For the varieties of Han Chinese people, see Han Chinese subgroups.
"Spoken Chinese" redirects here. For other languages spoken in China, see Languages of China.
Chinese
Sinitic
Geographic distribution
China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia
Linguistic classification
Sino-Tibetan
Sinitic
Chinese
Early forms
Old Chinese
Eastern Han Chinese
Middle Chinese[a]
Subdivisions
Mandarin
Jin
Wu
Hui
Gan
Xiang
Min
Hakka
Yue
Ping
ISO 639-5
zhx
Linguasphere
79-AAA
Glottolog
sini1245
Primary branches of Chinese according to the Language Atlas of China.[3] The Mandarin area extends into Yunnan and Xinjiang (not shown).
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese
汉语
Traditional Chinese
漢語
Hanyu Pinyin
Hànyǔ
Literal meaning
Han language
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin
Hànyǔ
Bopomofo
ㄏㄢˋ ㄩˇ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Hannyeu
Wade–Giles
Han4-yu3
Tongyong Pinyin
Hàn-yǔ
Yale Romanization
Hàn-yǔ
IPA
[xân.ỳ]
Wu
Romanization
hoe3 nyiu2
Hakka
Romanization
Hon Ngi
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization
hon yúh
Jyutping
hon3 jyu5
Canton Romanization
hon3 yü5
IPA
[hɔ̄ːn.jy̬ː]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ
Hàn-gí, Hàn-gú
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC
Háng-ngṳ̄
There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties[b] 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.
^Norman (1988), pp. 211–214.
^Pulleyblank (1984), p. 3.
^Wurm et al. (1987), Map A2.
^Wang (2005), p. 107.
^Wang (2005), p. 122.
^Mair (1991), p. 3.
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