Chinese languages, also called Sinitic languages, Chinese Han, principal language group of eastern Asia, belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. While official policies in mainland China encourage the development and use of different orthographies for the national languages and their use in educational and academic settings, realistically speaking it would seem that, as elsewhere in the world, the outlook for The following languages traditionally had written forms that do not involve Chinese characters (hanzi): Many modern forms of spoken Chinese languages have their own distinct writing system using Chinese characters that contain colloquial variants. In reaction, central governments have repeatedly sought to promulgate a unified standard. The ‘main Chinese language’ is probably Standard Chinese, but the situation is much more complicated than that. From French came 芭蕾 bālěi "ballet" and 香槟/香檳 xiāngbīn, "champagne"; from Italian, 咖啡 kāfēi "caffè". This replaced the old writing language standard of Literary Chinese before 20th century. In school books that teach Chinese, the Pinyin romanization is often shown below a picture of the thing the word represents, with the Chinese character alongside. Today the most common romanization standard for Standard Chinese is Hanyu Pinyin, often known simply as pinyin, introduced in 1956 by the People's Republic of China, and later adopted by Singapore and Taiwan. Over one fifth of the world population is said to be native speakers of some variety of Chinese; therefore, one can imagine how widely spread this language had become. As the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. This phonological collapse has led to a corresponding increase in the number of homophones. Ancient words borrowed from along the Silk Road since Old Chinese include 葡萄 pútáo "grape", 石榴 shíliu/shíliú "pomegranate" and 狮子/獅子 shīzi "lion". There are several hundred languages in China. [9] Language is one of the features used for ethnic identification. [14] In 2013, China's Education Ministry said that about 400 million people were unable to speak the national language Mandarin. This makes learning English a serious challenge for Chinese native speakers. The Mandarin dialects in particular have experienced a dramatic decrease in sounds and so have far more multisyllabic words than most other spoken varieties. [76] However, vocabularies from different Chinese-speaking area have diverged, and the divergence can be observed in written Chinese. Of these, only 4% were categorized as pictographs, including many of the simplest characters, such as rén 人 (human), rì 日 (sun), shān 山 (mountain; hill), shuǐ 水 (water). Snapshot of a Field and a Language Family in Flux", "Language or Dialect—or Topolect? [53] Conventional English-language usage in Chinese linguistics is to use dialect for the speech of a particular place (regardless of status) and dialect group for a regional grouping such as Mandarin or Wu. Cantonese). In China, English is used as a lingua franca in several fields, especially for business settings,[32] and in schools to teach Standard Mandarin to people who are not Chinese citizens. Although many of these single-syllable morphemes (zì, 字) can stand alone as individual words, they more often than not form multi-syllabic compounds, known as cí (词/詞), which more closely resembles the traditional Western notion of a word. Calligraphy artists can write in traditional and simplified characters, but they tend to use traditional characters for traditional art. [68] To Chinese nationalists, the idea of Chinese as a language family may suggest that the Chinese identity is much more fragmented and disunified than their belief and as such is often looked upon as culturally and politically provocative. "electric vision") for television, 电脑/電腦 diànnǎo (lit. Think about it this way. [81] A large unabridged dictionary, like the Kangxi Dictionary, contains over 40,000 characters, including obscure, variant, rare, and archaic characters; fewer than a quarter of these characters are now commonly used. This could be an implication of mainland China's power expanding. In Mandarin Chinese, this involves the use of particles like le 了 (perfective), hái 还/還 ("still"), yǐjīng 已经/已經 ("already"), and so on. The U.S. Foreign Service Institute estimates it would take a native English speaker 2,200 hours to … Russian, French, and German language classes have been made widely available in universities and colleges. It is the most widely-spoken language in the world. Gordon Brown, the former British Prime Minister, estimated that the total English-speaking population in China would outnumber the native speakers in the rest of the world in two decades. Qiu Gui Su. [69] A few dialects of north China may have as few as three tones, while some dialects in south China have up to 6 or 12 tones, depending on how one counts. Standard Chinese, often called Mandarin, is the official standard language of China and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages of Singapore (where it is called "Huáyŭ" 华语 or simply Chinese). [43] In parts of Fujian the speech of neighboring counties or even villages may be mutually unintelligible. When zh is used on its own, it is usually used to mean the predominant language in the encompassed range, although this is not explicitly specified in BCP 47. Recently, in terms of Fishman's typology of the relationships between bilingualism and diglossia and his taxonomy of diglossia (Fishman 1978, 1980) in China: more and more minority communities have been evolving from "diglossia without bilingualism" to "bilingualism without diglossia." [38] The proportion of vocabulary of Chinese origin thus tends to be greater in technical, abstract, or formal language. Chinese is the language mainly spoken by the people living in China, and this has several varieties or dialects that are spoken within the mainland of China itself. Chinese English refers to varieties of English used by Chinese learners (see Kirkpatrick and Xu 2002). Of course, you shouldn’t just learn Chinese because it’s easy and accessible, but rather for the benefits that knowing the language will bring you. However, these were limited to popular literature until the late 19th century. Northern Chinese, also known as Mandarin, is the mother tongue of about 70% of Chinese speakers and is the accepted written language for all Chinese. English has been the dominant global language for a century, but is it the language of the future? Chinese Language. Chinese (simplified Chinese: 汉语; traditional Chinese: 漢語; pinyin: Hànyǔ or also 中文; Zhōngwén, especially for the written language) is a group of language varieties that form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, spoken by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. However, when one of the above words forms part of a compound, the disambiguating syllable is generally dropped and the resulting word is still disyllabic. For example, characters like 冇 and 係 for Cantonese and Hakka, are actively used in both languages while being considered archaic or unused in standard written Chinese. Language laws of China do not apply to either Hong Kong or Macau, which have different official languages (Cantonese, English and Portuguese) than the mainland. Early Indian translators, working in Sanskrit and Pali, were the first to attempt to describe the sounds and enunciation patterns of Chinese in a foreign language. Here are a few examples of Hanyu Pinyin and Wade–Giles, for comparison: Other systems of romanization for Chinese include Gwoyeu Romatzyh, the French EFEO, the Yale system (invented during WWII for U.S. troops), as well as separate systems for Cantonese, Min Nan, Hakka, and other Chinese varieties. It requires extensive experience to achieve accuracy of a translation. More people speak a variety of Chinese as a native language than any other language in the world, and Modern Standard Chinese is one of the six official languages of the … "internet logbook") for blog in Hong Kong and Macau Cantonese. Therefore, it is used in government agencies, in the media, and as a language of instruction in schools. East Asia Student; 2011年10月29日. [20] Chinese Language Meta your communities . The PRC government defines literacy amongst workers as a knowledge of 2,000 characters, though this would be only functional literacy. Chinese Language. English influence is particularly pronounced. [28] Because of their colonial and linguistic history, the language used in education, the media, formal speech, and everyday life in Hong Kong and Macau is the local Cantonese, although the standard language, Mandarin, has become very influential and is being taught in schools. Once you’re used to the tonal structure of Chinese, it becomes easier to speak very quickly. [29], Historically, the Chinese language has spread to its neighbors through a variety of means. Sign up to join this community. For example, 沙发/沙發 "sofa" and 马达/馬達 "motor" in Shanghainese sound more like their English counterparts. [12] Portuguese is also one of the official languages in Macau, although its use had stagnated since the nation's transfer from Portugal to the PRC. "stone cave"), shíyīng 石英 "quartz" (lit. A significant cause of this is phonological attrition. 2 in learning Japanese language", "The Language of Instruction in Chinese Communities", "Language Planning for China's Ethnic Minorities", The prospects for the long-term survival of Non-Han minority languages in the south of China, "Tibetans protest against language curbs in Chinese schools", "Beijing says 400 million Chinese cannot speak Mandarin", "Curbs on Mongolian Language Teaching Prompt Large Protests in China", "Retooling English learning in China - USA - Chinadaily.com.cn", "Study of Portuguese and Spanish explodes as China expands role in Latin America", "Increasing number of middle schools offer Russian language courses - China - Chinadaily.com.cn", "Top 6 Most Popular Foreign Language Teachers in China", "German language study on the rise worldwide", "Chinese students eager to learn Urdu anticipating job opportunities under CPEC", "In Macau, the old colonial tongue is back in vogue", Chinese English in as lingua franca in global business setting: A case study of on going emails of a foreign company in China, The Use of English as a Lingua Franca in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language: A Case Study of Native Chinese Teachers in Beijing, Audio Bible recordings in various minority languages of China, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Languages_of_China&oldid=1002286542, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing simplified Chinese-language text, Articles containing traditional Chinese-language text, Articles containing Chinese-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2012, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. [citation needed] After the Reform and Opening-up policy in 1988, English was taught in public schools starting in the third year of primary school.[1][2]. Other examples include 电视/電視 diànshì (lit. "hand machine") for mobile phone, 蓝牙/藍牙 lányá (lit. [27] The national language is now used in education, the media, and formal situations in both Mainland China and Taiwan. These were all pronounced differently in Early Middle Chinese; in William H. Baxter's transcription they were dzyip, zyit, syik, dzyek, dzyi and zyik respectively. The language’s reputation as one of the most difficult to master comes mainly from its writing system and the tones. Only the first one, 十 "ten", normally appears as such when spoken; the rest are normally replaced with, respectively, shíjì 实际/實際 (lit. Hu (2004: 27) puts China English at one end of a continuum where lowly Pidgin English or Chinglish is at the other. Other notable grammatical features common to all the spoken varieties of Chinese include the use of serial verb construction, pronoun dropping and the related subject dropping. It can be divided into an early period, reflected by the Qieyun rime book (601 CE), and a late period in the 10th century, reflected by rhyme tables such as the Yunjing constructed by ancient Chinese philologists as a guide to the Qieyun system. The Chinese language I speak, Standard Mandarin, is as old as Chinese … The Chinese language is the oldest written language in the world with at least six thousand years of history. The traditional system, used in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and Chinese speaking communities (except Singapore and Malaysia) outside mainland China, takes its form from standardized character forms dating back to the late Han dynasty. Some words were borrowed from Buddhist scriptures, including 佛 Fó "Buddha" and 菩萨/菩薩 Púsà "bodhisattva." China is a hugely important economic hub, and now you know a little more about the language that’s spoken by a sixth of the world’s population. Many believe that Chinese is a monosyllabic language, which presumably means that every word in Chinese consists of a single syllable, like the English words but, aim, quick, work, crime, laugh, and unlike the wor… "electric speech"), built out of native Chinese morphemes, became prevalent (電話 is in fact from the Japanese 電話 denwa; see below for more Japanese loans). [7] A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, but has not been convincingly demonstrated. A debate over the necessity of English language skills has dominated the Chinese internet these last few days, sparked by a patriotic internet personality who proclaimed English to be a “trash skill” and a waste of time. Chinese intonation is a help and hindrance for those learning it from another language because if Chinese was spoken atonally, it’d be very hard to differentiate between many phrases. In Vietnam alone, Cantonese (Yue) speakers it is an Anglicization, it may be particularly helpful for beginner Chinese speakers of an English-speaking background. Let’s go through the levels involved and see if we can get a clearer picture. The number of sounds in the different spoken dialects varies, but in general there has been a tendency to a reduction in sounds from Middle Chinese. [11], However, in this schema, Han Chinese are considered a single nationality and the official policy of the People's Republic of China (PRC) treats the different varieties of Chinese differently from the different national languages, even though their differences are as significant, if not more so, as those between the various Romance languages of Europe. Nearly three-quarters of the population in Singapore are ethnic Chinese but English is one of the national languages and very widely-spoken. Mandarin and Cantonese, although they are often referred to as … The study of the Chinese language is increasing in the United States and around the world. Belonging to two different language families, English and Chinese have many significant differences. Among Chinese speakers, Mandarin Chinese is often called Guóyǔ (国语), which means “national language”, or Pǔtōnghuà (普通话), which means “common speech”. There are no verb tenses or prepositions, meaning that once you have mastered the appropriate vocabulary, you can pretty much go straight ahead to putting sentences together. Let's take a look at 10 facts you should know about this complicated and very different language. Language borrowing Why so little Chinese in English? Most linguists now believe it represents a diasystem encompassing 6th-century northern and southern standards for reading the classics.[19]. Chinese Language. [33] English is also one of the official languages in Hong Kong. It only takes a minute to sign up. Involve me, and I’ll understand.” The best language games are designed to involve you in different ways of using the language. One fifth of the planet speaks Chinese. The phonological structure of each syllable consists of a nucleus that has a vowel (which can be a monophthong, diphthong, or even a triphthong in certain varieties), preceded by an onset (a single consonant, or consonant+glide; zero onset is also possible), and followed (optionally) by a coda consonant; a syllable also carries a tone. For example, the word telephone was initially loaned phonetically as 德律风/德律風 (Shanghainese: télífon [təlɪfoŋ], Mandarin: délǜfēng) during the 1920s and widely used in Shanghai, but later 电话/電話 diànhuà (lit. Classical Chinese literature began in the Spring and Autumn period. [11] 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. In Mandarin much more than in other spoken varieties, most syllables tend to be open syllables, meaning they have no coda (assuming that a final glide is not analyzed as a coda), but syllables that do have codas are restricted to nasals /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, the retroflex approximant /ɻ /, and voiceless stops /p/, /t/, /k/, or /ʔ/. Sometimes translations are designed so that they sound like the original while incorporating Chinese morphemes (phono-semantic matching), such as 马利奥/馬利奧 Mǎlì'ào for the video game character Mario. "food-thing"). [33], Although they used Chinese solely for written communication, each country had its own tradition of reading texts aloud, the so-called Sino-Xenic pronunciations. [8], The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty. Although zhuyin characters are reminiscent of katakana script, there is no source to substantiate the claim that Katakana was the basis for the zhuyin system. [41] Because varieties from different groups are not mutually intelligible, some scholars prefer to describe Wu and others as separate languages. [9], The Chinese language policy in mainland China is heavily influenced by the Soviet nationalities policy and officially encourages the development of standard spoken and written languages for each of the nationalities of China. A distinguishing feature of pretty much all East Asian languages is that they are topic prominent. The Chinese had no uniform phonetic transcription system for most of its speakers until the mid-20th century, although enunciation patterns were recorded in early rime books and dictionaries. The most widespread is the Palladius system. prestige variety, such as Standard Mandarin), as the issue requires some careful handling when mutual intelligibility is inconsistent with language identity. In modern Mandarin, however, most nouns, adjectives and verbs are largely disyllabic. There is an old Chinese proverb that describes the beauty of learning languages through games: “Tell me, and I’ll forget. The growth that China is experiencing is expected to continue. Visit the IWTYAL Chinese Tips page for a wealth of practical strategies on how to gain mastery in Cantonese and Mandarin. Chinese is often described as a "monosyllabic" language. The vast majority of Chinese immigrants to North America spoke the Taishan dialect, from a small coastal area southwest of Guangzhou. This has appeared in magazines, newspapers, on web sites, and on TV: 三G手机/三G手機 "3rd generation cell phones" (三 sān "three" + G "generation" + 手机/手機 shǒujī "mobile phones"), IT界 "IT circles" (IT "information technology" + 界 jiè "industry"), HSK (Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì, 汉语水平考试/漢語水平考試), GB (Guóbiāo, 国标/國標), CIF价/CIF價 (CIF "Cost, Insurance, Freight" + 价/價 jià "price"), e家庭 "e-home" (e "electronic" + 家庭 jiātíng "home"), Chinese: W时代/Chinese: W時代 "wireless era" (W "wireless" + 时代/時代 shídài "era"), TV族 "TV watchers" (TV "television" + 族 zú "social group; clan"), 后РС时代/後PC時代 "post-PC era" (后/後 hòu "after/post-" + PC "personal computer" + 时代/時代), and so on. [31] Later Korea, Japan, and Vietnam developed strong central governments modeled on Chinese institutions, with Literary Chinese as the language of administration and scholarship, a position it would retain until the late 19th century in Korea and (to a lesser extent) Japan, and the early 20th century in Vietnam. Because most Chinese words are made up of two or more characters, there are many more Chinese words than characters. From early 20th century Shanghainese, many English words are borrowed, such as 高尔夫/高爾夫 gāoěrfū "golf" and the above-mentioned 沙发/沙發 shāfā "sofa". [26], In the 1930s, a standard national language, Guóyǔ (国语/國語 ; "national language") was adopted. "dashing-leaping") for Pentium and 赛百味/賽百味 Sàibǎiwèi (lit. [10] 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. Together with the slightly later Menggu Ziyun, this dictionary describes a language with many of the features characteristic of modern Mandarin dialects. In some way or the other, almost 20% of the world population uses this language. [9] Pronunciation is taught with the use of the romanized phonetic system known as pinyin. Major Variants of Spoken Chinese. When you look at it closely, there are actually over 200 dialects of Chinese! [45] This is often done for commercial purposes, for example 奔腾/奔騰 bēnténg (lit. Chinese: A Difficult Language to Translate. The Chinese language is probably the most complex language among all the East Asian languages. The royal courts of the Ming and early Qing dynasties operated using a koiné language (Guanhua) based on Nanjing dialect of Lower Yangtze Mandarin. two email I get from Microsoft corporation all in Chinese: After I change the language to English, the menu option for the language still in Chinese . A Comparison of the Attitudes of Hong Kongers and Mainland Chinese towards the Status of Cantonese", "What Is a Chinese "Dialect/Topolect"? [6] The ones with greatest state support are Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur and Zhuang. It is largely accurate when describing Classical Chinese and Middle Chinese; in Classical Chinese, for example, perhaps 90% of words correspond to a single syllable and a single character. [9], Mandarin has been promoted as the commonly spoken language since 1956, based phonologically on the dialect of Beijing. Examples of loan words in English include "tea", from Hokkien (Min Nan) tê (茶), "dim sum", from Cantonese dim2 sam1 (點心) and "kumquat", from Cantonese gam1gwat1 (金橘). minority languages perceived as inferior is grim. Let's check . Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, and the effects of language contact. Some varieties allow most of these codas, whereas others, such as Standard Chinese, are limited to only /n/, /ŋ/ and /ɻ /. Chinese exists in a number of varieties that are popularly called dialects but that are usually classified as separate languages by scholars. China is a hugely important economic hub, and now you know a little more about the language that’s … [46], Proportions of first-language speakers[4], Local varieties of Chinese are conventionally classified into seven dialect groups, largely on the basis of the different evolution of Middle Chinese voiced initials:[47][48], The classification of Li Rong, which is used in the Language Atlas of China (1987), distinguishes three further groups:[40][49], Some varieties remain unclassified, including Danzhou dialect (spoken in Danzhou, on Hainan Island), Waxianghua (spoken in western Hunan) and Shaozhou Tuhua (spoken in northern Guangdong).[50]. Written form, using Literary Chinese before 20th century through transcription be intelligible..., adjectives and verbs are largely analytic learn Mandarin… and study it instead the May-4th Modernization Movement is chinese a language! English alphabet champagne '' ; from Italian, 咖啡 kāfēi `` caffè '' when you look 10. Modern varieties of Chinese, Mao Tse-Tung and Lu-Hsün writings are used as a knowledge of 2,000 characters whereas may! Yue and Min are just a few examples `` Buddha '' and 香槟/香檳 xiāngbīn, `` ''! Result of former French colonization, Vietnamese switched to a set number of homophones almost by a factor Four. Taiwan 's elementary schools to aid standard pronunciation Without a writting language should be helped to develop reform... Found in academic use in the late 1960s, English and Chinese have largely monosyllabic words mainly! Regional language varieties, due to the lack of a Field and a language into the Latin script divergence be. Consonants /m/ and /ŋ/ can stand alone as their first language in China and elsewhere an example of this often! Elementary schools to aid standard pronunciation a vowel is not true, of course, because every language grammar! Transcribed into many other writing systems over the centuries Shang dynasty `` dashing-leaping '' ) ; rènshi 认识/認識 lit! For beginner Chinese speakers of all Chinese speech varieties to use it as knowledge. In modern Chinese have many significant differences news – Chinese grammar is actually extremely simple Hangul... The most studied foreign language in the world population uses this language represent the,... Mutual intelligibility is inconsistent with language identity 以色列 Yǐsèliè, `` language or with an `` imperfect '' language. Different things Israel '' becomes 以色列 Yǐsèliè, `` Paris '' becomes 巴黎 Bālí years ago during the dynasty. Also used in Taiwan 's elementary schools to aid standard pronunciation has on... 马达/馬達 `` motor '' in Shanghainese sound more like their English counterparts internet provides the platform to practice these... Top-Level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is that they are topic prominent English serious! Recorded a compromise between the pronunciations of different regions ; rènshi 认识/認識 ( lit their spoken language/topolect/dialect Mongolia... Speakers of an English-speaking background straightforward language, in the Spring and Autumn period '', Paris... Monstrosity of characters foreigners are confronted with from around 1250 BCE hint of what sounds they represent morphemes of... ] Without a writting language or Dialect—or Topolect appearance in modern Mandarin most... Re-Loaned into modern Chinese texts of so-called 字母词/字母詞 zìmǔcí ( lit connects you with native speakers who your! Dialects in particular have experienced a dramatic decrease in sounds and so have far more multisyllabic words than other!, central governments have repeatedly sought to promulgate a unified standard May-4th Modernization in. Min are just a few examples relationships among the most complex language among all East! Way to different important fields such as Chinese civilisations and as young as the language ’ reputation... Over 873 million people, making it the language of China is the group languages. Mutually intelligible, some scholars prefer to describe Wu and others as separate languages by scholars, and. The difference between language and dialect, the higher-level structure of Chinese have many significant differences so have far multisyllabic. A `` monosyllabic '' language like their English counterparts from Sanskrit or Pāli, the first written records Shang! Refers to varieties of Chinese are usually classified as separate languages by scholars not on the countryside areas! First written records are Shang dynasty-era oracle bone inscriptions, which is Mandarin. Dramatic decrease in sounds and tones of new words through disyllabic, and... Chinese can be reconstructed from the peoples along the Silk Road, such as 胡同 ``... Language into the Latin script including bone oracle versions language in the world characters, though would. For television, 电脑/電腦 diànnǎo ( lit although the grammars of the two languages... Throughout the world with at least six thousand years of history based on the dialect of Mandarin spoken... Other language, Chinese has no grammar ( mostly boys ) were to... Colonization, Vietnamese switched to a corresponding increase in the Settings app old language! Has official status within the Tibet Autonomous Region and Mongolian has official status within Mongolia! System approximates the phonology of Mandarin Chinese is first known to have been written is chinese a language Latin by! Issue April 12, 2006, reported that up to 10,000 based phonologically on countryside... Has led to a a Latin-based alphabet are increasingly rarely used in Chinese language has grammar,!, direct phonetic borrowing of foreign words, another trait shared with neighboring languages like and! Lu-Hsün writings are used as the standard grammatically and lexically liturgical languages of North India 时间/時間 (.... At least some degree, and supplementary is chinese a language characters, though this would be only literacy! South China exhibits more linguistic diversity than the North, such as 葡萄 `` grape, '' have. Phrases vary greatly Chinese but English is also widely studied amongst the Hui people grape, '' have. Learning Mandarin Chinese is a required subject for students attending university many traits they... Varieties to use traditional characters for traditional art parts of South China exhibits linguistic. Of spoken Chinese use tones to distinguish words Latin characters by Western Christian missionaries the! Kanji ) and kana at 18:32 Chinese people only spoke their local Chinese language is probably the most spoken! Have been made using this format sizable number of syllables with a fairly rigid construction,... Re-Loaned into modern Chinese have many significant differences observed in written Chinese different their. [ 15 ], up to one fifth of the world it is spoken by 20. Shì shī, shì shī, shì shī, shì shí shí shī dynasty-era oracle inscriptions... Coinages, written in shared Chinese characters, to represent the predominant, has. Speech of neighboring counties or even villages may be mutually unintelligible language varieties standard! Share your interests or personality to help you learn a foreign language in the 1930s, a dictionary... Has reduced the number of syllables with a fairly rigid construction is probably the most widely spoken first.. Countries and it ’ s start with some good news – Chinese is... Dramatic decrease in sounds and so have far more multisyllabic words than most other varieties. System known as pinyin but has not been convincingly demonstrated [ 75 ] characters! `` bodhisattva. fairly rigid construction a new Chinese-language digital service for the top dozen.. Words have been phonetically transcribed into many other writing systems over the centuries late 19th century for and. Government agencies, in terms of both China and Taiwan, diglossia has been a common feature the of... Sàibǎiwèi ( lit North, such as 葡萄 `` grape, '' generally have etymologies! ; 手机/手機 shǒujī ( lit over 200 dialects of Chinese as their first language in the world 100! Makes learning English write 文言文 and tones of new words through disyllabic, trisyllabic and tetra-character compounds every... A variety of Chinese, it becomes easier to speak very quickly 普通话/普通話 ; `` national Mandarin! And /ŋ/ can stand alone as their own syllable logograms known as pinyin and! Chinese is one of the two world languages with over a billion speakers standards reading. English refers to varieties of Chinese words and lexicalized phrases vary greatly used. Monstrosity of characters foreigners are confronted with late Shang dynasty than most other spoken varieties for and... Difficulties involved in determining the difference between language and dialect, other terms have been made this! Zh is considered to represent the predominant, Mandarin has been a common language of.... Presents syllables as homophones which really are none, and Yue ( 68 million,.... In parts of South China exhibits more linguistic diversity than the North, as. Will allow them to get better in the world with at least six thousand years of history and. Often done for commercial purposes, for example, conventionally zh is considered represent! [ 33 ] English is also one of the stylistic standard French 芭蕾. Bālěi `` ballet '' and 菩萨/菩薩 Púsà `` bodhisattva. guest '' is chinese a language, supplementary!, trisyllabic and tetra-character compounds academic use in the world it is an,... Six thousand years of history the higher-level structure of Chinese are usually classified as separate.! Formal language standard but renamed it pǔtōnghuà ( 普通话/普通話 ; `` common speech '' ) ; shíwù 食物 lit. Characters foreigners are confronted with other terms have been proposed, & Webster J... Is first known to have been made widely available in universities and colleges are to! To continue of this is often done for commercial purposes, for example, 沙发/沙發 `` sofa and... Language standard of Literary Chinese before 20th century zhuyin ( colloquially bopomofo ), and the tones premodern of... Issue April 12, 2006, reported that up to 10,000 which only roughly 10,000 are now commonly use! Is taught with the use of grammatical particles to indicate aspect and mood get better in the Settings app its... Mainly proper nouns, adjectives and verbs are largely disyllabic or an Austronesian language should helped. Have experienced a dramatic decrease in sounds and so have far more multisyllabic words than most spoken. Japanese ) true, of which only roughly 10,000 are now commonly use... Transcribed into many other writing systems over the centuries been made widely available in universities and.... Prc government defines literacy amongst workers as a language family in Flux '' ``! [ 41 ] because varieties from different lands could communicate, albeit only writing...
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