The document discusses the Chinese language and its many varieties. It notes that Chinese is spoken by over 1.2 billion people worldwide and has a history of over 3,000 years, evolving from Old Chinese to numerous mutually unintelligible modern varieties. The main modern varieties discussed include Mandarin, Yue (Cantonese), Min, Hakka, and others. Standard Mandarin serves as the official language of China and Taiwan, while Cantonese remains dominant in Guangdong province and among overseas Chinese communities.
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Chinese
1.
2. HISTORY
• STANDARD CHINESE, ALSO KNOWN AS MODERN STANDARD MANDARIN, STANDARD MANDARIN, OR
SIMPLY MANDARIN, IS A STANDARD VARIETY OF CHINESE THAT IS THE SOLE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF
BOTH CHINA AND TAIWAN (DE FACTO), AND ALSO ONE OF THE FOUR OFFICIAL LANGUAGES OF
SINGAPORE. ITS PRONUNCIATION IS BASED ON THE BEIJING DIALECT, ITS VOCABULARY ON THE
MANDARIN DIALECTS, AND ITS GRAMMAR IS BASED ON WRITTEN VERNACULAR CHINESE.
• LIKE OTHER VARIETIES OF CHINESE, STANDARD CHINESE IS A TONAL LANGUAGE WITH TOPIC-
PROMINENT ORGANIZATION AND SUBJECT–VERB–OBJECT WORD ORDER. IT HAS MORE INITIAL
CONSONANTS BUT FEWER VOWELS, FINAL CONSONANTS AND TONES THAN SOUTHERN VARIETIES.
STANDARD CHINESE IS AN ANALYTIC LANGUAGE, THOUGH WITH MANY COMPOUND WORDS.
• THERE EXIST TWO STANDARDISED FORMS OF THE LANGUAGE, NAMELY PUTONGHUA IN MAINLAND
CHINA AND GUOYU IN TAIWAN. ASIDE FROM A NUMBER OF DIFFERENCES IN PRONUNCIATION AND
VOCABULARY, PUTONGHUA IS WRITTEN USING SIMPLIFIED CHINESE CHARACTERS (PLUS HANYU
PINYIN ROMANIZATION FOR TEACHING), WHILE GUOYU IS WRITTEN USING TRADITIONAL CHINESE
CHARACTERS (PLUS ZHUYIN FOR TEACHING). THERE ARE MANY CHARACTERS THAT ARE IDENTICAL
BETWEEN THE TWO SYSTEMS.
3. YUE CHINESE• YUE OR YUEH IS ONE OF THE PRIMARY BRANCHES OF CHINESE
SPOKEN IN SOUTHERN CHINA, PARTICULARLY THE PROVINCES OF
GUANGDONG AND GUANGXI, COLLECTIVELY KNOWN AS LIANGGUANG.
• THE NAME CANTONESE IS OFTEN USED FOR THE WHOLE BRANCH, BUT
LINGUISTS PREFER TO RESERVE THAT NAME FOR THE VARIETY OF
GUANGZHOU (CANTON), HONG KONG AND MACAU, WHICH IS THE
PRESTIGE DIALECT. TAISHANESE, FROM THE COASTAL AREA OF
JIANGMEN LOCATED SOUTHWEST OF GUANGZHOU, WAS THE LANGUAGE
OF MOST OF THE 19TH-CENTURY EMIGRANTS FROM GUANGDONG TO
SOUTHEAST ASIA AND NORTH AMERICA. MOST LATER MIGRANTS HAVE
BEEN SPEAKERS OF CANTONESE.
4.
5. MANDARIN CHINESE• MANDARIN IS A GROUP OF RELATED VARIETIES OF CHINESE SPOKEN
ACROSS MOST OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHWESTERN CHINA. THE GROUP
INCLUDES THE BEIJING DIALECT, THE BASIS OF STANDARD MANDARIN OR
STANDARD CHINESE. BECAUSE MOST MANDARIN DIALECTS ARE FOUND IN
THE NORTH, THE GROUP IS SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS THE NORTHERN
DIALECTS (北方话; BĚIFĀNGHUÀ). MANY LOCAL MANDARIN VARIETIES ARE
NOT MUTUALLY INTELLIGIBLE. NEVERTHELESS, MANDARIN IS OFTEN PLACED
FIRST IN LISTS OF LANGUAGES BY NUMBER OF NATIVE SPEAKERS (WITH
NEARLY A BILLION).
• MANDARIN IS BY FAR THE LARGEST OF THE SEVEN OR TEN CHINESE
DIALECT GROUPS, SPOKEN BY 70 PERCENT OF ALL CHINESE SPEAKERS
OVER A LARGE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA, STRETCHING FROM YUNNAN IN THE
SOUTHWEST TO XINJIANG IN THE NORTHWEST AND HEILONGJIANG IN THE
NORTHEAST.
8. TAIWANESE HOKKIEN• TAIWANESE HOKKIEN IS A BRANCHED-OFF VARIANT OF HOKKIEN SPOKEN
NATIVELY BY ABOUT 70% OF THE POPULATION OF TAIWAN.[6] IT IS SPOKEN
BY THE TAIWANESE HOKLO PEOPLE, WHO DESCENDED FROM IMMIGRANTS
FROM SOUTHERN FUJIAN DURING THE QING DYNASTY.[7] THE PE̍H-ŌE-JĪ
(POJ) ROMANIZATION IS A POPULAR ORTHOGRAPHY FOR THIS VARIANT OF
HOKKIEN.
• TAIWANESE HOKKIEN IS GENERALLY SIMILAR TO THE SPEECHES OF AMOY,
QUANZHOU AND ZHANGZHOU, AS WELL AS THEIR DIALECTAL FORMS USED
IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, BUT WITH ENOUGH DIFFERENCES IN VOCABULARY
AND PRONUNCIATION TO MAKE THEIR SPEAKERS SOMEWHAT MUTUALLY
UNINTELLIGIBLE. THE MASS POPULARITY OF HOKKIEN ENTERTAINMENT
MEDIA FROM TAIWAN HAS GIVEN PROMINENCE TO THE TAIWANESE VARIETY
OF HOKKIEN, ESPECIALLY SINCE THE 1980S.
9. MIN CHINESE• IS A BROAD GROUP OF CHINESE VARIETIES SPOKEN BY OVER 70 MILLION
PEOPLE IN THE SOUTHEASTERN CHINESE PROVINCE OF FUJIAN AS WELL
AS BY MIGRANTS FROM THIS PROVINCE IN GUANGDONG (AROUND
CHAOZHOU-SWATOU, OR CHAOSHAN AREA, LEIZHOU PENINSULA AND PART
OF ZHONGSHAN), HAINAN, THREE COUNTIES IN SOUTHERN ZHEJIANG,
ZHOUSHAN ARCHIPELAGO OFF NINGBO, SOME TOWNS IN LIYANG, JIANGYIN
CITY IN JIANGSU PROVINCE, AND TAIWAN. THE NAME IS DERIVED FROM
THE MIN RIVER IN FUJIAN. MIN VARIETIES ARE NOT MUTUALLY INTELLIGIBLE
WITH EACH OTHER OR WITH ANY OTHER VARIETIES OF CHINESE.
• THERE ARE MANY MIN SPEAKERS AMONG OVERSEAS CHINESE IN
SOUTHEAST ASIA. THE MOST WIDELY SPOKEN VARIETY OF MIN OUTSIDE
FUJIAN IS SOUTHERN MIN (MINNAN), ALSO KNOWN AS HOKKIEN-TAIWANESE
(WHICH INCLUDES TAIWANESE AND AMOY).
10. CHINESE LANGUAGE
• CHINESE (SIMPLIFIED CHINESE: 汉语; TRADITIONAL CHINESE: 漢語; PINYIN: HÀNYǓ;
LITERALLY: "HAN LANGUAGE"; OR CHINESE: 中文; PINYIN: ZHŌNGWÉN; LITERALLY: "CHINESE
WRITING") IS A GROUP OF RELATED, BUT IN MANY CASES MUTUALLY UNINTELLIGIBLE,
LANGUAGE VARIETIES, FORMING A BRANCH OF THE SINO-TIBETAN LANGUAGE FAMILY.
CHINESE IS SPOKEN BY THE HAN MAJORITY AND MANY OTHER ETHNIC GROUPS IN CHINA.
NEARLY 1.2 BILLION PEOPLE (AROUND 16% OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION) SPEAK SOME
FORM OF CHINESE AS THEIR FIRST LANGUAGE.
11. • THE FIRST WRITTEN RECORDS APPEARED OVER 3,000 YEARS AGO DURING THE
SHANG DYNASTY. AS THE LANGUAGE EVOLVED OVER THIS PERIOD, THE VARIOUS
LOCAL VARIETIES BECAME MUTUALLY UNINTELLIGIBLE. IN REACTION, CENTRAL
GOVERNMENTS HAVE REPEATEDLY SOUGHT TO PROMULGATE A UNIFIED STANDARD.
• OLD AND MIDDLE CHINESE
• THE EARLIEST EXAMPLES OF CHINESE ARE DIVINATORY INSCRIPTIONS ON ORACLE
BONES FROM AROUND 1250 BCE IN THE LATE SHANG DYNASTY.[9] OLD CHINESE
WAS THE LANGUAGE OF THE WESTERN ZHOU PERIOD (1046–771 BCE), RECORDED IN
INSCRIPTIONS ON BRONZE ARTIFACTS, THE CLASSIC OF POETRY AND PORTIONS OF
THE BOOK OF DOCUMENTS AND I CHING.[10] SCHOLARS HAVE ATTEMPTED TO
RECONSTRUCT THE PHONOLOGY OF OLD CHINESE BY COMPARING LATER VARIETIES
OF CHINESE WITH THE RHYMING PRACTICE OF THE CLASSIC OF POETRY AND THE
PHONETIC ELEMENTS FOUND IN THE MAJORITY OF CHINESE CHARACTERS.
