1/23/26, 7:50 PM Chinese language - Wikipedia
Chinese (spoken: simplified Chinese: 汉 语 ; traditional Chinese: 漢
[a] [b]
語 ; pinyin: Hànyǔ, written: 中 文 ; Zhōngwén ) is an umbrella term for all Sinitic languages,
widely recognized as a collection of language varieties,[f] spoken natively by the ethnic Han
Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China, as well as by various
communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39 billion people, or 17% of the global
population, speak one of the varieties of Chinese as their first language.[1]
The different Chinese language varieties together form the largest branch of the Sino-Tibetan
languages. While the Chinese government defines all spoken Chinese varieties as merely
diverse dialects of a single language, the often lack of mutual intelligibility, especially among those
outside of the dominant northern varieties, have led linguists to consider them as separate
languages within a language family.[g] Investigation of the historical relationships among the
varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups
based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese, of which the most spoken by far
is Mandarin with 66%, or around 800 million speakers, followed by Min (75 million,
e.g., Hokkien and Teochew), Wu (74 million, e.g., Shanghainese) and Yue (68 million,
e.g., Cantonese).[4] These groups are unintelligible to each other, and many of their subgroups are
unintelligible with other subgroups within the same branch (e.g. Northern Min vs. Southern Min).
There are, however, transitional areas where varieties from different branches share enough
features for some limited intelligibility, including New Xiang with Southwestern
Mandarin, Xuanzhou Wu Chinese with Lower Yangtze Mandarin, Jin with Central Plains
Mandarin and certain divergent dialects of Hakka with Gan. All varieties of Chinese are tonal at
least to some degree, and are largely analytic.
The Chinese language is transcribed via a writing system consisting of logographic characters,
historically in the grammatical form of Literary Chinese. The earliest attested written
Chinese consists of the oracle bone inscriptions created during the Shang dynasty c. 1250 BCE. The
phonetic categories of Old Chinese can be reconstructed from the rhymes of ancient Chinese
poetry. During the Northern and Southern dynasties, Middle Chinese went through several sound
changes and split into several varieties following prolonged geographic and political separation.
The Qieyun, a rhyme dictionary, recorded a compromise between the pronunciations of different
regions. The royal courts of the Ming and early Qing dynasties operated using a koiné
language known as Guanhua, based on the Nanjing dialect of Mandarin.
Standard Chinese, a standard language based on the Beijing dialect and first officially adopted in
the 1930s, is the current official language of both the People's Republic of China and the
dissident Republic of China (Taiwan), one of the four official languages of Singapore, and one of
the six official languages of the United Nations. It is written primarily using modern written
vernacular Chinese, the literacy of which is shared by educated readers who may otherwise speak
mutually unintelligible varieties. Since the 1950s, the use of simplified Chinese characters has been
promoted by the government of the People's Republic of China, with the government of
Singapore officially adopting them in 1976. Traditional Chinese characters are still used in
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, areas of Malaysia with significant ethnic Chinese populations
(e.g. Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Kuching) and among other overseas Chinese communities.
Some ethnic minorities in Central Asia (e.g. the Dungan people) and the Russian Far East (e.g.
the Taz people) also speak varieties of Chinese but write in cyrillized scripts.
[Link] 1/8
1/23/26, 7:50 PM Chinese language - Wikipedia
Classification
Linguists classify all varieties of Chinese as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family, together
with Burmese, Tibetan and many other languages spoken in the Himalayas and the Southeast Asian
Massif.[5] Although the relationship was first proposed in the early 19th century and is now broadly
accepted, reconstruction of Sino-Tibetan is much less developed than that of families such as Indo-
European or Austroasiatic. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack
of inflection in many of them, and the effects of language contact. In addition, many of the smaller
languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach and are often also sensitive
border zones.[6] Without a secure reconstruction of Proto-Sino-Tibetan, the higher-level structure
of the family remains unclear.[7] A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman
languages is often assumed, but has not been convincingly demonstrated.[8]
History
The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty. As the language
evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction,
central governments have repeatedly sought to promulgate a unified standard.[9]
Old and Middle Chinese
The earliest examples of Old Chinese are divinatory
inscriptions on oracle bones dated to c. 1250 BCE, during
the Late Shang.[10] The next attested stage came
from inscriptions on bronze artifacts dating to the Western
Zhou period (1046–771 BCE), the Classic of Poetry and
portions of the Book of Documents and I Ching.[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. [12] Although many of the finer details remain
unclear, most scholars agree that Old Chinese differs from
Middle Chinese in lacking retroflex and palatal obstruents
but having initial consonant clusters of some sort, and in
having voiceless nasals and liquids.[13] Most recent
reconstructions also describe an atonal language with
consonant clusters at the end of the syllable, developing Ji gui inscription, a bronze vessel
into tone distinctions in Middle inscription from the Western Zhou period,
Chinese. [14] Several derivational affixes have also been representing an early form of written
identified, but the language lacks inflection, and indicated Chinese.
grammatical relationships using word order
and grammatical particles. [15]
Middle Chinese was the language used during Northern and Southern dynasties and the Sui, Tang,
and Song dynasties (6th–10th centuries). It can be divided into an early period, reflected by
the Qieyun rhyme dictionary (601), and a late period in the 10th century, reflected by rhyme
[Link] 2/8
1/23/26, 7:50 PM Chinese language - Wikipedia
tables such as the Yunjing constructed by ancient Chinese philologists as a guide to
the Qieyun system.[16] These works define phonological categories but with little hint of what
sounds they represent.[17] Linguists have identified these sounds by comparing the categories with
pronunciations in modern varieties of Chinese, borrowed Chinese words in Vietnamese, Korean,
and Japanese, and transcription evidence.[18] The resulting system is very complex, with a large
number of consonants and vowels, but they are probably not all distinguished in any single dialect.
Most linguists now believe it represents a diasystem encompassing 6th-century northern and
southern standards for reading the classics.[19]
Classical and vernacular written forms
The complex relationship between spoken and written Chinese is an example of diglossia: as
spoken, Chinese varieties have evolved at different rates, while the written language used
throughout China changed comparatively little, crystallizing into a prestige form known as Classical
or Literary Chinese. Literature written distinctly in the Classical form began to emerge during
the Spring and Autumn period. Its use in writing remained nearly universal until the late 19th
century, culminating with the widespread adoption of written vernacular Chinese with the May
Fourth Movement beginning in 1919.
Rise of northern dialects
After the fall of the Northern Song dynasty and subsequent reign of the
Jurchen Jin and Mongol Yuan dynasties in northern China, a common speech (now called Old
Mandarin) developed based on the dialects of the North China Plain around the capital.[20] The
1324 Zhongyuan Yinyun was a dictionary that codified the rhyming conventions of
new sanqu verse form in this language.[21] Together with the slightly later Menggu Ziyun, this
dictionary describes a language with many of the features characteristic of modern Mandarin
dialects.[22]
Until the early 20th century, most Chinese people only spoke their local language.[23] Thus, 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 官 话 ; 官 話 ; Guānhuà;
'language of officials'.[24] For most of this period, this language was a koiné based on dialects
spoken in the Nanjing area, though not identical to any single dialect.[25] By the middle of the 19th
century, the Beijing dialect had become dominant and was essential for any business with the
imperial court.[26]
In the 1930s, a standard national language (国语; 國語; Guóyǔ), was adopted. After much dispute
between proponents of northern and southern languages and an abortive attempt at an artificial
pronunciation, the National Language Unification Commission finally settled on the Beijing dialect
in 1932. The People's Republic founded in 1949 retained this standard but renamed it 普通话; 普通
話; pǔtōnghuà; 'common speech'.[27] The national language is now used in education, the media,
and formal situations in both mainland China and Taiwan.[28]
In Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese is the dominant spoken language due to cultural influence
from Guangdong immigrants and colonial-era policies, and is used in education, media, formal
speech, and everyday life—though Mandarin is increasingly taught in schools due to the mainland's
growing influence.[29]
[Link] 3/8
1/23/26, 7:50 PM Chinese language - Wikipedia
Influence
Historically, the Chinese languages spread to neighbors
through a variety of means. Northern Vietnam was
incorporated into the Han dynasty in 111 BCE, marking the
beginning of a period of Chinese control that ran almost
continuously for a millennium. The Four Commanderies of
Han were established in northern Korea in the 1st
century BCE but disintegrated in the following
centuries.[30] Chinese Buddhism spread over East Asia
between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE, and with it the study
of scriptures and literature in Literary Chinese.[31] Later,
strong central governments modeled on Chinese The Tripitaka Koreana, a Korean
institutions were established in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, collection of the Chinese Buddhist canon
with Literary Chinese serving 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.[32] Scholars from different lands could communicate, albeit only in writing, using Literary
Chinese.[33]
Although they used Chinese solely for written communication, each country had its own tradition of
reading texts aloud using what are known as Sino-Xenic pronunciations. Chinese words with these
pronunciations were also extensively imported into the Korean, Japanese,
and Vietnamese languages. Today, Sino-Korean, Sino-Japanese, and Sino-Vietnamese
vocabularies comprise over half of their respective lexicons.[34] This massive influx led to changes
in the phonological structure of the languages, contributing to the development of moraic structure
in Japanese[35] and the disruption of vowel harmony in Korean.[36]
Borrowed Chinese morphemes have been used extensively in all these languages to coin compound
words for new concepts, in a similar way to the use of Latin and Ancient Greek roots in European
languages.[37] Many new compounds, or new meanings for old phrases, were created in the late
19th and early 20th centuries to name Western concepts and artifacts. These coinages, written in
shared Chinese characters, have then been borrowed freely between languages. They have even
been accepted into Chinese, a language usually resistant to loanwords, because their foreign origin
was hidden by their written form. Often different compounds for the same concept were in
circulation for some time before a winner emerged, and sometimes the final choice differed
between countries.[38] The proportion of vocabulary of Chinese origin thus tends to be greater in
technical, abstract, or formal language. For example, in Japan, Sino-Japanese words account for
about 35% of the words in entertainment magazines, over half the words in newspapers, and 60%
of the words in science magazines.[39]
Vietnam, Korea, and Japan each developed writing systems for their own languages, initially based
on Chinese characters, but later replaced with the hangul alphabet for Korean and supplemented
with kana syllabaries for Japanese, while Vietnamese continued to be written with the complex chữ
Nôm script. However, these were limited to popular literature until the late 19th century. Today
Japanese is written with a composite script using both Chinese characters called kanji, and kana.
Korean is written exclusively with hangul in North Korea, although knowledge of the
supplementary Chinese characters called hanja is still required, and hanja are increasingly rarely
used in South Korea. As a result of its historical colonization by France, Vietnamese now uses the
Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet.
[Link] 4/8
1/23/26, 7:50 PM Chinese language - Wikipedia
English words of Chinese origin include tea from Hokkien 茶 (tê), dim sum from Cantonese 點
心 (dim2 sam1), and kumquat from Cantonese 金橘 (gam1 gwat1).
Varieties
The sinologist Jerry Norman has
estimated that there are hundreds of
mutually unintelligible varieties of
Chinese.[40] These varieties form
a dialect continuum, in which
differences in speech generally Wuzhou
become more pronounced as
Guangzhou
distances increase, though the rate of
change varies immensely. Generally,
mountainous South China exhibits
more linguistic diversity than
Taishan
the North China Plain. Until the late
20th century, Chinese emigrants to 70km
Southeast Asia and North America 43miles
came from southeast coastal areas,
where Min, Hakka, and Yue dialects
were spoken. Specifically, most Chinese immigrants to North America until the mid-20th century
spoke Taishanese, a variety of Yue from a small coastal area around Taishan, Guangdong.[41]
In parts of South China, the dialect of a major city may be only marginally intelligible to its
neighbors. For example, Wuzhou and Taishan are located approximately 260 km (160 mi) and
190 km (120 mi) away from Guangzhou respectively, but the Yue variety spoken in Wuzhou is more
similar to the Guangzhou dialect than is Taishanese. Wuzhou is located directly upstream from
Guangzhou on the Pearl River, whereas Taishan is to Guangzhou's southwest, with the two cities
separated by several river valleys.[42] In parts of Fujian, the speech of some neighbouring counties
or villages is mutually unintelligible.[43]
Grouping
Local varieties of Chinese are conventionally classified into seven dialect groups, largely based on
the different evolution of Middle Chinese voiced initials:[45][46]
Mandarin, including Standard Chinese, the Beijing dialect, Sichuanese, and also the Dungan
language spoken in Central Asia
Wu, including Shanghainese, Suzhounese, and Wenzhounese
Gan
Xiang
Min, including Fuzhounese, Hainanese, Hokkien and Teochew
Hakka
Yue, including Cantonese and Taishanese
The classification of Li Rong, which is used in the Language Atlas of China (1987), distinguishes
three further groups:[44][47]
[Link] 5/8
1/23/26, 7:50 PM Chinese language - Wikipedia
Jin, previously included in Mandarin.
Huizhou, previously included in Wu.
Pinghua, previously included in Yue.
Some varieties remain unclassified, including
the Danzhou dialect on Hainan, Waxianghua spoken in
western Hunan, and Shaozhou Tuhua spoken in
northern Guangdong.[48]
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese is the standard language of China
(where it is called 普 通 话 ; pǔtōnghuà) and Taiwan,
and one of the four official languages of Singapore
(where it is called either 华语; 華語; Huáyǔ or 汉语; 漢
語; Hànyǔ). Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing
dialect of Mandarin. The governments of both China
and Taiwan intend for speakers of all Chinese speech
varieties to use it as a common language of
communication. Therefore, it is used in government
agencies, in the media, and as a language of instruction
in schools. Range of dialect groups in China proper and
Taiwan according to the Language Atlas of
Diglossia is common among Chinese speakers. For China[44]
example, a Shanghai resident may speak both Standard
Chinese and Shanghainese; if they grew up elsewhere,
they are also likely fluent in the dialect of their home region.
In addition to Standard Chinese, a majority of Taiwanese
people also speak Taiwanese Hokkien (also called 台 語 ;
'Taiwanese'[49][50]), Hakka, or an Austronesian
language. [51] A speaker in Taiwan may mix pronunciations
and vocabulary from Standard Chinese and other languages
of Taiwan in everyday speech.[52] In part due to traditional
cultural ties with Guangdong, Cantonese is used as an
everyday language in Hong Kong and Macau.
Nomenclature Proportions of first-language speakers[4]
The designation of various Chinese branches remains Mandarin (65.7%)
controversial. Some linguists and most ordinary Chinese Min (6.20%)
people consider all the spoken varieties as one single Wu (6.10%)
language, as speakers share a common national identity and a Yue (5.60%)
common written form.[53] Others instead argue that it is Jin (5.20%)
inappropriate to refer to major branches of Chinese such as
Gan (3.90%)
Mandarin, Wu, and so on as "dialects" because the mutual
Hakka (3.50%)
unintelligibility between them is too great.[54][55] However,
calling major Chinese branches "languages" would also be Xiang (3.00%)
wrong under the same criterion, since a branch such as Wu, Huizhou (0.30%)
itself contains many mutually unintelligible varieties, and Pinghua, others (0.60%)
could not be properly called a single language.[40]
[Link] 6/8
1/23/26, 7:50 PM Chinese language - Wikipedia
There are also viewpoints pointing out that linguists often ignore mutual intelligibility when
varieties share intelligibility with a central variety (i.e. prestige variety, such as Standard
Mandarin), as the issue requires some careful handling when mutual intelligibility is inconsistent
with language identity.[56]
The Chinese government's official Chinese designation for the major branches of Chinese is 方
言; fāngyán; 'regional speech', whereas the more closely related varieties within these are called 地
点方言; 地點方言; dìdiǎn fāngyán; 'local speech'.[57]
Because of the difficulties involved in determining the difference between language and dialect,
other terms have been proposed. These
include topolect, [58] lect, [59] vernacular, [60] regional, [57] and variety. [61][62]
Phonology
Syllables in the Chinese languages have some unique
characteristics. They are tightly related to 0:30
the morphology and also to the characters of the writing A man speaking Mandarin with a
system, and phonologically they are structured according to Malaysian accent
fixed rules.
The 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; a zero onset is also possible), and followed (optionally) by
a coda consonant; a syllable also carries a tone. There are some instances where a vowel is not used
as a nucleus. An example of this is in Cantonese, where the nasal sonorant
consonants /m/ and /ŋ/ can stand alone as their own syllable.
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/. Some varieties allow most of these codas, whereas others, such as
Standard Chinese, are limited to only /n/, /ŋ/, and /ɻ/.
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. The Mandarin dialects in particular have
experienced a dramatic decrease in sounds and so have far more polysyllabic words than most
other spoken varieties. The total number of syllables in some varieties is therefore only about a
thousand, including tonal variation, which is only about an eighth as many as English.[h]
Tones
All varieties of spoken Chinese use tones to distinguish words.[63] 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. One exception from this is Shanghainese which has reduced the set of tones to a
two-toned pitch accent system much like modern Japanese.
[Link] 7/8
1/23/26, 7:50 PM Chinese language - Wikipedia
A very common example used to illustrate the use of tones in Chinese is the application of the four
tones of Standard Chinese, along with the neutral tone, to the syllable ma. The tones are
exemplified by the following five Chinese words:
[Link] 8/8