How can the ancients communicate without knowing the language? Seeking popular science

1, people don't travel far without convenient transportation. Those who can travel far are also literate people. In ancient times, it was very convenient to set up a stall, that is, scholars set up stalls in the street to sell words for a living! So this kind of booth can play the role of a guide.

2. "Elegant language" was spoken at the early court meeting, that is, Mandarin, a compulsory language for scholars and officials. There is no problem of language barrier.

3. Officials assigned to a place will recruit a scholar as a teacher there. The teacher actually acted as a translator. They can communicate in words in the early stage, and after a long time, they will naturally learn the local dialect.

Extended data:

Putonghua partition

There are many ways to divide Mandarin in history. The following is a brief history of partitions:

1900, Zhang Taiyan's Mandarin and non-Mandarin areas were mixed together. For the first time, a branch of Chinese was not named Mandarin to divide Chinese, so it did not reflect the common characteristics of Mandarin areas.

1934, Zhao Yuanren and other North China Mandarin and South China Mandarin used the word "Mandarin" for the first time. Including Jin dialect, Xiang dialect and Gan dialect.

1937-1948 Northern Mandarin, Shangjiang Mandarin, Southwest Mandarin, Xiajiang Mandarin and Hunan-Jiangxi Mandarin have been zoned, and the scope of Mandarin is quite close to the existing Mandarin and Jin Mandarin.

1955-198 1 year was merged into one region; It was renamed Northern Dialect/Northern Dialect; There are many ways of internal division. One view is that Mandarin is a branch of Chinese, which is divided into North China Mandarin, Northwest Mandarin, Jianghuai Mandarin and Southwest Mandarin. Other appellations such as Northern Dialect/Northern Dialect also began to spread;

1987, northeastern mandarin, BeijingMandarin, Jiaoliao Mandarin, Jilu Mandarin, Zhongyuan Mandarin, Lanyin Mandarin, Southwest Mandarin, Jianghuai Mandarin (controversial) Jin Mandarin were first designated as official languages; It has become the de facto division standard in the dialect field (outside the dialect field, it is still an old division method)

All the books and periodicals on dialect published in Chinese mainland adopt the division method of Atlas of Chinese Language (hereinafter referred to as "eight-division method") to classify Putonghua, which has actually become the division standard of academic circles. This entry also focuses on the eight-zone method.

Eight-district law has become an academic standard. One reason is that the linguistic value has been qualitatively improved compared with the previous methods, and the other reason is that it has been published by authoritative departments. Atlas of Chinese Language, which is made and published by the authoritative department of Chinese mainland dialect, is quite authoritative and has a mandatory role in the publication and classification of dialect books and periodicals.

There are also some scholars who have some objections to the eight-district law, from the language division of a township to the attribution of Jin dialect/Jianghuai mandarin. However, although there are objections, we will criticize the "eight-district law" on the premise of prior promulgation.

The basic standard of dividing Putonghua in Atlas of Chinese Language is tone category, specifically the evolution of ancient voiceless initials. This is the first time in history that the standard of dividing Putonghua is accurately summarized as linguistic features. In the past, the division rules were based on administrative divisions, so it is difficult to summarize the common characteristics of Putonghua in all districts.

In addition, in the process of formulating the "eight-district law", more than one representative point was investigated in each county in Putonghua district, and the accuracy of the language materials provided was better than in the past.

affect

Although the official didn't officially name Mandarin in Ming and Qing Dynasties (Mandarin is a customary name in society) and didn't promote Mandarin, it had a great influence on the pronunciation of ordinary people in China.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Chinese was influenced by Putonghua to some extent, although most of them were very different from Putonghua. The more frequently Mandarin is used, the stronger this influence will be.

A typical example is Jingdezhen, Jiangxi. As a long-term official supplier of porcelain, Mandarin is popular in urban areas, which leads to the convergence of dialects in various places to Mandarin. In the end, Gan dialect and even the whole "Southeast Dialect" have only three tones, which is extremely rare.

Another influence of Putonghua is the emergence of Putonghua with dialects (hereinafter referred to as "dialect Putonghua"). In ancient times, people in places other than Putonghua were often greatly influenced by their mother tongue when they wanted to learn Putonghua, so the Putonghua they spoke had strong mother tongue characteristics.

This is equivalent to Mandarin in Guangdong and Mandarin in Taiwan Province today. Dialect The difference between Mandarin and (standard) Mandarin is only the difference of accent, not dialect.

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