| Change log entry 95038 | |
|---|---|
| Processed by: | richwarm (2026-05-09 00:50:26 UTC) |
| Comment: |
<< review queue entry 86649 - submitted by 'agedits' >> I was wondering if this should go as proper noun with initial capital letter, as it's written in the ABC dictionary, or all lowerspace, like it's in the Oxford dictionary… ? ------------------- Editor: We could define it conceptually as "the common language/common speech of a country", as in: 今天不曉得在哪裡看到文章說印度每個地方的人講的話都不一樣，印度的普通話實際上應該是英文真的嗎 ...where 普通話 clearly does not refer to a specific language. But because it almost always refers to China's "common language/common speech", it can be defined as "standard Mandarin", which makes it look like a proper noun. However, it's not so much the name of a language as an ordinary lexical term meaning something like "the common language/common speech", which is probably why various dictionaries use lowercase "p" (e.g. New Century, Pleco, Key). It's also why I use lowercase "standard" in the definition. * * * I see American Heritage has an entry for "Putonghua" as an English word, and that they too spell the Chinese word with small "p" (pǔtōnghuà): Putonghua See Mandarin. [Mandarin pǔtōnghuà (literally, common language ) : pǔtōng, common ...] Mandarin 1. [...] 2. The official national standard spoken language of China, based on the Mandarin dialect spoken in and around Beijing. Also called Guoyu, Putonghua. https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=Putonghua |
| Diff: |
- 普通話 普通话 [pu3 tong1 hua4] /Mandarin (common language)/Putonghua (common speech of the Chinese language)/ordinary speech/ # + 普通話 普通话 [[Pu3tong1hua4]] /Mandarin (common language)/Putonghua (common speech of the Chinese language)/ordinary speech/ + 普通話 普通话 [[pu3tong1hua4]] /Putonghua; standard Mandarin/ |