Chinese Branch of the Sino-Tibetan Language Family

Introduction

Mandarin and Cantonese are Category III languages in terms of difficulty for speakers of English.

Chinese languages/dialects constitute an independent branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. About one-fourth of the world's population speaks some variety of Chinese as their native language. By the sheer number of its speakers, the antiquity of its unbroken documented written history, its cultural significance, and its influence on other languages, Chinese is one of the most important languages in the world.

Click on the MLA Interactive Language Map to find out where Chinese (all dialects) is spoken in the United States.

Status Standard Mandarin is the official standard of the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and one of the official languages of Singapore. The governments of them intend for speakers of all Chinese speech varieties to use it as a lingua franca. It is used in government, in the media, and in education.

• People's Republic of China
  The situation in the People's Republic of China is characterized by diglossia. For instance, it is common for people to speak Standard Mandarin, plus local dialect(s), plus sometimes a regional lingua franca, such as Cantonese. People frequently switch between Standard Mandarin and the local dialect(s), depending on the situation.
• In the Republic of China (Taiwan), speakers commonly switch back and forth between Standard Mandarin and Taiwanese, and this mixture is considered socially appropriate under many circumstances.
• In Hong Kong, it is acceptable to switch between Cantonese and English, and in some cases, also Standard Mandarin.
• In Singapore, people switch between Standard Mandarin, Mĭn, and English.

Dialects

The identification of the varieties of Chinese as languages or dialects is a controversial issue. Some call Chinese a language and its subdivisions dialects, while others call Chinese a language branch and its subdivisions languages. The Chinese themselves refer to all forms of spoken Chinese as dialects. This perception is reinforced by a common cultural and political identity and by a common writing system with deep historical roots.

Chinese is distinguished by a great deal of internal diversity. To date, some 1500 varieties of spoken Chinese have been identified. Many variants of spoken Chinese are different enough to be mutually incomprehensible. In fact, the intelligibility between any two of the Chinese dialects is less than that between any two Romance languages. Furthermore, the dialects themselves are far from uniform. There is a great deal of variation within the dialects themselves which also affects intelligibility.

Chinese is usually classified into these major dialect groups:

• Mandarin
  Mandarin is the major dialect of China both in terms of number of speakers (about 70% of the total population) and political importance.The term Mandarin is an English translation of guān-huà 'official language', i.e., the dialect spoken in Běijīng. The Běijīng dialect has been the standard for the official language of China for many centuries. Because of geographical and political considerations, the language came to be known by different names: in the People's Republic of China it is called pŭtōnghuà 'common speech', in Taiwan it is called guóyŭ 'national language', and in Singapore and Malaysia it is called huáyŭ 'Chinese language.' Although pŭtōnghuà, guóyŭ and huáyŭ are all technically based on the Běijīng dialect, they differ from the dialect spoken in Běijīng. They also differ from each other mostly in pronunciation and vocabulary.
• Wú
  The Wú dialects, also known as Shanghainese, are spoken by some 77 million people along the lower Yángzĭ River and the provinces of Jiāngsū, Zhèjiāng and Ānghuī, including China's largest city of Shànghăi.
• Yuè
  The Yuè dialects, also known as Cantonese, are spoken by 71 million people in the province of Guăndōng and the city of Guăngzhōu (Canton), as well as in Hong Kong, and in expatriate Chinese communities and Chinatowns in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States. Most Chinese loanwords that made their way into English came from Cantonese, rather than from Mandarin.
• Mĭn
  The Mĭn dialects, also known as Taiwanese, Fukkianese, Hokkienese, and Amoy, are spoken by close to 60 million people in Táiwān, the Fújiàn province, and Hăinán Island in the Gulf of Tonkin. Most Chinese in Táiwān and Singapore speak Mĭn as their first language because they are descendants of Mĭn speakers from Fújiàn province.
  Hakka (kè-jiá)
  The Hakka dialects are spoken by over 30 million people throughout southeastern China. The Hakka people were settlers who came from northern China. The name Hakka means 'guest'.
• Jìnyǔ
  The Jinyŭ dialects are spoken by 45 million people in a large area of northern China, west of Beijing, including the provinces of Shănxī, Shānxī, Héběi, Hénán, and Inner Mongolia.
• Xiáng
  The Xiáng dialects, also known as Hunanese, are spoken by 36 million people in Húnán, Sichūan, Guăngxī, and Guăndōng provinces.

• Gàn
  The Gàn dialect is spoken by 21 million people in Jiangxi, and some parts of Ānghuī, Húnán, Jiāngsī, and Fújiàn provinces.

--From "aboutworldlanguages"