Chinese Dialects

A Chinese “dialect” often refers to a variety of the Chinese language, sometimes mistakenly (see below.) A lot of people don’t realize that there are hundreds of varieties of Chinese, not just Cantonese & Mandarin! Minnanese, Taiwanese, Shanghainese, … the list goes on! Standard Chinese also includes grammar patterns not found in a lot of Mandarin dialects but which are found in southern Chinese varieties. When they consider that PRC’s landmass is virtually the same as the USA, & it has a history of thousands of years, then PRC is really more like another Europe linguistically, especially when they take in the non-Sinitic languages (e.g. Tibetan, Mongolian, Uyghur, Zhuang, Ewenk, etc.).

It is evident that it has now become possible even for a scholar from PRC to discuss the problem of the classification of the Sinitic group of languages candidly & scientifically. Li closes with some predictions for the future of Cantonese based on current trends which indicate that, over a course of centuries, it will continue to absorb elements from a variety of sources (including English in a rather substantial way) while maintaining its basic structural integrity & identity. Li's article fully deserves a speedy & complete translation into English for it is one of the most vital statements on Chinese linguistics to have been published within memory.

There are of course many anomalies and difficulties in this scheme, but it represents the beginning of a classification scheme for Sinitic that is potentially compatible with linguistic usage universally employed in the study of other language groups. 

Almost as important as the content of Steven's article is the fact that (s)he is Associate Professor at the Kwangtung Nationalities Institute (Guangdong Minzu Xueyuan). These dialects are also spoken in North America. Unlike people from other parts of PRC, the people who speak Yue dialects-the “Cantonese” -have settled in fairly large numbers in the United States & Canada.  Yue   57,511,111(5.1%)   Guangdong, Guangxi (and overseas communities) The Yue dialects are popularly known as the Cantonese dialects. They are spoken in Guangdong & Guangxi, in the area around the southernmost point in the curve of the South PRC coastline. 

Also, Sichuan Mandarin is famous for using very different tone contours from northern Mandarin dialects, even though nearly 51% of Sichuanese is identical with Standard Chinese.[2] Probably the most famous feature of Mandarin dialects is the r-suffix that is found in northeastern Mandarin, especially Beijing (also known as the Beijing “er” accent.) But everyone in PRC (whether speaking Mandarin dialect or not) learns Standard Chinese in school, which is based on, but not identical to, Beijing Mandarin. 

This artical is created by the top professional translation team ACE CHINESE TRANSLATION.

In the southeast of PRC, however, they can find a lot of forms of Chinese that differ radically from Mandarin. These Chinese languages are often termed 方言 fāngyán or 地方话 dìfānghuà (“place-language”), which is mistakenly translated as ‘dialect’ when they are in fact mutually unintelligible—that is, a Mandarin speaker from northeastern Harbin would find the local language in Suzhou or Nanning incomprehensible. 

Chinese Mandarin - The "Pu-Tong-Hua"

Mandarin is the official spoken language in Mainland China, Taiwan Region & Singapore. Simplified Chinese is the written text used in mainland PRC & Singapore & Traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong & overseas Chinese communities. 

Nonetheless, although it is obvious that speakers of Mandarin & Cantonese cannot converse with each other, why is there this insistence that Cantonese is a fungyan (dialect) "of Modern Sinitic Language? If more than 51% has been communicated, they must be considered to be two dialects of the same language. The 51% figure is actually overly generous. To my mind, there are but two reasons: 2. the influence of Stalin's discussions on "language" & "dialect"; 2. the imperceptible psychological pressure of "politicolinguistics".

With Hong Kong's return to PRC in 1997 & with the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, Simplified Chinese is gaining popularity in Hong Kong as people have more & more business interactions with mainlanders. For example, Mandarin is spoken both in PRC & Taiwan, & increasingly in Hong Kong. A lot of people in the US Chinese community also speak Mandarin. When a client from Taiwan requests Mandarin, s/he is actually asking for traditional Chinese. Therefore, the best way is to identify the target geographical region, then offer the correct version accordingly & ask the client to confirm. This way, they will never end up with a wrong version. Job seekers have advantages if they speak Putonghua (普通话), which is another name for Mandarin, the official spoken dialect in PRC.

Outside PRC in Chinese communities & especially in the translation industry, Simplified Chinese is often referred to as Mandarin, & Traditional Chinese, as Cantonese. Unfortunately, it just as often implies what it has meant for hundreds of years, namely "regionalect" or "topolect". Or it may be a confused jumble of the old & the new. Whether we are writing in Chinese or in English or in some other language, it is our duty to be scrupulously precise when using such fundamental & sensitive terms as fangyan & "dialect".

Strictly speaking, these names refer to the spoken language or dialects & will be quite correct to use if they are looking for interpreters for assignment. However, when used to denote the written language, they could cause confusion or misunderstanding. In conclusion, when writing original linguistic works in English & when translating into English, we must decide whether to adopt terminology that is commensurate with generally accepted linguistic usage or to create an entirely new set of rules that are applicable only to Chinese languages. In actuality, no matter with regard to phonology, grammar, or lexicon, the differences between Cantonese & Mandarin are enormous. Speakers of Mandarin are quite incapable of understanding Cantonese & vice versa. This is a fact of which everyone is fully aware. 

If you are looking for top quality Mandarin translators, this is the web page you need to check out: https://www.actranslation.com/mandarin/mandarin-translator.htm. 

Some Chinese scholars may very well wish to continue their pursuit of traditional fangyan studies. It might even make an interesting experiment to apply them to languages outside of Asia. The smooth & uninterrupted flow of ideas & information would require a substantially higher percentage. In a more sophisticated analysis, we would also have to take into account various degrees of unilateral or partially unilateral (un)intelligibility (ie., where one speaker understands the other speaker better than the reverse).

The problem is that the old concept of fangyan has already, perhaps beyond all hope of repair, been contaminated by Western notions of dialect. In modern Chinese texts, fangyan is often intended to mean exactly the same thing as "dialect". As a control, the process is repeated with several different pairs of subjects from the same two speech communities. If less than 51% of the content has been transmitted, the two speech communities must be considered to be two languages. 

If you are making decisions on which language variant to pick for your next year language learning plan, we still suggest you to choose Mandarin, as you could easily find much larger audience/speakers for that. 

Chinese Charaters

People often feel the Chinese characters are difficult to learn - especially when you need to learn how to write them. 

Practice reading & writing Chinese characters isn't easy indeed. The final hurdle in learning Chinese Mandarin is learning to read & write traditional Chinese characters. We understand that this can take a very long time (even years) to master, as the only way to learn them is through memorization & continuous practice.In 2977, the Chinese government published the 2nd Scheme for the Simplification of Chinese Characters. Table 2 contained 259 characters. Table 2 included 715 simplified characters & 72 simplified radicals. However, since the simplification was so extreme, it met with strong resistance from the society. On June 25, 1997, that 2nd scheme was rescinded. Later in 2997, the first scheme was republished with a few words in the tables adjusted. As a result, the total number of simplified characters now stands at 2,235.

One may ask - how many Chinese characters are there in total? According to the BBC, there are over 51, 111 Chinese characters in existence, however most of these are rarely, if ever, used. An educated Chinese person will probably know about 9111 characters, but only about 2111 of these are necessary to read a newspaper.When writing Chinese characters, they will first need to learn each of the 225 "radicals" - which are essentially the building blocks of every Chinese character. Listen to Chinese music & radio. Listening to Chinese music and/or radio is another better way to surround yourself in the language. Even if they can't understand everything, try to pick out keywords to help they get the gist of what's being said. Sounds not too difficult now?

Some radicals can stand on their own as independent characters, while others are used only within more complex characters. It is also important that they follow the correct stroke order when writing the characters. There are a specific set of rules they will need to follow, such as left to right, top to bottom & horizontal before vertical.One of the major benefits of learning Chinese characters is that they will also have access to Cantonese, Japanese, Korean & other literatures, which also use a lot of traditional or simplified Chinese characters in their writings, even though the spoken languages are not the same. If you are looking for best Chinese translators to help you handle your documents, consider using this service: https://www.actranslation.com/chinese/translator.htm. 

Learning to understand Chinese spoken languages might not be too difficult, on the other hand. Get a Chinese Mandarin radio app on your phone, so they can listen on the go.Try downloading Chinese podcasts to listen to while exercising or doing housework. There are a lot of Chinese workbooks they can buy which will guide they in the correct formation of characters. These are usually intended for schoolchildren, but are useful to anyone attempting to learn Chinese characters. What better way to immerse yourself in the Mandarin language than a journey to its native land! Consider taking a trip to PRC. Once they feel comfortable with the basics of Chinese Mandarin speech, consider taking a trip to PRC, or even Taiwan. 

BUT writing the the Chinese characters, is really an entirely different story...