Search results
Jin. Gan. Hakka. Xiang. Huizhou. Pinghua. "Chinese" is a blanket term covering many different varieties spoken across China. Mandarin Chinese is the most popular dialect, and is used as a lingua franca across China. Linguists classify these varieties as the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family.
Nov 12, 2020 · Learn about the complexity and diversity of Chinese dialects, from Mandarin to Cantonese, from Wu to Hakka, from Yue to Gan. Discover the challenges and methods of defining and counting dialects, and the different languages spoken by ethnic minorities in China.
- Contents
- The 7 Major Chinese Dialect Groups
- How Many Chinese Dialects Are there?
- The History of Language in China
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
1. Mandarin Chinese
Where it’s spoken:China, Taiwan Number of speakers:∼1.1 billion Mandarin, also known as Putonghua, is the official language of China.It’s spoken throughout the country and is taught and used in all schools. As a result, nearly every Chinese person can speak (or at least understand) Mandarin. Some regions prefer their local dialect, however, in addition to Mandarin. They are sometimes stereotyped as speaking “bad” Mandarin, which of course is not true. Mandarin began to be recognized as the la...
2. Cantonese Chinese
Where it’s spoken:China’s Guangdong province, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau Number of speakers:∼73 million Though not quite second in terms of speakers, Cantonese is the second most widely spread dialect spoken in China. Today, it’s largely spoken by the Tanka people, who are natives of the Pearl River Delta. The Cantonese Chinese dialectoriginated in ancient Guangzhou, also known as Canton City (hence, “Canton”ese!). It began with Middle Chinese and was then influenced by Proto-Tai. Then the l...
3. Wu Chinese
Where it’s spoken:China’s Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, Shanghai Number of speakers:∼80 million Used primarily in Shanghai, the Wu Chinese dialect is mostly known as Shanghainese. But while Shanghainese is one of the major Wu varieties, areas such as Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Jinhua, Shaoxing and others have their own varieties. The Wu Chinese dialect originated in the ancient Wu (吴) and Yue (越) kingdoms of China. These kingdoms were located in the modern-day Jiangsu and northern Z...
Linguists debate whether some Chinese dialects should be considered whole languages on their own. But for now, due to political reasons, China classifies them all as dialects, and there is at least some degree of mutual intelligibility between them. According to K&J Translations, China is home to over 302 individual languages and dialects. In fact,...
The Chinese language has a rich and complex history dating back thousands of years. As a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family, modern Chinese emerged from Proto-Sino-Tibetan and then Old and Middle Chinese, which is the original source of all dialects spoken today. The Chinese language is the oldest known written language on earth.The oldest ...
Learn about the history and features of the seven major Chinese dialect groups, such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Hakka, Gan, Hokkien and Xiang. Find out how many speakers there are and where they are spoken in China and beyond.
Learn about the diversity and complexity of Chinese languages, from Mandarin to Cantonese, and how they differ from each other. Discover the history, geography, and culture behind the dialects of China.
Feb 12, 2019 · Learn about the seven large groups of Chinese dialects and how they are spoken by different regions and have different tones. Find out how Mandarin, the official language, is a northern dialect with four tones and how it differs from other dialects in pronunciation and meaning.
- Jun Shan
Apr 12, 2024 · China’s distressed pig farmers eye turnaround. Chinese languages, principal language group of eastern Asia, belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese exists in a number of varieties that are popularly called dialects but that are usually classified as separate languages by scholars. More people speak a variety of Chinese as a ...
People also ask
How many languages are there in China?
How many Chinese dialects are there?
What language group does China belong to?
What language is spoken in China?
Dec 8, 2023 · Learn about the 302 living languages in China, including Mandarin and other Chinese variants, and minority languages. Find out how geography, history and writing influenced the linguistic diversity in China.
