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Languages in China and the Chinese-speaking world

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Several hundred languages and language varieties are used in China. Some of these languages are also spoken by very large numbers of people around the world.

The majority of the spoken languages in China belong under the umbrella of the Chinese languages, which are in turn under the group of Sinitic languages in the top-level family of Sino-Tibetan languages.

  • These languages have major differences in phonology, and also differ in how words are put together (morphology)
  • These languages share a common writing system - they use Chinese characters
    • These characters are from one of the two standard Chinese character sets, Simplified Chinese characters and Traditional Chinese characters
    • Some varieties of spoken Chinese have their own variety-specific Chinese characters as written forms of words specific to their spoken language
    • At times in history, non-Sinitic languages have used Chinese characters as a written form of their spoken languages

There are also many minority languages in China, such as Mongolian, Tibetan, and Uyghur. Some are within the Sino-Tibetan languages group (but not under the Sinitic languages), many aren’t.

The official language in the mainland PRC is Standard Chinese (Pǔtōnghuà) - this encompasses a standard pronunciation, vocabulary and vernacular

  • The written component of Standard Chinese is also known as Standard Written Chinese (Báihuàwén) and is the standard style of writing for all speakers of all Chinese languages
    • The written form encompasses a specific vocabulary, idiom and grammar, and differs from the way that Chinese is spoken, just like the way that highly literate English speakers would write something in a different manner from their spoken vernacular
  • Although mainly standardised in the PRC, Standard Chinese is ultimately a pluricentric language with local standards that differ in lexicon in Singapore, Taiwan and so on

The Chinese-speaking world

People’s Republic of China, Mainland

Related on Wikipedia: Promotion of Putonghua The mainland’s official national language is Standard Chinese (see: 通用语言文字法)

  • This language also is the prestige language in practice in most of Mainland China, and is intended to serve as a lingua franca
  • Though the Han people are treated as a singular nation and thus have a singular official national language in Standard Chinese, the reality is they all speak many different Chinese varieties, which are often mutually unintelligible.
  • The status of official language means it is used in official contexts and is “promoted” by the government, and heavily used in education, TV, radio and public services
  • Official language does not necessarily mean the entire population is fluent in Standard Chinese nor does it imply that everyday spoken vernacular across the Mainland reflects the standard
    • Most urban residents and youth are fluent though, as a result of education and media in Standard Chinese
  • Autonomous regions of China can have additional official languages (e.g.: Mongolian in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region) that often reflect national languages of minority nations in the Mainland
  • The language laws of the Mainland have no jurisdiction in the Special Administrative Regions of China

Hong Kong

The Basic Law of Hong Kong defines the official languages as English and Chinese, with no de jure elaboration on its variety.

Chinese languages
Yue/Cantonese

Due to the majority of the population in Hong Kong descending from migrants originally from Guangdong, Yue Chinese varieties strongly dominate as a first language, with the |Hong Kong dialect of Cantonese being the main specific variety spoken.

  • As the de facto form of the official Chinese language, it is used in education, broadcasting, government, legislation and judiciary, as well as in daily society

Taishanese, a Yue dialect, originates from migrants from Taishan County in Mainland China, and the variant can still be found in some areas in Hong Kong where these migrants concentrated at, such as Sai Wan.

Other varieties

There are speakers of the Hakka language and also the Teochew, Hokkien and Taiwanese dialects of the Minnan language due to the history of migration from Taiwan and Fujian

Other slightly common varieties include Shanghainese after migration events related to the Chinese Communist Revolution and Chinese economic reform (1978).

Use of spoken Standard Chinese (Mandarin)

See: Standard Chinese, Mandarin During the colonial era of Hong Kong, due to relative isolation, Mandarin was not a widely spoken variety of Chinese.

However, after the Handover of Hong Kong, inbound tourism, commerce and the addition of Mandarin as a core subject in schooling (though notably separately taught from Chinese language classes mostly taught in Cantonese) has meant that over half of the population is proficient in speaking Mandarin.

Written Chinese

Like in many regions with Chinese varieties that differ in spoken form from Mandarin, a local variation of Standard Written Chinese is still widely used for more formal communications, despite it not reflecting the vernacular of spoken Cantonese.

However, Hong Kong Written Chinese does differ from the Mainland’s Standard Written Chinese in that it uses Traditional Chinese characters and has some lexical and semantic differences.

Written Cantonese

Written Colloquial Cantonese does exist, and represents a written form of the spoken vernacular of Cantonese, with distinct idiom, grammar and vocabulary from the standard, as well as some Cantonese-specific characters. This is relatively frequently used in unofficial communications, advertising and online messaging.

English

Hong Kong English is the main emergent variety of the official English language native to Hong Kong, and remains primarily as a second language

  • British spellings remain the predominant variant in official circles and education, and British vocabulary is more commonly used

Code-switching between Hong Kong Cantonese and English is very common, with loanwords in Cantonese arising from this usage, such as “file”, being pronounced “fai-lo”

Macau

The de jure official languages are Chinese and Portuguese. There is no de jure variety of Chinese specified.

The predominant langage is Cantonese, and the Traditional Chinese characters are used in writing. Only a small percentage can speak Portuguese, whilst over a quarter can speak English as a working language. Many can also speak Mandarin as their second language.

Macanese Patois is a creole that developed from Portuguese and the local languages, but is spoken by exceedingly few in modern times.

Taiwan

There is no de jure official language, though in de facto Taiwanese Mandarin is used in governmental official contexts.

There are however, national languages in Taiwan, which are regulated by specific ministries. In order of use:

  • Taiwanese Mandarin (國語; Guóyǔ)
    • Compulsory in all schools, and the lingua franca
      • Local languages are also taught in schools
  • Taiwanese Hokkien (often simply called Taiwanese)
  • Taiwanese Hakka
  • The Formosan languages, Malayo-Polynesian
  • Matsu, Wuqiu
Lingua franca

Due to the existence of a Creole continuum, Taiwanese Mandarin as a lingua franca is spoken at different levels of fluency according to situation and social class

  • The official Standard Taiwanese Mandarin is regarded as acrolectal
  • Meanwhile, the basilect form, oft spoken in social situations, contains more Taiwanese-specific features and is also commonly code-switched with Taiwanese Hokkien, especially by older people
Written language

Traditional Chinese characters are predominantly used in Taiwan to write the Sinitic languages used there (i.e.: Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka)

  • Taiwan sets its own standard forms of these characters. There are small differences in orthography with other standards
  • Written vernacular Chinese is used as the main standard of writing, though Taiwan stuck much longer with Classical Chinese for government documents, which differs heavily from the spoken vernacular
  • Written Hokkien is occasionally used in informal communications and literature, better reflecting the spoken language

For the Formosan languages, Latin based scripts are used.

As Hokkien and Hakka specific characters are not completely standardised, textbooks of Taiwanese Hokkien and Hakka are written in a mixed script of traditional Chinese characters and the Latin alphabet.

Transport announcements

Under Article 6 of “Mass Transit Broadcast Language Equality Law”, and also due to the influence of internationalisation, nearly all announcements are made in:

  • Taiwanese Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, Taiwanese Hakka and English

Sometimes announcements are also made in Japanese, or specific dialects in a local area

Singapore

The official languages are English, the Singaporean variety of Mandarin, Malay and Tamil.

  • The symbolic national language is Malay, due to the constitutional recognition of the Malays as the indigenous peoples of Singapore
    • This recognition thus places a duty on the government to protect the language
  • The constitutional and de facto main language and lingua franca is English
    • Singlish, or Singapore Colloquial English, is the main creole variety used in day-to-day life
    • Standard Singapore English is the acrolect form of this creole, mostly conforming to British English; mesolect forms also are commonly used - code-switching is extremely common
    • Covert prestige exists in the sociolinguistic choice of the English form that Singaporeans use
Chinese language in Singapore

Standard Chinese (Mandarin) is the spoken lingua franca, both de facto and in a sense de jure, amongst the Chinese community in Singapore. Simplified Chinese characters are used officially as the writing system, though there is no inhibition of the use of Traditional characters.

Designated as the ethnic language of Chinese Singaporeans

  • Lee Kuan Yew deliberately chose to promote the use of Mandarin at the expense of other dialects as a means of unifying the Chinese community, and also as a pragmatic choice in the midst of the rise of Mainland China as an economic power

English is the main medium of language instruction in all levels of education in Singapore and remains dominant in official settings too. Therefore, there have been declines in the proficiency of Mandarin of the Singaporean Chinese population.

Other varieties of Chinese

Other Chinese-speaking diaspora

Spoken language tree

Sino-Tibetan

Graph View