Jin Chinese

Alternative Chinese nameTraditional Chinese山西話Simplified Chinese山西话Literal meaningShanxi speech

Jin (simplified Chinese: 晋语; traditional Chinese: 晉語; pinyin: Jìnyǔ) is a group of Chinese linguistic varieties spoken by roughly 48 million people in northern China, including most of Shanxi province, much of central Inner Mongolia, and adjoining areas in Hebei, Henan, and Shaanxi provinces.

Although Jin was traditionally classified as a branch of Mandarin due to partial mutual intelligibility with neighboring varieties, modern linguistic research has largely established Jin as a distinct Sinitic branch independent of Mandarin. In linguistic terms, Jin is widely regarded as the only major non-Mandarin Sinitic variety predominantly spoken in northern China, distinguishing it from surrounding Mandarin-speaking regions.