Chinese Has No Grammar, Right? Wrong!
Mandarin might not have gender or case endings, but there’s more to grammar than conjugations.
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Episode Notes
What we often refer to as “Chinese” is really a family of about six or seven distinct languages—plus a few dozen dialects—spoken by more than 1 billion people. And it’s commonly held that these so-called Sinitic tongues, while replete with complicated sounds and tones, are light on actual grammar. Not so, says John McWhorter. It’s just not the sort of grammar with which speakers of English are familiar.
Podcast production by Mike Vuolo.
