[ramune]

Originally Posted by Sokar

So true, a lot of governments have an agency that regulate language, not just China. I'm 100% sure the Spanish do, and I think so do the French. U.S. does not, which explains why the language is so messy. I mean there are so many new words and so many old words are redefined, that it's hard to know what a word means now. Whereas the Spanish actually goes through a regulated process that define a new word.

I think you gave a bad example. It might be true that implementing a new writing system speeds up the evolution of a language, but regulating the language itself actually slows down the evolution.

IMHO, language represents a culture, and that's why the U.S. cannot regulate its language since it's a mixed-culture society. The French has to regulate its language in order to maintain its purity since it's an accepted diplomatic language.

As for simplified Chinese becomes standard worldwide, I just can't see it happening, especially in Cantonese speaking communities since a lot of traditional Chinese characters are introduced by Cantonese speaking people. You cannot just simplify those characters without losing their meanings.

Once again, both tradition and simplified writings have their own advantages and disadvantages, and which one we choose to use simply depends on our language background and personal choice. I acknowledge both writings as the proper way of writing Chinese, and it should stay that way.