| Chinese | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Also Known As: | Sinitic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Region: | China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listclass: | hlist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fam2: | Sinitic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ancestor: | Old Chinese | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ancestor2: | Eastern Han Chinese | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ancestor3: | Middle Chinese | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child1: | Mandarin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child2: | Jin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child3: | Wu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child4: | Hui | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child5: | Gan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child6: | Xiang | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child7: | Min | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child8: | Hakka | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child9: | Yue | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child10: | Ping | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child11: | Waxiang | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child12: | Danzhou | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child13: | Mai | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child14: | Xiangnan Tuhua | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child15: | Shaozhou Tuhua | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Child16: | She | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Iso5: | zhx | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Glotto: | sini1245 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Glottorefname: | Sinitic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lingua: | 79-AAA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Map: | Map of sinitic languages cropped-en.svg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mapcaption: | Primary branches of Chinese according to the Language Atlas of China. The Mandarin area extends into Yunnan and Xinjiang (not shown). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast part of mainland China. The varieties are typically classified into several groups: Mandarin, Wu, Min, Xiang, Gan, Jin, Hakka and Yue, though some varieties remain unclassified. These groups are neither clades nor individual languages defined by mutual intelligibility, but reflect common phonological developments from Middle Chinese.
Chinese varieties have the greatest differences in their phonology, and to a lesser extent in vocabulary and syntax. Southern varieties tend to have fewer initial consonants than northern and central varieties, but more often preserve the Middle Chinese final consonants. All have phonemic tones, with northern varieties tending to have fewer distinctions than southern ones. Many have tone sandhi, with the most complex patterns in the coastal area from Zhejiang to eastern Guangdong.
Standard Chinese takes its phonology from the Beijing dialect, with vocabulary from the Mandarin group and grammar based on literature in the modern written vernacular. It is one of the official languages of China and one of the four official languages of Singapore. It has become a pluricentric language, with differences in pronunciation and vocabulary between the three forms. It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
At the end of the 2nd millennium BC, a form of Chinese was spoken in a compact area along the lower Wei River and middle Yellow River. Use of this language expanded eastwards across the North China Plain into Shandong, and then southwards into the Yangtze River valley and the hills of south China. Chinese eventually replaced many of the languages previously dominant in these areas, and forms of the language spoken in different regions began to diverge. During periods of political unity there was a tendency for states to promote the use of a standard language across the territory they controlled, in order to facilitate communication between people from different regions.
The first evidence of dialectal variation is found in the texts of the Spring and Autumn period (771–476 BC). Although the Zhou royal domain was no longer politically powerful, its speech still represented a model for communication across China. The Fangyan (early 1st century AD) is devoted to differences in vocabulary between regions. Commentaries from the Eastern Han (25–220 AD) provide significant evidence of local differences in pronunciation. The Qieyun, a rime dictionary published in 601, noted wide variations in pronunciation between regions, and was created with the goal of defining a standard system of pronunciation for reading the classics. This standard is known as Middle Chinese, and is believed to be a diasystem, based on a compromise between the reading traditions of the northern and southern capitals.
The North China Plain provided few barriers to migration, which resulted in relative linguistic homogeneity over a wide area. Contrastingly, the mountains and rivers of southern China contain all six of the other major Chinese dialect groups, with each in turn featuring great internal diversity, particularly in Fujian.
See main article: Standard Chinese. Until the mid-20th century, most Chinese people spoke only their local language. As a practical measure, officials of the Ming and Qing dynasties carried out the administration of the empire using a common language based on Mandarin varieties, known as (Chinese: 官話/Chinese: 官话 'officer speech'). While never formally defined, knowledge of this language was essential for a career in the imperial bureaucracy.
In the early years of the Republic of China, Literary Chinese was replaced as the written standard by written vernacular Chinese, which was based on northern dialects. In the 1930s, a standard national language with pronunciation based on the Beijing dialect was adopted, but with vocabulary drawn from a range of Mandarin varieties, and grammar based on literature in the modern written vernacular. Standard Chinese is the official spoken language of the People's Republic of China and Taiwan, and is one of the official languages of Singapore. It has become a pluricentric language, with differences in pronunciation and vocabulary between the three forms.
Standard Chinese is much more widely studied than any other variety of Chinese, and its use is now dominant in public life on the mainland. Outside of China and Taiwan, the only varieties of Chinese commonly taught in university courses are Standard Chinese and Cantonese.
Chinese has been likened to the Romance languages that descended from Latin. In both cases, the ancestral language was spread by imperial expansion over substrate languages 2000 years ago, by the Qin and Han empires in China, and the Roman Empire in Europe. Medieval Latin remained the standard for scholarly and administrative writing in Western Europe for centuries, influencing local varieties much like Literary Chinese did in China. In both cases, local forms of speech diverged from both the literary standard and each other, producing dialect continua with mutually unintelligible varieties separated by long distances.
However, a major difference between China and Western Europe is the historical reestablishment of political unity in 6th century China by the Sui dynasty, a unity that has persisted with relatively brief interludes until the present day. Meanwhile, Europe remained politically decentralized, and developed numerous independent states. Vernacular writing using the Latin alphabet supplanted Latin itself, and states eventually developed their own standard languages. In China, Literary Chinese was predominantly used in formal writing until the early 20th century. Written Chinese, read with different local pronunciations, continued to serve as a source of vocabulary for the local varieties. The new standard written vernacular Chinese, the counterpart of spoken Standard Chinese, is similarly used as a literary form by speakers of all varieties.
Dialectologist Jerry Norman estimated that there are hundreds of mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese. These varieties form a dialect continuum, in which differences in speech generally become more pronounced as distances increase, although there are also some sharp boundaries.
However, the rate of change in mutual intelligibility varies immensely depending on region. For example, the varieties of Mandarin spoken in all three northeastern Chinese provinces are mutually intelligible, but in the province of Fujian, where Min varieties predominate, the speech of neighbouring counties or even villages may be mutually unintelligible.
Classifications of Chinese varieties in the late 19th century and early 20th century were based on impressionistic criteria. They often followed river systems, which were historically the main routes of migration and communication in southern China. The first scientific classifications, based primarily on the evolution of Middle Chinese voiced initials, were produced by Wang Li in 1936 and Li Fang-Kuei in 1937, with minor modifications by other linguists since. The conventionally accepted set of seven dialect groups first appeared in the second edition (1980) of Yuan Jiahua's dialectology handbook:
The Language Atlas of China (1987) follows a classification of Li Rong, distinguishing three further groups:
Some varieties remain unclassified, including the Danzhou dialect (northwestern Hainan), Mai (southern Hainan), Waxiang (northwestern Hunan), Xiangnan Tuhua (southern Hunan), Shaozhou Tuhua (northern Guangdong), and the forms of Chinese spoken by the She people (She Chinese) and the Miao people.She Chinese, Xiangnan Tuhua, Shaozhou Tuhua and unclassified varieties of southwest Jiangxi appear to be related to Hakka.
Most of the vocabulary of the Bai language of Yunnan appears to be related to Chinese words, though many are clearly loans from the last few centuries. Some scholars have suggested that it represents a very early branching from Chinese, while others argue that it is a more distantly related Sino-Tibetan language overlaid with two millennia of loans.
Jerry Norman classified the traditional seven dialect groups into three zones: Northern (Mandarin), Central (Wu, Gan, and Xiang) and Southern (Hakka, Yue, and Min).He argued that the dialects of the Southern zone are derived from a standard used in the Yangtze valley during the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), which he called Old Southern Chinese, while the Central zone was a transitional area of dialects that were originally of southern type, but overlain with centuries of Northern influence.Hilary Chappell proposed a refined model, dividing Norman's Northern zone into Northern and Southwestern areas, and his Southern zone into Southeastern (Min) and Far Southern (Yue and Hakka) areas, with Pinghua transitional between Southwestern and Far Southern areas.
The long history of migration of peoples and interaction between speakers of different dialects makes it difficult to apply the tree model to Chinese.Scholars account for the transitional nature of the central varieties in terms of wave models. Iwata argues that innovations have been transmitted from the north across the Huai River to the Lower Yangtze Mandarin area and from there southeast to the Wu area and westwards along the Yangtze River valley and thence to southwestern areas, leaving the hills of the southeast largely untouched.
Some dialect boundaries, such as between Wu and Min, are particularly abrupt, while others, such as between Mandarin and Xiang or between Min and Hakka, are much less clearly defined.Several east-west isoglosses run along the Huai and Yangtze Rivers.A north-south barrier is formed by the Tianmu and Wuyi Mountains.
Most assessments of mutual intelligibility of varieties of Chinese in the literature are impressionistic.Functional intelligibility testing is time-consuming in any language family, and usually not done when more than 10 varieties are to be compared.However, one 2009 study aimed to measure intelligibility between 15 Chinese provinces. In each province, 15 university students were recruited as speakers and 15 older rural inhabitants recruited as listeners. The listeners were then tested on their comprehension of isolated words and of particular words in the context of sentences spoken by speakers from all 15 of the provinces surveyed.The results demonstrated significant levels of unintelligibility between areas, even within the Mandarin group. In a few cases, listeners understood fewer than 70% of words spoken by speakers from the same province, indicating significant differences between urban and rural varieties. As expected from the wide use of Standard Chinese, speakers from Beijing were understood more than speakers from elsewhere.The scores supported a primary division between northern groups (Mandarin and Jin) and all others, with Min as an identifiable branch.
Local varieties from different areas of China are often mutually unintelligible, differing at least as much as different Romance languages and perhaps even as much as Indo-European languages as a whole. These varieties form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family (with Bai sometimes being included in this grouping). Because speakers share a standard written form, and have a common cultural heritage with long periods of political unity, the varieties are popularly perceived among native speakers as variants of a single Chinese language, and this is also the official position. Conventional English-language usage in Chinese linguistics is to use dialect for the speech of a particular place (regardless of status) while regional groupings like Mandarin and Wu are called dialect groups. Other linguists choose to refer to the major groups as languages. However, each of these groups contains mutually unintelligible varieties. ISO 639-3 and the Ethnologue assign language codes to each of the top-level groups listed above except Min and Pinghua, whose subdivisions are assigned five and two codes respectively.
The Chinese term, composed of characters meaning 'place' and 'speech', was the title of the first work of Chinese dialectology in the Han dynasty, and has had a range of meanings in the millennia since. It is used for any regional subdivision of Chinese, from the speech of a village to major branches such as Mandarin and Wu. Linguists writing in Chinese often qualify the term to distinguish different levels of classification. All these terms have customarily been translated into English as dialect, a practice that has been criticized as confusing. The neologisms regionalect and topolect have been proposed as alternative renderings of fangyan.
The usual unit of analysis is the syllable, traditionally analysed as consisting of an initial consonant, a final and a tone. In general, southern varieties have fewer initial consonants than northern and central varieties, but more often preserve the Middle Chinese final consonants. Some varieties, such as Cantonese, Hokkien and Shanghainese, include syllabic nasals as independent syllables.
In the 42 varieties surveyed in the Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects, the number of initials (including a zero initial) ranges from 15 in some southern dialects to a high of 35 in Chongming dialect, spoken in Chongming Island, Shanghai.
| Fuzhou (Min) | Suzhou (Wu) | Beijing (Mandarin) | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stops and affricates | voiceless aspirated | pronounced as /pʰ/ | pronounced as /tʰ/ | pronounced as /tsʰ/ | pronounced as /kʰ/ | pronounced as /pʰ/ | pronounced as /tʰ/ | pronounced as /tsʰ/ | pronounced as /tɕʰ/ | pronounced as /kʰ/ | pronounced as /pʰ/ | pronounced as /tʰ/ | pronounced as /tsʰ/ | pronounced as /tɕʰ/ | pronounced as /tʂʰ/ | pronounced as /kʰ/ | ||||
| voiceless unaspirated | pronounced as /p/ | pronounced as /t/ | pronounced as /ts/ | pronounced as /k/ | pronounced as /p/ | pronounced as /t/ | pronounced as /ts/ | pronounced as /tɕ/ | pronounced as /k/ | pronounced as /p/ | pronounced as /t/ | pronounced as /ts/ | pronounced as /tɕ/ | pronounced as /tʂ/ | pronounced as /k/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /b/ | pronounced as /d/ | pronounced as /dʑ/ | pronounced as /ɡ/ | ||||||||||||||||
| Fricatives | voiceless | pronounced as /s/ | pronounced as /x/ | pronounced as /f/ | pronounced as /s/ | pronounced as /ɕ/ | pronounced as /h/ | pronounced as /f/ | pronounced as /s/ | pronounced as /ɕ/ | pronounced as /ʂ/ | pronounced as /x/ | ||||||||
| voiced | pronounced as /v/ | pronounced as /z/ | pronounced as /ʑ/ | pronounced as /ɦ/ | pronounced as /ɻ//pronounced as /ʐ/ | |||||||||||||||
| Sonorants | pronounced as /l/ | ∅ | pronounced as /l/ | ∅ | pronounced as /l/ | ∅ | ||||||||||||||
| Nasals | pronounced as /m/ | pronounced as /n/ | pronounced as /ŋ/ | pronounced as /m/ | pronounced as /n/ | pronounced as /ɲ/ | pronounced as /ŋ/ | pronounced as /m/ | pronounced as /n/ | |||||||||||
The initial system of the Fuzhou dialect of northern Fujian is a minimal example. With the exception of pronounced as //ŋ//, which is often merged with the zero initial, the initials of this dialect are present in all Chinese varieties, although several varieties do not distinguish pronounced as //n// from pronounced as //l//. However, most varieties have additional initials, due to a combination of innovations and retention of distinctions from Middle Chinese:
Chinese finals may be analysed as an optional medial glide, a main vowel and an optional coda.
Conservative vowel systems, such as those of Gan dialects, have high vowels pronounced as //i//, pronounced as //u// and pronounced as //y//, which also function as medials, mid vowels pronounced as //e// and pronounced as //o//, and a low pronounced as //a//-like vowel. In other dialects, including Mandarin dialects, pronounced as //o// has merged with pronounced as //a//, leaving a single mid vowel with a wide range of allophones. Many dialects, particularly in northern and central China, have apical or retroflex vowels, which are syllabic fricatives derived from high vowels following sibilant initials. In many Wu dialects, vowels and final glides have monophthongized, producing a rich inventory of vowels in open syllables. Reduction of medials is common in Yue dialects.
The Middle Chinese codas, consisting of glides pronounced as //j// and pronounced as //w//, nasals pronounced as //m//, pronounced as //n// and pronounced as //ŋ//, and stops pronounced as //p//, pronounced as //t// and pronounced as //k//, are best preserved in southern dialects, particularly Yue dialects such as Cantonese. In some Min dialects, nasals and stops following open vowels have shifted to nasalization and glottal stops respectively. In Jin, Lower Yangtze Mandarin and Wu dialects, the stops have merged as a final glottal stop, while in most northern varieties they have disappeared. In Mandarin dialects final pronounced as //m// has merged with pronounced as //n//, while some central dialects have a single nasal coda, in some cases realized as a nasalization of the vowel.
All varieties of Chinese, like neighbouring languages in the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, have phonemic tones. Each syllable may be pronounced with between three and seven distinct pitch contours, denoting different morphemes. For example, the Beijing dialect distinguishes (Chinese: 妈/Chinese: 媽 'mother'), (Chinese: 麻 'hemp'), (Chinese: 马/Chinese: 馬 'horse) and (Chinese: 骂/Chinese: 罵 'to scold'). The number of tonal contrasts varies between dialects, with Northern dialects tending to have fewer distinctions than Southern ones. Many dialects have tone sandhi, in which the pitch contour of a syllable is affected by the tones of adjacent syllables in a compound word or phrase. This process is so extensive in Shanghainese that the tone system is reduced to a pitch accent system much like modern Japanese.
The tonal categories of modern varieties can be related by considering their derivation from the four tones of Middle Chinese, though cognate tonal categories in different dialects are often realized as quite different pitch contours. Middle Chinese had a three-way tonal contrast in syllables with vocalic or nasal endings. The traditional names of the tonal categories are 'level'/'even' (Chinese: 平), 'rising' (Chinese: 上) and 'departing'/'going' (Chinese: 去). Syllables ending in a stop consonant pronounced as //p//, pronounced as //t// or pronounced as //k// (checked syllables) had no tonal contrasts but were traditionally treated as a fourth tone category, 'entering' (Chinese: 入), corresponding to syllables ending in nasals pronounced as //m//, pronounced as //n//, or pronounced as //ŋ//.
The tones of Middle Chinese, as well as similar systems in neighbouring languages, experienced a tone split conditioned by syllabic onsets. Syllables with voiced initials tended to be pronounced with a lower pitch, and by the late Tang dynasty, each of the tones had split into two registers conditioned by the initials, known as "upper" (Chinese: 阴/Chinese: 陰) and "lower" (Chinese: 阳/Chinese: 陽). When voicing was lost in all dialects except in the Wu and Old Xiang groups, this distinction became phonemic, yielding eight tonal categories, with a six-way contrast in unchecked syllables and a two-way contrast in checked syllables. Cantonese maintains these eight tonal categories and has developed an additional distinction in checked syllables. (The latter distinction has disappeared again in many varieties.)
However, most Chinese varieties have reduced the number of tonal distinctions. For example, in Mandarin, the tones resulting from the split of Middle Chinese rising and departing tones merged, leaving four tones. Furthermore, final stop consonants disappeared in most Mandarin dialects, and such syllables were distributed amongst the four remaining tones in a manner that is only partially predictable.
| Middle Chinese tone and initial | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| level | rising | departing | entering | ||||||||||||
| vl. | n. | vd. | vl. | n. | vd. | vl. | n. | vd. | vl. | n. | vd. | ||||
| Jin | Taiyuan | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | |||||||||
| Mandarin | Xi'an | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||
| Beijing | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1,2,3,5 | 5 | 2 | ||||||||
| Chengdu | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Yangzhou | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | ||||||||||
| Xiang | Changsha | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |||||||
| Shuangfeng | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 2, 5 | ||||||||
| Gan | Nanchang | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | ||||||
| Wu | Suzhou | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | ||||||
| Shanghai | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 8 | |||||||
| Wenzhou | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||
| Min | Xiamen | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | ||||||
| Hakka | Meixian | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1,3 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 8 | ||||||
| Yue | Guangzhou | 1, | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7a | 7b | 8 | |||||
In Wu, voiced obstruents were retained, and the tone split never became phonemic: the higher-pitched allophones occur with initial voiceless consonants, and the lower-pitched allophones occur with initial voiced consonants. (Traditional Chinese classification nonetheless counts these as different tones.) Most Wu dialects retain the tone categories of Middle Chinese, but in Shanghainese several of these have merged.
Many Chinese varieties exhibit tone sandhi, in which the realization of a tone varies depending on the context of the syllable. For example, in Standard Chinese a third tone changes to a second tone when followed by another third tone. Particularly complex sandhi patterns are found in Wu dialects and coastal Min dialects. In Shanghainese, the tone of all syllables in a word is determined by the tone of the first, so that Shanghainese has word rather than syllable tone.
In northern varieties, many particles or suffixes are weakly stressed or atonic syllables. These are much rarer in southern varieties. Such syllables have a reduced pitch range that is determined by the preceding syllable.
Most morphemes in Chinese varieties are monosyllables descended from Old Chinese words, and have cognates in all varieties:
| Word | Jin | Mandarin | Xiang | Gan | Wu | Min | Hakka | Yue | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiyuan | Xi'an | Beijing | Chengdu | Yangzhou | Changsha | Shuangfeng | Nanchang | Suzhou | Wenzhou | Fuzhou | Xiamen | Meixian | Guangzhou | ||
| 'person' | pronounced as /zəŋ/1 | pronounced as /ʐẽ/2 | pronounced as /ʐən/2 | pronounced as /zən/2 | pronounced as /lən/2 | pronounced as /ʐən/2 | pronounced as /ɲiɛn/2 | pronounced as /ɲin/5 | pronounced as /ɲin/2 | pronounced as /ɲin/2 | pronounced as /jɐn/2 | ||||
| 'man' | pronounced as /næ̃/1 | pronounced as /næ̃/2 | pronounced as /nan/2 | pronounced as /nan/2 | pronounced as /liæ̃/2 | pronounced as /lan/2 | pronounced as /læ̃/2 | pronounced as /lan/5 | pronounced as /nø/2 | pronounced as /nø/2 | pronounced as /naŋ/2 | pronounced as /lam/2 | pronounced as /nam/2 | pronounced as /nam/2 | |
| 'woman' | pronounced as /ny/3 | pronounced as /mi/3 | pronounced as /ny/3 | pronounced as /ɲy/3 | pronounced as /ly/3 | pronounced as /ɲy/3 | pronounced as /ɲy/3 | pronounced as /ɲy/3 | pronounced as /ɲy/6 | pronounced as /ɲy/4 | pronounced as /ny/3 | pronounced as /lu/3 | pronounced as /ŋ/3 | pronounced as /nøy/4 | |
| 'fish' | pronounced as /y/1 | pronounced as /y/2 | pronounced as /y/2 | pronounced as /y/2 | pronounced as /y/2 | pronounced as /y/2 | pronounced as /y/2 | pronounced as /ɲiɛ/5 | pronounced as /ŋ/2 | pronounced as /ŋøy/2 | pronounced as /ŋy/2 | pronounced as /hi/2 | pronounced as /ŋ/2 | pronounced as /jy/2 | |
| 'snake' | pronounced as /sɤ/1 | pronounced as /ʂɤ/2 | pronounced as /ʂɤ/2 | pronounced as /se/2 | pronounced as /ɕɪ/2 | pronounced as /sa/2 | pronounced as /ɣio/2 | pronounced as /sa/5 | pronounced as /zo/2 | pronounced as /zei/2 | pronounced as /sie/2 | pronounced as /tsua/2 | pronounced as /sa/2 | pronounced as /ʃɛ/2 | |
| 'meat' | pronounced as /zuəʔ/7 | pronounced as /ʐou/5 | pronounced as /ʐou/5 | pronounced as /zəu/2 | pronounced as /ləʔ/7 | pronounced as /ʐəu/7 | pronounced as /ɲu/5 | pronounced as /ɲiuk/8 | pronounced as /ɲioʔ/8 | pronounced as /ɲiəu/8 | pronounced as /nyʔ/8 | pronounced as /hɪk/8 | pronounced as /ɲiuk/7 | pronounced as /juk/8 | |
| 'bone' | pronounced as /kuəʔ/7 | pronounced as /ku/1 | pronounced as /ku/3 | pronounced as /ku/2 | pronounced as /kuəʔ/7 | pronounced as /ku/7 | pronounced as /kəu/2 | pronounced as /kut/7 | pronounced as /kuɤʔ/7 | pronounced as /ky/7 | pronounced as /kauʔ/7 | pronounced as /kut/7 | pronounced as /kut/7 | pronounced as /kuɐt/7a | |
| 'eye' | pronounced as /nie/3 | pronounced as /ɲiã/3 | pronounced as /iɛn/3 | pronounced as /iɛn/3 | pronounced as /iæ̃/3 | pronounced as /ŋan/3 | pronounced as /ŋæ̃/3 | pronounced as /ŋan/3 | pronounced as /ŋɛ/6 | pronounced as /ŋa/4 | pronounced as /ŋiaŋ/3 | pronounced as /gɪŋ/3 | pronounced as /ɲian/3 | pronounced as /ŋan/4 | |
| 'ear' | pronounced as /ɚ/3 | pronounced as /ɚ/3 | pronounced as /ɚ/3 | pronounced as /ɚ/3 | pronounced as /a/3 | pronounced as /ɤ/3 | pronounced as /e/3 | pronounced as /ə/3 | pronounced as /ɲi/6 | pronounced as /ŋ/4 | pronounced as /ŋei/5 | pronounced as /hi/6 | pronounced as /ɲi/3 | pronounced as /ji/4 | |
| 'nose' | pronounced as /pieʔ/8 | pronounced as /pi/2 | pronounced as /pi/2 | pronounced as /pi/2 | pronounced as /pieʔ/7 | pronounced as /pi/2 | pronounced as /bi/6 | pronounced as /pʰit/8 | pronounced as /bɤʔ/8 | pronounced as /bei/6 | pronounced as /pei/6 | pronounced as /pʰi/6 | pronounced as /pʰi/5 | pronounced as /pei/6 | |
| "sun", 'day' | pronounced as /zəʔ/7 | pronounced as /ɚ/1 | pronounced as /ʐʅ/5 | pronounced as /zɿ/2 | pronounced as /ləʔ/7 | pronounced as /ɲʅ/7 | pronounced as /i/2 | pronounced as /ɲit/8 | pronounced as /ɲɪʔ/8 | pronounced as /ɲiai/8 | pronounced as /niʔ/8 | pronounced as /lit/8 | pronounced as /ɲit/7 | pronounced as /jat/8 | |
| "moon", 'month' | pronounced as /yəʔ/7 | pronounced as /ye/1 | pronounced as /ye/5 | pronounced as /ye/2 | pronounced as /yəʔ/7 | pronounced as /ye/7 | pronounced as /ya/5 | pronounced as /ɲyɔt/8 | pronounced as /ŋɤʔ/8 | pronounced as /ɲy/8 | pronounced as /ŋuɔʔ/8 | pronounced as /geʔ/8 | pronounced as /ɲiat/8 | pronounced as /jyt/8 | |
| 'year' | pronounced as /nie/1 | pronounced as /ɲiæ̃/2 | pronounced as /niɛn/2 | pronounced as /ɲiɛn/2 | pronounced as /liẽ/2 | pronounced as /ɲiẽ/2 | pronounced as /ɲɪ̃/2 | pronounced as /ɲiɛn/5 | pronounced as /ɲiɪ/2 | pronounced as /ɲi/2 | pronounced as /nieŋ/2 | pronounced as /nĩ/2 | pronounced as /ɲian/2 | pronounced as /nin/2 | |
| 'mountain' | pronounced as /sæ̃/1 | pronounced as /sæ̃/1 | pronounced as /ʂan/1 | pronounced as /san/1 | pronounced as /sæ̃/1 | pronounced as /san/1 | pronounced as /sæ̃/1 | pronounced as /san/1 | pronounced as /sɛ/1 | pronounced as /sa/1 | pronounced as /saŋ/1 | pronounced as /suã/1 | pronounced as /san/1 | pronounced as /ʃan/1 | |
| 'water' | pronounced as /suei/3 | pronounced as /fei/3 | pronounced as /ʂuei/3 | pronounced as /suei/3 | pronounced as /suəi/3 | pronounced as /ɕyei/3 | pronounced as /ɕy/3 | pronounced as /sui/3 | pronounced as /sɥ/3 | pronounced as /sɿ/3 | pronounced as /tsy/3 | pronounced as /tsui/3 | pronounced as /sui/3 | pronounced as /ʃøy/3 | |
| 'red' | pronounced as /xuŋ/1 | pronounced as /xuoŋ/2 | pronounced as /xuŋ/2 | pronounced as /xoŋ/2 | pronounced as /xoŋ/2 | pronounced as /xən/2 | pronounced as /ɣən/2 | pronounced as /fuŋ/5 | pronounced as /ɦoŋ/2 | pronounced as /ɦoŋ/2 | pronounced as /øyŋ/2 | pronounced as /aŋ/2 | pronounced as /fuŋ/2 | pronounced as /huŋ/2 | |
| 'green' | pronounced as /luəʔ/7 | pronounced as /lou/1 | pronounced as /ly/5 | pronounced as /nu/2 | pronounced as /lɔʔ/7 | pronounced as /lou/7 | pronounced as /ləu/2 | pronounced as /liuk/8 | pronounced as /loʔ/7 | pronounced as /lo/8 | pronounced as /luɔʔ/8 | pronounced as /lɪk/8 | pronounced as /liuk/8 | pronounced as /luk/8 | |
| 'yellow' | pronounced as /xuɒ̃/1 | pronounced as /xuaŋ/2 | pronounced as /xuaŋ/2 | pronounced as /xuaŋ/2 | pronounced as /xuɑŋ/2 | pronounced as /uan/2 | pronounced as /ɒŋ/2 | pronounced as /uɔŋ/5 | pronounced as /ɦuɒŋ/2 | pronounced as /ɦuɔ/2 | pronounced as /uɔŋ/2 | pronounced as /hɔŋ/2 | pronounced as /vɔŋ/2 | pronounced as /wɔŋ/2 | |
| 'white' | pronounced as /piəʔ/7 | pronounced as /pei/2 | pronounced as /pai/2 | pronounced as /pe/2 | pronounced as /pɔʔ/7 | pronounced as /pɤ/7 | pronounced as /pia/2 | pronounced as /pʰak/7 | pronounced as /bɒʔ/8 | pronounced as /ba/8 | pronounced as /paʔ/8 | pronounced as /peʔ/8 | pronounced as /pʰak/8 | pronounced as /pak/8 | |
| 'black' | pronounced as /xəʔ/7 | pronounced as /xei/1 | pronounced as /xei/1 | pronounced as /xe/2 | pronounced as /xəʔ/7 | pronounced as /xa/7 | pronounced as /ɕia/2 | pronounced as /hɛt/8 | pronounced as /hɤʔ/7 | pronounced as /xe/7 | pronounced as /xaiʔ/7 | pronounced as /hɪk/7 | pronounced as /hɛt/7 | pronounced as /hɐk/7a | |
| 'above' | pronounced as /sɒ̃/5 | pronounced as /ʂaŋ/5 | pronounced as /ʂaŋ/5 | pronounced as /saŋ/5 | pronounced as /sɑŋ/5 | pronounced as /san/6 | pronounced as /ɣiaŋ/6 | pronounced as /sɔŋ/6 | pronounced as /zɒŋ/6 | pronounced as /ji/6 | pronounced as /suɔŋ/6 | pronounced as /tsiũ/6 | pronounced as /sɔŋ/5 | pronounced as /ʃœŋ/6 | |
| 'below' | pronounced as /ɕia/5 | pronounced as /xa/5 | pronounced as /ɕia/5 | pronounced as /ɕia/5 | pronounced as /xɑ/5 | pronounced as /xa/6 | pronounced as /ɣo/6 | pronounced as /ha/6 | pronounced as /ɦo/6 | pronounced as /ɦo/4 | pronounced as /a/6 | pronounced as /e/6 | pronounced as /ha/2 | pronounced as /ha/6 | |
| 'middle' | pronounced as /tsuŋ/1 | pronounced as /pfəŋ/1 | pronounced as /tʂuŋ/1 | pronounced as /tsoŋ/1 | pronounced as /tsoŋ/1 | pronounced as /tʂən/1 | pronounced as /tan/1 | pronounced as /tsuŋ/1 | pronounced as /tsoŋ/1 | pronounced as /tɕyoŋ/1 | pronounced as /touŋ/1 | pronounced as /taŋ/1 | pronounced as /tuŋ/1 | pronounced as /tʃuŋ/1 | |
| 'big' | pronounced as /ta/5 | pronounced as /tuo/5 | pronounced as /ta/5 | pronounced as /ta/5 | pronounced as /tai/5 | pronounced as /tai/6 | pronounced as /du/6 | pronounced as /tʰɔ/6 | pronounced as /dəu/6 | pronounced as /dəu/6 | pronounced as /tuai/6 | pronounced as /tua/6 | pronounced as /tʰai/5 | pronounced as /tai/6 | |
| 'small' | pronounced as /ɕiau/3 | pronounced as /ɕiau/3 | pronounced as /ɕiau/3 | pronounced as /ɕiau/3 | pronounced as /ɕiɔ/3 | pronounced as /ɕiau/3 | pronounced as /ɕiɤ/3 | pronounced as /ɕiɛu/3 | pronounced as /siæ/3 | pronounced as /sai/3 | pronounced as /sieu/3 | pronounced as /sio/3 | pronounced as /siau/3 | pronounced as /ʃiu/3 | |
Southern varieties also include distinctive substrata of vocabulary of non-Chinese origin. Some of these words may have come from Tai–Kadai and Austroasiatic languages.
Chinese varieties generally lack inflectional morphology and instead express grammatical categories using analytic means such as particles and prepositions.There are major differences between northern and southern varieties, but often some northern areas share features found in the south, and vice versa.
The usual unmarked word order in Chinese varieties is subject–verb–object, with other orders used for emphasis or contrast.Modifiers usually precede the word they modify, so that adjectives precede nouns.Instances in which the modifier follows the head are mainly found in the south,and are attributed to substrate influences from languages formerly dominant in the area, especially Kra–Dai languages.
Nouns in Chinese varieties are generally not marked for number.As in languages of the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, Chinese varieties require an intervening classifier when a noun is preceded by a demonstrative or numeral.The inventory of classifiers tends to be larger in the south than in the north, where some varieties use only the general classifier cognate with Chinese: 个/.
First- and second-person pronouns are cognate across all varieties. For third-person pronouns, Jin, Mandarin, and Xiang varieties have cognate forms, but other varieties generally use forms that originally had a velar or glottal initial:
| Jin | Mandarin | Xiang | Gan | Wu | Min | Hakka | Yue | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiyuan | Xi'an | Beijing | Chengdu | Yangzhou | Changsha | Shuangfeng | Nanchang | Suzhou | Wenzhou | Fuzhou | Xiamen | Meixian | Guangzhou | ||
| 'I' | pronounced as /ɣɤ/3 | pronounced as /ŋə/3 | pronounced as /uo/3 | pronounced as /ŋo/3 | pronounced as /o/3 | pronounced as /ŋo/3 | pronounced as /aŋ/3 | pronounced as /ŋɔ/3 | pronounced as /ŋəu/6 | pronounced as /ŋ/4 | pronounced as /ŋuai/3 | pronounced as /gua/3 | pronounced as /ŋai/2 | pronounced as /ŋo/4 | |
| 'you' | pronounced as /ni/3 | pronounced as /ni/3 | pronounced as /ni/3 | pronounced as /ni/3 | pronounced as /liɪ/3 | pronounced as /n/3, pronounced as /ɲi/3 | pronounced as /n/3 | pronounced as /li/3, pronounced as /n/3 | pronounced as /ne/6 | pronounced as /ɲi/4 | pronounced as /ny/3 | pronounced as /li/3 | pronounced as /ɲi/2, pronounced as /n/2 | pronounced as /nei/4 | |
| 'he/she' | pronounced as /tʰa/1 | pronounced as /tʰa/1 | pronounced as /tʰa/1 | pronounced as /tʰa/1 | pronounced as /tʰa/1 | pronounced as /tʰa/1 | pronounced as /tʰo/1 | pronounced as /tɕʰiɛ/3 | pronounced as /li/1 | pronounced as /gi/2 | pronounced as /i/1 | pronounced as /i/1 | pronounced as /ki/2 | pronounced as /kʰøy/4 | |
Plural personal pronouns may be marked with a suffix, noun or phrase in different varieties. The suffix Chinese: 们/ is common in the north, but several different suffixes are use elsewhere.In some varieties, especially in the Wu area, different suffixes are used for first, second and third person pronouns.Case is not marked, except in varieties in the Qinghai–Gansu sprachbund.
The forms of demonstratives vary greatly, with few cognates between different areas.A two-way distinction between proximal and distal is most common, but some varieties have a single neutral demonstrative, while others distinguish three or more on the basis of distance, visibility or other properties. An extreme example is found in a variety spoken in Yongxin County, Jiangxi, where five grades of distance are distinguished.
Attributive constructions typically have the form NP/VP + + NP, where the last noun phrase is the head and the attributive marker is usually a cognate of in the north or a classifier in the south.The latter pattern is also common in the languages of Southeast Asia.A few varieties in the Jiang–Huai, Wu, southern Min and Yue areas feature the old southern pattern of a zero attributive marker.Nominalization of verb phrases or predicates is achieved by following them with a marker, usually the same as the attributive marker, though some varieties use a different marker.
All varieties have transitive and intransitive verbs.Instead of adjectives, Chinese varieties use stative verbs, which can function as predicates but differ from intransitive verbs in being modifiable by degree adverbs.Ditransitive sentences vary, with northern varieties placing the indirect object before the direct object and southern varieties using the reverse order.
All varieties have copular sentences of the form NP1 + + NP2, though the copula varies.Most Yue and Hakka varieties use a form cognate with 'to connect'.All other varieties use a form cognate with, which was a demonstrative in Classical Chinese but began to be used as a copula from the Han period.
All varieties form existential sentences with a verb cognate with, which can also be used as a transitive verb indicating possession.Most varieties use a locative verb cognate to, but Min, Wu and Yue varieties use several different forms.
All varieties allow sentences of the form NP + VP1 + + VP2, with a verbal complement VP2 containing a stative verb describing the manner or extent of the main verb.In northern varieties, the marker is a cognate of, but many southern varieties distinguish between manner and extent complements using different markers.Standard Chinese does not allow an object to co-occur with a verbal complement, but other varieties permit an object between the marker and the complement.
A characteristic feature of Chinese varieties is in situ questions:
This particle is a cognate of Chinese: 吗/ in the north, but varies between other varieties.Other question forms are also common:
A sentence is negated by placing a marker before the verb. Old Chinese had two families of negation markers starting with pronounced as /
Chinese varieties generally indicate the roles of nouns with respect to verbs using prepositions derived from grammaticalized verbs.Varieties differ in the set of prepositions used, with northern varieties tending to use a substantially larger inventory, including disyllabic and trisyllabic prepositions.In northern varieties, the preposition may be used to move the object before the verb (the "disposal" construction).Similar structures using several different prepositions are used in the south, but tend to be avoided in more colloquial speech.Comparative constructions are expressed with a prepositional phrase before the stative verb in most northern and central varieties, as well as Northern Min and Hakka, while other southern varieties retain the older form in which the prepositional phrase follows the stative verb.The preposition is usually in the north, with other forms used elsewhere.
Chinese varieties tend to indicate aspect using markers following the main verb.The markers, usually derived from verbs, vary widely in both their forms and their degree of grammaticalization, from independent verbs, through complements to bound suffixes.Southern varieties tend to have richer aspect systems making more distinctions than northern ones.
In southern China (not including Hong Kong and Macau), where the difference between Standard Chinese and local dialects is particularly pronounced, well-educated Chinese are generally fluent in Standard Chinese, and most people have at least a good passive knowledge of it, in addition to being native speakers of the local dialect. The choice of dialect varies based on the social situation. Standard Chinese is usually considered more formal and is required when speaking to a person who does not understand the local dialect. The local dialect (be it non-Standard Chinese or non-Mandarin altogether) is generally considered more intimate and is used among close family members and friends and in everyday conversation within the local area. Chinese speakers will frequently code switch between Standard Chinese and the local dialect. Parents will generally speak to their children in the local variety, and the relationship between dialect and Mandarin appears to be mostly stable, even a diglossia. Local dialects are valued as symbols of regional cultures.
People generally are tied to the hometown and therefore the hometown dialect, instead of a broad linguistic classification. For example, a person from Wuxi may claim that he speaks Wuxi dialect, even though it is similar to Shanghainese (another Wu dialect). Likewise, a person from Xiaogan may claim that he speaks Xiaogan dialect. Linguistically, Xiaogan dialect is a dialect of Mandarin, but the pronunciation and diction are quite different from spoken Standard Chinese.
Knowing the local dialect is of considerable social benefit, and most Chinese who permanently move to a new area will attempt to pick up the local dialect. Learning a new dialect is usually done informally through a process of immersion and recognizing sound shifts. Generally the differences are more pronounced lexically than grammatically. Typically, a speaker of one dialect of Chinese will need about a year of immersion to understand the local dialect and about three to five years to become fluent in speaking it. Because of the variety of dialects spoken, there are usually few formal methods for learning a local dialect.
Due to the variety in Chinese speech, Mandarin speakers from each area of China are very often prone to fuse or "translate" words from their local language into their Mandarin conversations. In addition, each area of China has its recognizable accents while speaking Mandarin. Generally, the nationalized standard form of Mandarin pronunciation is only heard on news and radio broadcasts. Even in the streets of Beijing, the flavor of Mandarin varies in pronunciation from the Mandarin heard on the media.
Within mainland China, there has been a persistent Promotion of Putonghua drive; for instance, the education system is entirely Mandarin-medium from the second year onward. However, usage of local dialect is tolerated and socially preferred in many informal situations. In Hong Kong, written Cantonese is not used in formal documents, and within the PRC a character set closer to Mandarin tends to be used. At the national level, differences in dialect generally do not correspond to political divisions or categories, and this has for the most part prevented dialect from becoming the basis of identity politics.
Historically, many of the people who promoted Chinese nationalism were from southern China and did not natively speak Mandarin, and even leaders from northern China rarely spoke with the standard accent. Chiang Kai-shek and Sun Yat-sen were also from southern China, and this is reflected in their conventional English names reflecting Cantonese pronunciations for their given names, and differing from their pinyin spellings and . One consequence of this is that China does not have a well-developed tradition of spoken political rhetoric, and most Chinese political works are intended primarily as written works rather than spoken works. Another factor that limits the political implications of dialect is that it is very common within an extended family for different people to know and use different dialects.
Before 1945, other than a small Japanese-speaking population, most of the population of Taiwan were Han Chinese, who spoke Taiwanese Hokkien or Hakka, with a minority of Taiwanese aborigines, who spoke Formosan languages. When the Kuomintang retreated to the island after losing the Chinese Civil War in 1949, they brought a substantial influx of speakers of Northern Chinese (and other dialects from across China), and viewed the use of Mandarin as part of their claim to be a legitimate government of the whole of China. Education policy promoted the use of Mandarin over the local languages, and was implemented especially rigidly in elementary schools, with punishments and public humiliation for children using other languages at school.
From the 1970s, the government promoted adult education in Mandarin, required Mandarin for official purposes, and encouraged its increased use in broadcasting. Over a 40-year period, these policies succeeded in spreading the use and prestige of Mandarin through society at the expense of the other languages. They also aggravated social divisions, as Mandarin speakers found it difficult to find jobs in private companies but were favored for government positions. From the 1990s, Taiwanese native languages (Taiwanese Hokkien, Taiwanese Hakka and the Formosan languages) were offered in elementary and middle schools, first in Yilan county, then in other areas governed by elected Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians, and finally throughout the island.
In 1966, the Singaporean government implemented a policy of bilingual education, where Singaporean students learn both English and their designated native language, which was Mandarin for Chinese Singaporeans (even though Singaporean Hokkien had previously been their lingua franca). The Goh Report, an evaluation of Singapore's education system by Goh Keng Swee, showed that less than 40% of the student population managed to attain minimum levels of competency in two languages.[1] It was later determined that the learning of Mandarin among Singaporean Chinese was hindered by home use of other Chinese varieties, such as Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, and Hakka.[2] [3] Hence, the government decided to rectify problems facing implementation of the bilingual education policy, by launching a campaign to promote Mandarin as a common language among the Chinese population, and to discourage use of other Chinese varieties.
Launched in 1979 by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew,[4] the campaign aimed to simplify the language environment for Chinese Singaporeans, improve communication between them, and create a Mandarin-speaking environment conducive to the successful implementation of the bilingual education program. The initial goal of the campaign was for all young Chinese to stop speaking dialects in five years, and to establish Mandarin as the language of choice in public places within 10 years.[5] [6] According to the government, for the bilingual policy to be effective, Mandarin should be spoken at home and should serve as the lingua franca among Chinese Singaporeans.[7] They also argued that Mandarin was more economically valuable, and speaking Mandarin would help Chinese Singaporeans retain their heritage, as Mandarin contains a cultural repository of values and traditions that are identifiable to all Chinese, regardless of dialect group.[8]