Varieties of Chinese
A map below depicts the linguistic subdivisions ("languages" or "dialect groups") within China itself. The traditionally recognized seven main groups, in order of population size are:
Name | Abbreviation | Pinyin | Local Romanization | Simp. | Trad. | Total Speakers |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mandarin Notes: includes Standard Chinese |
Guan; 官 | Guānhuà Běifānghuà |
Pinyin: Guānhuà Pinyin: Běifānghuà |
官话 北方话 |
官話 北方話 |
c. 1.365 billion |
Wu Notes: includes Shanghainese |
Wu; 吴/吳 | Wúyǔ | Long-short: Ng Nyiu or Ghu Nyiu | 吴语 | 吳語 | c. 90 million |
Yue Notes: includes Cantonese & Taishanese |
Yue; 粤/粵 | Yuèyǔ | Yale: Yuht Yúh Jyutping: Jyut6 Jyu5 |
粤语 | 粵語 | c. 70 million |
Min Notes: includes Hokkien, Taiwanese & Teochew |
Min; 闽/閩 | Mǐnyǔ | POJ: Bân Gú; BUC: Mìng Ngṳ̄ |
闽语 | 閩語 | c. 50 million |
Xiang also known as Hunanese/Sionglish |
Xiang; 湘 | Xiāngyǔ | Romanization: Shiāen'ỳ | 湘语 | 湘語 | c. 36 million |
Hakka | Kejia; 客家 Ke; 客 |
Kèjiāhuà Kèhuà |
Hakka Pinyin: Hak-kâ-fa or Hak-kâ-va Hakka Pinyin: Hak-fa or Hak-va |
客家话 客话 |
客家話 客話 |
c. 35 million |
Gan also known as Jiangxinese |
Gan; 贛 | Gànyǔ | Romanization: Gon Ua | 赣语 | 贛語 | c. 31 million |
Disputed classifications by some Chinese linguists:
Name | Abbreviation | Pinyin | Local Romanization | Simp. | Trad. | Total Speakers |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jin Notes: from Mandarin |
Jin; 晋/晉 | Jìnyǔ | None | 晋语 | 晉語 | 45 million |
Huizhou Notes: from Wu |
Hui; 徽 | Huīhuà Huīzhōuhuà |
None | 徽话 徽州话 |
徽話 徽州話 |
~3.2 million |
Pinghua Notes: from Yue |
Ping; 平 | Pínghuà Guǎngxī Pínghuà |
None | 平话 广西平话 |
平話 廣西平話 |
~5 million |
There are groups that are not yet classified, such as: Danzhou dialect (儋州话/儋州話), spoken in Danzhou, on Hainan Island; Xianghua (乡话/鄉話), not to be confused with Xiang (湘), spoken in western Hunan; and Shaozhou Tuhua (韶州土话/韶州土話), spoken in northern Guangdong. The Dungan language, spoken in Central Asia, is very closely related to Mandarin. However, it is politically not generally considered "Chinese" since it is written in Cyrillic and spoken by Dungan people outside China who are not considered ethnic Chinese.
In general, the above language-dialect groups do not have sharp boundaries, though Mandarin is the predominant Sinitic language in the North and the Southwest, and the rest are mostly spoken in Central or Southeastern China. Frequently, as in the case of the Guangdong province, native speakers of major variants overlap. As with many areas that were linguistically diverse for a long time, it is not always clear how the speeches of various parts of China should be classified. The Ethnologue lists a total of 14, but the number varies between seven and 17 depending on the classification scheme followed. For instance, the Min variety is often divided into Northern Min (Minbei, Fuchow) and Southern Min (Minnan, Amoy-Swatow); linguists have not determined whether their mutual intelligibility is small enough to sort them as separate languages.
Generally, mountainous South China displays more linguistic diversity than the flat North China. In parts of South China, a major city's dialect may only be marginally intelligible to close neighbours. For instance, Wuzhou is about 120 miles upstream from Guangzhou, but its dialect is more like that of Guangzhou than is that of Taishan, 60 miles southwest of Guangzhou and separated by several rivers from it (Ramsey, 1987).
Read more about this topic: Chinese Language
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“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.”
—Bible: New Testament, 1 Corinthians 12:4-6.