Talk:Chengjia

Common languages
, I added Old Chinese but as this country existed in Sichuan is it also possible that a sizable number of its inhabitants spoke the Ba-Shu Chinese language? I haven't been able to find any sources addressing the linguistic situation of the Shu region (Sichuan) during this era. --Donald Trung (talk) 10:22, 30 October 2018 (UTC)


 * Ba-Shu Chinese was a variant of Old Chinese, and the ruling class (Gongsun Shu and family) were from the Chang'an region and probably spoke standard Old Chinese, so Old Chinese should be fine. There were still sizeable numbers of non-Chinese people in Sichuan during the Han dynasty (such as the Di people who later established Cheng Han), but their languages were never recorded and never had any official status. -Zanhe (talk) 06:55, 31 October 2018 (UTC)


 * , I know that other languages never had any official status, but isn't the "Common languages" parameter for all contemporary spoken languages? Or is it only for those that enjoyed official status? Variant languages never enjoyed official status in Chinese history, not even Mandarin Chinese (官話) was ever officially recognised as a language until the Republican era because classical Chinese remained the administrative language, but "Common languages" usually means the language spoken by the general population and not just the administrative one right? The Ming dynasty infobox also lists minority languages like "Turki (Modern Uyghur), Old Uyghur language, Tibetan, Mongolian, Jurchen, others" which were never officially recognised. --Donald Trung (talk) 07:16, 31 October 2018 (UTC)


 * Well, spoken languages were rarely documented in ancient China, so we'll never know for sure how people spoke at the time and what languages/dialects existed 2000 years ago. I have no problem with removing the language field from the infobox, there's no supporting source anyway. -Zanhe (talk) 07:45, 31 October 2018 (UTC)


 * True, there isn't a source but I'm sure that presence Old Chinese is probably noted somewhere, I would personally be against removing it but would not protest if you really can't find a source that backs up the claim that Old Chinese was used in this state. I personally don't see how removing the language from the infobox would benefit the readers and aren't there other sources that mention the languages of ancient China? If old Chinese applies to this region around the same time frame then we can apply it here right? At least if another reliable source just points out dates. --Donald Trung (talk) 08:32, 31 October 2018 (UTC)


 * I'm fine either way. It's relatively safe to presume Han dynasty states to be Old Chinese-speaking, any other languages would definitely need sources. -Zanhe (talk) 07:35, 1 November 2018 (UTC)