Books About Chinese Language

[Battosai]

I'm interested in reading books about Chinese language. I looked through Amazon and found :The Languages of China by S. Robert Ramsey and The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy by John Defrancis. Are these books any good? Can anybody recommend some books?

[novemberfog]

I really enjoyed "Speaking of Chinese" by Raymond and Margret Cheung. Though it is a bit dated in regards to the technology part, overall I found it to be quite informative. Of course I read this book before I started learning Chinese mind you. My Chinese teacher told us to read it before we made up our mind on studying Chinese, since learning Chinese is a big committment. It touches on many subjects regarding Chinese language and its use in the Chinese communities worldwide. It is a good book for a beginner to read, so it might not interest you if you know about the language.

[beirne]

Speaking of Chinese is pretty good, and is relatively cheap. It is worth getting if they don't have it at your local library.

DeFrancis' book isn't quite as general as the title makes it appear. It should really be called "Why the Chinese characters are a bad idea". He goes into a lot of history and background on the language so one does learn things, but the goal of the book is to push for the end of the character system for writing Chinese. On that basis it is a good book, but don't expect a general text like Speaking of Chinese.

Another book, "Chinese" by Jerry Norman is a good general text on the language. It is more academic than the other two but provides a good survey of the language.

[wix]

Mandarin Chinese:An Introduction

by Mobo C. F. Gao

This is a good book for an introduction.

Publisher's synopsis:

Mandarin Chinese: An Introduction provides a systematic overview of Mandarin Chinese from the perspective of the English-speaking learner. Using a comparative approach, it contrasts grammatical, and other features of Mandarin Chinese language, with relevant issues in English.

The book opens with a chapter on the setting of the Chinese language, giving a brief account of the historical, geographical, social, and linguistic background of China. Included is a discussion of how modern Chinese politics has played an important role in the development of modern standard Chinese. Other topics include sounds and tones, writing, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse.

Mandarin Chinese brings a wide range of topics and issues together in one volume, presenting a coherent, easy-to-follow picture of the language, and a practical, efficient way to learn.

[roddy]

I'll stick in a thumbs up for the DeFrancis book - as mentioned, it doesn't cover the spoken language so much, but it's great for grasping the way the written and spoken languages relate (or don't )

Roddy

[Battosai]

Thank you all

[free_radical]

Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics

by Ping Chen

I am about a third of the way through this book at the moment and I like it very much, it explains about the origins of modern Chinese both written and spoken which is what I was looking for.

Happy reading,

free_radical

[roddy]

Actually, Pinyin.info has a selection of Sample Chapters, one from the Defrancis book, and a lot of others of probably interest.

Roddy