Mandarin (linguistics)

Mandarin is the English term for several varieties of Chinese spoken language. Originally, it referred to the language of the "Mandarins", or officials in the Imperial Chinese court. By extension, it is now used to describe several related forms of Chinese speech.

In the narrow sense, Mandarin refers to two standardized forms of the Chinese spoken language, Putonghua and Guoyu. These are, respectively, the official languages of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China on Taiwan (ROC). Putonghua, but known instead as Huayu, is also one of four official languages in Singapore. In addition, Mandarin used in this sense can also refer to regional variations of the official spoken language influenced by localisms.

In the broad sense, Mandarin is used, primarily by linguists and by the rest of this article, to refer to a much larger entity: the variations of Chinese speech spoken as the home language in most of northern and southwestern China. These variations are known collectively by Chinese as Beifang-hua or northern speech. Taken in this sense, Mandarin has more speakers than any other language, and within it there is considerable variety with many versions mutually unintelligible. In addition, while these versions of Chinese are linguistically closely related to the official language (i.e. the narrow sense of Mandarin), most Chinese speaking these variations make a clear distinction between the local speech (e.g. Sichuanese) and the national language (Putonghua) and do not think of these forms as the same speech.

Like all other varieties of Chinese, there is plenty of dispute as to whether Mandarin (in the broad sense) is a language or a dialect. Please look here for the issues surrounding this dispute. To hear a comparison of the same thing said in both Mandarin and in Taiwanese (a type of Minnan Chinese), you may listen to this comparison.

In English, all of these forms of Chinese are known as Mandarin, which does cause some confusion. In practice, the two national standards, Guoyu and Putonghua, are almost identical. However, the national standard can be very different to the point of unintelligibility from a local speech which is also linguistically classified as Mandarin. In addition, since standard Mandarin is taught as a second language across all of China, it is also very common for two people who both believe themselves to be speaking standard Mandarin to require a translator. Nevertheless, efforts by the PRC, ROC, and Singapore to promote Putonghua and Guoyu as the standard tongue have greatly boosted the number of Mandarin speakers.

Table of contents

1 History 1.1 Name 2 Standardized Mandarin 2.2 Standard Mandarin and Beijingese 3 Variations 4 Transcription systems 5 Sounds 5.3 Onsets 5.4 Rhymes 5.4.1 Monophthongs 5.5 Tones 5.6 Accents in learning foreign languages 6 Grammar 7 Vocabulary 8 Adoption of foreign words 9 Mandarin Chinese and other dialects 10 External links

History

The present main divisions of the Chinese language developed out of Ancient Chinese and Middle Chinese.

Most Chinese living in a broad arc, from the north-east (Manchuria) to the south-west (Yunnan), use various Mandarin dialects as their home language. The prevalence of linguistic homogeneity (i.e. Mandarin) throughout northern China is largely the result of geography, namely the plains of north China. By contrast, the mountains and rivers of southern China have promoted linguistic diversity. The presence of Mandarin in southwest China is largely due to a plague in the 12th century in Sichuan. This plague, which may have been related to the black death, depopulated the area, leading to later settlement from north China.

There is no clear dividing line where Middle Chinese ends and Mandarin begins; however, the Zhongyuan Yinyun, a rhyme book from the Yuan Dynasty, is widely regarded as an important milestone in the history of Mandarin. In this rhyme book we see many characteristic features of Mandarin, such as the reduction and disappearance of final stop consonants and the reorganization of the Middle Chinese tones.

Until the mid-20th century, most Chinese living in southern China did not speak any Mandarin. However, despite the mix of officials and commoners speaking various Chinese dialects, Beijingese Mandarin became dominant at least during the officially Manchu-speaking Qing Empire. Since the 17th century, the Empire had set up Orthoepy Academies (正音書院 Zhengyin Shuyuan) in an attempt to make pronunciation conform to the Beijing standard. But these attempts had little success.

This situation changed with the creation (in both the PRC and the ROC) of an elementary school education system committed to teaching Mandarin. As a result, Mandarin is now spoken fluently by most people in Mainland China and in Taiwan. In Hong Kong, the language of education and formal speech remains Cantonese but Mandarin is becoming increasingly influential.

Name

Standardized Mandarin

From an official point of view, there are two versions of standardized Mandarin, since the Beijing government refers to that on the Mainland as Putonghua(普通話; simplified: 普通话; pinyin: pǔtōnghuà; "the common dialect"), whereas the Taipei government refers to their official language as Kuo-yü(國語; simplified: 国语; pinyin: guóyǔ; "the national language"). Officially, Putonghua includes pronunciations from a number of different regions, while Kuoyu is theoretically based on the Beijing sounds only. Comparison of dictionaries produced in the two areas will show that there are few substantial differences. However, both versions of "school" Mandarin are often quite different from the Mandarin that is spoken in accordance with regional habits.

Among overseas Chinese communities, particularly in South East Asia, the language is known as huáyǔ (華語 simplified: 华语; "the Chinese language"). (Note that while the term Hànyǔ (漢語; simplified: 汉语), or "the Han Chinese language", is sometimes used to refer to just standard Mandarin, it is more precisely used to refer to all variants of Chinese, since they are, after all, all spoken by Han Chinese. Some speakers of Hakka, for example, will object that their own dialect should carry the name Hanyu, as its grammar is closer to that of ancient texts.)

By definition, the standard forms of Mandarin Chinese, Putonghua and Guoyu, use:

• The phonology or sound system of Beijing minus some pronounced regionalisms. On the other hand, it is a common impression that the sounds of Harbin and Changchun (both in northern Manchuria) may be equally or more similar to standard Mandarin pronunciation than the local dialect of Beijing.

• The vocabulary of Mandarin dialects in general. This means that all slang and other elements deemed "regionalisms" are excluded. On the other hand, the vocabulary of all Chinese dialects, especially in more technical fields like science, law, and government, are very similar (this can be compared to a similar profusion of Latin and Greek words in European languages). This means that much of the vocabulary of standardized Mandarin is shared with all varieties of Chinese.

• The grammar and usage of exemplary modern Chinese literature, such as the work of Lu Xun, which in turn is based loosely upon a mixture of northern (predominant), southern, and classical grammar and usage. This gives formal standard Mandarin structure a slightly different feel from that of street Beijingese.

Although Beijing dialect is one of many forms of Chinese that linguists classify as Mandarin in the sense of being a northern dialect, it is not the case that the official standardized Mandarin is the same as "Beijing dialect". It is true that the standard pronunciation and grammar of the language of instruction is based on the Beijing dialect, but "standard Mandarin" is a rather elusive concept since it is a set of "constructed" language standards imposed on people who are asked to give up their accustomed regional pronunciations. Over the vast area from Manchuria in the north-eastern part of China to Yunnan in the south-western part of China, the home language of most people is Mandarin (in the global sense), but these home languages all differ from the pronunciation, vocabulary, and sometimes even the grammar of the language of instruction.

Specifically as regards the language of the natives of Beijing, most speakers conform well to standard pronunciation of the initial retroflex sounds (zhi, chi, shi, ri), but they add a final "er" — commonly used as a diminutive — sound to vocabulary items that other speakers would leave unadorned (儿音; pinyin: éryīn). There are also many vocabulary items that have wide local currency but are hardly ever used outside of the Beijing area. On top of those differences, as with London and New York City, there is more than one local "accent" in Beijing.

At the same time, there are aspects of Beijing dialect that have made it into the official standard. Standard putonghua has a T-V distinction between the polite and informal versions of you, that comes from Beijing dialect. In addition there is a distinction between zamen (we not including the listener) and women (we including the listener). In practice, these distinctions are almost never used by most Chinese.

Variations

There are regional variations in Mandarin. This is manifested in two ways:

1. Various dialects of Mandarin cover a huge area containing nearly a billion people. As a result, there are pronounced regional variations in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar encountered as one moves from place to place. These regional differences are as pronounced as (or more so than) the regional versions of the English language found in England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and the United States.
2. Standard Mandarin has been promoted very actively by the PRC, the ROC, and Singapore as a second language. As a result, native speakers of both Mandarin varieties and non-Mandarin Chinese varieties frequently flavor it with a strong infusion of the speech sounds of their native tongues.

In both Mainland China and Taiwan, Mandarin in predominantly Han Chinese areas is taught by immersion starting in elementary school. After the second grade, the entire educational system is in Mandarin, except for local language classes that have been taught for a few hours each week in Taiwan starting in the mid-1990's.

However, the era of mass education in Mandarin has not erased these earlier regional differences. In the south, the interaction between Mandarin and local variations of Chinese has produced local versions of the "Northern" language that are rather different from that official standard Mandarin in both pronunciation and grammar.

Transcription systems

In the 20th century, Chinese linguists proposed various transcription systems, one of which even introduced a whole new syllabic alphabet: the Zhuyin system (Bopomofo). The most successful of these transcription systems was Hanyu Pinyin, which was accepted as the official transcription system for the Chinese language by the PRC in 1958 and later by the United Nations and other international organizations. During the 1950s, there were plans for Pinyin to supersede the Chinese characters. These plans, however, proved to be impractical due to the large number of homonyms in the Chinese language.

A variety of transcription systems are used on Taiwan. The ROC central government adopted Tongyong Pinyin in 2002, but has permitted local governments to override that decision in favor of their own preferred romanization systems. Zhuyin is used as the method for teaching pronunciation of characters and compounds in schools. Efforts to phase out this system in favor of pinyin have been stalled due to disagreements over which form of pinyin to use, and the massive effort needed to produce new educational materials and to completely retrain teachers.

Other less popular or outdated Romanizations include:

• Postal System Pinyin
• Yale Romanization
• Gwoyeu Romatzyh
• MPS II

The following describes the sounds of standardized Mandarin, or Putonghua/Guoyu.

Onsets

The following is the onset (initial consonant) inventory of standard Mandarin (Putonghua and Guoyu) as represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet:

	Bilabial		Labiodental		Alveolar		Retroflex		Alveolo-palatal		Velar
Plosive	p	pʰ			t	tʰ					k	kʰ
Nasal	m				n
Fricative			f		s		ʂ		ɕ		x
Affricate					ts	tsʰ	tʂ	tʂʰ	tɕ	tɕʰ
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