Talk - Languages in China

Talk

The official language of China is Standard Mandarin, known in Chinese as Pǔtōnghuà (普通话, “common speech”), which is based on the Beijing dialect; Chinese in general is known as Zhōngwén (中文). Standard Mandarin is the main language for government and media, as well as the national lingua franca. While the official language is standardized, local pronunciation of Mandarin does vary by region. Unless otherwise noted, all terms, spellings and pronunciations in this guide are in Standard Mandarin. While national media is broadcast in Mandarin, each area often has its own local media that broadcasts in the local language.

Chinese is written using Chinese characters (汉字, hànzì, lit. “Han characters”). Unlike an alphabet that represents individual sounds without any inherent meaning, each Chinese character represents a meaningful syllable: a specific word or part of a word. Although they look impenetrable at first, there is some method to the madness: most characters are composed from base components combined with other characters (often giving clues to both pronunciation and general meaning). The same characters are used in Japan and Korea with usually similar meanings, albeit different pronunciations. However, since the 1950s mainland China has used simplified characters, such as 龟 instead of 龜, in an attempt to eradicate illiteracy. Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and many overseas Chinese still use the traditional characters, which are also sometimes used on the mainland as an aesthetic choice. As a result, a word like “bank” will be written 銀行 as often as 银行. The simplification was fairly systematic, and you may deduce at least some of the simplifications on your own just from seeing them frequently. Cursive forms of Chinese characters, often used for effect in logos, range from “looks familiar if you squint” to “impenetrable scribbles”.

The standard way of romanizing Mandarin is pinyin (汉语拼音 hànyǔ pīnyīn). It’s a fairly logical system, although it has a few idiosyncrasies, including using some letters in ways that are different from English (such as q which is similar to English “ch” and x which is like English “sh”). Mandarin is also tonal, meaning each syllable has to be pronounced with the correct tone — high, rising, falling-rising, falling, or neutral — to be understood; tones are marked in pinyin using diacritics that graphically mimic the tones patterns (as in mā, má, mǎ, mà, and ma). With just a few hours of practice, you can learn to pronounce Mandarin words accurately using pinyin. However, as Chinese has many homophones, pinyin is useful for pronunciation but not practical for communicating meaning; for something like a street address, you need to use Chinese characters.

Although Chinese is written nearly the same across the country, spoken Chinese has a huge array of dialects, of which Standard Mandarin is just one. Verbally, Chinese dialects are as different from each other as English and Dutch, or French and Italian — related, but not mutually intelligible. Two people who speak different Chinese dialects read and write the same, but they would pronounce the written text differently, and can’t carry on a conversation with each other. However, thanks to heavy emphasis in the education system, most people can comfortably carry on a conversation in Standard Mandarin, though sometimes with a strong accent. In some areas, younger people are more likely to speak Mandarin than dialects, due to previous education policies that prohibited the use of dialects in school.

A variety of (mainly northern) dialects closely related to the standard are classified as Mandarin and account for the majority of China’s population. Other large groups of dialects include Wu (spoken in Shanghai, Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu) and Yue (Guangdong), which includes Cantonese (spoken in much of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau). The Min (Fujian) group includes Minnan (Hokkien, spoken in South Fujian and in Taiwan), Fuzhou dialect (Foochow or Hokchiu, spoken around Fuzhou), Teochew (Chiuchow, spoken in Chaoshan) and Hainanese (spoken in the island province Hainan). Hakka is spoken in several parts of southern China but is more related to northern dialects. Like Mandarin, these are all tonal languages.

Most Chinese are bilingual or even trilingual, speaking Mandarin as well as regional or local dialects. Some who are older or less educated may speak only the local dialect. While you can easily get by in most of China speaking Mandarin, learning a bit of the local dialect is always appreciated, and may get you preferential treatment in shops and restaurants.

Besides dialects of Chinese, various regions also have ethnic minority languages. The west has Turkic languages such as Uyghur, Kyrgyz, and Kazakh as well as other languages such as Tibetan; the north and northeast has Manchu, Mongolian, and Korean; the south has many other ethnic minorities who speak their own languages. However, except for some older folks, Mandarin is generally usable in these regions and many people are bilingual. In areas with large ethnic minority populations, the relevant ethnic minority language is sometimes co-official with Mandarin, and you may see bilingual road signs.

Chinese Sign Language (CSL or ZGS, 中国手语 Zhōngguó Shǒuyǔ) is the dominant sign language. There is an official version of CSL standardized by the government. There are also two regional dialects, Southern (from Shanghai) and Northern (from Beijing), used by the deaf community in daily communication; these and official CSL are largely mutually intelligible. CSL is not mutually intelligible with Hong Kong, Taiwanese, or Malaysian Sign Languages, nor with any others. Tibetan Sign Language (藏语手语 Zàng yǔ shǒuyǔ) is an independent sign language used in Tibet, not mutually intelligible with any others; it too is standardized by the government based on existing regional sign languages.

English

Chinese students study English from primary school to high school, and are required to pass an English test in order to graduate from university. However, the focus is mainly on formal grammar and writing, with less emphasis on reading, and even less on speaking or listening. While a few simple greetings are widely understood, it is generally rare to find locals who are conversant in English.

Staff at airports, hotels, and popular tourist attractions can sometimes speak basic to conversational English. As China’s tourism industry primarily caters to the domestic market, outside major cities with large expatriate communities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, even staff at hotels and tourist attractions may not be conversant in English.

The lengthy border lockdown and a decline in the number of Western expats has resulted in a general decline in English proficiency after the COVID pandemic. Some Chinese may use translation apps to bridge the language barrier, and you are also advised to do the same (while ensuring that the app is not blocked in China).

When using English, simplify and speak slowly. Chinese grammar is much simpler than English, as verbs, pronouns, and other words essentially don’t inflect at all. Although it sounds abrupt in English, simple declarative sentences like “Give me two beers” are quite similar to Chinese, and thus more readily understood than roundabout constructions like “Could we have a pair of beers please?”.

While English signage or menus are increasingly widespread in China, especially at or near tourist attractions, they are often written in incorrect English. Such signage can be difficult to read, but as “Chinglish” follows certain rules, it can usually be deciphered. Oftentimes, translations are simply a word-by-word equivalent of a Chinese expression which, like a word puzzle, can sometimes be pieced together with some thought, but in other cases may be utterly baffling.

Many cities have an English Corner, an informal gathering for practicing oral English, which can be a good way to meet locals. They’re often held at schools and colleges on Friday afternoons, and on Sundays in public parks, English schools, and bookstores, and universities. Topics often include cultural activities like holidays and festivals from English speaking countries, such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. However, these have been progressively disappearing over the past decade due to the prolific rise of language exchange over the internet in China, and have all but disappeared in smaller cities.

Other foreign languages

Although not as widespread as English, some other foreign languages are of use in China. Korean is spoken as a native language by the ethnic Korean minority in the north east of the country, while Mongolian is the native language of the ethnic Mongol community in Inner Mongolia. Japanese is spoken by some professionals in international businesses. German is a popular language for engineering professionals. Russian is often spoken by residents of the towns on the Russian border. Arabic is commonly studied by Muslim religious leaders.

Content adapted from Wikivoyage, used under CC BY-SA 3.0.