AHC: Cantonese, Spanish or Japanese lingua franca in Southeast Asia

with a POD in 1600, could any of those languages be the lingua franca?
if there is an easier language to be so(other than English, perhaps), please state it and explain why.
 
Cantonese? Quite impossible, since most of the Chinese who migrated to Southeast Asia were Min Nan-speaking (except in Thailand, where the majority of Thai Chinese were linguistically related Teochew.)
 
Cantonese? Quite impossible, since most of the Chinese who migrated to Southeast Asia were Min Nan-speaking (except in Thailand, where the majority of Thai Chinese were linguistically related Teochew.)

my apologies. I probably meant Min-nan Chinese. I had the idea that the OTL overseas chinese in SEA spoke Cantonese.
 
What about Hideyoshi turning south and conquering the Philippines from Spain?

Maybe, if that was viable for Hideyoshi. Remember, his initial plan was China, and his later plan was directing the anger of his unfulfilled dream towards Korea.

EDIT: as a side note...I believe your location should actually say Staulovsk, Alyeska? it's probable that both methods are acceptable, it was just that I've only seen Alyeska. Excuse me for being obtrusive :D
 
my apologies. I probably meant Min-nan Chinese. I had the idea that the OTL overseas chinese in SEA spoke Cantonese.
The rest of Southeast Asia, yes. But I'm thinking of the case of Malaysian Chinese: Cantonese is their lingua franca, although most of them were Min Nan
 
The rest of Southeast Asia, yes. But I'm thinking of the case of Malaysian Chinese: Cantonese is their lingua franca, although most of them were Min Nan

ah, okay. but doesnt Malaysia have the largest overseas chinese population? that would probably mean what you mean when you said that generally Cantonese is not spoken between overseas chinese..
also, so does this mean that in other SEA countries like Indonesia and Vietnam, the overseas Chinese population speak Canto?
 
Maybe, if that was viable for Hideyoshi. Remember, his initial plan was China, and his later plan was directing the anger of his unfulfilled dream towards Korea.

EDIT: as a side note...I believe your location should actually say Staulovsk, Alyeska? it's probable that both methods are acceptable, it was just that I've only seen Alyeska. Excuse me for being obtrusive :D

So basically Japan could also have expanded in North America? Getting back to SE Asia, which Japanese leader did not want to expand into China and Korea? Nobunaga might be that leader I've suspected of wanting to turn south.
 
ah, okay. but doesnt Malaysia have the largest overseas chinese population? that would probably mean what you mean when you said that generally Cantonese is not spoken between overseas chinese..
also, so does this mean that in other SEA countries like Indonesia and Vietnam, the overseas Chinese population speak Canto?
The rest of Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia are Min Nan speakers. Thai Chinese are Teochew.

The Malaysian Chinese came from Fujian and Guangdong provinces; although Min Nan Chinese are the majority, Cantonese is used as their lingua franca, though Min Nan is spoken predominantly in Penang
 
Cantonese? Quite impossible, since most of the Chinese who migrated to Southeast Asia were Min Nan-speaking (except in Thailand, where the majority of Thai Chinese were linguistically related Teochew.)
Teochew is a Minnan dialect. It's close enough to Taiwanese that I can pick out and understand most of the Teochew words in Thai.
 

katchen

Banned
As far as I know, Taiwan was definitely Min, settled directly across the Formosa Strait by Min (Fujianese). I'm not surprised that it was the Min who regularly went overseas. There is a lot less arable land in Fujian than in Kuangdong and nothing like the Pearl River Delta. Limited arable land +many deep harbours = people moving overseas.
 
The major dialect group in Singapore is Hokkien (min nan), with Teochew and Cantonese speakers in somewhat smaller numbers.

Historically you'd have to find some way to displace Malay as the lingua franca of maritime SE Asia.
 
As far as I know, Taiwan was definitely Min, settled directly across the Formosa Strait by Min (Fujianese). I'm not surprised that it was the Min who regularly went overseas. There is a lot less arable land in Fujian than in Kuangdong and nothing like the Pearl River Delta. Limited arable land +many deep harbours = people moving overseas.

like the early Greeks. :D:D
anyway, so seems Min nan is an easier way than Cantonese to become a lingua franca. How should it replace Malay in Malaysia, then? a Chinese-dominated British imperial policy upon British Malays, perhaps?
 
like the early Greeks. :D:D
anyway, so seems Min nan is an easier way than Cantonese to become a lingua franca. How should it replace Malay in Malaysia, then? a Chinese-dominated British imperial policy upon British Malays, perhaps?

Yeah, that's going to end badly. The British were always extremely careful to cultivate the Malays, especially their Sultans. There's no reason to favour the Chinese.

If you look at the situation on the ground, there's no way for any Chinese variety to become a lingua franca. Technically even English didn't manage to become a lingua franca after over a century of British hegemony in Malaya until the latter half of the 20th C- before that most people of different ethnicities conversed in Malay and in modern Malaysia outside the upper middle classes this is still quite often the case.
 
Yeah, that's going to end badly. The British were always extremely careful to cultivate the Malays, especially their Sultans. There's no reason to favour the Chinese.

If you look at the situation on the ground, there's no way for any Chinese variety to become a lingua franca. Technically even English didn't manage to become a lingua franca after over a century of British hegemony in Malaya until the latter half of the 20th C- before that most people of different ethnicities conversed in Malay and in modern Malaysia outside the upper middle classes this is still quite often the case.

then what about Malay? could that become the lingua franca in SEA?
 
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