Talk:Languages of China

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The languages of modern Chinese nationalities belong to six families: That looks suspicious to me. There are several Tai-Kadai languages, which are generally classed as an independent family, and what about the various hill-tribes? We could always hedge with "at least" something, but it'd be nice to be sure. Markalexander100 07:41, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC)

good idea, add "at least". I got the figure 6 from a semi-official PRC website. --Menchi 07:51, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Finally got round to it. Markalexander100 04:45, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

It's 'cause the orthodox position among Chinese linguists is that Tai-Kadai is somehow a subgroup of Sino-Tibetan. Non-Chinese linguists tend to disagree. - Mustafaa 05:03, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I see the same problem with the Miao-Yao languages as Markalexander100 saw with Tai-Kadai. The resources I am familiar with treat Miao-Yao as a separate family, too. Is it mostly the Chinese linguist orthodoxy to consider them Sino-Tibetan? Could someone with more exhaustive knowledge please address this? Scalasaig (talk) 09:20, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Editorial comment on article in article

§ Someone has inserted the following words into the article:

Calling that a single language is politically sensitive; it contains many dialects, some mutually intelligible but others so distinct (at least in their spoken forms) that elsewhere in the world they might be treated as different languages.

§ That is an editorial comment, a book reviewer's comment. A critique of an article does not belong in an article. If something is wrong about an article it should be discussed here and then the article should be fixed.

§ Furthermore, the sentence is not clear. Did the author mean to say that calling "that" a single language is politically insensitive? Or does it mean that the question of whether two varieties of language get called two dialects of one language or get called two languages is a politically sensitive issue?

§ For the aforesaid reasons, I have moved the sentence out of the article so that it can be discussed properly. P0M 18:32, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)

They're obviously languages in the linguistic sense, just as Frisian or Swiss German is a language (while containing variously many dialects in the technical sense of the word). A good way to put it is that they have traditionally been called dialects in English. There have been many improvements in linguistics in the 20th century in many areas; no reason to cling to outdated terminology in the case of Chinese languages. 84.227.226.225 (talk) 01:22, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

Banknotes!

Hi! Does anyone know what the languages are, that appear on Chinese banknotes? I've been able to identify Tibetan, but none of the others... Reg, Muhamedmesic 02:36, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Uyghur language and Zhuang language both appear. - Mustafaa 16:48, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I am pretty sure that the Manchurian language appears as well, but I am not an expert.

The minority languages on Chinese banknotes are Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur and Zhuang. Uyghur is written in the Arabic-Persian script (K̡ona Yezik̡) that was re-introduced in the 1980s; Zhuang is written in the 1957 spelling system on older banknotes (e.g. Cuŋƅgoƨ Yinƨminƨ Yinƨhaŋƨ for "Bank of China"), on newer banknotes the orthography reformed in 1986 is used (e.g. Cunghgoz Yinzminz Yinzhangz). The Manchus are one of the largest officially recognised national minorities of China, but they don't speak Manchurian any more and use Chinese instead. Babelfisch 02:01, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Is Manchurian language the right word? I though Manchuria was a place but the language name is Manchu language.--Tricia Takanawa (talk) 16:51, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Official Languages

Which of the languages have official status? -- Zntrip

Hello eveyone I am so stunned about this chinese language and so should you.Stay on WiKIPEDIA The Free Encyclopesia it will always have what you need so stay on active and sign up for WiKIPEDIA and stayon for more info or data —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.155.121.227 (talk) 22:01, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Every language could have official status theoretically, the Government's Work Report provided five other languages, Mengol, Tibet, Uyghur, Kazakh, Chosun.--刻意(Kèyì) 06:58, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

What is going on

Is anybody watching what is happening to this article more closely than I? It appears that a couple of anonymous editors have deleted a large list that originally followed the words:

The following languages have traditionally had written forms that do not involve Chinese characters (han zi):

Hopefully these changes are not being made maliciously. P0M 04:28, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

I'm fairly sure that was vandalism- I've reverted to the previous version. Well spotted! Mark¹ 10:54, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

=ns/112.2.254.147|112.2.254.147]] (talk) 13:09, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Census data for spaekers of language of PRC

Are there Census data for spaekers of language of PRC? Where I get it? For example quanty of miao language by Chna census? It is strange that 12 ethnics depopulated in 2000-2010. Why? Mistake in census? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kaiyr (talk • contribs) 17:57, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Language policy in China

Southern Chinese Dialects as a Medium for Reconciliation within Greater China Mary S. Erbaugh Language in Society Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1995), pp. 79-94 Published by: Cambridge University Press Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4168582

21:38, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

The ethnic groups of China

The Languages of China are the languages that are spoken by China's 56 recognized ethnic groups. -- the current opening sentence of the lede.

are there any unrecognized ethnic groups? do they speak? do they only speak the languages spoken by other recognized ethnic groups? Do you see the problem with the opening sentence yet? If not, please see any of the languages of English. 68.174.97.122 (talk) 23:17, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

Agreed, it is a pretty strange sentence. Obviously what is meant is any established ethnic group in China. 84.227.226.225 (talk) 01:14, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

number of speakers?

So how much is each language spoken in China? There is no mention about that. Demographics of the People's Republic of China#Languages has this: Over 70% of the Han ethnic group are native speakers of the Mandarin group of dialects, but there is no year and no source for that section at all. 212.50.203.198 (talk) 16:43, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Why is {{Asia in topic|Languages of}}2 used? Languages of Asia has this: Template:Languages of Asia, and therefore, as far as I know, the "topic" template need not to be used... 212.50.203.198 (talk) 16:50, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

I also would like to see a list of languages in China with the number of speakers for each. Something similar to the table at Languages with official status in India#Languages with official status in India or even the table of first, second and third-language speakers at Languages of India#Multilingualism. Dirac66 (talk) 00:11, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

Languages of China in census

Why there is no census statistics for Languages of China--Kaiyr (talk) 15:29, 24 May 2014 (UTC)

Opening

The opening paragraph of this article states that

The predominant language in China, which is divided into seven major dialect groups, is known as Hanyu (simplified Chinese: 汉语; traditional Chinese: 漢語; pinyin: Hànyǔ). and its study is considered a distinct academic discipline in China.[4] Hanyu, or Han language, spans eight primary dialect groups, that differ from each other morphologically and phonetically to such a degree that dialects from different regions can often be mutually unintelligible.

This is not only incorrect in linguistic terms, it's also misleading and has a Chinese nationalist POV agenda behind it. These 'dialect groups' are in fact at least languages, perhaps even groups of languages, and 'can often be' should be 'are'. The fact that it is "considered a distinct academic discipline in China" is not relevant, and the idea that they are all varieties of the same language is 100% NPOV - this is a linguistic topic, not a political one, and this is not up to the standards of Wikipedia. Oh, and seven groups or eight? This lead says both. 阝工巳几千凹父工氐 (talk) 07:48, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

French and German listed as minority languages?

Somebody needs to verify this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.183.6.63 (talk) 11:58, 17 July 2016 (UTC)

lede clarification

hello, I find the lede a bit confusing. ``The predominant language in China, which is divided into seven major language groups (classified as dialects by the Chinese government for political reasons), is known as Hanyu (simplified Chinese: 汉语; traditional Chinese: 漢語; pinyin: Hànyǔ) ....`` For the sake of clarity, put `Hanyu` nearer the beginning. `The predominant language in China, Hanyu (Chinese) is divided into....``

Then, ``Hanyu, or Han language, spans eight primary varieties.`` Drop ``or Han language`` - that`s what we`re talking about. But is it 7? or 8?

Then, ``The languages most studied and supported by the state include Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur and Zhuang.`` This article is not about languages studied or supported by the state, it`s about the languages of China. So if these are the major languages in China, say so. And is `Chinese` the same as `Han`?

And then: is Mandarin Chinese the same as Han? Is it one of the 7 major language groups/dialects or one of the 8 primary varieties? If it's mentioned in the lede its relevance should be obvious or stated. --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 21:57, 12 May 2019 (UTC)

No section on sign langauges

Chinese Sign Language and Tibetan Sign Language are in the info box, but there's no section on sign languages in the article. There are articles on those sign languages, so it might be useful for someone to quickly add it. --Gacorley (talk) 21:27, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

I don't find Tewchou dialect in Guangdong region! 58.97.218.113 (talk) 10:21, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

Inclusion of Formosan

This is problematic for obvious reasons. 109.184.74.252 (talk) 18:26, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

Language issues in China

Main article: Languages of China

There are several hundred languages in China. The predominant language is Standard Chinese, which is based on central Mandarin, but there are hundreds of related Chinese languages, collectively known as Hanyu (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 into seven major language groups, and their study is a distinct academic discipline. They differ as much from each other morphologically and phonetically as do English, German and Danish. There are in addition approximately 300 minority languages spoken by the remaining 8% of the population of China. The ones with greatest state support are Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur and Zhuang.

Cantonese is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou (also known as Canton) and its surrounding area in southeastern China. It is the traditional prestige variety and standard form of Yue Chinese, one of the major subgroups of Chinese. Mandarin Chinese as their first language, accounting for 71% of the country's population.

References

Summary of varieties of Chinese

Distribution of Yue Chinese languages in Southeastern China. Standard Cantonese and closely related dialects are highlighted in pink.

Further information: List of varieties of Chinese, Languages of China, Lists of languages, List of languages by number of native speakers, List of languages by total number of speakers, and Protection of the varieties of Chinese

The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2019) and were rounded:

Number	Branch	Native Speakers	Dialects
1	Mandarin	850,000,000	51
2	Wu	95,000,000	37
3	Yue	80,000,000	52
4	Jin	70,000,000	6
5	Min	60,000,000	61
6	Hakka	55,000,000	10
7	Xiang	50,000,000	25
8	Gan	30,000,000	9
9	Huizhou	7,000,000	13
10	Pinghua	3,000,000	2
Total	Chinese	1,300,000,000	266

Mandarin

• 官话/官話

The main dialect areas of Mandarin in Mainland China.

Main article: Mandarin Chinese

The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2019) and were rounded:

Number	Branch	Native Speakers	Dialects
1	Beijing	35,000,000	7
2	Ji–Lu	110,000,000	4
3	Jianghuai	80,000,000	6
4	Jiao–Liao	35,000,000	4
5	Lan–Yin	10,000,000	3
6	Northeastern	100,000,000	4
7	Southwestern	280,000,000	11
8	Zhongyuan	200,000,000	11
Total	Mandarin	850,000,000	50

References