Mandarin, Cantonese, and more – An overview of China's linguistic diversity

The People's Republic of China is considered a multi-ethnic nation, including in terms of language. This article provides an introductory overview of the languages, dialects, and writing systems.

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What language is actually spoken in China?

Chinese, everyone knows that. But which version of Chinese are we talking about here?

To put things in perspective: China (specifically, the People’s Republic of China) is a country of enormous size. More precisely, it covers 9.6 million square kilometers. That is more than twice the total land area of the EU, which is only 4.5 million square kilometers. Furthermore, China describes itself as a multi-ethnic state. There are, after all, 56 officially recognized 民族 - Minzu, which roughly translates to “ethnic group.” The largest of these 56 recognized ethnic groups is the Han Chinese. The other 55 Minzu together account for only about 10% of the total population. Given these figures, it seems unlikely that only one language is spoken.

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Language or dialect?

Linguistically, too, China is not as homogeneous as is commonly assumed in the West. There are around 300 different languages and dialects. Some of these differ so drastically that a Chinese person from the north might not be able to understand a Chinese person from the south of the country.

Even if one limits oneself to the major dialect groups (consisting of a multitude of individual local dialects), most sources still speak of 8 Chinese languages.

Where a dialect ends and a new language begins is an interesting topic, one I’d rather leave to the linguists. Personally, I’ve always liked what my professor of Contemporary Chinese Studies used to say:

“A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.”

This view is apparently shared in the People's Republic of China, which is why all major dialect groups are simply referred to collectively as 中国话 - Zhongguohua, or “the language of China.”

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Mandarin, Putonghua, and the “One Chinese”

So when we speak of “Chinese” in Europe, we usually mean the modern official language, 普通话 - Putonghua (literally translated to “standard language” or “common language”). The term “Standard Chinese” would be the most accurate translation in English. The term 官话 - Mandarin, which is frequently used here, is supposed to mean the same thing; however, in China itself, this term from the imperial era is now mostly used only in a historical context.

Today, by law, 普通话 - Putonghua is a required subject in all schools in China, regardless of which dialect is spoken in the region. The number of Chinese people who can understand and speak Putonghua is therefore steadily increasing, in line with the government’s goals. For several hundred million Chinese people, however, Putonghua is and remains a second language learned outside the home.

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Many languages - many scripts?

Historically, the problem was solved through writing - literally. Chinese writing has a history dating back some 3,000 years. Although a wide variety of languages are spoken in China, written communication is generally not a problem. Chinese characters unify all languages and dialects. Thus, the very same text is pronounced completely differently depending on where you are.

However, things get complicated once more: After a long period of uniformity, we must now once again distinguish between two different Chinese writing systems:

• 繁体字 (Fantizi) Traditional characters

• 简体字 (Jiantizi) Simplified characters

As the name suggests, Jiantizi are a simplified form of traditional Chinese characters. They were introduced throughout the People’s Republic of China in 1949 to simplify and accelerate literacy efforts in the country. However, there are still areas in Greater China that adhere to the traditional writing system. Depending on where we are, we are therefore dealing with either traditional characters or simplified characters.

Map: Overview of Characters

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Who says what - and how is it spelled?

If we focus solely on Mandarin (Putonghua - Standard Chinese) and Cantonese as two examples of Chinese languages, this leads to the following dilemma: Standard Chinese is spoken in northern China and Taiwan. Cantonese is spoken in the south, particularly in the province of Guangdong. In mainland China, the simplified writing system is used regardless of whether Cantonese or Mandarin is spoken. In Hong Kong, Cantonese is spoken, but the traditional writing system is still used. In Taiwan, the traditional writing system is used, but Mandarin (Putonghua - Standard Chinese) is spoken. This results in the following target relationships:

Target/Relationships	Written	Spoken
Hong Kong/Macau	Traditional	Cantonese
PRC (North)	Simplified	Mandarin (Putonghua)
Taiwan	Traditional	Mandarin (Putonghua)
Malaysia & Singapore	Simplified	Mandarin (Putonghua)
United States - Expats	Simplified or Traditional	Mandarin or Cantonese

*Various dialects outside the two language groups are not included

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Traditional vs. Simplified - How Big Is the Difference, Really?

The extent to which the symbol following the “simplification” of 1949 still resembles the traditional symbol varies greatly. The changes can range from nonexistent to very significant.

	Traditional	Simplified	Meaning/Translation
Big Change	舊	旧	old
Medium Change	車	车	car
Small Change	愛	爱	love
No Change	人	人	human/person

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Pinyin - the bridge between characters and sound

To make Chinese characters - which always have an inherent sound - understandable to Western eyes, linguists developed the so-called Pinyin system as a phonetic transcription based on the Latin alphabet. This system was then approved by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China in 1957. Today, it is primarily used for learning Chinese as a foreign language, but it is also used in Chinese elementary school classrooms. The lines above the Latin syllables indicate whether the pitch is constant, rising, or falling. However, it takes quite a bit of practice to hit these pitches correctly. The following table illustrates the comprehension issues that can arise when speaking without the correct pitch.

	Simplified Characters	Pinyin	Pinyin with Number	Meaning
First Tone	妈	Mā	Ma1	mother
Second Tone	麻	Má	Ma2	hemp
Third Tone	马	Mǎ	Ma3	horse
Fourth Tone	骂	Mà	Ma4	to scold
Neutral Tone	吗	Ma	Ma5	interrogative particle = ?

I hope this text has given you a general overview of the topic. To wrap things up, you can try your hand at the following sentence in Mandarin to see if anything has stuck:

妈妈骂麻马吗？ Māmā mà má mǎ ma? = “Is the mother scolding the hemp horse?”