<p>I've searched Youtube for some reconstructed old Mandarin. My background is Jin Dialect and Mandarin, and it sounds no more difficult than Cantonese or Wu dialect to me. </p>

<p>The dialects vary greatly even among modern 官话 of different regions, some can be very different from the standard Mandarin. Usually it takes me one week to one month to understand a different 官话 dialect. The remote rural dialects usually takes longer to grasp. I've seen people struggling with non-native Mandarin dialects for months or years. I've seen people cruising through non-native dialects as if he's in his own backyard. I think it depends.</p>

<p>To put that aside, if you send me a man from Ming dynasty, I think the biggest blockage to communication is this totally unintelligible modern world. As of the language, it would be an issue in the first week, but if we keep working on it, things should get quite clear after a month.</p>

<p>Judging by the tone of the old Mandarin, I think it may sound more intelligible to the ears of the 吴 or 粤 people, but I could be wrong. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-25T01:37:43.803Z
2014-11-25T01:37:43.803Z
Wang Dingwei
<p>This topic is interesting.<br>
Assuming you are referring to <strong>Classic Chinese</strong> (文言文) as Old Mandarin.<br>
We must be astonished with the intelligence of a person 'speaking' Classic Chinese.   </p>

<p>And to my humble (sincere) opinion (wish), Classic Chinese has always been <strong>written</strong> instead of spoken. (: </p>

<p>This is actually easy as when we look at the literal spelling of the two words in Chinese itself:  </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>文言文 (Classical Chinese) = Written language;<br>
  白话文 (Modern Chinese) = Spoken language.   </p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-25T16:11:33.657Z
Thank you for the reply, Wala.

Old Mandarin does actually exist. Please see the article in Wikipedia because I don't know if I can link here.

Please note that I'm not asking if there's anyone alive who can speak Old Mandarin. The question is purely theoretical. There were people who spoke Old Mandarin. Could they and Mandarin Chinese speakers communicate effectively?
Tuomas
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-25T15:43:30.587Z
2014-10-25T15:43:30.587Z
Wala
<p>How intelligible is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Mandarin" rel="nofollow">Old Mandarin</a> to the speakers of Mandarin Chinese?
If an Old Mandarin Chinese speaker heard a Mandarin Chinese speaker or vice versa, how fluent would the communication be?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-25T20:01:57.480Z
I don't think Old Mandarin and modern Mandarin Chinese are intelligible as the differences in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are huge, in some aspects even greater than between modern Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. I believe, however, one can master the two at the same time, but that's just like speaking two languages, not because the two languages are mutually intelligible.
NS.X.
<old-chinese>
Old Mandarin vs. Mandarin Chinese?
# Old Mandarin vs. Mandarin Chinese?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-10-25)

How intelligible is [Old Mandarin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Mandarin) to the speakers of Mandarin Chinese?
If an Old Mandarin Chinese speaker heard a Mandarin Chinese speaker or vice versa, how fluent would the communication be?

**Tags:** old-chinese

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I don't think Old Mandarin and modern Mandarin Chinese are intelligible as the differences in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are huge, in some aspects even greater than between modern Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. I believe, however, one can master the two at the same time, but that's just like speaking two languages, not because the two languages are mutually intelligible.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-11-25. Score: 0

I've searched Youtube for some reconstructed old Mandarin. My background is Jin Dialect and Mandarin, and it sounds no more difficult than Cantonese or Wu dialect to me.

The dialects vary greatly even among modern 官话 of different regions, some can be very different from the standard Mandarin. Usually it takes me one week to one month to understand a different 官话 dialect. The remote rural dialects usually takes longer to grasp. I've seen people struggling with non-native Mandarin dialects for months or years. I've seen people cruising through non-native dialects as if he's in his own backyard. I think it depends.

To put that aside, if you send me a man from Ming dynasty, I think the biggest blockage to communication is this totally unintelligible modern world. As of the language, it would be an issue in the first week, but if we keep working on it, things should get quite clear after a month.

Judging by the tone of the old Mandarin, I think it may sound more intelligible to the ears of the 吴 or 粤 people, but I could be wrong.


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2014-10-25. Score: -1

This topic is interesting.  
Assuming you are referring to **Classic Chinese** (文言文) as Old Mandarin.  
We must be astonished with the intelligence of a person 'speaking' Classic Chinese.

And to my humble (sincere) opinion (wish), Classic Chinese has always been **written** instead of spoken. (:

This is actually easy as when we look at the literal spelling of the two words in Chinese itself:

> 文言文 (Classical Chinese) = Written language;  
> 白话文 (Modern Chinese) = Spoken language.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thank you for the reply, username_3.  Old Mandarin does actually exist. Please see the article in Wikipedia because I don't know if I can link here.  Please note that I'm not asking if there's anyone alive who can speak Old Mandarin. The question is purely theoretical. There were people who spoke Old Mandarin. Could they and Mandarin Chinese speakers communicate effectively?  

---

