Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era. It is designated as the national lingua franca of China, one of the official languages of the United Nations and of Singapore, and one of the national languages of Taiwan. It is largely based on the Beijing dialect. Standard Chinese is a pluricentric language with local standards in mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore that mainly differ in their lexicon.
Like other Sinitic languages, Standard Chinese is a tonal language with topic-prominent organization and subject–verb–object word order. Compared with southern varieties, the language has fewer vowels, final consonants and tones, but more initial consonants. It is an analytic language, albeit with many compound words.
In the context of linguistics, the dialect has been labeled Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, and in common speech simply Mandarin, more specifically qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin, or Standard Mandarin Chinese.
Naming
In English
Among linguists, Standard Chinese has been referred to as Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin. It is colloquially referred to as simply Mandarin, though this term may also refer to the Mandarin dialect group as a whole, or the late imperial form used as a lingua franca. "Mandarin" is a translation of Guanhua, which referred to the late imperial lingua franca. The term Modern Standard Mandarin is used to distinguish it from older forms.In Chinese
''Guoyu'' and ''Putonghua''
The word Guoyu was initially used during the late Qing dynasty to refer to the Manchu language. The 1655 Memoir of Qing Dynasty, Volume: Emperor Nurhaci says: " as Manchu ministers do not comprehend the Han language, each ministry shall create a new position to be filled up by Han official who can comprehend the national language." However, the sense of Guoyu as a specific language variety promoted for general use by the citizenry was originally borrowed from Japan in the early 20th century. In 1902, the Japanese Diet had formed the National Language Research Council to standardize a form of the Japanese language dubbed . Reformers in the Qing bureaucracy took inspiration and borrowed the term into Chinese, and in 1909 the Qing education ministry officially proclaimed imperial Mandarin to be the national language.The term Putonghua dates back to 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate the standard vernacular Mandarin from Literary Chinese and other varieties of Chinese.
Usage concerns
Since 2000, the Chinese government has used the term "Countrywide common spoken and written language", while also making provisions for the use and protection of ethnic minority languages. The term is derived from the title of a 2000 law which defines Putonghua as the "Countrywide Common Spoken and Written Language".Use of the term Putonghua deliberately avoids calling the dialect a 'national language', in order to mitigate the impression of coercing minority groups to adopt the language of the majority. Such concerns were first raised by the early Communist leader Qu Qiubai in 1931. His concern echoed within the Communist Party, which adopted the term Putonghua in 1955. Since 1949, usage of the word Guoyu was phased out in the PRC, only surviving in established compound nouns, e.g. 'Mandopop', or 'Chinese cinema'.
In Taiwan, Guoyu is the colloquial term for Standard Chinese. In 2017 and 2018, the Taiwanese government introduced two laws explicitly recognizing the indigenous Formosan languages and Hakka as "Languages of the nation" alongside Standard Chinese. Since then, there have been efforts to redefine Guoyu as encompassing all "languages of the nation", rather than exclusively referring to Standard Chinese.
''Hanyu'' and ''Zhongwen''
Among Chinese people, Hanyu refers to spoken varieties of Chinese. Zhongwen refers to written Chinese. Among foreigners, the term Hanyu is most commonly used in textbooks and Standard Chinese education, such as in the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi test.''Huayu''
Until the mid-1960s, Huayu referred to all the language varieties used among the Chinese nation. For example, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Hokkien films produced in Hong Kong were imported into Malaysia and collectively known as "Huayu cinema" until the mid-1960s. Gradually, the term has been re-appropriated to refer specifically to Standard Chinese. The term is mostly used in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.History
The Chinese language has had considerable dialectal variation throughout its history, including prestige dialects and linguae francae used throughout the territory controlled by the dynastic states of China. For example, Confucius is thought to have used a dialect known as yayan rather than regional dialects; during the Han dynasty, texts also referred to . The rime books that were written starting in the Northern and Southern period may have reflected standard systems of pronunciation. However, these standard dialects were mostly used by the educated elite, whose pronunciation may still have possessed great variation. For these elites, the Chinese language was unified in Literary Chinese, a form that was primarily written, as opposed to spoken.Late empire
The term Guanhua was used during the Ming and Qing dynasties to refer to the lingua franca spoken within the imperial courts. The term "Mandarin" is borrowed directly from the Portuguese word mandarim, in turn derived from the Sanskrit word —and was initially used to refer to Chinese scholar-officials. The Portuguese then began referring to Guanhua as "the language of the mandarins".During the 17th century, the state had set up orthoepy academies in an attempt to conform the speech of bureaucrats to the standard. These attempts had little success: as late as the 19th century, the emperor had difficulty understanding some of his ministers in court, who did not always follow a standard pronunciation.
Before the 19th century, the lingua franca was based on the Nanjing dialect, but later the Beijing dialect became increasingly influential, despite the mix of officials and commoners speaking various dialects in the capital, Beijing. By some accounts, as late as 1900 the position of the Nanjing dialect was considered by some to be above that of Beijing; the postal romanization standards established in 1906 included spellings that reflected elements of Nanjing pronunciation. The sense of Guoyu as a specific language variety promoted for general use by the citizenry was originally borrowed from Japan; in 1902 the Japanese Diet had formed the National Language Research Council to standardize a form of the Japanese language dubbed . Reformers in the Qing bureaucracy took inspiration and borrowed the term into Chinese, and in 1909 the Qing education ministry officially proclaimed imperial Mandarin as Guoyu, the 'national language'.
Republican era
After the Republic of China was established in 1912, there was more success in promoting a common national language. A Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation was convened with delegates from the entire country. A Dictionary of National Pronunciation was published in 1919, defining a hybrid pronunciation that did not match any existing speech. Meanwhile, despite the lack of a workable standardized pronunciation, colloquial literature in written vernacular Chinese continued to develop.Gradually, the members of the National Language Commission came to settle upon the Beijing dialect, which became the major source of standard national pronunciation due to its prestigious status. In 1932, the commission published the Vocabulary of National Pronunciation for Everyday Use, with little fanfare or official announcement. This dictionary was similar to the previous published one except that it normalized the pronunciations for all characters into the pronunciation of the Beijing dialect. Elements from other dialects continue to exist in the standard language, but as exceptions rather than the rule.
Following the end of the Chinese Civil War, the People's Republic of China continued standardisation efforts on the mainland, and in 1955 officially began using Putonghua instead of Guoyu, which remains the name used in Taiwan. The forms of Standard Chinese used in China and Taiwan have diverged somewhat since the end of the Civil War, especially in newer vocabulary, and a little in pronunciation.
In 1956, the PRC officially defined Standard Chinese as "the standard form of Modern Chinese with the Beijing phonological system as its norm of pronunciation, and Northern dialects as its base dialect, and looking to exemplary modern works in written vernacular Chinese for its grammatical norms." According to the official definition, Standard Chinese uses:
- The phonology of the Beijing dialect, if not always with each phoneme having the precise phonetic values as those heard in Beijing.
- The vocabulary of Mandarin dialects in general, excepting what are deemed to be slang and regionalisms. The vocabulary of all Chinese varieties, especially in more technical fields like science, law, and government, is very similar—akin to the profusion of Latin and Greek vocabulary in European languages. This means that much of the vocabulary of Standard Chinese is shared with all varieties of Chinese. Much of the colloquial vocabulary of the Beijing dialect is not considered part of Standard Chinese, and may not be understood by people outside Beijing.
- The grammar and idioms of exemplary modern Chinese literature, a form known as written vernacular Chinese. Written vernacular Chinese is loosely based upon a synthesis of predominantly northern grammar and vocabulary, with southern and Literary elements. This distinguishes Standard Chinese from the dialect heard on the streets of Beijing.
A 2007 survey conducted by the Chinese Ministry of Education indicated that 53.06% of the population were able to effectively communicate using Standard Chinese. By 2020, this figure had risen to over 80%.