Major Dialects of Chinese
Chinese is generally divided into 13 major dialects following the ISO 639-3 international language code standard. And the major dialects can be further divided into multiple dialects. Putonghua (or Mandarin), the predominant dialect, is spoken by over 70 percent of the population. It is taught in all schools and is the medium of government. Within these major dialect groups, there are many subgroups, many of which are mutually unintelligible. There are also great differences in the geographical variation of intelligibility. In Fujian, people living ten kilometers away from each other can be speaking unintelligible variations of the Min dialect.
Varieties of Chinese differ the most in phonology, and to a lesser extent in vocabulary and syntax.
- Putonghua. It is the mother dialect of Chinese living in Northern China and Sichuan Province. As the basis for the official spoken language of Chinese in the People’s Republic of China, it is also called Guoyu in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
- Wu. It is spoken in Shanghai, most of Zhejiang and the southern parts of Jiangsu and Anhui. This dialect group consists of hundreds of distinct spoken forms, many of which are mutually unintelligible.
- Hakka/Kejia. It is spoken by the Hakka people in Southern China.
- Min. It is spoken in Fujian, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia. Min group is the most diverse, with many of the varieties used in neighbouring counties.
- Yue. It is spoken in Guangdong Province, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, all over Southeast Asia and by many overseas Chinese.
Languages of Other Ethnic Groups
The Chinese languages most studied include Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur and Zhuang. However, China has a total number of 299 living languages.
All of China’s 55 minority peoples have their own languages except the Hui and Manchu, who use Chinese. Currently, 21 of China’s ethnic minorities have their own written language, including 27 written forms.
China’s more than 70 million minority members have their own spoken languages, which include Mongolian, Tibetan, Miao, Tai, Uygur, and Kazakh.
Government Efforts in Language Development
Formerly, many of the minority languages did not have a written form; the Chinese government has encouraged the development of written scripts for these languages, using pinyin. In the 1950’s, the government began helping the 12 ethnic minorities to create 16 written languages based on the Latin alphabet. The Chinese government also helped improve the four original written languages of the Dai, Lahu, Jingpo and Yi minority groups into five written languages. The Uygur and Kazakh groups’ languages were reformed into a written system. These groups are also encouraged to continue traditions that will promote knowledge of their ethno-linguistic heritage.
Bilingual Education and Ethnic Minority Media
The ethnic minorities who now have a written language began bilingual education from primary schools through to higher education. Classes in schools in predominantly national minority areas are taught in the local language, using local language textbooks. The Mandarin-based dialect is taught in schools, usually as a second language, and knowledge of it is a requisite throughout China. There are more and more Chinese who are bilingual in their native dialects and Putonghua.
Many ethnic minorities have newspapers and magazines written in their own language. In 1998, seventeen ethnic minorities published 83 newspapers and 84 magazines.
