Sinitic languages
The Sinitic languages, also known as the Chinese languages, often synonymous with the Chinese language if the whole group is inaccurately considered as varieties of the same language, are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute a major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is a primary split between the Sinitic languages and the rest of the family. This view is rejected by some researchers but has found phylogenetic support among others. The Macro-Bai languages, whose classification is difficult, may be an offshoot of Old Chinese and thus also Sinitic; otherwise, Sinitic is defined only by the many varieties of Chinese unified by a shared linguistic evolution and writing system, and usage of the term "Sinitic" may reflect the linguistic view that the Chinese language constitutes a family of distinct languages, rather than variants of a single language.
Population
Over 91% of the Chinese population speaks a Sinitic language, of whom about three-quarters speak a Mandarin variety. Estimates of the number of global speakers of Sinitic branches as of 2018–2019, both native and non-native, are listed below: Note that the numbers are uncertain due to uncertainty in the population estimates of China.| Branch | Speakers | |
| Mandarin | 1,118,584,040 | |
| Yue | 85,576,570 | |
| Wu | 81,817,790 | |
| Min | 75,633,810 | |
| Jin | 47,100,000 | |
| Hakka | 44,065,190 | |
| Xiang | 37,400,000 | |
| Gan | 22,200,000 | |
| Huizhou | 5,380,000 | |
| Pinghua | 4,130,000 | |
| Dungan | 56,300 | |
| Total | 1,521,943,700 | 100% |
Languages
Dialectologist Jerry Norman estimated that there are hundreds of mutually unintelligible Sinitic languages. They form a dialect continuum in which differences generally become more pronounced as distances increase, though there are also some sharp boundaries. The Sinitic languages can be divided into Macro-Bai languages and Chinese languages, and the following is one of many potential ways of subdividing these languages. Some varieties, such as Shaozhou Tuhua, are hard to classify and thus are not included in the following briefs.Macro-Bai languages
This is a language family first proposed by linguist Zhengzhang Shangfang, and was expanded to include Longjia and Luren. It likely split off from the rest of Sinitic during the Old Chinese period. The languages included are all considered minority languages in China and are spoken in the Southwest. The languages are:All other Sinitic languages henceforth would be considered Chinese.
Chinese
The Chinese branch of the family is classified into at least seven main families. These families are classified based on five main evolutionary criteria:- The evolution of the historical fully muddy initials
- The distribution of rimes across the four tone qualities, as conditioned by voicing and aspiration of initials
- The evolution of the checked tone category
- The loss or retention of coda position plosives and nasals
- The palatalisation of the initial in front of high vowels
with Jin, Hui, Pinghua, and Tuhua not part of the seven traditional groups.
Mandarin
Varieties of Mandarin are used in the Western Regions, the Southwest, Huguang, Inner Mongolia, Central Plains and the Northeast, by around three-quarters of the Sinitic-speaking population. Historically, the prestige variety has always been Mandarin, which is still reflected today in Standard Chinese. Standard Chinese is now an official language of the Republic of China, People's Republic of China, Singapore and United Nations. Re-population efforts, such as that of the Qing dynasty in the Southwest, tended to involve Mandarin speakers. Classification of Mandarin lects has undergone several significant changes, though nowadays it is commonly divided as such, based on the distribution of the historical checked tone:- Northeastern
- Beijing
- Jiaoliao
- Jilu
- Central Plains
- Lanyin
- Jin
- Southwestern
- Jianghuai
Varieties of Mandarin can be defined by their universally lost -m final, low number of tones, and smaller inventory of classifiers, among other features. Mandarin lects also often have rhotic erhua rimes, though the amount of its use may vary between lects. Loss of checked tone is an often cited criterion for Mandarin languages, though lects such as Yangzhounese and Taiyuannese show otherwise.
Northeastern and Beijing Mandarin
Northeastern Mandarin is spoken in Heilongjiang, Jilin, most of Liaoning and northeastern Inner Mongolia, whereas Beijing Mandarin is spoken in northern Hebei, most of Beijing, parts of Tianjin and Inner Mongolia. The two families' most notable features are the heavy use of rhotic erhua and seemingly random distribution of the dark checked tone, and generally having four tones with the contours of high flat, rising, dipping, and falling.Northeastern Mandarin, especially in Heilongjiang, contains many loanwords from Russian.
| Term | Pronunciation | Meaning | Origin |
| 'rutabaga' | брюква bryukva | ||
| 'machine' | машина mashina | ||
| 'jail' | полиция politsiya |
Northeastern Mandarin lects can be divided into three main groups, namely Hafu, Jishen, and Heisong. Notably, the extinct Taz language of Russia is also a Northeastern Mandarin language. Beijing is sometimes included in Northeastern Mandarin due to its distribution of the historical dark checked tone, though is listed as its own group by others, often due to its more regular light checked tones.
Jilu Mandarin
Jilu Mandarin is spoken in southern Hebei and western Shandong, and is often represented with Jinannese. Notable cities that use Jilu Mandarin lects include Cangzhou, Shijiazhuang, Jinan and Baoding. Characteristically Jilu Mandarin features include merging the dark checked into the dark level tone, the light checked into light level or departing based on the manner of articulation of the initial, and vowel breaking in tong rime series' checked-tone words, among other features.Jilu Mandarin can be classified into Baotang, Shiji, Canghui and Zhangli. Zhangli is of note due to its preservation of a separate checked tone.
Jiaoliao Mandarin
Jiaoliao Mandarin is spoken in the Jiaodong and Liaodong Peninsulae, which includes the cities of Dalian and Qingdao, as well as several prefectures along the China-Korea border. Like Jilu Mandarin, its light checked tone is merged into light level or departing based on the manner of articulation of the initial, though its dark checked is merged into the rising. Its initial terms are pronounced with a null initial, unlike the of Northern and Beijing Mandarin.Based on, for example, the pronunciation of the palatalized initial, Jiaoliao Mandarin can be divided into Qingzhou, Denglian and Gaihuan areas.
| Yantai | Weihai | Qingdao | Dalian | Gloss | |
| 'to hand in' | |||||
| 'to see' |
Central Plains and Lanyin Mandarin
Central Plains Mandarin is spoken in the Central Plains of Henan, southwestern Shanxi, southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu, as well as most of Shaanxi, southern Ningxia and Gansu and southern Xinjiang, in famous cities such as Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, Luoyang, Xuzhou, Xi'an, Xining and Lanzhou. Central Plains Mandarin lects merge the historical checked tones with a lesser muddy and clear initial together with the rising tone, and those with a fully muddy initial are merged with the light level tone.Lanyin Mandarin, spoken in northern Ningxia, parts of Gansu, and northern Xinjiang, is sometimes grouped with Central Plains Mandarin due to its merged lesser light and dark checked tones, though it is realised as a departing tone.
Subdivision of Central Plains Mandarin is not fully agreed upon, though one possible subdivision sees 13 divisions, namely Xuhuai, Zhengkai, Luosong, Nanlu, Yanhe, Shangfu, Xinbeng, Luoxiang, Fenhe, Guanzhong, Qinlong, Longzhong and Nanjiang. Lanyin Mandarin, on the other hand, is divided as Jincheng, Yinwu, Hexi, and Beijiang. The Dungan language is a collection of Central Plains Mandarin varieties spoken in the former Soviet Union.
Jin
Jin is spoken in most of Shanxi, western Hebei, northern Shaanxi, northern Henan and central Inner Mongolia, often represented by Taiyuannese. It was first proposed as a lect separate from the rest of Mandarin by Li Rong, where it was proposed as lects in and around Shanxi with a checked tone, though this stance is not without disagreement. Jin varieties also often has disyllabic words derived from syllable splitting, through the infixation of.As per the Language Atlas by Li, Jin is divided into Dabao, Zhanghu, Wutai, Lüliang, Bingzhou, Shangdang, Hanxin, and Zhiyan branches.