Editing Chinese language (section)

{{Short description|National language of China}}
{{About|the Chinese language, which includes many varieties|the standardized form|Standard Chinese|other languages in China|Languages of China|different varieties|Sinitic languages}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{CS1 config |mode=cs2}}
{{Infobox language
| name        = Chinese
| states      = {{hlist|[[China]]|[[Taiwan]]|[[Hong Kong]]|[[Macau]]|[[Malaysia]]<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Tan |editor-first=Chee-Beng |title=Routledge Handbook of the Chinese Diaspora |publisher=Routledge |place=London |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-136-23096-7 |chapter=Southeast Asian government policies toward the ethnic Chinese: a revisit |first=Leo |last=Sumadinata |page=284}}</ref>|[[Singapore]]}}
| speakers    = {{sigfig|1.390940300|3}} billion
| date        = 2017–2024
| ref         = <ref name=e28>{{e28|zho}}</ref>
| familycolor = Sino-Tibetan
| fam2        = [[Sinitic]]
| ancestor    = [[Proto-Sino-Tibetan]]
| ancestor2   = [[Old Chinese]]
| ancestor3   = [[Eastern Han Chinese]]
| ancestor4   = [[Middle Chinese]]{{efn|The colloquial layers of many varieties, particularly Min varieties, reflect features that predate Middle Chinese.{{sfnmp|Norman|1988|1pp=211–214|Pulleyblank|1984|2p=3}}}}
| dialect_label = [[Varieties of Chinese|Varieties]]
| dia1        = [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]]
| dia2        = [[Jin Chinese|Jin]]
| dia3        = [[Wu Chinese|Wu]]
| dia4        = [[Gan Chinese|Gan]]
| dia5        = [[Xiang Chinese|Xiang]]
| dia6        = [[Min Chinese|Min]]
| dia7        = [[Hakka Chinese|Hakka]]
| dia8        = [[Yue Chinese|Yue]]
| dia9        = [[Pinghua|Ping]]
| dia10       = [[Huizhou Chinese|Huizhou]]
| stand1      = [[Standard Chinese]]
| stand2      = [[Standard Cantonese]]
| script      = {{hlist|[[Chinese characters]]|[[Bopomofo]]|[[Pinyin]]|[[Xiao'erjing]]|[[Dungan language#Writing system|Dungan]]|[[Chinese braille (disambiguation)|Chinese Braille]]|[[ʼPhags-pa]]}}
| nation      =  {{hlist|China{{efn|Standard Chinese is an official language throughout China. Cantonese is a co-official language specifically in Hong Kong and Macao.}}|Taiwan{{efn|Mandarin, Hakka, and Hokkien}}|Singapore}}
| agency = {{indented plainlist|
* China: [[State Language Commission]]
* Taiwan: [[National Languages Committee]], [[Hakka Affairs Council]]
* Malaysia: [[Chinese Language Standardisation Council]]
* Singapore: [[Ministry of Education (Singapore)|Ministry of Education]], [[Promote Mandarin Council]]
}}
| iso1             = zh
| iso2b            = chi
| iso2t            = zho
| iso3             = zho
| image            = Chineselanguage.svg
| imagescale       = 0.5
| imagecaption     = {{tlit|zh|Hànyǔ}} written in [[Traditional Chinese characters|traditional]] (top) and [[Simplified Chinese characters|simplified]] (middle) forms, {{tlit|zh|Zhōngwén}} (bottom)
| notice           = IPA
| listclass        = hlist
| glotto           = sini1245
| glottorefname    = Sinitic
| glottofoot       = no
| map              = Map-Sinophone World.png
| mapscale         = 1
| mapcaption       = Map of the Chinese-speaking world
{{legend|#00A800|Majority Chinese-speaking}}
{{legend|#80C534|Significant Chinese-speaking population}}
{{legend|#b1ff72|Status as an official or educational language}}
}}
{{Infobox Chinese
| order = st
| s = {{linktext|汉语}}
| t = {{linktext|漢語}}
| l = [[Han Chinese|Han]] language
| p = Hànyǔ
| gr = Hannyeu
| w = {{tonesup|Han4-yu3}}
| mi = {{IPAc-cmn|h|an|4|.|yu|3}}
| myr = Hàn-yǔ
| tp = Hàn-yǔ
| h = Hon Ngi
| j = Hon3 jyu5
| y = Hon yúh
| gd = {{tonesup|Hon3 yü5}}
| ci = {{IPA|yue|hɔ̄ːn.jy̬ː}}
| buc = Háng-ngṳ̄
| poj = {{ubl|Hàn-gí|Hàn-gú}}
| wuu = {{tonesup|Hoe3 nyiu2}}
| c2 = {{linktext|lang=zh|中文}}
| l2 = [[Names of China|Chinese]] writing
| p2 = Zhōngwén
| gr2 = Jongwen
| h2 = Chung-Vun
| w2 = {{tonesup|Chung1-wen2}}
| mi2 = {{IPAc-cmn|zh|ong|1|.|wen|2}}
| myr2 = Jūng-wén
| tp2 = Jhong-wún
| buc2 = Dṳng-ùng
| poj2 = Tiong-bûn
| wuu2 = {{tonesup|Tson1 ven1}}
| j2 = Zung1 man4*2
| y2 = Jūng mán
| gd2 = Zung<sup>1</sup> men<sup>4</sup>*<sup>2</sup>
| s3 = {{linktext|汉文}}
| t3 = {{linktext|漢文}}
| l3 = Han writing
| p3 = Hànwén
| bpmf = {{bpmfsp|ㄏㄢˋ|ㄩˇ}}
| bpmf2 = {{bpmfsp|ㄓㄨㄥ|ㄨㄣˊ}}
| bpmf3 = {{bpmfsp|ㄏㄢˋ|ㄨㄣˊ}}
| gr3 = Hannwen
| w3 = {{tonesup|Han4-wen2}}
| tp3 = Hàn-wún
| mi3 = {{IPAc-cmn|h|an|4|.|wen|2}}
| ci2 = {{ubl|{{IPAc-yue|z|ong|1|-|m|an|4}}|{{IPAc-yue|z|ong|1|-|m|an|2}}}}
}}

'''Chinese''' ({{zh|s=汉语|t=漢語|p=Hànyǔ|l=[[Han Chinese|Han]] language}} or {{zhi|c=中文|p=Zhōngwén|l=Chinese writing}}) is a group of [[language]]s{{efn|name=dialect-perspective|"Chinese" refers collectively to the various language varieties that have descended from Old Chinese: native speakers often consider these to be "dialects" of a single language—though the Chinese term {{zhi|c=方言|p=fāngyán|l=dialect}} does not carry the precise connotations of "dialect" in English—while linguists typically analyze them as separate languages. See [[Dialect continuum]] and [[Varieties of Chinese]] for details.}} spoken natively by the ethnic [[Han Chinese]] majority and [[List of ethnic groups in China|many minority ethnic groups]] in [[China]], as well as by various communities of the [[Chinese diaspora]]. Approximately 1.39&nbsp;billion people, or 17% of the global population, speak a [[variety of Chinese]] as their [[first language]].<ref name=e28>{{e28|zho}}</ref>
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Ying speaking Henan Chinese.webm|thumb|Ying, a speaker of Henan Chinese]]

Chinese languages form the [[Sinitic languages|Sinitic branch]] of the [[Sino-Tibetan language]] family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be [[dialect]]s of a single language. However, their lack of [[mutual intelligibility]] means they are sometimes considered to be separate languages in a [[Language family|family]].{{efn|Examples include:{{blist|David Crystal, ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language'' (Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 312. "The mutual unintelligibility of the varieties is the main ground for referring to them as separate languages."
|Charles N. Li, Sandra A. Thompson. ''Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar'' (1989), p.&nbsp;2. "The Chinese language family is genetically classified as an independent branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family."
|{{harvp|Norman|1988|p=1|loc=" ... the modern Chinese dialects are really more like a family of languages ... "}}
|{{harvp|DeFrancis|1984|p=56|loc="To call Chinese a single language composed of dialects with varying degrees of difference is to mislead by minimizing disparities that according to Chao are as great as those between English and Dutch. To call Chinese a family of languages is to suggest extralinguistic differences that in fact do not exist and to overlook the unique linguistic situation that exists in China."}} }}
Linguists in China often use a formulation introduced by [[Fu Maoji]] in the ''[[Encyclopedia of China]]'': {{zhi|c=《汉语在语言系属分类中相当于一个语族的地位。》|tr=In language classification, Chinese has a status equivalent to a language family.}}{{sfnp|Mair|1991|pp=10, 21}}
}} Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from [[Middle Chinese]], of which the most spoken by far is [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] with 66%, or around 800&nbsp;million speakers, followed by [[Min Chinese|Min]] (75&nbsp;million, e.g. [[Southern Min]]), [[Wu Chinese|Wu]] (74&nbsp;million, e.g. [[Shanghainese]]), and [[Yue Chinese|Yue]] (68&nbsp;million, e.g. [[Cantonese]]).{{sfnp|Chinese Academy of Social Sciences|2012|pp=3, 125}} These branches are unintelligible to each other, and many of their subgroups are unintelligible with the other varieties within the same branch (e.g. Southern Min). There are, however, transitional areas where varieties from different branches share enough features for some limited intelligibility, including [[New Xiang]] with [[Southwestern Mandarin]], [[Xuanzhou Wu Chinese]] with [[Lower Yangtze Mandarin]], [[Jin Chinese|Jin]] with [[Central Plains Mandarin]] and certain divergent dialects of [[Hakka Chinese|Hakka]] with [[Gan Chinese|Gan]]. All varieties of Chinese are [[Tone (linguistics)|tonal]] at least to some degree, and are largely [[Analytic language|analytic]].

The earliest attested [[written Chinese]] consists of the [[oracle bone inscriptions]] created during the [[Shang dynasty]] {{circa|1250&nbsp;BCE}}. The phonetic categories of [[Old Chinese]] can be reconstructed from the rhymes of ancient poetry. During the [[Northern and Southern period]], Middle Chinese went through several [[sound change]]s and split into several varieties following prolonged geographic and political separation. The ''[[Qieyun]]'', a [[rhyme dictionary]], recorded a compromise between the pronunciations of different regions. The royal courts of the Ming and early [[Qing dynasties]] operated using a [[koiné language]] known as ''[[Mandarin (late imperial lingua franca)|Guanhua]]'', based on the [[Nanjing dialect]] of Mandarin.

[[Standard Chinese]] is an official language of both the [[People's Republic of China]] and the [[Republic of China]] (Taiwan), one of the four [[Languages of Singapore|official languages of Singapore]], and one of the six [[official languages of the United Nations]]. Standard Chinese is based on the [[Beijing dialect]] of Mandarin and was first officially adopted in the 1930s. The language is written primarily using a [[logography]] of [[Chinese characters]], largely shared by readers who may otherwise speak mutually unintelligible varieties. Since the 1950s, the use of [[simplified characters]] has been promoted by the government of the People's Republic of China, with Singapore officially adopting them in 1976. [[Traditional characters]] are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and among Chinese-speaking [[Overseas Chinese|communities overseas]].