# The existence of accents **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 17, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-existence-of-accents/663789 "2013-07-17T21:36:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2013, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-existence-of-accents/663789/41 "2013-07-21T14:50:36Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Siam Sam writes: > > \> I’ve heard that before the linguistically unifying force of radio in the early 20th > \> century, the US was on the verge of breaking up into dialects like China, what > \> with the way all the heavy accents were heading. > > I’ve never heard that before, and I’m a little dubious. (Do you have a cite?) Of course, the so-called “dialects” of Chinese are actually different languages. Chinese is usually considered a group of perhaps sixteen different languages. They are closely related, but they are not mutually intelligible. It’s hard to believe that the dialects of American English would have separated that far. > > In addition, if it were true that the dialects of American English were that close to breaking up into different languages, then surely the dialects of British English would have been much closer to breaking up into different languages. The dialects of British English have existed for considerably longer. They are usually considered to be as diverse as the dialects of American English, even though they are over a much smaller area. Not that I can point to. It was an old Anthropology professor back in my undergrad days. I’ll have to faff around on the Internet and see if I can come up with something. As for Chinese, would what makes them dialects be the writing system? They all read the same characters, just pronounce them using different spoken words. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-existence-of-accents/663789/42 "2013-07-21T15:44:40Z")
There’s more to it than “just using different spoken words” in the various Chinese dialects. For one thing, those are actually different languages. It’s more of a socio-political thing, as in the Philippines, to call them dialects. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-existence-of-accents/663789/43 "2013-07-21T16:55:04Z")
No, Siam Sam, the grammars of the various Chinese languages are often quite different. Furthermore, it’s not a matter of them always using the same word for each character and having a slight different pronunciation and sometimes have characters that are only used in one of the languages but not the others. They often have completely different unrelated pronunciations for each character. The Chinese languages are related but different on the same level as, say, the Germanic languages like English, Dutch, German, and Swedish. A speaker might sometimes vaguely recognize words in one of the other languages as being similar to their language’s words pronounced in an odd way, but two of the Chinese languages will not be mutually intelligible. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-existence-of-accents/663789/44 "2013-07-23T01:48:41Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > No, Siam Sam, the grammars of the various Chinese languages are often quite different. Furthermore, it’s not a matter of them always using the same word for each character and having a slight different pronunciation and sometimes have characters that are only used in one of the languages but not the others. They often have completely different unrelated pronunciations for each character. The Chinese languages are related but different on the same level as, say, the Germanic languages like English, Dutch, German, and Swedish. A speaker might sometimes vaguely recognize words in one of the other languages as being similar to their language’s words pronounced in an odd way, but two of the Chinese languages will not be mutually intelligible. Well, now you know why I’m not called Chinese Charlie. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-existence-of-accents/663789/45 "2013-07-23T02:14:54Z")
I screwed up two sentences in my post above thoroughly. They should have been: \> Furthermore, it’s not a matter of them always using the same word for each \> character and having a slight different pronunciation. They often have \> completely different unrelated pronunciations for each character and sometimes \> have characters that are only used in one of the languages but not the others. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-existence-of-accents/663789.md?page=2)