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Chinese Spoken Languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, etc.
Chinese Spoken Languages: Areas Spoken
Mandarin: Mainland China (Official Language),
Singapore (Official Language), Taiwan (Official Language),
Overseas Chinese Communities such as Los Angeles
Cantonese: Hong Kong (Official Language), Macau
(Official Language), Overseas Chinese Communities such as San
Francisco
Chinese Spoken Languages - General Information
Spoken Chinese comprises many regional varieties, the primary
ones being Mandarin, Wu (Shanghaiese), Yue (Cantonese), and Min
(Taiwanese). These are not mutually intelligible, but for
sociological and political reasons are considered a single
Chinese language.
The varieties of Chinese classified into the following groups:
* Mandarin (c. 836 million speakers) This is the group of
dialects spoken in northern and southwestern China, and makes up
the largest spoken language in China. Standard Mandarin, called
Putonghua or Guoyu in Chinese, which is often also translated as
"Mandarin" or simply "Chinese", belongs to this group. It is the
official spoken language of the People's Republic of China, and
Singapore. Mandarin Chinese is also the official language of the
Republic of China, currently governing Taiwan, although there
are minor differences in this standard from the form
standardized in the PRC.
Mandarin is characterized by four tones, compared to eight in
Cantonese, and the loss of final consonants, so that while
Middle Chinese had an inventory of -p, -t, -k, -m, -n, ng,
Standard Mandarin only has -n, -ng. Mandarin has adjusted to the
high number of homonyms created by these losses through word
compounding. The use of compounds is generally less frequent in
other dialects.
* Wu (Shanghaiese) (c. 77 million) spoken in the
provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the municipality of
Shanghai. Wu includes Shanghai dialect, sometimes taken as the
representative of all Wu dialects. Wu's subgroups are extremely
diverse, especially in the mountainous regions of Zhejiang and
eastern Anhui. The group possibly comprises hundreds of distinct
spoken forms which are not mutually intelligible amongst each
other.
* The Min languages (i.e. Taiwanese) (c. 60 million)
spoken in Fujian, Taiwan, parts of Southeast Asia particularly
in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore, and amongst
Overseas Chinese who trace their roots to Fujian and Taiwan. The
largest Min language is Hokkien, which is spoken in Southern
Fujian, Taiwan, and by many Chinese in Southeast Asia and
includes the Taiwanese, and Amoy dialects amongst others. Min is
the only branch of Chinese that cannot be directly derived from
Middle Chinese. It is also the most diverse, divided into seven
subgroups defined on the basis of relative mutual
intelligibility: Min Nan (which includes Hokkien and Teochew),
Min Dong (which includes the Fuzhou dialect), Min Bei, Min Zhong,
Pu Xian, Qiong Wen, and Shao Jiang.
* Cantonese (Yue) (c. 71 million) spoken in Guangdong,
Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau, parts of Southeast Asia and by
Overseas Chinese with an ancestry tracing back to the Guangdong
region. Used by linguistics, "Cantonese" covers all the Yue
dialects, such as Taishanese, though the term is also used to
refer specifically to the Standard Cantonese of Guangzhou and
Hong Kong. Similar to Wu and Min, not all subgroups of Cantonese
are mutually intelligible. Some dialects of Yue have intricate
sets of tone compared to other Chinese dialects, with up to
seven or eight tones.
* Xiang (Hunanese) :(c. 36 million) spoken in Hunan.
Xiang is usually divided into the "old" and "new" dialects, with
the new dialects being significantly influenced by Mandarin.
* Hakka : (c. 34 million) spoken by the Hakka people,
a cultural group of the Han Chinese, in several provinces across
southern China, in Taiwan, and in parts of Southeast Asia such
as Malaysia and Singapore. The term "Hakka" itself translates as
"guest families", and many Hakka people consider themselves to
be descended from Song-era refugees from North China, although
genetic and linguistic evidence suggests that the Hakka
originated right around where they are today. Hakka has kept
many features of northern Middle Chinese that have been lost in
the North.
* Gan (c. 31 million) spoken in Jiangxi. In the past,
it was viewed as closely related to Hakka dialects, because of
the way Middle Chinese voiced initials have become voiceless
aspirated initials, as in Hakka, and were hence called by the
umbrella term "Hakka-Gan dialects". This term has, however, now
become obsolete.
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