Re: Hakka and Tang poems

[teoh@cs.utk.edu]

>From sllee@asiawind.com Wed Nov 13 09:43:00 1996
Subject: Re: Hakka and Tang poems

Khaisu,

I believe you made the following statement:
<< The poems in Tang Dynasty and Sung Dynasty were _not_ written in 
Hakka, but in some dead language which no one uses anymore. >>
Somehow I could not find the original mail.

I am really curious about how the entire Tang language can disappear without
a trace if it is not in Hakka. Since you are an expert in language (I 
have seen some of your postings on language freedom and phonetic symbols 
for Hoklo), what do you happened to the Tang and Song languages?

Of course we cannot find someone from Tang and Song and ask them how people
spoke.  Tang poems might not be written in exactly the Hakka we speak today.
I can only say that Tang poems RHYME with Hakka and Cantonese, and perhaps
Hoklo too, much better than Mandarin. When I discuss this with someone in 
literature, they always tell me Tang poem is written in an ancient 
language not spoken any more (Gu Yin) but when they recite the poem, they 
have to use Gu Yin (ancient tongue).  I believe this is how mandarin took 
over. They would call it an ancient tongue to cover up the Han origin. 
It is simply unbelievable that a language spoken by a dynasty of the 
largest territory in Chinese history could have gone without a trace! 
However, my statement cannot be taken as against mandarin. In fact we 
simply cannot do away with Mandarin and all the names have to be spelt in 
Mandarin to be understood (unfortunately not Hakka).

ON the preservation of Hakka language as the ONLY way to preserve Hakka 
culture, I don't think we can equate the two. Many Jews don't speak any 
Hebrew or Yiddish, yet they are still Jewish in any way they think and 
act.  I think Hakka can be like that too. With the language, may be 
better, but not a necessity. There are also Hakkas who speak Hakka but 
don't have any Hakka spirit too. Many Jews did betray other Jews during 
WW2. Culture first, language second.

SL Lee

******************************************************************************
InTechTra, Inc.      | Voice: 1-614-326-0888	| sllee@asiawind.com 
3959 Ritamarie Dr.   | Fax: 1-614-451-6453	| sllee@infinet.com
Columbus, OH 43220   | WEBsite : http://www.asiawind.com/  
******************************************************************************