OTOH 'baai5baai3′ is a very common way to say "bye" (though of course there are other things one can say when one is leaving)

Hebrew, by contrast, is a language in which every word is based on a root - usually three consonants, sometimes two or four - whose meaning, part of speech, tense, voice, number, etc. - is widely varied and extended by changing the vowels between the consonants and adding a wide variety of prefixes and suffixes.

A native Hebrew speaker is always conscious of the root of a word, and much of the language's poetry, word play, and nuance is based on not only the root but on the many words with a wide variety of meanings that arise from the same root.

When Hebrew takes a loan word - which it does, frequently - the word becomes a huge chunk of impermeable meaning that can't be unbundled to its original root. It has no relationship with any other word in the language, and instead remains immovably and unmistakeably foreign.

There are a few happy exceptions to this phenomenon. The loan word "telephone," for example, happens to fall easily into a four-consonant pattern which can be assimilated into typical Hebrew word formation. And so one sees"telefon" a telepone, "l'talfen," to telephone, "tilfanti" I called, etc.

But usually the loan words just litter the language, never melting into the sea of native Hebrew words.

Well, you have learned 2 words in Cantonese then: 哈佬 (ok, a bit of a stretch) and 拜拜

(Christine Johnson, Tohono O’odham elder, American
Indian Language Development Institute, June 2002)
http://www.unesco.org/pv_obj_cache/pv_obj_id_FE351CAE22F11C7873D00219EE96F9DA5E260200/filename/00120-EN.pdf

I am sure that everyone agree this statement. However, regional topolects speakers/linguists should enthusiastically engaged in national language policy. Taiwanese Hokkien in Taiwan is a good example for that.

[VHM: The formatting consists of .hw = headword, char = character(s), ps = part of speech, clf = classifier; measure word, then comes etymological and usage notes, definition, after that cross references, serial number of the entry, and finally references to sources and scholarly studies. Obviously, I'm eager for the real dictionary to come out, and we're getting close.]

Selected Lexical Entries Related to Eng. Loanword tire
and Extracted from ABC Cantonese-English Dictionary Ms.
13 December 2012

.hw taai5/1
char 軚
ps N.
clf 條 tiu4
en loan from Eng. tire (or tyre); a.s.a. 車軚 ce1 taai5/1; a.w.a. 呔
taai1, 肽 taai1, 胎 taai1 with change in pron. of std. Can. toi1; 胎
taai1 is most com. wrtn. form used in HK. Ch. newspapers; std. Ch. is
輪胎 leon4 taai1
seealso 爆軚 baau3 taai5/1, 補軚 bou2 taai5/1, 車軚 ce1 taai5/1, 士啤
軚 si6 be1 taai5/1, 輪呔 leon4 taai1, 軚 taai5, 軚軨 taai5/1 ling4/1
df tire (made from rubber), as for the wheel of a motor vehicle,
bicycle, etc.
exchar 前面兩條軚漏氣
exrom cin4 min6 loeng5 tiu4 taai5/1 lau6 hei3
exeng Air leaked out from the two front tires
ser 1000005129
ref HPP1970:443; SL1977:795; CTA1997:072; MT1997:105; WKB1997:260; ZN1999:335; CE2005:941; ROZ2009:220; RSBfmInternet24082011

.hw taai5/1 pou3/2
char 軚舖
ps N.
clf 間 gaan1
en 軚 taai5/1 is loan from Eng. tire (tyre); a.w.a. 呔舖 taai1 pou3/2
seealso 爆軚 baau3 taai5/1, 補軚 bou2 taai5/1, 車房 ce1 fong4, 車軚
ce1 taai5/1, 輪呔 leon4 taai1, 士啤軚 si6 be1 taai5/1, 軚 taai5/1, 軚
軨 taai5/1 ling4/1, 呔舖 taai1 pou3/2
df auto tire shop, i.e. a shop that sells tires for automobiles and
may also change the old tires to new ones on automobiles
exchar 星期日好多軚舖都唔開
exrom sing1 kei4 jat6 hou2 do1 taai5/1 pou3/2 dou1 m4 hoi1
exeng Quite a lot of auto tire shops don't open on Sundays
ser 1009005129
ref RSBfmInternet05102011

.hw taai1 pou3/2
char 呔舖
ps N.
clf 間 gaan1
en 呔 taai1 is loan from Eng. tire (tyre); a.w.a. 軚舖 taai5/1 pou3/2
seealso 爆軚 baau3 taai5/1, 補軚 bou2 taai5/1, 車房 ce1 fong4, 車軚
ce1 taai5/1, 輪呔 leon4 taai1, 士啤軚 si6 be1 taai5/1, 軚 taai5/1, 軚
軨 taai5/1 ling4/1, 軚舖 taai5/1 pou3/2
df auto tire shop, i.e. a shop which repairs or changes tires on
automobiles
exchar 喺呢間呔舖有個師傅仔補呔好叻
exrom hai2 ni1 gaan1 taai1 pou3/2 jau5 go3 si1 fu6/2 zai2 bou2 taai1
hou2 lek1
exeng At this auto tire shop there's a young technician who is quite
sharp at repairing tires
ser 1099005129
ref RSBfmInternet05102011

.hw taai5/1 ling4/1
char 軚軨
ps N.
clf 個 go3
en loan from Eng. tire-rim; a.s.a. 車軨 ce1 ling4/1; a.w.a. 呔令
taai1 ling6/1, 呔軨 taai1 ling4/1, 軚令 taai5/1 ling6/1
seealso 補軚 bou2 taai5/1, 車軨 ce1 ling4/1, 車軚 ce1 taai5/1, 輪呔
leon4 taai1, 士啤軚 si6 be1 taai5/1, 軚 taai5/1, 軚舖 taai5/1 pou3/2
df tire-rim, i.e. the metal rim of a wheel which a rubber tire (as
for an automobile, bicycle, etc.) fits around
1exchar 我想換軚唔換軚軨
1exrom ngo5 soeng2 wun6 taai5/1 m4 wun6 taai5/1 ling4/1
1exeng I want to change tires but not change the tire-rims
2exchar 佢搵十八寸電鍍軚軨
2exrom keoi5 wan2 gan2 sap6 baat3 cyun3 din6 dou6 taai5/1 ling4/1
2exeng He's looking for 18-inch electroplated tire-rims
ser 1999005129
ref CE2005:941

Is there are more convincing example of how they strengthen a language rather than English/Japanese? - they after all need little help.

I recently asked some Cantonese speakers to give my colleagues a short basic Cantonese lesson. They didn't really know what to do and It started like this. "Thanks for coming to teach us your language- Could you say 'hello' for us?"
"We just say 'hello'" "Well, how about goodbye?" "We always say 'bye'"

You're mixing two different issues here: 1) using Mandarin as a standard language to communicate within China vs. 2) allowing other regional topolects the right to coexist in China.

Unlike Shanghainese, Cantonese isn't dying — it's still a vibrant, majority language in Hong Kong. What I and many Cantonese speakers have issue with isn't about Mandarin being the standard language of the PRC, but the attitude that some Mandarin speakers exhibit toward Cantonese and Cantonese speakers. The government and many Mandarin speakers think that Cantonese is some second-class, backward language that must be replaced/standardized by Mandarin.

The status of Cantonese has been *artifically* suppressed in places like Guangzhou, where standard 廣府話 is spoken. Why would speaking Cantonese in one's native Cantonese city of birth is considered "backward"? This is happening to other topolects as well but Cantonese speakers have shown the strongest resistance because they have a large amount of native speakers both inside and outside of China.

The suppression of Cantonese has nothing to do with Mandarin being a more 'effective' way of communication but everything to do with the language policy of the PRC. This is incredibly stupid of them because they are creating "social problem" that otherwise wouldn't have exhisted. Ten years ago, nobody cared about speaking Cantonese in Guangzhou, now it's like EVERY Cantonese speaking person is making a point to speak Cantonese!

There's a sign in Vancouver that contains the character 呔士多 where it means "tire". (the store sells exotic tires for sports cars). My Cantonese dictionary shows no listing for that character, whereas Google translate shows "tie" (not clear) but it must mean something since it's in Unicode.

In other words, you can find English loanwords to Cantonese right here in Vancouver. However, that sign is at variance with the database since "tire" there is 車軚 or 士啤呔. Should I send them an update??

Response from Bob Bauer:

Thanks very much for sending me that email about 呔士多 'tire store'.

The first thing one needs to keep in mind is that the written form of Cantonese has never been standardized. No Cantonese speaker (except for gwailous) goes to school and to learn to read and write conversational Cantonese using the colloquial/dialectal characters. However, the written form of Cantonese has accumulated over time an informal, improvised, ad hoc set of conventions that some writers try to follow, but these are not formally taught in school, so Cantonese speakers pick them up through through their observations and experiences (see Introduction to "The Written Representation of Cantonese" by Cheung and Bauer, JCL monograph #18, 2002). What this means is that Cantonese speakers may or may not follow this set of conventions when they write Cantonese.

Yes, it is the case that (automobile) tire is written with several different sinograms, including 軚, 呔, 胎, and all of these are included in the several relevant entries related to 'tire' in the ABC Cantonese-English Dictionary ms. I can mention here that 胎 is ordinarily pronounced "toi1″ but undergoes a change in pronunciation to "taai1″ when it is used to mean 'tire' (胎 is the most commonly used sinogram in HK newspapers to mean 'tire').

As for other uses of sinogram 呔 taai1, it also means 'tie' as in 領呔 leng5 taai1 'tie worn around the neck', 煲呔 bou1 taai1 'bow-tie', etc.

A lot more could be said about any of these topics but I'll have to stop here for now.

So many questions . . .

I am not dismayed at the spread of Mandarin. Rather, I am concerned about the disappearance of true Mother Tongues. You yourself have given many reasons for why one might be alarmed at what is happening to local and regional languages.

Of course I think it sad to see a language die, and dislike any sense of a language being forced out, but in the case of Mandarin, my opinion is that, for a a country as large and varied as China, with so many immigrants coming from different parts of the country to the cities, it is necessary to have some sort of lingua franca.

Although the government has been, especially in the past, more forceful with it than I like, the young people I have met here in China embrace the language these days, it seems. This is the language of their media and their schools, their national identity, as well as the reference for pinyin input… without a grasp of mandarin it is difficult, if not impossible to access the internet, as this is necessary to input characters. (although there may be handwriting tools also? I feel these are quite slow and often frustrating to use, however) The only time I come across the local dialect in my area is with older people or those talking to family members.

I agree that it is a shame to see smaller languages and dialects dying, but if it is because a more 'effective' way of communication has been established between large numbers of people, I think it is, at least, understandable.