The various Chinese tongues have long been called dialects, yet many are mutually unintelligible. However, they have one critical feature: until about 150 years ago (when modern Chinese was adjusted to have a 1-to-1 correspondence with Mandarin) none of the dialects had a written form. Everyone spoke in their own tongue, but wrote in Chinese.
How about Italian? There are dozens of Italian dialects, many further from one another than, say, Italian is from Spanish. It was only during unification (in the 1800s) that Italians settled on the Florence dialect as their national language. But the regions all still proudly speak their own dialects. I'm particularly familiar with Romagnolo, spoken (and written) in the region of Ravenna, Rimini, and San Marino,and which has its own classic literature dating from as far back as the 16th century.
> The various Chinese tongues have long been called dialects, yet many are mutually unintelligible.
China, India, and Europe are on a continuum of separateness / unification, just fixated at different points in it. Europe is the most disunited, China the most unified. But basically the stories are the same. Areas of intense trade and cultural interchange, achieving different levels of political unity.
How about Italian? There are dozens of Italian dialects, many further from one another than, say, Italian is from Spanish. It was only during unification (in the 1800s) that Italians settled on the Florence dialect as their national language. But the regions all still proudly speak their own dialects. I'm particularly familiar with Romagnolo, spoken (and written) in the region of Ravenna, Rimini, and San Marino,and which has its own classic literature dating from as far back as the 16th century.