Vocabulary
The Kunming dialect’s basic vocabulary exhibits a high degree of consistency with northern Chinese and standard dialects. Although words in the Kunming dialect typically possess substantial differences in pronunciation from their counterparts in standard Mandarin and can be unintelligible even to other Chinese speakers, a large portion of the dialect’s morphology and word meanings are identical to those of other northern dialects. The Kunming dialect also preserves an exceptionally high number of classical Chinese words. In particular, a number of phrases dating from northern literary works produced during the Yuan and Ming dynasties remain in common usage in the Kunming dialect’s popular vernacular despite having virtually disappeared from usage in northern China.
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Famous quotes containing the word vocabulary:
“A new talker will often call her caregiver “mommy,” which makes parents worry that the child is confused about who is who. She isn’t. This is a case of limited vocabulary rather than mixed-up identities. When a child has only one word for the female person who takes care of her, calling both of them “mommy” is understandable.”
—Amy Laura Dombro (20th century)
“One forgets words as one forgets names. One’s vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die.”
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)
“[T]here is no breaking out of the intentional vocabulary by explaining its members in other terms.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)