| Languages of China | |
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 Distribution of language families in China | |
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There are several hundred languages in thePeople's Republic of China. The predominant language isStandard Chinese, which is based onBeijingese, but there are hundreds of relatedChinese languages, collectively known asHanyu (simplified Chinese:汉语;traditional Chinese:漢語;pinyin:Hànyǔ, 'Han language'), that are spoken by 92% of the population. The Chinese (or 'Sinitic') languages are typically divided intoseven major language groups, and their study is a distinct academic discipline.[1] They differ as much from each othermorphologically andphonetically as do English, German and Danish, but speakers of different Chinese languages are taught to write in Mandarin (written vernacular Mandarin) at school and often do to communicate with speakers of other Chinese languages. This does not mean non-Mandarin Sinitic languages do not have vernacular written forms however (seewritten Cantonese). There are in addition approximately 300minority languages spoken by the remaining 8% of the population of China.[2] The ones with greatest state support areMongolian,Tibetan,Uyghur andZhuang.
According to the 2010 edition ofNationalencyklopedin, 955 million out of China's then-population of 1.34 billion spoke some variety ofMandarin Chinese as their first language, accounting for 71% of the country's population.[3] According to the 2019 edition ofEthnologue, 904 million people in China spoke some variety of Mandarin as their first language in 2017.[4]
Standard Chinese, known in China asPutonghua, based on theMandarin dialect of Beijing,[5] is the official national spoken language for the mainland and serves as alingua franca within the Mandarin-speaking regions (and, to a lesser extent, across the other regions ofmainland China). Several otherautonomous regions have additional official languages. For example,Tibetan has official status within theTibet Autonomous Region andMongolian has official status withinInner Mongolia. Language laws of the People's Republic of China do not apply to eitherHong Kong orMacau, which haveCantonese,Mandarin (both under the umbrella of "Chinese") andEnglish andCantonese,Mandarin andPortuguese, respectively, as official languages, unlike the mainland.
The spoken languages of nationalities that are a part of China belong to at least nine families:
(Possibly the ancientBǎiyuè百越)
(Possibly the ancientNánmán南蛮,南蠻)
The following languages traditionally had written forms that do not involveChinese characters (hanzi):
Many modern forms of spoken Chinese languages have their own distinct writing system using Chinese characters that contain colloquial variants.These typically are used as sound characters to help determine the pronunciation of the sentence within that language:
Some non-Sinitic peoples have historically used Chinese characters:
Other languages, all now extinct, used separatelogographic scripts influenced by, but not directly derived from, Chinese characters:
DuringQing dynasty, palaces, temples, and coins have sometimes been inscribed in five scripts:
During the MongolYuan dynasty, the official writing system was:
Chinese banknotes contain several scripts in addition to Chinese script. These are:
Other writing system for Chinese languages in China include:
Ten nationalities who never had a written system have, under thePRC's encouragement, developedphonetic alphabets. According toa government white paper published in early 2005, "by the end of 2003, 22 ethnic minorities in China used 28 written languages."
One decade before the demise of theQing dynasty in 1912, Mandarin was promoted in the planning for China's firstpublic school system.[5]
Mandarin has been promoted as the commonly spoken language for the country since 1956, basedphonologically on thedialect of Beijing. TheNorth Chineselanguage group is set up as the standardgrammatically andlexically. Meanwhile,Mao Zedong andLu Xun writings are used as the basis of thestylistic standard.[5] Pronunciation is taught with the use of the romanized phonetic system known aspinyin. Pinyin has been criticized for fear of an eventual replacement of the traditional character orthography.[5]
There is a debated myth, prevalent among speakers ofYue Chinese, thatCantonese lost toMandarin in a narrow vote on the language of the newRepublic of China.[7]
The Chinese language policy inmainland China is heavily influenced by the Soviet nationalities policy and officially encourages the development of standard spoken and written languages for each of thenationalities of China.[5] Language is one of the features used for ethnic identification.[8] In September 1951, theAll-China Minorities Education Conference established that all minorities should be taught in their language at the primary and secondary levels when they count with a writing language. Those without a writing language or with an "imperfect" writing language should be helped to develop and reform their writing languages.[8]
However, in this schema,Han Chinese are considered a single nationality and the official policy of thePeople's Republic of China (PRC) treats the differentvarieties of Chinese differently from the different national languages, even though their differences are as significant, if not more so, as those between the variousRomance languages ofEurope.While official policies inmainland China encourage the development and use of different orthographies for the national languages and their use in educational and academic settings, realistically speaking it would seem that, as elsewhere in the world, the outlook forminority languages perceived as inferior is grim.[9]TheTibetan Government-in-Exile argue that social pressures and political efforts result in a policy of sinicization and feels that Beijing should promote theTibetan language more.Because many languages exist in China, they also have problems regarding diglossia. Recently, in terms of Fishman's typology of the relationships between bilingualism anddiglossia and histaxonomy of diglossia (Fishman 1978, 1980) in China: more and more minority communities have been evolving from "diglossia withoutbilingualism" to "bilingualism without diglossia." This could be an implication of mainland China's power expanding.[10]
In 2010,Tibetan students protested against changes in the Language Policy on the schools that promoted the use of Mandarin Chinese instead of Tibetan. They argued that the measure would erode their culture.[11] In 2013, China's Education Ministry said that about 400 million people were unable to speak the national language Mandarin. In that year, the government pushed linguistic unity in China, focusing on the countryside and areas with ethnic minorities.[12]
Mandarin Chinese is theprestige language in practice, and failure to protect ethnic languages does occur. In summer 2020, the Inner Mongolian government announced an education policy change to phase out Mongolian as the language of instructions for humanities in elementary and middle schools, adopting the national instruction material instead. Thousands of ethnic Mongolians in northern China gathered to protest the policy.[13] TheMinistry of Education describes the move as a natural extension of theLaw of the People's Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language (Chinese:通用语言文字法) of 2000.[14]
In 2024,General Secretary of the Chinese Communist PartyXi Jinping called for wider use of Mandarin by ethnic minorities and in border areas. He stated that it is necessary to guide all ethnic groups in border regions to "continuously enhance their recognition of the Chinese nation, Chinese culture and the Communist Party".[15]
English has been the most widely-taught foreign language in China, as it is a required subject for students attending university.[16][17] Other languages that have gained some degree of prevalence or interest areJapanese,Korean,Spanish,Portuguese, andRussian.[18][19][20] During the 1950s and 1960s,Russian had some social status among elites in mainland China as the international language ofsocialism.
In the late 1960s, English replaced the position of Russian to become the most studied foreign language in China.[citation needed] After theReform and opening up policy in 1988, English was taught in public schools starting in the third year of primary school.[21][22]
Russian,French, andGerman language classes have been made widely available in universities and colleges.[23] InNortheast China, there are many bilingual schools (Mandarin-Japanese; Mandarin-Korean; Mandarin-Russian), in these schools, students learn languages other than English.
The Economist reported in 2006 that up to one fifth of the population was learning English.Gordon Brown, the former British prime minister, estimated that the total English-speaking population in China would outnumber the native speakers in the rest of the world in two decades.[24]
There have been a growing number of students studyingArabic, due to reasons of cultural interest and belief in better job opportunities.[25] The language is also widely studied amongst theHui people.[26] In the past, literary Arabic education was promoted in Islamic schools by theKuomintang when it ruled mainland China.[27]
There have also been a growing number of students choosing to learnUrdu, due to interest in Pakistani culture, close ties between the respective nations, and job opportunities provided by theCPEC.[28]
Interest inPortuguese andSpanish have increased greatly, due in part to Chinese investment in Latin America as well as in African nations such as Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde. Portuguese is also one of the official languages inMacau, although its use had stagnated since the nation's transfer fromPortugal to thePRC. It was estimated in 2016 that 2.3% of Macau's locals spoke the language,[29] although with government backing since then, interest in it has increased.[30] Macau is used by China as a hub for learning Portuguese and diplomatic and financial ties with Brazil and Portuguese-speaking African countries.[31][32]
Esperanto became prominent in certain circles in the early 20th century and reached its peak in the 1980s, though by 2024 its prominence had declined.[33]
In China, English is used as alingua franca in several fields, especially for business settings,[34] and in schools to teach Standard Mandarin to people who are not Chinese citizens.[35] English is also one of the official languages inHong Kong.
Tertiary institutions with instruction in the languages and literatures of the regional minorities (e.g., Xinjiang University) have faculties entitledHanyu xi ("Languages of China Department") andHanyu wenxue xi ("Literatures of the Languages of China Department").
The number of individual languages listed for China is 299.
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This article incorporates text fromEncyclopædia of religion and ethics, Volume 8, by James Hastings, John Alexander Selbie, Louis Herbert Gray, a publication from 1916, now in thepublic domain in the United States. This article incorporates text fromBurma past and present, by Albert Fytche, a publication from 1878, now in thepublic domain in the United States.
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