This variety is a Southern Min language from south eastern Fujian that is also spoken in Taiwan. Hokkien is spoken by members of overseas Chinese communities both in South East Asian and in China towns in many countries, including the US.
Min Chinese is spoken in Fujian, Taiwan and some other parts of southern China. It is spoken by 6. The language is most commonly spoken in Shanghai, as well as in parts of the neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces.
It sounds quite different from Mandarin Chinese and the two are mutually unintelligible. Cantonese retains several features of ancient spoken Chinese. Cantonese is spoken in the southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi as well as in Hong Kong.
Jin Chinese is most commonly spoken in central China. Gan speakers can also be found in Hunan, Hubei, Fujian and Anhui. Gan is spoken by 3. Gan Chinese is most commonly spoken in Jiangxi Province. In China, Hakka is spoken by 3. Speakers can also be found in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia as well as in China towns around the world. The fascinating history of the Chinese Hakka varieties and of the Hakka Kejia people more generally is emblematic of how war and migration have helped shape the linguistic landscape of modern China.
The modern geographic distribution of the Hakka language has been shaped by historical migrations of the Hakka people. However, they fled south as refugees to escape war and unrest in northern China beginning in the Western Jin dynasty CE. Like Cantonese, Hakka Chinese retains several features of ancient spoken Chinese that no longer exist in Standard Mandarin. Perhaps due to their status as refugees, groups of Hakka people in China often live in geographically isolated areas, which has contributed to great linguistic diversity among the various dialects classified as Hakka.
Most Xiang Chinese speakers can be found in Hunan. This dialect group is only spoken by 0. Huizhou Chinese is a small group of dialects spoken in parts of Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangxi.
Since the number of speakers is quite small, it, like Huizhou Chinese, is often not included on lists of Chinese varieties. Speakers of Pinghua and the various unclassified Chinese dialects make up 0. Pinghua is spoken by a small number of people who mainly live in Guangxi. Below are some of the other major language families present in China today. Several ethnic minority groups living in southern China speak languages that belong to the Tai-Kadai family.
Other speakers of languages in this family can be found in Southeast Asia and Northeastern India. Speakers of languages in the Hmong-Mien family include people living in mountainous areas of southern China and Southeast Asia.
Chinese ethnic minority groups that speak languages in this family include the Miao, the Yao and the She. Speakers of languages in the Hmong-Mien family can be found scattered throughout southern China and Southeast Asia.
Speakers of the languages belonging to the Austroasiatic language family can be found in southern China as well as Southeast Asia, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Vietnamese and Khmer both belong to this family. Additional words are used to clarify the past and future tenses. These words are usually placed at the beginning of the phase to help indicate time.
In a medical setting, it is important to pay particular attention to time indicators. China covers a very broad area of land. There are more than 70 million people belonging to 55 different national minorities living in China. Many of the minority groups do not have a distinguishable written form for their languages.
The spoken Chinese language is comprised of many regional variants called dialects. Modern Chinese dialects evolved between the 8 th and 3 rd centuries BC. Mandarin or Putonghua is the most common dialect used in China and has been adopted as a second language by those who speak other Chinese dialects.
The official language of China, Mandarin is the dialect taught in Chinese schools. It is the universal language used throughout the northern, central, and southwestern provinces of China.
Next to Cantonese, it is the most common Chinese language spoken in the Northwest. Immigrants from China or Taiwan who speak Mandarin come from diverse backgrounds.
Some have fled China for political freedom after incidents such as the Tiananmen Square 10 events where students who spoke up for democracy were rapidly crushed by Chinese government. Others are well-educated professionals seeking business and educational opportunities in the United States. Still others have little education and have come to the States in search of better life for themselves and their families. Cantonese, also known as Yue or Guangdonghua, is spoken in Hong Kong, most of Guangdong, and the southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
There are large groups of Cantonese-speaking immigrants located in the Northwest area. More recently, a number of ethnic Chinese has fled Southeast Asia as refugees. Although Cantonese is a common dialect spoken on a daily basis in Hong Kong, government officials and schools are required to use Mandarin dialect.
Cantonese is arguably the most commonly spoken dialect in the Pacific Northwest, Northern California, and the East Coast. Local Chinese TV and radio media also commonly broadcast in Cantonese. Toisanese another dialect commonly used by Chinese in the Northwest is call Toisanese. This dialect came from the rural area of Guangdong. In the mid s, many Toisanese emigrated from Toisan area to the States as railroad workers.
More recently, Toisan people continue to immigrate to the States for improved economic opportunity. Many of the immigrants have adopted to learn the Cantonese dialect but some speak only Toisanese. There is no separate written language or broadcasting media in Toisanese.
Finally, a practical point: Understanding the differences between dialects will also prepare you for your next trip to China. For those interested in the Chinese language, the diversity and beauty of dialects should be a motive for you to immerse yourself in not just Mandarin, but in local dialects and regional life as well. Exposure is essential to discovering the many nuances of local culture and life.
Unsupported Browser Detected. The Many Dialects of China. Other Articles by Kiril Bolotnikov. Move Over Double-O Seven. Mandarin is one of many dialects of Chinese, and it's important to understand the diversity of dialects across China.
Episode Chinese Tones. Jesse Appell dives into the often confusing tones that make the Chinese language what it is. But while the tones can be frustrating to master, there's also a sort of musical beauty to them. Episode Small Bills. China has been more or less unified for the past years.
The Communist Revolution of was only the most recent important event as far as language is concerned. There have been many periods of instability in Chinese history, as you would expect from a region bigger than the entirety of the European continent. The sheer scale of this geography and history have led to huge divergences in the written forms of the language. There are eight main variants of spoken Chinese and hundreds of less common ones. However, there is an ongoing debate in linguistic circles as to whether these variants should properly be called dialects or languages.
Some, however, are mutually unintelligible. All have huge variations even within them! These can be as subtle as speakers in different regions having unique accents.
They could mean that there are some dialect words only known in certain areas They could be similar to the differences between US and UK English. Or they may be much, much greater:. Thus, it can be heard across the country. You will generally find that most Chinese people will speak at least a little Mandarin, even if it is only some basics with a strong accent.
There are many dialects within Mandarin, with speakers of each usually focused around major cities such as Tianjin or Shenyang.
Standard Mandarin is based on the original Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is also the Chinese language variant which is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. In many western parts of China, you will hear the Gan dialect being spoken. Jiangxi province is the main centre for speakers of Gan, as are nearby regions such as Anhui, Fujian, Hubei and Hunan.
The Hakka dialect is the closest to Gan — to the point where one is sometimes termed a variety of the other. Speakers of the Hakka dialect, which was originally the language of the Hakka people, are as spread out as the people themselves.
While many of the dialects listed here have a wide range of variants within them, Min unquestionably has the most. Also known as Shanghainese, Wu is — unsurprisingly — spoken around Shanghai, as well as the larger Yangtze river delta area. Most speakers of Xiang hail from Hunan province. Famously, Mao Zedong was a Xiang speaker. While there is a large degree of unintelligibility between the different Chinese dialects, speakers of Yue, in particular, will usually be able to understand very little said to them in a different dialect.
Most Yue speakers in mainland China can be found in Guangdong province. The two best-known and most-spoken variants of Chinese are Mandarin and Cantonese. These two languages are not mutually intelligible, so they cannot be called dialects.
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