to somebody in xinjiang, but read aloud will sound totally different depending on locale. or to put it
another way, all the so called [IMO] dialects all use the same written forms.
though i could be wrong hopefully we have chinese members who'll straighten us out if necessary

edit on 21-11-2011 by DerepentLEstranger
because: added edit