Chinese Dialects

Varieties

There are many different varieties of Chinese. Today, the two most popular are Cantonese or Mandarin. Two other popular Chinese dialects are Min and Wu. To Western societies, these dialects are not seen as mutually exclusive; instead the dialects are considered different languages. China however groups them under a hierarchical Chinese language system for political reasons. Unlike mainstream languages such as English, the different dialects of Chinese do not translate from spoken language to written language the same. Different dialects choose to use different characters. Some of these characters may be older, outdated or complicated versions of current Mandarin or Cantonese.

Also, intelligibility of different dialects greatly differs between regions. A person from one region that speaks a dialect of Mandarin may not be able to understand someone from a neighboring region that speaks a different dialect. Although these are the main dialects, there are many more rural dialects of Chinese that are not recognized by the government due to inconsistency.

Classification

Chinese languages are classified by continuum or region. Classification was started in the 1930s due to the difference of pronunciation in dialects. Currently, Mandarin has over 800 million speakers, and is the dominant spoken dialect of Chinese by far. Wu and Cantonese have over 70 million speakers, and are the second and third largest dialects. There are close to ten more recognized dialects that have millions of speakers as well.

Bilingualism

While many people do not know different dialects of Chinese, most well educated citizens of the People’s Republic of China do understand standard Chinese as well as other dialects. Learning another dialect of Chinese is often found by spending time in its spoken region. When speaking in a formal matter, standard Chinese is used. However, when in a local region, the two forms of language are often mixed together by bilingual speakers. Linguists use their local dialect in order to show a sense of culture and identity.

Political Issues

Mandarin became the standard language during the Qing dynasty. Anyone focusing on pursuing education was required to learn Mandarin dialect. While this was a focus of the mainland of China, Hong Kong still allowed Cantonese and other spoken sub-dialects. The Qing dynasty implemented a standard language because political actions were suffering due to the lack of a widely accepted political language.