[squiggleblaz]

However, it's worth noting that you call the official language of China "Mandarin" for political reasons. The analogy would be if you called French "Bureaucratese" and said "Yes, but Breton and Occitan are not mutually intelligible with Bureaucratese".

The statements "Bureaucratese is not mutually intelligible with Occitan" and "Mandarin is not mutually intelligible with Cantonese" are both true, but we could just say "French is not mutually intelligible with Occitan" and "Chinese in not mutually intelligible with Cantonese".

[jacobolus]

I could call it Beijingese (or Pekingese) if you prefer. But many people might not know what I was talking about. Mandarin is the common name used in English to refer to this language.

I don’t have any problem if you want to talk about Parisian French (or pick your preferred other name for it), Castilian Spanish, etc.

Parisian French was pushed onto the people within the borders of the French nation-state by force, by a brutal authoritarian monarchy. Quoting Wikipedia,

‘The goals of the Public School System were made especially clear to the French speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany; “And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language” were instructions given from a French official to teachers in the French department of Finistère (western Brittany).’

The French state continues to repress minority languages inside its borders. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_policy_in_France

[sn41]

The word Mandarin comes from the Sanskrit word "Mantri", for minister. I wonder why this word was chosen.

[megaman22]

Portuguese traders in Macau, by way of India

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mandarin#Etymology_1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Portugal_relatio...

[echevil]

In fact, it's just called "Chinese" by Chinese speakers. I never heard of the word "Mandarin" before I came to US.