What languages are there in china

The most widely spoken form of Chinese is without a doubt Mandarin. With over million speakers in China alone, it should come as no surprise that it is also the most spoken language worldwide. There are many dialects within Mandarin, and the variant is often split into four subgroups: Northern Mandarin, Northwestern Mandarin, Southwestern Mandarin and Southern. This is perhaps the most difficult factor in learning Chinese languages, as getting the tone wrong can drastically alter the meaning of a word.

Cantonese, or Yue, is another well-known variant of Chinese with over 60 million speakers in China. Sadly, Cantonese is one of a few dying languages in China — collateral damage as Mandarin takes precedence over the country. Its origin is traced to Guangzhou, a city also known as Canton, hence where the variant earned its name. Most Cantonese speakers live in the Guangdong province, predominantly Guangdong, Macau and Hong Kong, with each region having their own dialect.

Some of the key differences of Cantonese compared with Mandarin include its nine tones and much longer vowel length. Meanwhile, Gan dominates in many parts of western China. Over 41 million people speak some form of Gan, a distinctly different language from Mandarin and other Chinese varieties.

According to scholars, there are five primary dialects: Changjing, Yiping, Jiliang, Fuguang and Yingyi, which are all somewhat intelligible with Mandarin and the group Wu. That said, it actually shares most the commonality with Hakka. Mandarin Chinese is the official language of China and it's based on the dialect of the Han ethnic group from the North.

The predominant language is sometimes called Hanyu and the study of this language is viewed as an academic discipline. The Han language is divided into seven primary language groups or varieties that are so different they aren't mutually intelligible much like German and English.

The languages most frequently supported and studied include: Chinese Mongolian Tibetan Uyghur Zhuang. Standard Chinese Putonghua is a type of Mandarin Chinese that's considered the official spoken language of mainland China. China's language laws do not apply to Macua or Hong Kong which have other official languages like Portuguese, English, or Cantonese.

Standard Mandarin or Standard Chinese is based on the original Beijing dialect of the language. The Gan dialect is spoken in western areas of China, particularly the Jiangxi province.

China is home to 56 ethnic groups, all of whom have played a critical role in the development of the various languages spoken in China. Linguists believe that there are living languages in China today. These languages are geographically defined, and are found in mainland China, Taiwan , Hong Kong, and Tibet.

The law provides Standard Chinese as the lingua franca in China and is used as a means of communication, enabling speakers of unintelligible varieties of Chinese languages. In its written format, Standard Chinese uses both simplified Chinese characters used mainly in Putonghua , as well as traditional Chinese characters used primarily in Guoyu. Another language that has official status in China is Cantonese. The origin of the language can be traced to the port city of Guangzhou, from where its use spread throughout the Pearl River Delta.

Guangzhou is also known as Canton, and it is from this city that the language got its name. Cantonese is used as the official language in Hong Kong, as provided for by the Hong Kong Basic Law, and is utilized in all government communication, including court and tribunal proceedings.

Cantonese is also the official language in Macau, along with Portuguese. According to linguists, Cantonese is defined as a variant of the Chinese language or as a prestige variant of Yue, a subdivision of Chinese.

When classified with other closely related Yuehai dialects, Cantonese has about 80 million speakers across the country. In the Guangzhou province, Cantonese is used as the lingua franca as well as in the neighboring region of Guangxi. Cantonese can be divided into three main dialects: the Guangzhou dialect, Hong Kong dialect, and Macau dialect.