China used to speak classical Chinese in ancient times, but now it speaks vernacular (Putonghua). So in places like Singapore that also speak Chinese, did they speak classical Chinese or vernacular Ch

China used to speak classical Chinese in ancient times, but now it speaks vernacular (Putonghua). So in places like Singapore that also speak Chinese, did they speak classical Chinese or vernacular Chinese in ancient times?

It was hundreds of years ago when China began to speak classical Chinese. There was no industrial revolution at that time, and China was still in a feudal period. The navigation industry at that time was still very backward. Han Chinese culture has not spread there yet.

We assume that the feudal period is used to locate the "ancient times" you are talking about. At that time, "Singapore and other countries" were still primitive societies, and the language should be in "dialect" (probably with sign language) species), which is the form of primitive tribes in some Amazon jungles or uninhabited islands in Central and South America.

So there is a time difference between his "ancient times" and our "ancient times". We were at the end of feudalism, and "classical Chinese" had actually ended (I guess Singapore still used vernacular at that time). Take Vietnam as an example: their language was written for them by the French after World War I and World War II. Before that, they still used patois. The time when Singapore had writing and formal language should have been the era of large-scale Chinese migration. That at least goes back to a time earlier than "Zheng Chenggong".

In short, I think that the language history of Singapore has definitely changed from "traditional dialect" to "vernacular" rapidly. During the period of ancient Chinese language (ie: "classical Chinese"), the transition period in their language evolution process was very short. Not even that. It should have been brought by immigrants from China who already spoke the vernacular in the later period.

In addition, on this issue, it is necessary to study not only the history of "Singapore, etc.", but also the cultural development history of China's Lingnan, Southern Guangdong, Southern Fujian and other coastal areas.