Standard Chinese ()—in
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
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
standardized
Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardization ...
form of
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
that was first developed during the
Republican Era Republican Era can refer to:
* Minguo calendar, the official era of the Republic of China
It may also refer to any era in a country's history when it was governed as a republic or by a Republican Party. In particular, it may refer to:
* Roman Rep ...
(1912‒1949). It is designated as the
official language
An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
of
mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
and a major language in the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
,
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
, and
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
. It is largely based on the
Beijing dialect
The Beijing dialect (), also known as Pekingese and Beijingese, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, the official language in the People's Republic of ...
. Standard Chinese is a
pluricentric language
A pluricentric language or polycentric language is a language with several interacting codified standard forms, often corresponding to different countries. Many examples of such languages can be found worldwide among the most-spoken languages, inc ...
with local standards in mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore that mainly differ in their
lexicon
A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Koine Greek language, Greek word (), neuter of () ...
.
Hong Kong written Chinese, used for formal written communication in Hong Kong and Macau, is a form of Standard Chinese that is read aloud with the
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...
reading of characters.
Like other
Sinitic languages
The Sinitic languages (漢語族/汉语族), often synonymous with "Chinese languages", are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute the major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is ...
, Standard Chinese is a
tonal language
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey empha ...
with
topic-prominent organization and
subject–verb–object (SVO) word order. Compared with
southern Chinese varieties, the language has fewer vowels, final consonants and tones, but more initial consonants. It is an
analytic language
In linguistic typology, an analytic language is a language that conveys relationships between words in sentences primarily by way of ''helper'' words (particles, prepositions, etc.) and word order, as opposed to using inflections (changing the ...
, albeit with many
compound word
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when ...
s.
Naming
In English
Among linguists, Standard Chinese is known as ''Standard Northern Mandarin''
or ''Standard Beijing Mandarin''.
Colloquially, it is imprecisely referred simply as ''Mandarin'',
even though that name may refer also to the
Mandarin dialect group as a whole or its historic standard such as
Imperial Mandarin.
The name ''Modern Standard Mandarin'' is used to distinguish it from its historic standard.
The term "Mandarin" is a translation of ''Guānhuà'' (, literally "bureaucrats' speech"), which referred to Imperial Mandarin.
In Chinese
Guoyu and Putonghua
The term ''Guóyǔ'' (; ) or the "national language", had previously been used by the
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 ...
-ruled
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
of China to refer to the
Manchurian language. As early as 1655, in the ''
Memoir of Qing Dynasty, Volume: Emperor
Nurhaci
Nurhaci (14 May 1559 – 30 September 1626), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Qing (), was a Jurchen chieftain who rose to prominence in the late 16th century in Manchuria. A member of the House of Aisin-Gioro, he reigned ...
'' (), it writes: "(In 1631) as Manchu ministers do not comprehend the Han language, each ministry shall create a new position to be filled up by
Han
Han may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group.
** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...
official who can comprehend the national language." In 1909, the Qing education ministry officially proclaimed
Imperial Mandarin to be the new "national language".
The term ''Pǔtōnghuà'' (; ) or the "common tongue", is dated back to 1906 in writings by
Zhu Wenxiong
Zhu Wenxiong () was a Chinese linguist and scholar of the early 20th century. He is known books such as ''New Jiangsu letters'' (''Jiangsu xin zimu'') (1906), which was an influential works in modern Chinese linguistics. In regarding to language ...
to differentiate Modern Standard Mandarin from
classical Chinese
Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning
"literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning
"literar ...
and other
varieties of Chinese
Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of main ...
.
Conceptually, the ''national language'' contrasts with the ''common tongue'' by emphasizing the aspect of legal authority.
Usage concern in a multi-ethnic nation
"The Countrywide Spoken and Written Language" () has been increasingly used by the PRC government since the 2010s, mostly targeting students of
ethnic minorities
The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...
. The term has a strong connotation of being a "legal requirement" as it derives its name from the title of a law passed in 2000. The 2000 law defines ''Pǔtōnghuà'' as the one and only "Countrywide Spoken and Written Language".
Usage of the term ''Pǔtōnghuà'' (common tongue) deliberately avoided calling the language "the national language," in order to mitigate the impression of forcing ethnic minorities to adopt the language of the dominant ethnic group. Such concerns were first raised by
Qu Qiubai
Qu Qiubai (; 29 January 1899 – 18 June 1935) was a leader of the Chinese Communist Party in the late 1920s. He was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Early life
Qu was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu. His family lived in Tianxiang Lou () loca ...
in 1931, an
early Chinese communist revolutionary leader. His concern echoed within the Communist Party, which adopted the name Putonghua in 1955. Since 1949, usage of the word ''Guóyǔ'' was phased out in the PRC, only surviving in established compound nouns, e.g. ''Guóyǔ liúxíng yīnyuè'' (, colloquially
Mandarin pop
Mandopop or Mandapop refers to Mandarin popular music. The genre has its origin in the jazz-influenced popular music of 1930s Shanghai known as Shidaiqu; with later influences coming from Japanese enka, Hong Kong's Cantopop, Taiwan's Hokkien ...
), ''Guóyǔ piān'' or ''Guóyǔ diànyǐng'' (/, colloquially
Mandarin cinema).
In Taiwan, ''Guóyǔ'' (the national language) has been the colloquial term for Standard Northern Mandarin. In 2017 and 2018, the Taiwanese government introduced two laws to explicitly recognize indigenous
Formosan languages
The Formosan languages are a geographic grouping comprising the languages of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, all of which are Austronesian. They do not form a single subfamily of Austronesian but rather nine separate subfamilies. The Taiwa ...
and
Hakka
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
to be the "Languages of the nation" () along with Standard Northern Mandarin. Since then, there have been efforts to
reclaim the term "national language" (''Guóyǔ'') to encompass all "languages of the nation" rather than exclusively referring to Standard Northern Mandarin.
Hanyu and Zhongwen
Among Chinese people, ''Hànyǔ'' (; ) or the "
Sinitic languages
The Sinitic languages (漢語族/汉语族), often synonymous with "Chinese languages", are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute the major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is ...
" refer to
all language varieties of the Han people. ''Zhōngwén'' () or the "Chinese written language", refers to all written languages of Chinese (Sinitic). However, gradually these two terms have been
reappropriated
In linguistics, reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change (i.e. ...
to exclusively refer to one particular Sinitic language, the Standard Northern Mandarin, a.k.a. Standard Chinese. This imprecise usage would lead to situations in areas such as Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore as follows:
* (1) A Standard Northern Mandarin speaker approaches speakers of other varieties of Chinese and asks, "Do you speak ''Zhōngwén''?" This would be deemed disrespectful.
* (2) A native speaker of certain varieties of Chinese admits that his/her spoken ''Zhōngwén'' is poor.
On the other hand, among foreigners, the term ''Hànyǔ'' is most commonly used in textbooks and standardized testing of Standard Chinese for foreigners, e.g.
Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi
The ''Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi'' (HSK; ), translated as the Chinese Proficiency Test, is the standardized test of Standard Chinese (a type of Mandarin Chinese) language proficiency of Mainland China for non-native speakers such as foreign stude ...
.
Huayu
''Huáyǔ'' (; ), or "language among the
Chinese nation
''Zhonghua minzu'' (, ) is a political term in modern Chinese nationalism related to the concepts of nation-building, ethnicity, and race in the Chinese nationality.
''Zhonghua minzu'' was established during the early Beiyang (1912– ...
", up until the mid 1960s, refers to all language varieties among the
Chinese nation
''Zhonghua minzu'' (, ) is a political term in modern Chinese nationalism related to the concepts of nation-building, ethnicity, and race in the Chinese nationality.
''Zhonghua minzu'' was established during the early Beiyang (1912– ...
.
For example,
Cantonese films,
Hokkien films () and
Mandarin films
Mandarin Films Distribution Co. Ltd or Mandarin Cinema (東方電影發行有限公司), formerly known as Mandarin Films Ltd. (東方電影出品有限公司), was a Hong Kong film production company and distributor. It was established in 1991 ...
produced in Hong Kong that got imported into Malaysia were collectively known as ''Huáyǔ'' cinema up until the mid-1960s.
However, gradually it has been
reappropriated
In linguistics, reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change (i.e. ...
to exclusively refer to one particular language among the
Chinese nation
''Zhonghua minzu'' (, ) is a political term in modern Chinese nationalism related to the concepts of nation-building, ethnicity, and race in the Chinese nationality.
''Zhonghua minzu'' was established during the early Beiyang (1912– ...
, Standard Northern Mandarin, a.k.a. Standard Chinese. This term is mostly used in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
,
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
, and the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
.
History
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
has long had considerable dialectal variation, hence
prestige dialect
Prestige refers to a good reputation or high esteem; in earlier usage, ''prestige'' meant "showiness". (19th c.)
Prestige may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Films
* ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnett ...
s have always existed, and
linguae francae have always been needed.
Confucius
Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
, for example, used ''yǎyán'' () rather than colloquial regional dialects; text during the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
also referred to ''tōngyǔ'' ().
Rime book
A rime dictionary, rhyme dictionary, or rime book () is an ancient type of Chinese dictionary that collates characters by tone and rhyme, instead of by radical. The most important rime dictionary tradition began with the ''Qieyun'' (601), whic ...
s, which were written since the
Northern and Southern dynasties
The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as ...
, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard
pronunciation
Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
during those times. However, all of these standard dialects were probably unknown outside the educated elite; even among the elite, pronunciations may have been very different, as the unifying factor of all Chinese dialects, Classical Chinese, was a written standard, not a spoken one.
Late empire
![Fourmont-Zhongguo-Guanhua](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Fourmont-Zhongguo-Guanhua.png)
The
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
(1368–1644) and the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) began to use the term ''
guānhuà'' (), or "official speech", to refer to the speech used at the
courts
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
. The term "Mandarin" is borrowed directly from
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
. The Portuguese word ''mandarim'', derived from the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
word ''
mantri Mantri is a word of Sanskrit origin (meaning sage, i.e. the "person who thinks and says" in that language, cf. Mantra), and it is used for a variety of public offices, from fairly humble to ministerial in rank. The term was used in various Asian cu ...
n'' "counselor or minister", was first used to refer to the Chinese bureaucratic officials.
The Portuguese then translated ''guānhuà'' as "the language of the mandarins" or "the mandarin language".
In the 17th century, the Empire had set up
Orthoepy
Orthoepy is the study of pronunciation of a particular language, within a specific oral tradition. The term is from the Greek ὀρθοέπεια, from ὀρθός ''orthos'' ("correct") and ἔπος ''epos'' ("speech"). The antonym is '' cacoepy' ...
Academies () in an attempt to make pronunciation conform to the standard. But these attempts had little success, since as late as the 19th century the emperor had difficulty understanding some of his own ministers in court, who did not always try to follow any standard pronunciation.
Before the 19th century, the standard was based on the
Nanjing dialect, but later the
Beijing dialect
The Beijing dialect (), also known as Pekingese and Beijingese, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, the official language in the People's Republic of ...
became increasingly influential, despite the mix of officials and commoners speaking various dialects in the capital,
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
. By some accounts, as late as the early 20th century, the position of
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
Mandarin was considered to be higher than that of Beijing by some and the
postal romanization
Postal romanization was a system of transliterating Chinese place names developed by postal authorities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For many cities, the corresponding postal romanization was the most common English-language for ...
standards set in 1906 included spellings with elements of Nanjing pronunciation. Nevertheless, by 1909, the dying Qing dynasty had established the Beijing dialect as (; ), or the "national language".
As the
island of Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, News media, press and Western literature, literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of ...
had fallen under
Japanese rule per the 1895
Treaty of Shimonoseki
The , also known as the Treaty of Maguan () in China and in the period before and during World War II in Japan, was a treaty signed at the , Shimonoseki, Japan on April 17, 1895, between the Empire of Japan and Qing China, ending the Firs ...
, the term referred to the Japanese language until the
handover
In cellular telecommunications, handover, or handoff, is the process of transferring an ongoing call or data session from one channel connected to the core network to another channel. In satellite communications it is the process of transfe ...
to the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
in 1945.
Modern China
![Madarin in Chinese Mainland EN](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Madarin_in_Chinese_Mainland_EN.PNG)
After the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
was established in 1912, there was more success in promoting a common national language. A
Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation
The Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation () was the organization established by the Beiyang government in 1912 to select ancillary phonetic symbols for Mandarin (resulting in the creation of Zhuyin) and set the standard Guoyu pronunc ...
was convened with delegates from the entire country. A ''Dictionary of National Pronunciation'' () was published in 1919, defining a
hybrid pronunciation that did not match any existing speech. Meanwhile, despite the lack of a workable standardized pronunciation, colloquial literature in
written vernacular Chinese
Written vernacular Chinese, also known as Baihua () or Huawen (), is the forms of written Chinese based on the varieties of Chinese spoken throughout China, in contrast to Classical Chinese, the written standard used during imperial China up to ...
continued to develop apace.
Gradually, the members of the National Language Commission came to settle upon the Beijing dialect, which became the major source of standard national pronunciation due to its prestigious status. In 1932, the commission published the ''Vocabulary of National Pronunciation for Everyday Use'' (), with little fanfare or official announcement. This dictionary was similar to the previous published one except that it normalized the pronunciations for all characters into the pronunciation of the Beijing dialect. Elements from other dialects continue to exist in the standard language, but as exceptions rather than the rule.
After the
Chinese Communist Revolution
The Chinese Communist Revolution, officially known as the Chinese People's War of Liberation in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and also known as the National Protection War against the Communist Rebellion in the Republic of China (ROC ...
, the
People's Republic of 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 ...
continued the effort, and in 1955, officially renamed ''guóyǔ'' as ''pǔtōnghuà'' (), or "common speech". By contrast, the name ''guóyǔ'' continued to be used by the Republic of China which, after its 1949 loss in the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
, was left with
a territory consisting only of
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
and some smaller islands in
its retreat to Taiwan. Since then, the standards used in the PRC and Taiwan have diverged somewhat, especially in newer
vocabulary
A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...
terms, and a little in pronunciation.
In 1956, the standard language of the People's Republic of China was officially defined as: "''Pǔtōnghuà'' is the standard form of Modern Chinese with the Beijing phonological system as its norm of pronunciation, and Northern dialects as its base dialect, and looking to exemplary modern works in ''
báihuà'' 'vernacular literary language' for its grammatical norms."
[ Original text in Chinese: ""] By the official definition, Standard Chinese uses:
* ''The
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
or sound system of
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
.'' A distinction should be made between the sound system of a variety and the actual pronunciation of words in it. The pronunciations of words chosen for the standardized language do not necessarily reproduce all of those of the Beijing dialect. The pronunciation of words is a standardization choice and occasional standardization differences (not accents) do exist, between Putonghua and Guoyu, for example.
* ''The
vocabulary
A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...
of
Mandarin dialects
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
in general''. This means that all
slang
Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...
and other elements deemed "regionalisms" are excluded. On the one hand, the vocabulary of all Chinese varieties, especially in more technical fields like
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
,
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
, and
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
, are very similar. (This is similar to the profusion of
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
words in European languages.) This means that much of the vocabulary of Standard Chinese is shared with all varieties of Chinese. On the other hand, much of the
colloquial
Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conver ...
vocabulary of the Beijing dialect is not included in Standard Chinese, and may not be understood by people outside Beijing.
* ''The
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
and idiom of exemplary modern
Chinese literature'', such as the work of
Lu Xun
Zhou Shuren (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), better known by his pen name Lu Xun (or Lu Sun; ; Wade–Giles: Lu Hsün), was a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. W ...
, collectively known as "
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
" (''báihuà''). Modern written vernacular Chinese is in turn based loosely upon a mixture of northern (predominant), southern, and classical grammar and usage. This gives formal Standard Chinese structure a slightly different feel from that of the street Beijing dialect.
At first, proficiency in the new standard was limited, even among speakers of Mandarin dialects, but this improved over the following decades.
A survey conducted by the China's Education Ministry in 2007 indicated that 53.06% of the population were able to effectively communicate orally in Standard Chinese. This rose to over 80% by 2020,
with the Chinese government announcing a goal to have 85% of the country speak Standard Chinese by 2025 and virtually the entire country by 2035.
Current role
![Map of sinitic languages cropped-en](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Map_of_sinitic_languages_cropped-en.svg)
From an official point of view, Standard Chinese serves the purpose of 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 ...
—a way for speakers of the several mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese, as well as the
ethnic minorities in China
Ethnic minorities in China are the non-Han Chinese, Han population in the People's Republic of China (PRC).
The PRC officially recognizes 55 minority group, ethnic minority groups within China in addition to the Han majority. As of 2010, th ...
, to communicate with each other. The very name ''Pǔtōnghuà,'' or "common speech," reinforces this idea. In practice, however, due to Standard Chinese being a "public" lingua franca, other Chinese varieties and even non-Sinitic languages have shown signs of
losing ground to the standard.
While the Chinese government has been actively promoting ''Pǔtōnghuà'' on
TV, radio and public services like buses to ease communication barriers in the country, developing ''Pǔtōnghuà'' as the official common language of the country has been challenging due to the presence of various ethnic groups which fear for the loss of their cultural identity and native dialect. In the summer of 2010, reports of increasing the use of the ''Pǔtōnghuà'' in local TV broadcasting in
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
led to thousands of
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...
-speaking citizens in demonstration on the street.
In both mainland China and Taiwan, the use of Mandarin as the medium of instruction in the educational system and in the media has contributed to the spread of Mandarin. As a result, Mandarin is now spoken by most people in mainland China and Taiwan, though often with some regional or personal variation from the standard in terms of pronunciation or lexicon. In 2020 it was estimated that about 80% of the population of China could speak Standard Mandarin.
The Chinese government's general goal is to raise the penetration rate to 85% by 2025, and to virtually 100% by 2035.
Mainland China and Taiwan use Standard Mandarin in most official contexts. The PRC in particular is keen to promote its use as a national lingua franca and has enacted a law (the ''National Common Language and Writing Law'') which states that the government must "promote" Standard Mandarin. There is no explicit official intent to have Standard Chinese replace the regional varieties, but local governments have enacted regulations (such as the ''
Guangdong National Language Regulations'') which "implement" the national law by way of
coercive
Coercion () is compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner by the use of threats, including threats to use force against a party. It involves a set of forceful actions which violate the free will of an individual in order to induce a desi ...
measures to control the public use of regional spoken varieties and
traditional characters in writing. In practice, some elderly or rural Chinese-language speakers do not speak Standard Chinese fluently, if at all, though most are able to understand it. But urban residents and the younger generations, who received their education with Standard Mandarin as the primary medium of education, are almost all fluent in a version of Standard Chinese, some to the extent of being unable to speak their local dialect.
In the predominantly
Han
Han may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group.
** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...
areas in mainland China, while the use of Standard Chinese is encouraged as the common working language, the PRC has been somewhat sensitive to the status of minority languages and, outside the education context, has generally not discouraged their social use. Standard Chinese is commonly used for practical reasons, as, in many parts of southern China, the linguistic diversity is so large that neighboring city dwellers may have difficulties communicating with each other without a ''lingua franca''.
In Taiwan, the relationship between Standard Mandarin and other varieties, particularly
Taiwanese Hokkien
Taiwanese Hokkien () (; Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-uân-uē''), also known as Taigi/Taigu (; Pe̍h-ōe-jī/Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú''), Taiwanese, Taiwanese Minnan, Hoklo and Holo, is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively by about 70% ...
, has been more politically heated. During the
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
period under the
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
(KMT) between 1949 and 1987, the KMT government revived the
Mandarin Promotion Council
The National Languages Committee was established in 1928 by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China with the purpose of standardizing and popularizing the usage of Standard Chinese (also called Mandarin) in the Republic of China. The ...
and discouraged or, in some cases, forbade the use of Hokkien and other non-standard varieties. This produced a political backlash in the 1990s. Under the administration of
Chen Shui-Bian
Chen Shui-bian (; born 12 October 1950) is a retired Taiwanese politician and lawyer who served as the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2000 to 2008. Chen was the first president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whic ...
, other Taiwanese varieties were taught in schools. The former president, Chen Shui-Bian, often spoke in Hokkien during speeches, while after the late 1990s, former President
Lee Teng-hui
Lee Teng-hui (; 15 January 192330 July 2020) was a Taiwanese statesman and economist who served as President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the 1947 Constitution and chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1988 to 2000. He was the fir ...
, also speaks Hokkien openly. In an amendment to Article 14 of the Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act () passed on 9 August 2019, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...
(Taiwan) announced that Taiwanese can use the romanized spellings of their names in
Hoklo,
Hakka
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
and
Aboriginal languages Aboriginal language may refer to:
* Indigenous language
* Australian Aboriginal languages
* Taiwanese aboriginal languages
* Indigenous languages of the Americas
* Aboriginal Malay languages
The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-P ...
for their passports. Previously, only Mandarin Chinese names could be romanized.
In
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
and
Macau
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
, which are now
special administrative regions
The special administrative regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China are one of the provincial-level administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China directly under the control of its Central People's Government (State Co ...
of the People's Republic of China,
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...
is the primary language spoken by the majority of the population and used by government and in their respective legislatures. After
Hong Kong's handover from the United Kingdom and
Macau's handover from Portugal, their governments use Putonghua to communicate with the
Central People's Government
The State Council, constitutionally synonymous with the Central People's Government since 1954 (particularly in relation to local governments), is the chief administrative authority of the People's Republic of China. It is chaired by the p ...
of the PRC. There have been widespread efforts to promote usage of Putonghua in Hong Kong since the handover, with specific efforts to train police and teachers.
In Singapore, the government has heavily promoted a "
Speak Mandarin Campaign
The Speak Mandarin Campaign (SMC; ) is an initiative by the government of Singapore to encourage the Chinese Singaporeans, Singaporean Chinese population to speak Standard Mandarin Chinese, one of the four official languages of Singapore. Launch ...
" since the late 1970s, with the use of other Chinese varieties in
broadcast
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...
media being prohibited and their use in any context officially discouraged until recently. This has led to some resentment amongst the older generations, as Singapore's migrant Chinese community is made up almost entirely of people of south Chinese descent.
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), born Harry Lee Kuan Yew, often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean lawyer and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990, and Secretary-General o ...
, the initiator of the campaign, admitted that to most Chinese Singaporeans, Mandarin was a "stepmother tongue" rather than a true mother language. Nevertheless, he saw the need for a unified language among the Chinese community not biased in favor of any existing group.
Mandarin is now spreading overseas beyond
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
and
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
as well. In
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the use of Cantonese that dominated the
Manhattan Chinatown
Manhattan's Chinatown () is a Neighborhoods in Manhattan, neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, bordering the Lower East Side to its east, Little Italy, Manhattan, Little Italy to its north, Civic Center, Manhattan, Civic Center to its ...
for decades is being rapidly swept aside by Mandarin, the lingua franca of most of the latest
Chinese immigrants
Overseas Chinese () refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese.
Terminology
() or ''Hoan-kheh'' () in Hokkien, ref ...
.
Standard Chinese and the educational system
![Yangzhou-Highschool-Speak-Putonghua-3388](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Yangzhou-Highschool-Speak-Putonghua-3388.jpg)
In both the PRC and Taiwan, Standard Chinese is taught by immersion starting in elementary school. After the second grade, the entire educational system is in Standard Chinese, except for local language classes that have been taught for a few hours each week in Taiwan starting in the mid-1990s.
In December 2004, the first survey of language use in the People's Republic of China revealed that only 53% of its population, about 700 million people, could communicate in Standard Chinese. This 53% is defined as a passing grade above 3-B (a score above 60%) of the Evaluation Exam. This number increased to over 80% by 2020.
With the fast development of the country and the massive internal
migration in China
Internal migration in the People's Republic of China is one of the most extensive in the world according to the International Labour Organization. This is because migrants in China are commonly members of a floating population, which refer ...
, the standard
Putonghua Proficiency Test
The Putonghua Proficiency Test or Putonghua Shuiping Ceshi (PSC) is an official test of spoken fluency in Standard Chinese (Mandarin) intended for native speakers of Chinese languages. The test was developed in October 1994 by the Ministry of Educa ...
has quickly become popular. Many university graduates in mainland China take this exam before looking for a job. Employers often require varying proficiency in Standard Chinese from applicants depending on the nature of the positions. Applicants of some positions, e.g. telephone operators, may be required to obtain a certificate. People raised in Beijing are sometimes considered inherently 1-A (A score of at least 97%) and exempted from this requirement. As for the rest, the score of 1-A is rare. According to the official definition of proficiency levels, people who get 1-B (A score of at least 92%) are considered qualified to work as television correspondents or in broadcasting stations. 2-A (A score of at least 87%) can work as Chinese Literature Course teachers in public schools. Other levels include: 2-B (A score of at least 80%), 3-A (A score of at least 70%) and 3-B (A score of at least 60%). In China, a proficiency of level 3-B usually cannot be achieved unless special training is received. Even though many Chinese do not speak with standard pronunciation, spoken Standard Chinese is widely understood to some degree.
The China National Language And Character Working Committee was founded in 1985. One of its important responsibilities is to promote Standard Chinese proficiency for Chinese native speakers.
Phonology
The phonology of Standard Chinese is based on Northern Mandarin in mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, while in Hong Kong and Macau, it is based on Cantonese. Here, the Mandarin-based phonology shall be described.
The usual unit of analysis is the syllable, consisting of an optional initial
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
, an optional medial
glide
Glide may refer to:
* Gliding flight, to fly without thrust
Computing
*Glide API, a 3D graphics interface
*Glide OS, a web desktop
*Glide (software), an instant video messenger
*Glide, a molecular docking software by Schrödinger (company), Schr ...
, a main vowel and an optional coda, and further distinguished by a
tone.
The palatal initials , and pose a classic problem of
phonemic
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...
analysis. Since they occur only before high front vowels, they are in
complementary distribution
In linguistics, complementary distribution, as distinct from contrastive distribution and free variation, is the relationship between two different elements of the same kind in which one element is found in one set of environments and the other ele ...
with three other series, the dental sibilants, retroflexes and velars, which never occur in this position.
The final, which occurs only after dental sibilant and retroflex initials, is a syllabic
approximant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a ...
, prolonging the initial.
![Pinyin Tone Chart](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Pinyin_Tone_Chart.svg)
The
rhotacized vowel forms a complete syllable.
A reduced form of this syllable occurs as a sub-syllabic suffix, spelled ''-r'' in pinyin and often with a
diminutive
A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...
connotation. The suffix modifies the coda of the base syllable in a rhotacizing process called ''
erhua
Erhua ( ); also called erization or rhotacization of syllable finals) is a phonological process that adds r-coloring or the "er" (注音:, common words: 、、) sound (transcribed in IPA as ) to syllables in spoken Mandarin Chinese. Erhuayin () i ...
''.
Each full syllable is pronounced with a phonemically distinctive pitch contour. There are four tonal categories, marked in pinyin with iconic diacritic symbols, as in the words ''mā'' (; "mother"), ''má'' (; "hemp"), ''mǎ'' (; "horse") and ''mà'' (; "curse"). The tonal categories also have secondary characteristics. For example, the third tone is long and murmured voice, murmured, whereas the fourth tone is relatively short. Statistically, vowels and tones are of similar importance in the language.
There are also weak syllables, including grammatical particles such as the interrogative ''ma'' () and certain syllables in polysyllabic words. These syllables are short, with their pitch determined by the preceding syllable. Such syllables are commonly described as being in the neutral tone.
Regional accents
It is common for Standard Chinese to be spoken with the speaker's regional accent, depending on factors such as age, level of education, and the need and frequency to speak in official or formal situations. This appears to be changing, though, in large urban areas, as social changes, migrations, and urbanization take place.
Due to evolution and standardization, Mandarin, although based on the
Beijing dialect
The Beijing dialect (), also known as Pekingese and Beijingese, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, the official language in the People's Republic of ...
, is no longer synonymous with it. Part of this was due to the standardization to reflect a greater vocabulary scheme and a more archaic and "proper-sounding" pronunciation and vocabulary.
Distinctive features of the Beijing dialect are more extensive use of ''erhua'' in vocabulary items that are left unadorned in descriptions of the standard such as the ''Xiandai Hanyu Cidian'', as well as more neutral tones. An example of standard versus Beijing dialect would be the standard ''mén'' (door) and Beijing ''ménr''.
Taiwanese Mandarin, Most Standard Chinese as spoken on Taiwan differs mostly in the tones of some words as well as some vocabulary. Minimal use of the neutral tone and ''erhua'', and technical vocabulary constitute the greatest divergences between the two forms.
The stereotypical "southern Chinese" accent does not distinguish between retroflex consonant, retroflex and alveolar consonants, pronouncing pinyin ''zh'' [tʂ], ''ch'' [tʂʰ], and ''sh'' [ʂ] in the same way as ''z'' [ts], ''c'' [tsʰ], and ''s'' [s] respectively. Southern-accented Standard Chinese may also interchange ''l'' and ''n'', final ''n'' and ''ng'', and vowels ''i'' and ''ü'' [y]. Attitudes towards southern accents, particularly the Cantonese accent, range from disdain to admiration.
Romanization and script
While there is a standard dialect among different varieties of Chinese, there is no "standard script". In mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia, standard Chinese is rendered in simplified Chinese characters; while in Taiwan it is rendered in traditional. As for the Romanization of Chinese, romanization of standard Chinese, Hanyu Pinyin is the most dominant system globally, while Taiwan stick to the older Bopomofo system.
Grammar
Chinese is a strongly
analytic language
In linguistic typology, an analytic language is a language that conveys relationships between words in sentences primarily by way of ''helper'' words (particles, prepositions, etc.) and word order, as opposed to using inflections (changing the ...
, having almost no inflectional morphemes, and relying on word order and grammatical particle, particles to express relationships between the parts of a sentence.
Nouns are not marked for grammatical case, case and rarely marked for grammatical number, number.
Verbs are not marked for agreement (linguistics), agreement or grammatical tense, but grammatical aspect, aspect is marked using post-verbal particles.
The basic word order is
subject–verb–object (SVO), as in English.
Nouns are generally preceded by any modifiers (adjectives, possessives and relative clauses), and verbs also generally follow any modifiers (adverbs, auxiliary verbs and prepositional phrases).
The predicate can be an intransitive verb, a transitive verb followed by a direct object, a copula (linguistics), copula (linking verb) ''shì'' () followed by a noun phrase, etc.
In predicative use, Chinese adjectives function as stative verbs, forming complete predicates in their own right without a copula. For example,
Another example is the common greeting ''nǐ hăo'' (), literally "you good".
Chinese additionally differs from English in that it forms another kind of sentence by Topic-prominent language, stating a topic and following it by a comment. To do this in English, speakers generally flag the topic of a sentence by prefacing it with "as for". For example:
The time when something happens can be given by an explicit term such as "yesterday," by relative terms such as "formerly," etc.
As in many east Asian languages, Chinese classifier, classifiers or measure words are required when using numeral (linguistics), numerals, demonstratives and similar quantifiers.
There are many different classifiers in the language, and each noun generally has a particular classifier associated with it.
The general classifier ''ge'' (/) is gradually replacing specific classifiers.
In word formation, the language allows for Compound (linguistics), compounds and for reduplication.
Vocabulary
Many Chinese honorifics, honorifics that were in use in imperial China have not been used in daily conversation in modern-day Mandarin, such as ''jiàn'' (; ; "my humble") and ''guì'' (; ; "your honorable").
Although Chinese speakers make a clear distinction between Standard Chinese and the Beijing dialect, there are aspects of Beijing dialect that have made it into the official standard. Standard Chinese has a T–V distinction between the polite and informal "you" that comes from the Beijing dialect, although its use is quite diminished in daily speech. It also distinguishes between "''zánmen''" (''we'' including the listener) and "''wǒmen''" (''we'' not including the listener). In practice, neither distinction is commonly used by most Chinese, at least outside the Beijing area.
The following samples are some phrases from the Beijing dialect which are not yet accepted into Standard Chinese:
* ''bèir'' means 'very much'; ''bànsuàn'' means 'stagger'; ''bù lìn'' means 'do not worry about'; ''cuō'' means 'eat'; ''chūliū'' means 'slip'; ''dà lǎoyermenr'' means 'man, male'.
The following samples are some phrases from Beijing dialect which have become accepted as Standard Chinese:
* ''èr bǎ dāo'' means 'not very skillful'; ''gēménr means'' 'good male friend(s)', 'buddy(ies)'; ''kōu ménr'' means 'frugal' or 'stingy'.
Writing system
Standard Chinese is written with characters corresponding to syllables of the language, most of which represent a morpheme.
In most cases, these characters come from those used in Classical Chinese to write cognate morphemes of late Old Chinese, though their pronunciation, and often meaning, has shifted dramatically over two millennia.
However, there are several words, many of them heavily used, which have no classical counterpart or whose etymology is obscure.
Two strategies have been used to write such words:
* An unrelated character with the same or similar pronunciation might be used, especially if its original sense was no longer common. For example, the demonstrative pronouns ''zhè'' "this" and ''nà'' "that" have no counterparts in Classical Chinese, which used ''cǐ'' and ''bǐ'' respectively. Hence the character (later simplified as ) for ''zhè'' "to meet" was borrowed to write ''zhè'' "this", and the character for ''nà'', the name of a country and later a rare surname, was borrowed to write ''nà'' "that".
* A new character, usually a phono-semantic or semantic compound, might be created. For example, ''gǎn'' "pursue, overtake", is written with a new character , composed of the signific ''zǒu'' "run" and the phonetic ''hàn'' "drought". This method was used to represent many Chemical elements in East Asian languages#Chinese, elements in the periodic table.
The government of the PRC (as well as some other governments and institutions) has promulgated a set of simplified Chinese characters, simplified forms. Under this system, the forms of the words ''zhèlǐ'' ("here") and ''nàlǐ'' ("there") changed from and to and , among many other changes.
Chinese characters were traditionally read from top to bottom, right to left, but in modern usage it is more common to read from left to right.
Examples
Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in Standard Chinese, written with traditional Chinese characters:
:人人生而自由,在尊嚴和權利上一律平等。他們賦有理性和良心,並應以兄弟關係的精神相對待。
Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in Standard Chinese, written with simplified Chinese characters:
:人人生而自由,在尊严和权利上一律平等。他们赋有理性和良心,并应以兄弟关系的精神相对待。
The pinyin transcription of the text into Latin alphabet:
:''Rén rén shēng ér zìyóu, zài zūnyán hé quánlì shàng yīlǜ píngděng. Tāmen fùyǒu lǐxìng hé liángxīn, bìng yīng yǐ xiōngdì guānxì de jīngshén xiāng duìdài.''
Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in English:
:''All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.''
See also
* Chinese speech synthesis
* Comparison of national standards of Chinese
* Philippine Mandarin
* Malaysian Mandarin
* Singaporean Mandarin
* Taiwanese Mandarin
* Protection of the Varieties of Chinese
Notes
References
Citations
Works cited
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
* Hsia, T., ''China's Language Reforms'', Far Eastern Publications, Yale University, (New Haven), 1956.
* Ladefoged, Peter; & Maddieson, Ian (1996). ''The sounds of the world's languages''. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. (hbk); (pbk).
*
* Lehmann, W. P. (ed.), ''Language & Linguistics in the People's Republic of China'', University of Texas Press, (Austin), 1975.
*
* Lin, Y., ''Lin Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage'', The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1972.
* Milsky, C., "New Developments in Language Reform", ''The China Quarterly'', No. 53, (January–March 1973), pp. 98–133.
* Seybolt, P. J. and Chiang, G. K. (eds.), ''Language Reform in China: Documents and Commentary'', M. E. Sharpe (White Plains), 1979. .
* Simon, W., ''A Beginners' Chinese-English Dictionary of the National Language (Gwoyeu): Fourth Revised Edition'', Lund Humphries (London), 1975.
External links
*
*
* Video - Talk by David Moser
{{Authority control
Standard Chinese,
Languages of China
Languages of Taiwan
Chinese languages in Singapore
Standard languages, Chinese