There are several hundred languages in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The predominant language is

Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern Standar ...

, which is based on central

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

, but there are hundreds of related Chinese languages, collectively known as ''Hanyu'' (, 'Han language'), that are spoken by 92% of the population. The Chinese (or 'Sinitic') languages are typically divided into seven major language groups, and their study is a distinct academic discipline. They differ as much from each other morphologically and phonetically as do English, German and Danish, but meanwhile share the same writing system (

Hanzi Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

) and are mutually intelligible in written form. There are in addition approximately 300 minority languages spoken by the remaining 8% of the population of China. The ones with greatest state support are Mongolian,

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

, Uyghur and Zhuang. According to the 2010 edition of '' Nationalencyklopedin'', 955 million out of China's then-population of 1.34 billion spoke some variety of Mandarin Chinese as their first language, accounting for 71% of the country's population. According to the 2019 edition of ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...

'', 904 million people in China spoke some variety of Mandarin as their first language in 2017.

, known in China as ''Putonghua'', based on the Mandarin dialect of Beijing, is the official national spoken language for the mainland and serves as a

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

within the Mandarin-speaking regions (and, to a lesser extent, across the other regions of mainland China). Several other autonomous regions have additional official languages. For example,

has official status within the Tibet Autonomous Region and Mongolian has official status within Inner Mongolia. Language laws of China do not apply to either Hong Kong or Macau, which have different official languages ( Cantonese, English and Portuguese) from the mainland.

Spoken languages

The spoken languages of nationalities that are a part of the People's Republic of China belong to at least nine families: China ethnolinguistic 1967

* The

Sino-Tibetan family Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese language ...

: 19 official ethnicities (including the Han and Tibetans) * The Tai–Kadai family: several languages spoken by the Zhuang, the Bouyei, the Dai, the Dong, and the Hlai (Li people). 9 official ethnicities. * The Hmong–Mien family: 3 official ethnicities * The

Austroasiatic family The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...

: 4 official ethnicities (the De'ang, Blang, Gin (Vietnamese), and Wa) * The Turkic family: Uyghurs,

Kazakhs The Kazakhs (also spelled Qazaqs; Kazakh: , , , , , ; the English name is transliterated from Russian; russian: казахи) are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to northern parts of Central Asia, chiefly Kazakhstan, but also parts o ...

, Salars, etc. 7 official ethnicities.

Western Yugur Western Yugur (Western Yugur: (Yugur speech) or (Yugur word)) also known as Neo-Uygur is the Turkic language spoken by the Yugur people. It is contrasted with Eastern Yugur, a Mongolic language spoken within the same community. Traditionally, b ...

is a Turkic language, whereas Eastern Yugur is a Mongolic language. * The Mongolic family: Mongols, Dongxiang, and related groups. 6 official ethnicities. * The Tungusic family: Manchus (formerly),

Hezhe The Nanai people are a Tungusic people of East Asia who have traditionally lived along Heilongjiang (Amur), Songhuajiang (Sunggari) and Wusuli River on the Middle Amur Basin. The ancestors of the Nanai were the Jurchens of northernmost Manch ...

, etc. 5 official ethnicities. * The Koreanic family: Korean language * The

Indo-European family The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch ...

: 2 official ethnicities, the Russians and Tajiks (actually Pamiri people). There is also a heavily Persian-influenced Äynu language spoken by the Äynu people in southwestern Xinjiang who are officially considered Uyghurs. * The Austronesian family: 1 official ethnicity (the

Gaoshan Taiwanese indigenous peoples (formerly Taiwanese aborigines), also known as Formosan people, Austronesian Taiwanese, Yuanzhumin or Gaoshan people, are the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, with the nationally recognized subgroups numbering about 5 ...

, who speak many languages of the Formosan branch), 1 unofficial (the Utsuls, who speak the Tsat language but are considered Hui.) Below are lists of ethnic groups in China by linguistic classification. Ethnicities not on the official PRC list of 56 ethnic groups are italicized. Respective Pinyin transliterations and Chinese characters (both simplified and traditional) are also given.

Sino-Tibetan

* Sinitic ** Chinese, 汉语, 漢語 *** Mandarin Chinese, 官话, 官話 **** Beijing Mandarin, 北京官话, 北京官話 *****

, 普通话, 普通話 ***** Singaporean Mandarin, 新加坡华语, 新加坡華語 ***** Malaysian Mandarin, 马来西亚华语, 馬來西亞華語 **** Taiwanese Mandarin, 台湾华语, 臺灣華語 ***** Taipei Mandarin, 台北腔/国语, 臺北腔/國語 **** Northeastern Mandarin, 东北官话, 東北官話 **** Jilu Mandarin, 冀鲁官话, 冀魯官話 **** Jiaoliao Mandarin, 胶辽官话, 膠遼官話 **** Zhongyuan Mandarin, 中原官话, 中原官話 **** Lanyin Mandarin, 兰银官话, 蘭銀官話 **** Lower Yangtze Mandarin, 江淮官话, 江淮官話 ****

Southwestern Mandarin Southwestern Mandarin (), also known as Upper Yangtze Mandarin (), is a Mandarin Chinese language spoken in much of Southwest China, including in Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Guizhou, most parts of Hubei, the northwestern part of Hunan, the northe ...

, 西南官话, 西南官話 *** Jin Chinese, 晋语, 晉語 *** Wu Chinese, 吴语, 吳語 ****

Shanghainese The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the Districts of Shanghai, central districts of the Shanghai, City of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as ...

, 上海话, 上海話 ***

Huizhou Chinese Huizhou Chinese (), or the Hui dialect (), is a group of closely related Sinitic languages spoken over a small area in and around the historical region of Huizhou (for which it is named), in about ten or so mountainous counties in southern Anhu ...

, 徽语, 徽語 *** Yue Chinese, 粤语, 粤語 **** Cantonese, 广东话, 廣東話 ***

Ping Chinese Pinghua (; Yale: ''Pìhng Wá''; sometimes disambiguated as /) is a pair of Sinitic languages spoken mainly in parts of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with some speakers in Hunan province. Pinghua is a trade language in some areas of Gu ...

, 平话, 平話 ***

Gan Chinese Gan, Gann or Kan is a group of Sinitic languages spoken natively by many people in the Jiangxi province of China, as well as significant populations in surrounding regions such as Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, and Fujian. Gan is a member of the Siniti ...

, 赣语, 贛語 *** Xiang Chinese, 湘语, 湘語 *** Hakka language, 客家话, 客家話 ***

Min Chinese Min (; BUC: ''Mìng-ngṳ̄'') is a broad group of Sinitic languages spoken by about 30 million people in Fujian province as well as by the descendants of Min speaking colonists on Leizhou peninsula and Hainan, or assimilated natives of Chaoshan ...

, 闽语, 閩語 ****

Southern Min Southern Min (), Minnan (Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan ( ...

, 闽南语, 閩南語 ***** Hokkien, 泉漳话, 泉漳話 ***** Teochew dialect, 潮州话, 潮州話 **** Eastern Min, 闽东语, 閩東語 **** Pu-Xian Min, 莆仙话, 莆仙話 ****

Leizhou Min Leizhou or ''Luichew'' Min (, ) is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Leizhou city, Xuwen County, Mazhang District, most parts of Suixi County and also spoken inside of the linguistically diverse Xiashan District. In the classification of Yuan ...

, 雷州话, 雷州話 ****

Hainanese Hainanese (Hainan Romanised: ', Hainanese Pinyin: ',), also known as Qióngwén, Heng2 vun2 () or Qióngyǔ, Heng2 yi2 (), is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan and Overseas Chinese su ...

, 海南话, 海南話 ****

Northern Min Northern Min () is a group of mutually intelligible Min varieties spoken in Nanping prefecture of northwestern Fujian. Classification and distribution Early classifications of varieties of Chinese, such as those of Li Fang-Kuei in 1937 and Yu ...

, 闽北语, 閩北語 ****

Central Min Central Min, or Min Zhong (), is a part of the Min group of varieties of Chinese. It is spoken in the valley of the Sha River in Sanming prefecture in the central mountain areas of Fujian, consisting of Yong'an, the urban area of Sanming ( Sany ...

, 闽中语, 閩中語 **** Shao-Jiang Min, 邵将语, 邵將語 * Bai, 白語 **

Dali language Dali or Dalí may refer to: Chinese history * Kingdom of Dali (937–1253 AD), centered in modern Yunnan * Kingdom of Nanzhao or Dali, Kingdom of Dali's predecessor state * Dali, Emperor Daizong of Tang's third and last regnal period (766–77 ...

, 大理語 *** Dali dialect( Bai: Darl lit) ***

Xiangyun dialect Xiangyun may refer to: *Xiangyun (Auspicious clouds) (), traditional Chinese stylised cloud decorative patterns *Xiangyun County (), Dali Prefecture, Yunnan, China *Xiangyun, Fujian (), town in Nan'an, Fujian, China *Xiangyun, Henan (), town in W ...

** Yitdut language/

Jianchuan language Jianchuan County () is a county in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture located in the western part of Yunnan Province, China. The county is about southwest of Lijiang and north of Dali. The historical town of Shaxi in the southeast of the coun ...

, 剑川语, 劍川語 *** Yitdut dialect( Bai: Yit dut) ***

Heqing dialect Heqing may refer to: * Heqing County (鹤庆县), Dali Prefecture, Yunnan, China * Heqing, Hainan Heqing is a town in Danzhou city, Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), c ...

( Bai: hhop kait) **

Bijiang language Hu Yun (), courtesy name Bijiang (), (1881-1938) was a Chinese banker and former chairman of the Bank of Communications. History professor Parks Coble described him as one "of Shanghai's most prominent bankers" for that time. He was born in 1881. ...

***

Bijiang dialect Hu Yun (), courtesy name Bijiang (), (1881-1938) was a Chinese banker and former chairman of the Bank of Communications. History professor Parks Coble described him as one "of Shanghai's most prominent bankers" for that time. He was born in 1881 ...

***

Lanping dialect Lanping Bai and Pumi Autonomous County (; Bai: Ketdant Baifcuf Pupmipcuf zibzibxiand) is located in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province, China. Administrative divisions Lanping Bai and Pumi Autonomous County has 4 towns and 4 town ...

( Bai: ket dant) *** * Tibeto-Burman **

Tujia Tujia may refer to: *the Tujia people *the Tujia language The Tujia language (Northern Tujia: Bifzivsar, ; Southern Tujia: Mongrzzirhof, ; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken natively by the Tujia people in Hunan Province, China. It is unclassif ...

Qiangic Qiangic (''Ch'iang, Kyang, Tsiang'', Chinese: 羌語支, "''Qiang'' language group"; formerly known as Dzorgaic) is a group of related languages within the Sino-Tibetan language family. They are spoken mainly in Southwest China, including Sichuan ...

*** Qiang ****

Northern Qiang Northern Qiang is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Qiangic branch, more specifically falling under the Tibeto-Burman family. It is spoken by approximately 60,000 people in East Tibet, and in north-central Sichuan Province, China. Unlike its cl ...

****

Southern Qiang Southern Qiang is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Qiangic branch spoken by approximately 81,300 people along the Minjiang () river in Sichuan Province, China. Southern Qiang dialects preserve archaic pronoun flexions, while they have disappe ...

*** Prinmi *** Baima *** Tangut **

Bodish Bodish, named for the Tibetan ethnonym ''Bod'', is a proposed grouping consisting of the Tibetic languages and associated Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Tibet, North India, Nepal, Bhutan, and North Pakistan. It has not been demonstrated that ...

***

**** Central Tibetan (

Standard Tibetan Lhasa Tibetan (), or Standard Tibetan, is the Tibetan dialect spoken by educated people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branch ...

) **** Amdo Tibetan **** Khams Tibetan *** Lhoba ***

Monpa The Monpa or Mönpa () is a major tribe of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. The Tawang Monpas have a migration history from Changrelung. The Monpa are believed to be the only nomadic tribe in Northeast India – they are totally dependen ...

/Monba **

Lolo–Burmese The Lolo-Burmese languages (also Burmic languages) of Burma and Southern China form a coherent branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. Names Until ca. 1950, the endonym ''Lolo'' was written with derogatory characters in Chinese, and for this reas ...

–Naxi *** Burmish ****

Achang The Achang (), also known as the Ngac'ang (their own name) is an ethnic group.They are one of tibeto burman language speaking people. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They also live i ...

*** Loloish **** Yi **** Lisu **** Lahu ****

Hani Hani may refer to: People * Hani (name) * Hani (producer), a record producer and remixer from New York City * Hani (singer), a South Korean singer and member of EXID * Hani people, an ethnic group of China and Vietnam Places * Hani, an island ...

**** Jino *** Nakhi/ Naxi ** Jingpho–Nungish–Luish *** Jingpho *** Derung *** Nu **** Nusu **** Rouruo

Kra–Dai

(''Possibly the ancient Bǎiyuè 百越'') * Be *

Kra Kra or KRA can refer to: * Kenya Revenue Authority * Key result area, a management term * Kra (band) * Kra (letter) * Kra Isthmus * Kra Peninsula * Kra River, Malay Peninsula * Kra languages * Kra (mythology) * Krita native file extension * Ke ...

** Gelao * Kam–Sui ** Dong ** Sui ** Maonan ** Mulao/ Mulam * Hlai/Li * Tai ** Zhuang (Vahcuengh) *** Northern Zhuang *** Southern Zhuang ** Bouyei ** Dai *** Tai Lü language ***

Tai Nüa language Tai Nuea or Tai Nüa (Tai Nüa: ; also called Tai Le, Dehong Dai or Chinese Shan; own name: ''Tai2 Lə6'', which means "Upper Tai" or "Northern Tai" or , ; Chinese: ''Dǎinàyǔ'', 傣那语 or ''Déhóng Dǎiyǔ'', 德宏傣语; th, ภาษ� ...

***

Tai Dam language Tai Dam (), also known as Black Tai ( th, ภาษาไทดำ; ; vi, tiếng Thái Đen; "Black Tai language"; ), is a Tai language spoken by the Tai Dam in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and China (mostly in Jinping Miao, Yao, and Dai Autonomous ...

*** Tai Ya language ***

Tai Hongjin language Tai Ya (), also known as Tai-Cung, Tai-Chung and Daiya, is a Southwestern Tai language of southern China. It is also known as Tai Hongjin () in China. Speakers of Tai Hongjin live in the Red River (红河 or 元江) and Jinsha River (金沙� ...

Turkic Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

* Karluk ** Ili Turki ** Uyghur ** Uzbek * Kipchak **

Kazakh Kazakh, Qazaq or Kazakhstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kazakhstan *Kazakhs, an ethnic group *Kazakh language *The Kazakh Khanate * Kazakh cuisine * Qazakh Rayon, Azerbaijan *Qazax, Azerbaijan *Kazakh Uyezd, administrative dis ...

Kyrgyz Kyrgyz, Kirghiz or Kyrgyzstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kyrgyzstan *Kyrgyz people *Kyrgyz national games *Kyrgyz language *Kyrgyz culture *Kyrgyz cuisine *Yenisei Kirghiz *The Fuyü Gïrgïs language in Northeastern China ...

** Tatar * Oghuz ** Salar *

Siberian Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

** Äynu ** Fuyu Kyrgyz **

** Tuvan ** ''

Old Uyghur Old Uyghur () was a Turkic language which was spoken in Qocho from the 9th–14th centuries and in Gansu. History The Old Uyghur language evolved from Old Turkic after the Uyghur Khaganate broke up and remnants of it migrated to Turfan, Qomu ...

(extinct)'' * '' Old Turkic (extinct)''

Mongolic

* Mongolian * Oirat ** Torgut Oirat * Buryat * Daur * Southeastern ** Monguor *** Eastern Yugur ** Dongxiang ** Bonan ** Kangjia * '' Tuoba (extinct)'' ;

Para-Mongolic Para-Mongolic is a proposed group of languages that is considered to be an extinct sister branch of the Mongolic languages. Para-Mongolic contains certain historically attested extinct languages, among them Khitan and Tuyuhun. Languages The ...

* '' Khitan (extinct)'' * '' Tuyuhun (extinct)''

Tungusic Tungusic may refer to: The Tungusic languages The Tungusic peoples, people who speak a Tungusic language {{dab ...

* Southern **

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

*** Jurchen ** Xibe ** Nanai/Hezhen * Northern ** Evenki ** Oroqen

Korean

* Korean

Hmong–Mien

(''Possibly the ancient Nánmán 南蛮, 南蠻'') * Hmong * Mien *

She She most commonly refers to: *She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English. She or S.H.E. may also refer to: Literature and films *'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...

Austroasiatic

* Palaung-Wa ** Palaung/ Blang ** De'ang ** Wa/Va * Vietnamese/Kinh

Austronesian Austronesian may refer to: The Austronesian languages The historical Austronesian peoples The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, M ...

* Formosan languages * Tsat

Indo-European

* Russian * '' Tocharian (extinct)'' * '' Saka (extinct)'' * Pamiri, (mislabelled as "Tajik") ** Sarikoli ** Wakhi * Portuguese (spoken in Macau) * English (spoken in Hong Kong)

Yeniseian

* '' Jie (Kjet) (extinct)'' (?)

Unclassified Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...

* '' Ruan-ruan (Rouran) (extinct)''

Mixed

* '' Wutun (Mongolian-Tibetan mixed language)'' * '' Macanese (Portuguese creole)''

Written languages

The following languages traditionally had written forms that do not involve Chinese characters (''hanzi''): * The

Dai people The Dai people ( Burmese: ရှမ်းလူမျိုး; khb, ᨴᩱ/ᨴᩱ᩠ᨿ; lo, ໄຕ; th, ไท; shn, တႆး, ; , ; ) refers to several Tai-speaking ethnic groups living in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and t ...

** Tai Lü language – Tai Lü alphabet **

– Tai Nüa alphabet * The Daur people - Daur language - Manchu alphabet * The

Hmong people The Hmong people ( RPA: ''Hmoob'', Nyiakeng Puachue: , Pahawh Hmong: , ) are a sub-ethnic group of the Miao people who originated from Central China. The modern Hmongs presently reside mainly in Southwest China (Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chon ...

- Hmongic languages -

Hmong writing Hmong writing refers to the various writing systems that have been used for transcribing various Hmongic languages, spoken by Hmong people in China, Vietnam, Laos, the United States, and Thailand, these being the top five countries. Over a dozen ...

( Pollard script, Pahawh Hmong, Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong, etc.) * The

–

Kazakh language The Kazakh or simply Qazaq (Latin: or , Cyrillic: or , Arabic Script: or , , ) is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia by Kazakhs. It is closely related to Nogai, Kyrgyz and Karakalpak. It is the official lan ...

– Kazakh alphabets * The Koreans – Korean language – Chosŏn'gŭl alphabet * The

–

Kyrgyz language Kyrgyz (; autonym: , tr. ''Kyrgyz tili'', ) is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia. Kyrgyz is the official language of Kyrgyzstan and a significant minority language in the Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture in X ...

– Kyrgyz alphabets * The

Lisu people The Lisu people (Lisu: ; my, လီဆူလူမျိုး, ; ; th, ลีสู่) are a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group who inhabit mountainous regions of Myanmar (Burma), southwest China, Thailand, and the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh ...

- Lisu language -

Lisu script Lisu (Fraser script, Fraser alphabet: , or ; New Lisu script: ; zh, c=傈僳语, p=Lìsùyǔ; my, လီဆူဘာသာစကား, ) is a tone (linguistics), tonal Tibeto-Burman languages, Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Yunnan (Southw ...

* The Manchus – Manchu language – Manchu alphabet * The Mongols – Mongolian language – Mongolian alphabet * The Naxi –

Naxi language Naxi (Naqxi ), also known as ''Nakhi, Nasi, Lomi, Moso, Mo-su'', is a Sino-Tibetan language or group of languages spoken by some 310,000 people, most of whom live in or around Lijiang City Yulong Naxi Autonomous County of the province of Yunnan, ...

– Dongba characters * The Qiang people - Qiang language or Rrmea language - Rma script * The

Santa people Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

(

Dongxiangs The Dongxiang people (autonym: ''Sarta'' or ''Santa'' (撒爾塔); , Xiao'erjing: دْوݣسِيْاݣذُ) are Mongolic people and one of 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. Most of the Dongxiang live in ...

in Chinese) - Santa language -

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...

* The Sui – Sui language – Sui script * The Tibetans – Tibetan language – Tibetan alphabet * The Uyghurs –

Uyghur language The Uyghur or Uighur language (; , , , or , , , , CTA: Uyğurçä; formerly known as Eastern Turki), is a Turkic language written in a Uyghur Perso-Arabic script with 8-11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xin ...

–

Uyghur Arabic alphabet The Uyghur Arabic alphabet ( ug, ئۇيغۇر ئەرەب يېزىقى, translit=Uyghur Ereb Yëziqi UEY) is a version of the Arabic alphabet used for writing the Uyghur language, primarily by Uyghurs living in China. It is one of several Uyghu ...

* The Xibe – Xibe language – Manchu alphabet * The Yi – Yi language – Yi syllabary Many modern forms of spoken Chinese languages have their own distinct writing system using Chinese characters that contain colloquial variants. These typically are used as sound characters to help determine the pronunciation of the sentence within that language: *

Written Sichuanese Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

Sichuanese Sichuanese, Szechuanese or Szechwanese may refer to something of, from, or related to the Chinese province and region of Sichuan (Szechwan/Szechuan) (historically and culturally including Chongqing), especially: *Sichuanese people, a subgroup of the ...

* Written Cantonese - Cantonese *

Written Shanghainese The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the Districts of Shanghai, central districts of the Shanghai, City of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as ...

Written Hakka Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

- Hakka * Written Hokkien - Hokkien * Written Teochew - Teochew Some non-Sinitic peoples have historically used Chinese characters: * The Koreans – Korean language – Hanja * The Vietnamese - Vietnamese language - Chữ nôm * The Zhuang (Tai people) – Zhuang languages – Sawndip *The Bouyei people - Bouyei language -

Bouyei writing Bouyei can refer to: * Bouyei language * Bouyei people {{disambig Language and nationality disambiguation pages ...

(方塊布依字) *The

Bai people The Bai, or Pai ( Bai: Baipho, (白和); ; endonym pronounced ), are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province, Bijie area of Guizhou Province, and Sangzhi area of Hunan Province. They constitu ...

- Bai language -

Bai writing BAI or Bai may refer to: BAI Organizations *BAI Communications, telecommunications infrastructure company *BAI (organization), professional organization for financial services in the United States *Badminton Association of India, India's gove ...

(僰文) *The Dong people - Dong language (China) -

Dong writing Dong or DONG may refer to: Places * Dong Lake, or East Lake, a lake in China * Dong, Arunachal Pradesh, a village in India * Dong (administrative division) (동 or 洞), a neighborhood division in Korea Persons *Queen Dong (1623–1681), princes ...

(方塊侗字) Other languages, all now extinct, used separate logographic scripts influenced by, but not directly derived from, Chinese characters: * The Jurchens (Manchu ancestors) –

Jurchen language Jurchen language ( zh, t=女真語, p=Nǚzhēn yǔ) was the Tungusic language of the Jurchen people of eastern Manchuria, the rulers of the Jin dynasty in northern China of the 12th and 13th centuries. It is ancestral to the Manchu language. In ...

– Jurchen script * The Khitans (Mongolic people) –

Khitan language Khitan or Kitan ( in large script or in small, ''Khitai''; , ''Qìdānyǔ''), also known as Liao, is a now-extinct language once spoken in Northeast Asia by the Khitan people (4th to 13th century). It was the official language of the Liao Empir ...

– Khitan large and

small Small may refer to: Science and technology * SMALL, an ALGOL-like programming language * Small (anatomy), the lumbar region of the back * ''Small'' (journal), a nano-science publication * <small>, an HTML element that defines smaller text ...

scripts * The Tanguts (Sino-Tibetan people) – Tangut language – Tangut script During Qing dynasty, palaces, temples, and coins have sometimes been inscribed in five scripts: * Chinese *

* Mongol *

* Chagatai During the Mongol Yuan dynasty, the official writing system was: * 'Phags-pa script Chinese banknotes contain several scripts in addition to Chinese script. These are: * Mongol *

* Arabic (for Uyghur) * Latin (for Zhuang) Other writing system for Chinese languages in China include: *

Nüshu script Nüshu () is a syllabic script derived from Chinese characters that was used exclusively among women in Jiangyong County in Hunan province of southern China.ProposatextPRC's encouragement, developed phonetic alphabets. According t
a government white paper
published in early 2005, "by the end of 2003, 22 ethnic minorities in China used 28 written languages."

Language policy

One decade before the demise of the Qing dynasty in 1912, Mandarin was promoted in the planning for China's first

public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...

system. Mandarin has been promoted as the commonly spoken language for the country since 1956, based phonologically on the dialect of Beijing. The

North Chinese North China, or Huabei () is a geographical region of China, consisting of the provinces of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Part of the larger region of Northern China (''Beifang''), it lies north of the Qinling–Huaihe ...

language group is set up as the standard grammatically and lexically. Meanwhile, Mao Zedong and Lu Xun writings are used as the basis of the stylistic standard. Pronunciation is taught with the use of the romanized phonetic system known as ''pinyin''. Pinyin has been criticized for fear of an eventual replacement of the traditional character orthography. The Chinese language policy in mainland China is heavily influenced by the Soviet nationalities policy and officially encourages the development of standard spoken and written languages for each of the

nationalities of China China's population consists of 56 ethnic groups, not including some ethnic groups from Taiwan. The Han people are the largest ethnic group in mainland China. In 2010, 91.51% of the population were classified as Han (~1.2 billion). Besides the H ...

. Language is one of the features used for ethnic identification. In September 1951, the ''All-China Minorities Education Conference'' established that all minorities should be taught in their language at the primary and secondary levels when they count with a writing language. Those without a writing language or with an "imperfect" writing language should be helped to develop and reform their writing languages. However, in this schema, Han Chinese are considered a single nationality and the official policy of the People's Republic of China (PRC) treats the different varieties of Chinese differently from the different national languages, even though their differences are as significant, if not more so, as those between the various Romance languages of Europe. While official policies in mainland China encourage the development and use of different orthographies for the national languages and their use in educational and academic settings, realistically speaking it would seem that, as elsewhere in the world, the outlook for minority languages perceived as inferior is grim. The Tibetan Government-in-Exile argue that social pressures and political efforts result in a policy of sinicization and feels that Beijing should promote the Tibetan language more. Because many languages exist in China, they also have problems regarding diglossia. Recently, in terms of Fishman's typology of the relationships between bilingualism and diglossia and his taxonomy of diglossia (Fishman 1978, 1980) in China: more and more minority communities have been evolving from "diglossia without

bilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

" to "bilingualism without diglossia." This could be an implication of mainland China's power expanding. In 2010, Tibetan students protested against changes in the Language Policy on the schools that promoted the use of Mandarin Chinese instead of Tibetan. They argued that the measure would erode their culture. In 2013, China's Education Ministry said that about 400 million people were unable to speak the national language Mandarin. In that year, the government pushed linguistic unity in China, focusing on the countryside and areas with ethnic minorities. Mandarin Chinese is the prestige language in practice, and failure to protect ethnic languages does occur. In summer 2020, the Inner Mongolian government announced an education policy change to phase out Mongolian as the language of instructions for humanities in elementary and middle schools, adopting the national instruction material instead. Thousands of ethnic Mongolians in northern China gathered to protest the policy. The Ministry of Education describes the move as a natural extension of the ''Law of the People's Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language'' () of 2000.

Study of foreign languages

English has been the most widely-taught foreign language in China, as it is a required subject for students attending university. Other languages that have gained some degree of prevalence or interest are Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian. During the 1950s and 1960s, Russian had some social status among elites in mainland China as the international language of socialism. In the late 1960s, English replaced the position of Russian to become the most studied foreign language in China. After the Reform and Opening-up policy in 1988, English was taught in public schools starting in the third year of primary school. Russian,

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, and German language classes have been made widely available in universities and colleges. In Northeast China, there are many bilingual schools (Mandarin-Japanese; Mandarin-Korean; Mandarin-Russian), in these schools, students learn languages other than English. '' The Economist'' reported in 2006 that up to one fifth of the population was learning English. Gordon Brown, the former British prime minister, estimated that the total English-speaking population in China would outnumber the native speakers in the rest of the world in two decades. There have been a growing number of students studying Arabic, due to reasons of cultural interest and belief in better job opportunities. The language is also widely studied amongst the

Hui people The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the ...

. In the past, literary Arabic education was promoted in Islamic schools by the Kuomintang when it ruled mainland China. There have also been a growing number of students choosing to learn Urdu, due to interest in Pakistani culture, close ties between the respective nations, and job opportunities provided by the CPEC. Interest in Portuguese and Spanish have increased greatly, due in part to Chinese investment in Latin America as well as in African nations such as Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde. Portuguese is also one of the official languages in Macau, although its use had stagnated since the nation's transfer from Portugal to the PRC. It was estimated in 2016 that 2.3% of Macau's locals spoke the language, although with government backing since then, interest in it has increased.

Use of English

In China, English is used as a

in several fields, especially for business settings, and in schools to teach Standard Mandarin to people who are not Chinese citizens. English is also one of the official languages in Hong Kong.

References

Citations

Sources

* *

External links

Minzu Yuwen (民族语文): ''Minority Languages of China'' journal

on Muturzikin.com
Audio Bible recordings in various minority languages of China
{{DEFAULTSORT:Languages Of China Separatism in China

Spoken languages

Sino-Tibetan

Kra–Dai

Turkic Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

Mongolic

Tungusic Tungusic may refer to: The Tungusic languages The Tungusic peoples, people who speak a Tungusic language {{dab ...

Korean

Hmong–Mien

Austroasiatic

Austronesian Austronesian may refer to: The Austronesian languages The historical Austronesian peoples The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, M ...

Indo-European

Yeniseian

Unclassified Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...

Mixed

Written languages

Language policy

Study of foreign languages

Use of English

See also

References

Citations

Sources

Further reading

External links

Spoken languages

Turkic Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages ** Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) ** Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

Tungusic Tungusic may refer to: *The Tungusic languages *The Tungusic peoples, people who speak a Tungusic language {{dab ...

Austronesian Austronesian may refer to: *The Austronesian languages *The historical Austronesian peoples The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, M ...

Unclassified Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...

Written languages

Language policy

Study of foreign languages

Use of English

See also

References

Citations

Sources

Further reading

External links

Turkic Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

Tungusic Tungusic may refer to: The Tungusic languages The Tungusic peoples, people who speak a Tungusic language {{dab ...

Austronesian Austronesian may refer to: The Austronesian languages The historical Austronesian peoples The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, M ...