In the context oflinguistics, the dialect has been labeledStandard Northern Mandarin[8][9][10] orStandard Beijing Mandarin,[11][12] and in common speech simplyMandarin,[13] more specifically qualified asStandard Mandarin,Modern Standard Mandarin, orStandard Mandarin Chinese.
Naming
In English
Among linguists, Standard Chinese has been referred to asStandard Northern Mandarin[8][9][10] orStandard Beijing Mandarin.[11][12] It is colloquially referred to as simplyMandarin,[13] though this term may also refer to theMandarin dialect group as a whole, or the late imperialform used as a lingua franca.[14][15][16][13] "Mandarin" is a translation ofGuanhua (官話;官话; 'bureaucrat speech'),[17] which referred to the late imperial lingua franca.[18] The termModern Standard Mandarin is used to distinguish it from older forms.[17][19]
In Chinese
Guoyu andPutonghua
The wordGuoyu (国语;國語; 'national language')[17] was initially used during the lateQing dynasty to refer to theManchu language. The 1655Memoir of Qing Dynasty, Volume: EmperorNurhaci (清太祖實錄) says: "(In 1631) as Manchu ministers do not comprehend the Han language, each ministry shall create a new position to be filled up byHan official who can comprehend the national language."[20] However, the sense ofGuoyu as a specific language variety promoted for general use by the citizenry was originally borrowed from Japan in the early 20th century. In 1902, the Japanese Diet had formed theNational Language Research Council to standardize a form of the Japanese language dubbedkokugo (国語).[21] Reformers in the Qing bureaucracy took inspiration and borrowed the term into Chinese, and in 1909 the Qing education ministry officially proclaimedimperial Mandarin to be the new national language.[22]
Since 2000, the Chinese government has used the term "Countrywide common spoken and written language" (国家通用语言文字), while also making provisions for the use and protection ofethnic minority languages.[23] The term is derived from the title of a 2000 law which definesPutonghua as the "Countrywide Common Spoken and Written Language".[23]
Use of the termPutonghua ('common tongue') deliberately avoids calling the dialect a 'national language', in order to mitigate the impression of coercing minority groups to adopt the language of the majority. Such concerns were first raised by the early Communist leaderQu Qiubai in 1931. His concern echoed within the Communist Party, which adopted the termPutonghua in 1955.[24][25] Since 1949, usage of the wordGuoyu was phased out in the PRC, only surviving in established compound nouns, e.g. 'Mandopop' (国语流行音乐;Guóyǔ liúxíng yīnyuè), or 'Chinese cinema' (国语电影;Guóyǔ diànyǐng).
In Taiwan,Guoyu is the colloquial term for Standard Chinese. In 2017 and 2018, the Taiwanese government introduced two laws explicitly recognizing the indigenousFormosan languages[26][27] andHakka[28][27] as "Languages of the nation" (國家語言) alongside Standard Chinese. Since then, there have been efforts to redefineGuoyu as encompassing all "languages of the nation", rather than exclusively referring to Standard Chinese.
Hanyu andZhongwen
Among Chinese people,Hanyu (汉语;漢語; 'Han language') refers to spokenvarieties of Chinese.Zhongwen (中文; 'written Chinese')[29] refers to written Chinese. Among foreigners, the termHanyu is most commonly used in textbooks and Standard Chinese education, such as in theHanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) test.
Huayu
Until the mid-1960s,Huayu (华语;華語) referred to all the language varieties used among theChinese nation.[30] For example,Cantonese,Mandarin, andHokkien films produced in Hong Kong were imported into Malaysia and collectively known as "Huayu cinema" until the mid-1960s.[30] Gradually, the term has been re-appropriated to refer specifically to Standard Chinese. The term is mostly used inSingapore,Malaysia,Indonesia, and thePhilippines.[31]
TheChinese language has had considerable dialectal variation throughout its history, includingprestige dialects andlinguae francae used throughout the territory controlled by the dynastic states of China. For example,Confucius is thought to have used a dialect known asyayan rather than regional dialects; during theHan dynasty, texts also referred totōngyǔ (通語; 'common language'). Therime books that were written starting in theNorthern and Southern period may have reflected standard systems of pronunciation. However, these standard dialects were mostly used by the educated elite, whose pronunciation may still have possessed great variation. For these elites, the Chinese language was unified inLiterary Chinese, a form that was primarily written, as opposed to spoken.
Zhongguo Guanhua (中國官話;中国官话), orMedii Regni Communis Loquela ('Middle Kingdom's Common Speech'), used on thefrontispiece of an early Chinese grammar published byÉtienne Fourmont (withArcadio Huang) in 1742[32]
The termGuanhua (官話;官话; 'official speech') was used during theMing (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties to refer tothe lingua franca spoken within the imperial courts. The term "Mandarin" is borrowed directly from the Portuguese wordmandarim, in turn derived from theSanskrit wordmantrin ('minister')—and was initially used to refer to Chinesescholar-officials. The Portuguese then began referring toGuanhua as "the language of the mandarins".[19]
The Chinese have different languages in different provinces, to such an extent that they cannot understand each other.... [They] also have another language which is like a universal and common language; this is the official language of the mandarins and of the court; it is among them like Latin among ourselves.... Two of our fathers [Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci] have been learning this mandarin language...
— Alessandro Valignano,Historia del Principio y Progresso de la Compañia de Jesus en las Indias Orientales (1542–1564)[33]
During the 17th century, the state had set uporthoepy academies (正音書院;zhèngyīn shūyuàn) in an attempt to conform the speech of bureaucrats to the standard. These attempts had little success: as late as the 19th century, the emperor had difficulty understanding some of his ministers in court, who did not always follow a standard pronunciation.
Before the 19th century, the lingua franca was based on theNanjing dialect, but later theBeijing dialect became increasingly influential, despite the mix of officials and commoners speaking various dialects in the capital,Beijing.[34] By some accounts, as late as 1900 the position of the Nanjing dialect was considered by some to be above that of Beijing; thepostal romanization standards established in 1906 included spellings that reflected elements of Nanjing pronunciation.[35] The sense ofGuoyu as a specific language variety promoted for general use by the citizenry was originally borrowed from Japan; in 1902 the Japanese Diet had formed theNational Language Research Council to standardize a form of the Japanese language dubbedkokugo (国語).[21] Reformers in the Qing bureaucracy took inspiration and borrowed the term into Chinese, and in 1909 the Qing education ministry officially proclaimedimperial Mandarin asGuoyu (国语;國語), the 'national language'.
Republican era
Distribution of Mandarin subgroups in mainland China, as of 1987
After theRepublic of China was established in 1912, there was more success in promoting a common national language. ACommission on the Unification of Pronunciation was convened with delegates from the entire country.[36] ADictionary of National Pronunciation (國音字典;国音字典) was published in 1919, defining ahybrid pronunciation that did not match any existing speech.[37][38] Meanwhile, despite the lack of a workable standardized pronunciation, colloquial literature inwritten vernacular Chinese continued to develop.[39]
Gradually, the members of the National Language Commission came to settle upon the Beijing dialect, which became the major source of standard national pronunciation due to its prestigious status. In 1932, the commission published theVocabulary of National Pronunciation for Everyday Use (國音常用字彙;国音常用字汇), with little fanfare or official announcement. This dictionary was similar to the previous published one except that it normalized the pronunciations for all characters into the pronunciation of the Beijing dialect. Elements from other dialects continue to exist in the standard language, but as exceptions rather than the rule.[40]
Following the end of theChinese Civil War, thePeople's Republic of China (PRC) continued standardisation efforts on the mainland, and in 1955 officially began usingPutonghua (普通话;普通話; 'common speech') instead ofGuoyu, which remains the name used inTaiwan. The forms of Standard Chinese used in China and Taiwan have diverged somewhat since the end of the Civil War, especially in newer vocabulary, and a little in pronunciation.[41]
In 1956, the PRC officially defined Standard Chinese as "the standard form of Modern Chinese with the Beijing phonological system as its norm of pronunciation, and Northern dialects as its base dialect, and looking to exemplary modern works inwritten vernacular Chinese for its grammatical norms."[42][43] According to the official definition, Standard Chinese uses:
Thephonology of the Beijing dialect, if not always with each phoneme having the precisephonetic values as those heard in Beijing.
Thevocabulary ofMandarin dialects in general, excepting what are deemed to beslang and regionalisms. The vocabulary of all Chinese varieties, especially in more technical fields like science, law, and government, is very similar—akin to the profusion ofLatin andGreek vocabulary in European languages. This means that much of the vocabulary of Standard Chinese is shared with all varieties of Chinese. Much of thecolloquial vocabulary of the Beijing dialect is not considered part of Standard Chinese, and may not be understood by people outside Beijing.[44]
Thegrammar and idioms of exemplary modernChinese literature, a form known aswritten vernacular Chinese. Written vernacular Chinese is loosely based upon a synthesis of predominantly northern grammar and vocabulary, with southern and Literary elements. This distinguishes Standard Chinese from the dialect heard on the streets of Beijing.
Proficiency in the new standard was initially limited, even among Mandarin speakers, but increased over the following decades.[45]
Percentage of population of China proficient in Standard Chinese[46]
Early 1950s
1984
Comprehension
Comprehension
Speaking
Mandarin-speaking areas
54
91
54
non-Mandarin areas
11
77
40
whole country
41
90
50
A 2007 survey conducted by the Chinese Ministry of Education indicated that 53.06% of the population were able to effectively communicate using Standard Chinese.[47] By 2020, this figure had risen to over 80%.[48]
Status
In both mainland China and Taiwan, Standard Chinese is used in most official contexts, as well as the media and educational system, contributing to its proliferation. As a result, it is now spoken by most people in both countries, though often with some regional or personal variation in vocabulary and pronunciation.
In overseas Chinese communities outside Asia where Cantonese once dominated, such as theChinatown in Manhattan, the use of Standard Chinese, which is the primary lingua franca of more recentChinese immigrants, is rapidly increasing.[49]
While Standard Chinese was made China's official language in the early 20th century, local languages continue to be the main form of everyday communication in much of the country. The language policy adopted by the Chinese government promotes the use of Standard Chinese while also making allowances for the use and preservation of local varieties.[50] From an official point of view, Standard Chinese serves as alingua franca to facilitate communication between speakers of mutually unintelligiblevarieties of Chinese andnon-Sinitic languages. The namePutonghua, or 'common speech', reinforces this idea. However, due to Standard Chinese being a "public" lingua franca, other Chinese varieties and even non-Sinitic languages have shown signs of losing ground to the standard dialect. In many areas, especially in southern China, it is commonly used for practical reasons, as linguistic diversity is so great that residents of neighboring cities may have difficulties communicating with each other without a lingua franca.
The Chinese government's language policy been largely successful, with over 80% of the Chinese population able to speak Standard Chinese as of 2020.[3] The Chinese government's current goal is to have 85% of the country's population speak Standard Chinese by 2025, and virtually the entire country by 2035.[51] Throughout the country, Standard Chinese has heavily influenced local languages throughdiglossia, replacing them entirely in some cases, especially among younger people in urban areas.[52]
The Chinese government is keen to promotePutonghua as the national lingua franca: under theNational Common Language and Writing Law, the government is required to promote its use. Officially, the Chinese government has not stated its intent to replace regional varieties with Standard Chinese. However, regulations enacted by local governments to implement the national law have included measures to control the use of spoken dialects andtraditional characters in writing.[citation needed] For example, theGuangdong National Language Regulations enacted in 2012 generally require broadcasts in the province to be in Standard Chinese, with programs and channels able to broadcast in other varieties if approved by the national or provincial government. Government employees, including teachers, conference holders, broadcasters, and TV staff are required to use Standard Chinese.[53][54] In addition, public signage is to be written usingsimplified characters, with exceptions for historical sites, pre-registered logos, or when approved by the state.[53] Public brands, seals, documents, websites, signs, and trade names are not to use traditional characters orcharacter variants.[55][56][57]
Some Chinese speakers who are older or from rural areas cannot speak Standard Chinese fluently or at all, though most are able to understand it. Meanwhile, those from urban areas—as well as younger speakers, who have received their education primarily in Standard Chinese—are almost all fluent in it, with some being unable to speak their local dialect.
The Chinese government has disseminatedpublic service announcements promoting the use ofPutonghua on television and the radio, as well as on public buses. The standardization campaign has been challenged by local dialectical and ethnic populations, who fear the loss of their cultural identity and native dialect. In the summer of 2010, reports of a planned increase in the use of thePutonghua on local television inGuangdong led to demonstrations on the streets by thousands ofCantonese-speaking citizens.[58] While the use of Standard Chinese is encouraged as the common working language in predominantlyHan areas on the mainland, the PRC has been more sensitive to the status of non-Sinitic minority languages, and has generally not discouraged their social use outside of education.
Hong Kong and Macau
InHong Kong andMacau, which arespecial administrative regions of the PRC, there isdiglossia betweenCantonese (口語;hau2 jyu5; 'spoken language') as the primary spoken language, alongside alocal form of Standard Chinese (書面語;syu1 min6 jyu5; 'written language') used in schools, local government, and formal writing.[59]Written Cantonese may also be used in informal settings such as advertisements, magazines, popular literature, and comics. Mixture of formal and informal written Chinese occurs to various degrees.[60] After theHong Kong's handover from the United Kingdom andMacau's handover from Portugal, their governments usePutonghua to communicate with the PRC'sCentral People's Government. There has been significant effort to promote use ofPutonghua in Hong Kong since the handover,[61] including the training of police[62] and teachers.[63]
Standard Chinese is the official language ofTaiwan. Standard Chinese started being widely spoken in Taiwan following the end of theChinese Civil War in 1949, with the relocation of theKuomintang (KMT) to the island along with aninflux of refugees from the mainland. The Standard Chinese used in Taiwan differs very little from that of mainland China, with differences largely being in technical vocabulary introduced after 1949.[64]
Prior to 1949, the varieties most commonly spoken by Taiwan's Han population wereTaiwanese Hokkien, as well asHakka to a lesser extent. Much of theTaiwanese Aboriginal population spoke their nativeFormosan languages. During the period ofmartial law between 1949 and 1987, the Taiwanese government revived theMandarin Promotion Council, discouraging or in some cases forbidding the use of Hokkien and other non-standard varieties. This resulted in Standard Chinese replacing Hokkien as the country's lingua franca,[65] and ultimately, a political backlash in the 1990s. Starting in the 2000s during the administration of PresidentChen Shui-Bian, the Taiwanese government began making efforts to recognize the country's other languages. They began being taught in schools, and their use increased in media, though Standard Chinese remains the country's lingua franca.[66] Chen often used Hokkien in his speeches; later Taiwanese PresidentLee Teng-hui also openly spoke Hokkien. In an amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act (護照條例施行細則) passed on 9 August 2019, Taiwan'sMinistry of Foreign Affairs announced that romanized spellings of names inHoklo, Hakka and Aboriginal languages may be used in Taiwanese passports. Previously, only Mandarin names could be romanized.[67]
Mandarin is one of the four official languages of Singapore, along with English,Malay, andTamil. Historically, it was seldom used by theChinese Singaporean community, which primarily spoke the Southern Chinese languages ofHokkien,Teochew, Cantonese, orHakka.[citation needed]Standard Singaporean Mandarin is nearly identical to the standards of China and Taiwan, with minor vocabulary differences. It is the Mandarin variant used in education, media, and official settings. Meanwhile, a colloquial form called Singdarin is used in informal daily life and is heavily influenced in terms of both grammar and vocabulary by local languages such as Cantonese, Hokkien, and Malay. Instances of code-switching with English, Hokkien, Cantonese, Malay, or a combination thereof are also common.
In Singapore, the government has heavily promoted a "Speak Mandarin Campaign" since the late 1970s, with the use of other Chinese varieties in broadcast media being prohibited and their use in any context officially discouraged until recently.[68] This has led to some resentment amongst the older generations, as Singapore's migrant Chinese community is made up almost entirely of people of south Chinese descent.Lee Kuan Yew, the initiator of the campaign, admitted that to most Chinese Singaporeans, Mandarin was a "stepmother tongue" rather than a true mother language. Nevertheless, he saw the need for a unified language among the Chinese community not biased in favor of any existing group.[69]
In Malaysia, Mandarin has been adopted by local Chinese-language schools as the medium of instruction with the standard shared with Singaporean Chinese. Together influenced by the Singaporean Speak Mandarin Campaign and Chinese culture revival movement in the 1980s, Malaysian Chinese started their own promotion of Mandarin too, and similar to Singapore, but to a lesser extent, experienced language shift from other Chinese variants to Mandarin. Today, Mandarin functions as lingua franca among Malaysian Chinese, while Hokkien and Cantonese are still retained in the northern part and central part of Peninsular Malaysia respectively.
In some regions controlled byinsurgent groups in northern Myanmar, Mandarin serves as the lingua franca.[70]
Education
A poster outside a high school inYangzhou urges people to "Speak Putonghua to welcome guests from all around, use the language of the civilized to give your sincere feelings".
In both mainland China and Taiwan, Standard Chinese is taught by immersion starting in elementary school. After the second grade, the entire educational system is in Standard Chinese, except for local language classes that have been taught for a few hours each week in Taiwan starting in the mid-1990s.
With an increase in internalmigration in China, the officialPutonghua Proficiency Test (PSC) has become popular. Employers often require a level of Standard Chinese proficiency from applicants depending on the position, and many university graduates on the mainland take the PSC before looking for a job.
The pronunciation of Standard Chinese is defined as that of theBeijing dialect.[71]The usual unit of analysis is the syllable, consisting of an optional initialconsonant, an optional medialglide, a main vowel and an optional coda, and further distinguished by atone.[72]
The palatal initials[tɕ],[tɕʰ] and[ɕ] pose a classic problem ofphonemic analysis. Since they occur only before high front vowels, they are incomplementary distribution with three other series, the dental sibilants, retroflexes and velars, which never occur in this position.[74]
The[ɹ̩] final, which occurs only after dental sibilant and retroflex initials, is a syllabicapproximant, prolonging the initial.[76][77]
Relative pitch contours of the four full tones
Therhotacized vowel[ɚ] forms a complete syllable.[78]A reduced form of this syllable occurs as a sub-syllabic suffix, spelled-r in pinyin and often with adiminutive connotation. The suffix modifies the coda of the base syllable in a rhotacizing process callederhua.[79]
Each full syllable is pronounced with a phonemically distinctive pitch contour. There are four tonal categories, marked in pinyin with diacritics, as in the wordsmā (媽;妈; 'mother'),má (麻; 'hemp'),mǎ (馬;马; 'horse') andmà (罵;骂; 'curse').[80] The tonal categories also have secondary characteristics. For example, the third tone is long andmurmured, whereas the fourth tone is relatively short.[81][82] Statistically, vowels and tones are of similar importance in the language.[c][84]
There are also weak syllables, including grammatical particles such as the interrogativema (嗎;吗) and certain syllables in polysyllabic words. These syllables are short, with their pitch determined by the preceding syllable.[85] Such syllables are commonly described as being in the neutral tone.
Regional accents
It is common for Standard Chinese to be spoken with the speaker's regional accent, depending on factors such as age, level of education, and the need and frequency to speak in official or formal situations.
Due to evolution and standardization, Mandarin, although based on the Beijing dialect, is no longer synonymous with it. Part of this was due to the standardization to reflect a greater vocabulary scheme and a more archaic and "proper-sounding" pronunciation and vocabulary.
Distinctive features of the Beijing dialect are more extensive use oferhua in vocabulary items that are left unadorned in descriptions of the standard such as theXiandai Hanyu Cidian, as well as more neutral tones.[86] An example of standard versus Beijing dialect would be the standardmén (door) and Beijingménr.
While the Standard Chinese spoken in Taiwan is nearly identical to that of mainland China, the colloquial form has been heavily influenced by other local languages, especially Taiwanese Hokkien. Notable differences include: the merger ofretroflex sounds (zh, ch, sh, r) with thealveolar series (z, c, s), frequent mergers of the "neutral tone" with a word's original tone, and absence oferhua.[87]Code-switching between Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien is common, as the majority of the population continues to also speak the latter as a native language.[88]
The stereotypical "southern Chinese" accent does not distinguish betweenretroflex andalveolar consonants, pronouncing pinyinzh [tʂ],ch [tʂʰ], andsh [ʂ] in the same way asz [ts],c [tsʰ], ands [s] respectively.[89] Southern-accented Standard Chinese may also interchangel andn, finaln andng, and vowelsi andü [y]. Attitudes towards southern accents, particularly the Cantonese accent, range from disdain to admiration.[90]
The predicate can be an intransitive verb, a transitive verb followed by a direct object, acopula (linking verb)shì (是) followed by a noun phrase, etc.[97]
In predicative use, Chinese adjectives function asstative verbs, forming complete predicates in their own right without a copula.[98] For example,
我
Wǒ
I
不
bú
not
累。
lèi.
tired
我 不 累。
Wǒ bú lèi.
I not tired
'I am not tired.'
Chinese additionally differs from English in that it forms another kind of sentence bystating a topic and following it by a comment.[99] To do this in English, speakers generally flag the topic of a sentence by prefacing it with "as for". For example:
Māma gěi wǒmen de qián, wǒ yǐjīng mǎi-le tángguǒ(r)
Mom give us REL money I already buy-PERF candy
'As for the money that Mom gave us, I have already bought candy with it.'
The time when something happens can be given by an explicit term such as "yesterday", by relative terms such as "formerly", etc.[100]
As in many east Asian languages,classifiers or measure words are required when usingnumerals,demonstratives and similar quantifiers.[101]There are many different classifiers in the language, and each noun generally has a particular classifier associated with it.[102]
一顶
yī-dǐng
one-top
帽子,
màozi,
hat
三本
sān-běn
three-volume
书/書,
shū,
book
那支
nèi-zhī
that-branch
笔/筆
bǐ
pen
一顶 帽子, 三本 书/書, 那支 笔/筆
yī-dǐng màozi, sān-běn shū, nèi-zhī bǐ
one-top hat three-volume book that-branch pen
'a hat, three books, that pen'
The general classifierge (个/個) is gradually replacing specific classifiers.[103]
Manyhonorifics used in imperial China are also used in daily conversation in modern Mandarin, such asjiàn (賤;贱; '[my] humble') andguì (貴;贵; '[your] honorable').
Although Chinese speakers make a clear distinction between Standard Chinese and the Beijing dialect, there are aspects of Beijing dialect that have made it into the official standard. Standard Chinese has aT–V distinction between the polite and informal "you" that comes from the Beijing dialect, although its use is quite diminished in daily speech. It also distinguishes between "zánmen" ('we', including the listener) and "wǒmen" ('we', not including the listener). In practice, neither distinction is commonly used by most Chinese, at least outside the Beijing area.
The following samples are some phrases from the Beijing dialect which are not yet accepted into Standard Chinese:[citation needed]
倍儿bèir means 'very much';拌蒜bànsuàn means 'stagger';不吝bù lìn means 'do not worry about';撮cuō means 'eat';出溜chūliū means 'slip';(大)老爷儿们儿dà lǎoyermenr means 'man, male'.
The following samples are some phrases from Beijing dialect which have become accepted as Standard Chinese:[citation needed]
二把刀èr bǎ dāo means 'not very skillful';哥们儿gēménr means 'good male friend', 'buddy';抠门儿kōu ménr means 'frugal' or 'stingy'.
Standard Chinese is written with characters corresponding to syllables of the language, most of which represent a morpheme.In most cases, these characters come from those used inClassical Chinese to write cognate morphemes of lateOld Chinese, though their pronunciation, and often meaning, has shifted dramatically over two millennia.[104]However, there are several words, many of them heavily used, which have no classical counterpart or whose etymology is obscure.Two strategies have been used to write such words:[105]
An unrelated character with the same or similar pronunciation might be used, especially if its original sense was no longer common. For example, thedemonstrative pronounszhè 'this' andnà 'that' have no counterparts in Classical Chinese, which used此cǐ and彼bǐ respectively. Hence the character這 (later simplified as这) forzhè 'to meet' was borrowed to writezhè 'this', and the character那 fornà, the name of a country and later a rare surname, was borrowed to writenà 'that'.
A new character, usually a phono-semantic or semantic compound, might be created. For example,gǎn 'pursue', 'overtake', is written with a new character趕, composed of the signific走zǒu 'run' and the phonetic旱hàn 'drought'.[106] This method was used to represent manyelements in the periodic table.
The PRC, as well as several other governments and institutions, has promulgated a set of simplified character forms. Under this system, the forms of the wordszhèlǐ ('here') andnàlǐ ('there') changed from這裏/這裡 and那裏/那裡 to这里 and那里, among many other changes.
Chinese characters were traditionally read from top to bottom, right to left, but in modern usage it is more common to read from left to right.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
^Taiwan does not have any legally designated official language. Mandarin is the primary language used in business and education and is spoken by the vast majority of the population. Not designated but meets the legal definition, that is "本法所稱國家語言，指臺灣各固有族群使用之自然語言及臺灣手語。"[6] ("a natural language used by an original people group of Taiwan and the Taiwan Sign Language")
^"A word pronounced in a wrong tone or inaccurate tone sounds as puzzling as if one said 'bud' in English, meaning 'not good' or 'the thing one sleeps in.'"[83]
^Adamson, Bob; Feng, Anwei (27 December 2021),Multilingual China: National, Minority and Foreign Languages, Routledge, p. 90,ISBN978-1-000-48702-2,archived from the original on 30 September 2024, retrieved29 January 2024,Despite not being defined as such in the Constitution,Putonghua enjoysde facto status of the official language in China and is legislated as the standard form of Chinese.
^國家語言發展法.law.moj.gov.tw (in Chinese).Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved22 May 2019.
^abRohsenow, John S. (2004),"Fifty Years of Script and Written Language Reform in the P.R.C.", in Zhou, Minglang (ed.),Language Policy in the People's Republic of China, Springer, pp. 22, 24,ISBN978-1-4020-8039-5,accurately represent and express the sounds of standard Northern Mandarin (Putonghua) [...]. Central to thepromotion ofPutonghua as a national language with a standard pronunciation as well as to assisting literacy in the non-phonetic writing system of Chinese characters was the development of asystem of phonetic symbols with which to convey the pronunciation of spoken words and written characters instandard northern Mandarin.
^abBradley, David (2008),"Chapter 5: East and Southeast Asia", in Moseley, Christopher (ed.),Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages, Routledge, p. 500 (e-book),ISBN978-1-135-79640-2,archived from the original on 30 September 2024, retrieved5 November 2020,As a result of the spread of standard northern Mandarin and major regional varieties of provincial capitals since 1950, many of the smallertuyu [土語] are disappearing by being absorbed into larger regionalfangyan [方言], which of course may be a sub-variety of Mandarin or something else.
^abSiegel, Jeff (2003),"Chapter 8: Social Context", in Doughty, Catherine J.; Long, Michael H. (eds.),The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, Blackwell Publishing, U.K., p. 201,ISBN978-1-4051-5188-7,archived from the original on 30 September 2024, retrieved5 November 2020,Escure [Geneviève Escure, 1997] goes on to analyse second dialect texts ofPutonghua (standard Beijing Mandarin Chinese) produced by speakers of othervarieties of Chinese, [in]Wuhan andSuzhou.
^abChen, Ying-Chuan (2013).Becoming Taiwanese: Negotiating Language, Culture and Identity(PDF) (Thesis).University of Ottawa. p. 300. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 19 February 2020.[...] a consistent gender pattern found across all the agecohorts is that women were more concerned about their teachers' bad Mandarin pronunciation, and implied that it was an inferior form of Mandarin, which signified their aspiration to speakstandard Beijing Mandarin, the good version of the language.
^abcWeng, Jeffrey (2018), "What is Mandarin? The social project of language standardization in early Republican China",The Journal of Asian Studies,59 (1):611–633,doi:10.1017/S0021911818000487,in common usage, 'Mandarin' or 'Mandarin Chinese' usually refers to China's standard spoken language. In fact, I would argue that this is the predominant meaning of the word
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