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Malaysian Mandarin (simplified Chinese:马来西亚华语;traditional Chinese:馬來西亞華語;pinyin:Mǎláixīyà Huáyǔ) is a variety of the Chinese language spoken in Malaysia by ethnic Chinese residents. It is currently the primary language used by theMalaysian Chinese community.^[1]

Due to the multilingual nature of Malaysian society, Malaysian Mandarin speakers often colloquiallycode-switch toMalay orEnglish when it comes to local terms or names, even if an official, formal Mandarin term exists. For instance, the formal translation for the street "Jalan Bukit Kepong" is known as "武吉甲洞路" (Wǔjí Jiǎdòng lù; 'Bukit Kepong Road') and is used as such in local Chinese media, but the latter term is rarely used colloquially; instead people will often use the original Malay name as-is. There are exceptions, for exampleTaiping, since this name is derived from the Chinese language, when people mention this place when speaking local Mandarin, they always use its Mandarin pronunciation, "Tàipíng", instead of using its Malay pronunciation, which is closer to "Taipeng". Another example is when a place's Chinese translation varied vastly with its native Malay name, for example: forTeluk Intan,Seremban,Kota Kinabalu andBau, they are preferably referred respectively asĀnsùn (安順) (which refers to "Teluk Anson", Teluk Intan's former colonial name),Fúróng (芙蓉),Yàbì (亞庇), andShilongmen (石隆門).

Thephonology of Malaysian Mandarin is more closely aligned with the Mandarin accents ofSouthern China than with the Beijing standard pronunciation. This is a consequence of the influence of other Sinitic varieties, includingCantonese andHokkien.^[1]

In comparison withStandard Chinese,Taiwanese orSingaporean Mandarin, Malaysian Mandarin is characterised by a relatively tonally 'flat' sound, as well as an extensive use of glottal stops and the "checked tone".^[1] This results in a distinct "clipped" sound compared to other forms of Mandarin.

• The phonemes "j", "x", and "h" (as in 級 ji, 西 xi, and 漢 han) tend to be pronounced as /t͡s/, /s/, and /h/ (rather than /t͡ɕ/, /ɕ/, and /x/) – also influenced by absence ofalveopalatals in Malay phonology.^[2]
• the "er" phoneme (as in 兒 or 二) is usually pronounced as /ə/ (instead of /ɚ/)
• the "i" phoneme (as in 吃, 十, or 日) is usually pronounced as /ɨ~ə/ (instead of /ɹ̩~ɻ̩/)
• the "r" phoneme (as in 然) is usually pronounced as /ɹ/ (similar to English, instead of /ʐ/)

As of 2014, 93% of ethnic Chinese families in Malaysia speak varieties of Chinese, which includes Mandarin.^[3]

The majority of ethnic Chinese people living in Malaysia came from China during theMing andQing dynasties, between the 15th and early 20th centuries. Earlier immigrants married Malays and assimilated to a larger extent than later waves of migrants – they form a distinct sub-ethnic group known as thePeranakans, and their descendants speak Malay.

The majority of immigrants were speakers ofHokkien (Min Nan),Cantonese,Hakka,Teochew, andHainanese. In the 19th century, Qing immigrants to Malaya had no single common language and were mostly uneducated peasants, and they tended to cluster themselves according to the ethno-linguistic group, usually corresponding to their place of origin, and worked with relatives and other speakers of the same language. In 1879, according to Isabella Bird, a visitor to thetin mining boomtown ofTaiping,Perak, "five topolects of Chinese are spoken, and Chinamen constantly communicate with each other in Malay, because they can't understand each other's Chinese".^[4]

The Chinese languages spoken in Malaysia have over the years become localized (e.g.Penang Hokkien), as is apparent from the use ofMalay andEnglish loan words. Words from other Chinese languages are also injected, depending on theeducational andcultural background of the speaker. Mandarin in Malaysia has also been localized, as a result of the influence of other Chinese variants spoken in Malaysia, rather than the Malay language. Loan words were discouraged in Mandarin instructions at local Chinese school and were regarded as mispronunciations.^{[citation needed]}

• Standard Mandarin
• Taiwanese Mandarin
• Philippine Mandarin
• Regional differences in the Chinese language

• 马来西亚华语－南洋的北方官话方言

• Chinese-Malaysian culture
• Mandarin Chinese
• Languages of Malaysia

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