Mandarin (traditional Chinese: 官話; simplified Chinese: 官话; pinyin: Guānhuà; literally "speech of officials" or simplified Chinese: 北方话; traditional Chinese: 北方話; pinyin: Běifānghuà; literally "northern dialect(s)"), is a category of related Chinese dialects spoken across most of northern and south-western China. When taken as a separate language, as is often done in academic literature, the Mandarin language has more native speakers than any other language. The "standard" in Standard Mandarin refers to the standard Beijing dialect of the Mandarin language.
Mandarin is also a general term describing any grade of nobility in the Chinese Imperial Court.
In English, Mandarin can refer to either of two distinct concepts:
In everyday use Mandarin refers to Standard Chinese or Standard Mandarin (Putonghua / Guoyu / Huayu), which is based on the particular Mandarin dialect spoken in Beijing. Standard Mandarin functions as the official spoken language of the People's Republic of China, the official language of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and one of the four official languages of Singapore. Chinese — in practice Standard Mandarin — is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
From an official point of view, there are two versions of Standard Mandarin, since the People's Republic of China government refers to that on the Mainland as Putonghua, whereas the Republic of China government refers to their official language as Kuo-yü (Guoyu in pinyin).
Technically, both Putonghua and Guoyu base their phonology on the Beijing accent, though Putonghua also takes some elements from other sources. Comparison of dictionaries produced in the two areas will show that there are few substantial differences. However, both versions of school Standard Mandarin are often quite different from the Mandarin dialects that are spoken in accordance with regional habits, and neither is wholly identical to the Beijing dialect. Putonghua and Guoyu also differ from the Beijing dialect in vocabulary, grammar, and usage.
It is important to note that the terms Putonghua (The Common Language) and Guoyu refer to speech, and hence the difference in the use of simplified characters and traditional characters is not usually considered to be a difference between these two concepts.
Spoken in: People's Republic of China
Region: Most of northern and southwestern China (and also overseas Singapore, Malaysia, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Sydney, Suriname, Mauritius, New York City and other overseas Chinese communities)
Total speakers: 885 million (first language speakers) [1]
Ranking: 1 (native speakers)
Language family: Sino-Ti betan, Sinitic Chinese
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Learning Chinese is fun if you love to learn!by dianaliuhk692 views
this might be the funniest thing evar
RabidxPanda 1 year ago
I didn't know MTV Asia existed.
What other MTVs are out there?
Armando51roosters 2 years ago