Post #4347813

a concrete example of why Classical Chinese is an unintelligble nightmare when spoken aloud by modern dictionary rules: 何 "why?" (one syllable) 何不 "why not?" (two syllables) 盍 a one-syllable contraction for casually saying "why not?" In ancient pronunciation, roughly: "ha, ha pu, hap." But Modern Mandarin has lost final -p in all words. Which leaves you with...? With Classical "何 why?" and "盍 why not?" being pronounced exactly the same: "hé" This is why modern native speakers hate Classical Chinese in literature class 😂 #classicalchinese #linguistics