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Chinese language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chinese
汉语/漢語 Hànyǔ (Spoken),
中文 Zhōngwén (Written)
Spoken in: People's Republic of China (commonly known as "China"), Republic of China (commonly known as "Taiwan"), Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Macau, the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Mauritius, Peru, Canada, the United States of America, and other regions with Chinese communities
Region: (majorities): East Asia
(minorities): Southeast Asia, and other regions with Chinese communities
Total speakers: approx 1.176 billion
Ranking: Chinese, all: 1
Mandarin: 1
Wu: 12
Cantonese: 18
Min: 22
Hakka: 33
Gan: 42
Language family: Sino-Tibetan
Chinese
Writing system: Chinese characters, Zhuyin fuhao
Official status
Official language in:
United Nations
Republic of China
Singapore
Recognized as a regional language in
Mauritius
Canada
(Official status in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia)
United States (minority and auxiliary)
Regulated by: In the PRC: National Language Regulating Committee[1]
In the ROC: National Languages Committee
In Singapore: Promote Mandarin Council/Speak Mandarin Campaign[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-1: zh
ISO 639-2: chi (B) zho (T)
ISO 639-3: variously:
zho – Chinese (generic)
cdo – Min Dong
cjy – Jinyu
cmn – Mandarin
cpx – Pu Xian
czh – Huizhou
czo – Min Zhong
gan – Gan
hak – Hakka
hsn – Xiang
mnp – Min Bei
nan – Min Nan
wuu – Wu
yue – Cantonese
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
Chinese or the Sinitic language(s) (汉语/漢語, pinyin: Hànyǔ; 华语/華語, Huáyǔ; or 中文, Zhōngwén) can be considered a language or language family.[3] Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages. About one-fifth of the world’s population, or over one billion people, speak some form of Chinese as their native language. The identification of the varieties of Chinese as "languages" or "dialects" is controversial.[4]
Spoken Chinese is distinguished by its high level of internal diversity, though all spoken varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. There are between six and twelve main regional groups of Chinese (depending on classification scheme), of which the most spoken, by far, is Mandarin (about 850 million), followed by Wu (90 million), Min (70 million) and Cantonese (70 million). Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, though some, like Xiang and the Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms and some degree of intelligibility. Chinese is classified as a macrolanguage with 13 sub-languages in ISO 639-3, though the identification of the varieties of Chinese as multiple "languages" or as "dialects" of a single language is a contentious issue.
The standardized form of spoken Chinese is Standard Mandarin (Putonghua / Guoyu / Huayu), based on the Beijing dialect, which is part of a larger group of North-Eastern and South-Western dialects, often taken as a separate language, see Mandarin Chinese for more, this language can be referred to as 官话 Guānhuà or 北方话 Běifānghuà in Chinese. Standard Mandarin is the official language of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (commonly known as 'Taiwan'), as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. Chinese—de facto, Standard Mandarin—is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Of the other varieties, Standard Cantonese is common and influential in Cantonese-speaking overseas communities, and remains one of the official languages of Hong Kong (together with English) and of Macau (together with Portuguese). Min Nan, part of the Min language group, is widely spoken in southern Fujian, in neighbouring Taiwan (where it is known as Taiwanese or Hoklo) and in Southeast Asia (where it dominates in Singapore and Malaysia and is known as Hokkien).
According to news reports in March 2007, 86 percent of people in the People's Republic of China speak a variant of spoken Chinese.[5] As a language family, the number of Chinese speakers is 1.136 billion. The same news report indicates 53 percent of the population, or 700 million speakers, can effectively communicate in Putonghua.
Spoken Chinese
A map below depicts the linguistic subdivisions ("languages" or "dialect groups") within China itself. The traditionally-recognized seven main groups, in order of population size are:
Name Hanyu Pinyin Trad. Simp. Total Speakers NotesMandarin Běifānghuà / Guānhuà 北方話 / 官話 北方话 / 官话 c. 850 million includes Standard Mandarin
Wu Wúyǔ 吳語 吴语 c. 90 million includes Shanghainese
Yue (Cantonese) Yuèyǔ 粵語 粤语 c. 80 million includes Standard Cantonese
Min Mǐnyǔ 閩語 闽语 c. 50 million includes Taiwanese
Xiang Xiāngyǔ / Húnánhuà 湘語 / 湖南話 湘语 / 湖南话 c. 35 million
Hakka Kèjiāhuà / Kèhuà 客家話 / 客話 客家话 / 客话 c. 35 million
Gan Gànyǔ / Jiāngxīhuà 贛語 / 江西話 赣语 / 江西话 c. 20 million
Chinese linguists have recently distinguished:
Name Hanyu Pinyin Trad. Simp. Total Speakers NotesJin Jìnyǔ 晉語 晋语 from Mandarin
Huizhou Huīzhōuhuà 徽州話 徽州话 from Wu
Ping Pínghuà 平話 平话 partly from Yue
There are also many smaller groups that are not yet classified, such as: Danzhou dialect, spoken in Danzhou, on Hainan Island; Xianghua (乡话), not to be confused with Xiang (湘), spoken in western Hunan; and Shaozhou Tuhua, spoken in northern Guangdong. The Dungan language, spoken in Central Asia, is very closely related to Mandarin. However, it is not generally considered "Chinese" since it is written in Cyrillic and spoken by Dungan people outside China who are not considered ethnic Chinese. See List of Chinese dialects for a comprehensive listing of individual dialects within these large, broad groupings.