I read this delightful article on Language Log about a menu item, called: Qíshān sàozi huángyú 岐山臊子黄鱼. All I can say, is "Wow, Chinese must be hard!" Bob, I can see why you have trouble with it.
In the article it talks about "dozens of topolects scattered across the length and breadth of China..." I'd not heard of toplects before, though figured out that it must be the dialects of local areas. So, would Chicago's uses of words, such as "water fountain" and not "bubbler" or "athletic shoes" and not "gym shoes," or whatever, be topolects? I don't think so because many others say it that way. Maybe they're midwest topolects? Would, for example, the Southern use of "Bless her heart" be a topolect? We surely don't say that in the midwest.
Can someone give me an example of a toplect in the U.S.?
I think a topolect is a language specific to a certain location. So the English spoken in Chicago is a topolect because it is different from the English spoken in other cities.
is a toplect what I've always thought is a regionalism
That's about right. Although some people reckon that the different varieties of Chinese spoken throughout the country are languages in their own right, rather than topolects.
I don't know any Chinese so of course I can't comment.
BTW, as a non-Chinese speaker I must say that Victor Mair's posts on Eastern languages, Chinese and Japanese in particular, are rather more frequent than I'd prefer; I'm never able to follow the fine points of an argument, although some of the 'Chinglish' explanations, like that post, are amusing.
He does seem to be taking over The Log!
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
