
''For treatment of the various forms of spoken Chinese language, see Chinese spoken languages.'' ---- The different List of Chinese ethnic groups speak a great variety of languages, called the ''Zhongguo Yuwen'' (中国语文), meaning "languages of China". These languages span six linguistic families and most of them are dissimilar morphologically and phonetically. Chinese language policy is heavily influenced by Soviet nationalities policy and officially encourages the development of standard spoken and written languages for each of the nationalities of China. However, in this schema, Han Chinese are considered a single nationality, and official policy treats the different varieties of the Chinese spoken language differently from the different national languages. For example, while Chinese official policies encourage the development and use of different orthographies for the national languages and their use in educational and academic settings, the same is not true for the different Chinese spoken languages, despite the fact that they are more different from each other than, for example, the Romance languages of Europe. Unofficially, there are large economic and social incentives to be functional in Putonghua, a form of Mandarin Chinese, which serves as a lingua franca among the different groups within China. In addition, it is also considered increasing prestigious and useful to have some ability in English language, which is a required subject for persons attending university. During the 1950s and 1960s, Russian language had some social status among Chinese elites as the international language of socialism. Putonghua is the official national spoken language. In addition, Chinese autonomous regions and special administrative regions have additional official languages. For example, Tibetan language has official status within the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Mongol has official status within the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. In addition to the above, English language and Portuguese language have official status in parts of China. English is an official language in Hong Kong, and all laws of the HK government are published both in English and Chinese, with both versions having equal status. Portuguese has a similar status in Macao. Another language which has no official status, but is very important in Buddhism is Sanskrit. Among Chinese Muslims, Arabic is also important as a liturgical language. == Historical Languages == Most of the languages of China have historically influenced each other. During most Chinese dynasties, it was the Chinese languages that sinicized the other ethnic groups. (See Ethnic groups in Chinese history.) But during the Mongol Dynasty, it was the Mongolian language that dominated. And during the last dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu language also had a strong influence. Over their two centuries of rule, the ruling Manchu dynasty gradually lost their fluency in Manchu, although until the end of the Qing dynasty all laws were promulagated in both Manchu and Classical Chinese. As a result of these mutual influences, there is a certain amount of common vocabulary. Not all Chinese ethnic groups have developed a separate language. For example, the Hui Chinese speak Mandarin Chinese, like the majority of Han Chinese. During the 17th century, when Chinese and Russians met, there was considerably difficulty finding a common language. The language which was finally selected for dipomatic negotiations was Latin, which the Russians knew from Orthodox priests and which the Chinese knew as a result of Jesuit missionaries. Another language which was very widely used in southeastern China in the 18th and 19th century to communicate between the unintelligible versions of Min was pidgin English. == Terminology == However, the term ''Zhongguo Yuwen'' is sometimes used to be synonymous with "Chinese language". To clarify, one can use ''Zhongguo de Yuwen'' (中国的语文), which unambiguously means "China's (several) languages". The following are the spoken and written languages (they are not in one-to-one correspondence) used by the modern citizens of China. == Spoken == The spoken languages of modern Chinese nationalities belong to at least seven families: * The Sino-Tibetan languages: 29 nationalities (including the Han, Tibetans, Zhuang, Miao, and Yao people) * The Altaic languages: 17 (including the Uighur, Mongols, and Manchu) * The Austroasiatic languages: 4 (the De'ang, Blang, Gin, and Wa) * The Tai-Kadai languages: several languages are spoken by the Dai people of Yunnan * The Indo-European languages: 2 (the Russians and Tajiks) * The Austronesian languages: 1 official nationality (the Gaoshan, who speak far more than 1 language) * Language isolate: 1 (the Koreans) == Written == The following languages have traditionally had written forms that do not involve Chinese characters (han zi): * The Mongolians - Mongolian language - Mongolian alphabet * The Manchus - Manchu language - Manchu alphabet * The Tibetans - Tibetan language - Tibetan script * The Uyghurs - Uyghur language - Arabic alphabet * The Kazakhs - Kazakh language - Arabic alphabet * The Tajiks - Tajiki language (as a local lingua franca) - Arabic alphabet * The Kirgiz - Kirgiz language - Arabic alphabet * The Koreans - Korean language - Hangul * The Xibe (Sibo) - Xibe language - Manchu alphabet * The Dai - Dai language * The Yi - Yi language - Yi syllabary * The Naxi - Dongba script Chinese banknotes contain several scripts in addition to Chinese script. These are: * The Zhuang language#Writing systems (Roman alphabet) * The Tibetan script (Tibetan syllabic alphabet) * The Uyghur language#Writing system (Arabic alphabet) * The Mongolian alphabet (Traditional Mongolian alphabet) Ten nationalities who never had a written system have, under the PRC's encouragement, developed phonetic alphabets. According to [http://www.china.org.cn/e-white/20050301/index.htm a government white paper] published in early 2005, "by the end of 2003, 22 ethnic minorities in China used 28 written languages." == Political controversies == Language policy within China is the subject of a number of political controversies mostly having to do with the political status of minority nationalities in China. Some critics of the PRC government, such as the Tibetan Government-in-Exile argue that China's official multilingualism is a sham and that social pressures and political efforts result in a policy of sinicization and often term PRC policies cultural genocide. Supporters of Chinese policies argue that both in theory and in practice that Chinese policies are rather supportive of multilingualism and the development of minority languages, and that China has a far better track record in these issues than some other countries, namely the United States. == See also == * Demographics of China == External link == * [http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200403/03/eng20040303_136435.shtml People's Daily: Simultaneous interpretation in seven minorities' languages provided at NPC and CPPCC] Lists of languages Languages of China
''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. User:Markalexander100 07:41, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC) : good idea, add "at least". I got the figure 6 from a semi-official PRC website. --User:Menchi 07:51, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC) Finally got round to it. User: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. - User:Mustafaa 05:03, 7 Jul 2004 (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. User:Patrick0Moran 18:32, 2 Aug 2004 (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, User:Muhamedmesic 02:36, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC) Uyghur language and Zhuang language both appear. - User:Mustafaa 16:48, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Chinese culture Languages of Asia
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Languages_of_China
Languages_of_China
Languages_of_China
Languages of China
''For treatment of the various forms of spoken Chinese language, see Chinese spoken languages.'' ---- The different List of Chinese ethnic groups speak a great variety of languages, called the ''Zhongguo Yuwen'' (中国语文), meaning "languages of China". These languages span six linguistic families and most of them are dissimilar morphologically and phonetically. Chinese language policy is heavily influenced by Soviet nationalities policy and officially encourages the development of standard spoken and written languages for each of the nationalities of China. However, in this schema, Han Chinese are considered a single nationality, and official policy treats the different varieties of the Chinese spoken language differently from the different national languages. For example, while Chinese official policies encourage the development and use of different orthographies for the national languages and their use in educational and academic settings, the same is not true for the different Chinese spoken languages, despite the fact that they are more different from each other than, for example, the Romance languages of Europe. Unofficially, there are large economic and social incentives to be functional in Putonghua, a form of Mandarin Chinese, which serves as a lingua franca among the different groups within China. In addition, it is also considered increasing prestigious and useful to have some ability in English language, which is a required subject for persons attending university. During the 1950s and 1960s, Russian language had some social status among Chinese elites as the international language of socialism. Putonghua is the official national spoken language. In addition, Chinese autonomous regions and special administrative regions have additional official languages. For example, Tibetan language has official status within the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Mongol has official status within the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. In addition to the above, English language and Portuguese language have official status in parts of China. English is an official language in Hong Kong, and all laws of the HK government are published both in English and Chinese, with both versions having equal status. Portuguese has a similar status in Macao. Another language which has no official status, but is very important in Buddhism is Sanskrit. Among Chinese Muslims, Arabic is also important as a liturgical language. == Historical Languages == Most of the languages of China have historically influenced each other. During most Chinese dynasties, it was the Chinese languages that sinicized the other ethnic groups. (See Ethnic groups in Chinese history.) But during the Mongol Dynasty, it was the Mongolian language that dominated. And during the last dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu language also had a strong influence. Over their two centuries of rule, the ruling Manchu dynasty gradually lost their fluency in Manchu, although until the end of the Qing dynasty all laws were promulagated in both Manchu and Classical Chinese. As a result of these mutual influences, there is a certain amount of common vocabulary. Not all Chinese ethnic groups have developed a separate language. For example, the Hui Chinese speak Mandarin Chinese, like the majority of Han Chinese. During the 17th century, when Chinese and Russians met, there was considerably difficulty finding a common language. The language which was finally selected for dipomatic negotiations was Latin, which the Russians knew from Orthodox priests and which the Chinese knew as a result of Jesuit missionaries. Another language which was very widely used in southeastern China in the 18th and 19th century to communicate between the unintelligible versions of Min was pidgin English. == Terminology == However, the term ''Zhongguo Yuwen'' is sometimes used to be synonymous with "Chinese language". To clarify, one can use ''Zhongguo de Yuwen'' (中国的语文), which unambiguously means "China's (several) languages". The following are the spoken and written languages (they are not in one-to-one correspondence) used by the modern citizens of China. == Spoken == The spoken languages of modern Chinese nationalities belong to at least seven families: * The Sino-Tibetan languages: 29 nationalities (including the Han, Tibetans, Zhuang, Miao, and Yao people) * The Altaic languages: 17 (including the Uighur, Mongols, and Manchu) * The Austroasiatic languages: 4 (the De'ang, Blang, Gin, and Wa) * The Tai-Kadai languages: several languages are spoken by the Dai people of Yunnan * The Indo-European languages: 2 (the Russians and Tajiks) * The Austronesian languages: 1 official nationality (the Gaoshan, who speak far more than 1 language) * Language isolate: 1 (the Koreans) == Written == The following languages have traditionally had written forms that do not involve Chinese characters (han zi): * The Mongolians - Mongolian language - Mongolian alphabet * The Manchus - Manchu language - Manchu alphabet * The Tibetans - Tibetan language - Tibetan script * The Uyghurs - Uyghur language - Arabic alphabet * The Kazakhs - Kazakh language - Arabic alphabet * The Tajiks - Tajiki language (as a local lingua franca) - Arabic alphabet * The Kirgiz - Kirgiz language - Arabic alphabet * The Koreans - Korean language - Hangul * The Xibe (Sibo) - Xibe language - Manchu alphabet * The Dai - Dai language * The Yi - Yi language - Yi syllabary * The Naxi - Dongba script Chinese banknotes contain several scripts in addition to Chinese script. These are: * The Zhuang language#Writing systems (Roman alphabet) * The Tibetan script (Tibetan syllabic alphabet) * The Uyghur language#Writing system (Arabic alphabet) * The Mongolian alphabet (Traditional Mongolian alphabet) Ten nationalities who never had a written system have, under the PRC's encouragement, developed phonetic alphabets. According to [http://www.china.org.cn/e-white/20050301/index.htm a government white paper] published in early 2005, "by the end of 2003, 22 ethnic minorities in China used 28 written languages." == Political controversies == Language policy within China is the subject of a number of political controversies mostly having to do with the political status of minority nationalities in China. Some critics of the PRC government, such as the Tibetan Government-in-Exile argue that China's official multilingualism is a sham and that social pressures and political efforts result in a policy of sinicization and often term PRC policies cultural genocide. Supporters of Chinese policies argue that both in theory and in practice that Chinese policies are rather supportive of multilingualism and the development of minority languages, and that China has a far better track record in these issues than some other countries, namely the United States. == See also == * Demographics of China == External link == * [http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200403/03/eng20040303_136435.shtml People's Daily: Simultaneous interpretation in seven minorities' languages provided at NPC and CPPCC] Lists of languages Languages of China
Languages of China
''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. User:Markalexander100 07:41, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC) : good idea, add "at least". I got the figure 6 from a semi-official PRC website. --User:Menchi 07:51, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC) Finally got round to it. User: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. - User:Mustafaa 05:03, 7 Jul 2004 (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. User:Patrick0Moran 18:32, 2 Aug 2004 (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, User:Muhamedmesic 02:36, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC) Uyghur language and Zhuang language both appear. - User:Mustafaa 16:48, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Languages of China
Chinese culture Languages of Asia
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