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A comment on Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997). Parent comment

Re:Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997) by canjobear on Saturday July 06, 2024 @03:17AM (#40888711)
It was a bona fide spoken language at the time the Daodejing was written. Likely sounding very little like modern Chinese.
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Re:Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997) by otabdeveloper4 on Saturday July 06, 2024 @04:49AM (#40889082)
It was likely an inflected language at the time it was spoken, and they just left the tedious grammar bits out when writing.
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Re:Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin (1997) by solidsnack9000 on Saturday July 06, 2024 @02:53PM (#40892377)
Well, probably not, no -- I'm pretty sure the Daodejing was written in a literary language quite distinct from any spoken language at that time. This used to be something readily found all over the world.
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