Editing Chinese language (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of the Chinese language}}
The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the [[Shang dynasty]]. As the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have repeatedly sought to promulgate a unified standard.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|pp=183–185}}

=== Old and Middle Chinese ===
{{Main|Old Chinese|Middle Chinese}}
{{Further|Reconstruction of Old Chinese}}
The earliest examples of Old Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on [[oracle bone]]s dated to {{circa|1250&nbsp;BCE}}, during the [[Late Shang]].{{sfnp|Schüssler|2007|p=1}} The next attested stage came from [[Chinese bronze inscriptions|inscriptions on bronze artifacts]] dating to the [[Western Zhou]] period (1046–771&nbsp;BCE), the ''[[Classic of Poetry]]'' and portions of the ''[[Book of Documents]]'' and ''[[I Ching]]''.{{sfnp|Baxter|1992|pp=2–3}} Scholars have attempted to reconstruct the [[phonology of Old Chinese]] by comparing later varieties of Chinese with the rhyming practice of the ''Classic of Poetry'' and the phonetic elements found in the majority of Chinese characters.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|pp=42–45}} Although many of the finer details remain unclear, most scholars agree that Old Chinese differs from Middle Chinese in lacking retroflex and palatal obstruents but having initial [[consonant cluster]]s of some sort, and in having voiceless nasals and liquids.{{sfnp|Baxter|1992|p=177}} Most recent reconstructions also describe an atonal language with consonant clusters at the end of the syllable, developing into [[tone (linguistics)|tone]] distinctions in Middle Chinese.{{sfnp|Baxter|1992|pp=181–183}} Several [[derivational affix]]es have also been identified, but the language lacks [[inflection]], and indicated grammatical relationships using word order and [[grammatical particle]]s.{{sfnp|Schüssler|2007|p=12}}

Middle Chinese was the language used during [[Northern and Southern dynasties]] and the [[Sui dynasty|Sui]], [[Tang dynasty|Tang]], and [[Song dynasty|Song]] dynasties (6th–10th centuries). It can be divided into an early period, reflected by the ''[[Qieyun]]'' rhyme dictionary (601), and a late period in the 10th century, reflected by [[rhyme table]]s such as the {{tlit|zh|[[Yunjing]]}} constructed by ancient Chinese philologists as a guide to the ''Qieyun'' system.{{sfnp|Baxter|1992|pp=14–15}} These works define phonological categories but with little hint of what sounds they represent.{{sfnp|Ramsey|1987|p=125}} Linguists have identified these sounds by comparing the categories with pronunciations in modern [[varieties of Chinese]], [[Sino-Xenic vocabularies|borrowed Chinese words]] in Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean, and transcription evidence.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|pp=34–42}} The resulting system is very complex, with a large number of consonants and vowels, but they are probably not all distinguished in any single dialect. Most linguists now believe it represents a [[diasystem]] encompassing 6th-century northern and southern standards for reading the classics.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|p=24}}

=== Classical and vernacular written forms ===
{{Main|Classical Chinese|Written vernacular Chinese}}
The complex relationship between spoken and written Chinese is an example of [[diglossia]]: as spoken, Chinese varieties have evolved at different rates, while the written language used throughout China changed comparatively little, crystallizing into a prestige form known as [[Classical Chinese|Classical or Literary Chinese]]. Literature written distinctly in the Classical form began to emerge during the [[Spring and Autumn period]]. Its use in writing remained nearly universal until the late 19th century, culminating with the widespread adoption of [[written vernacular Chinese]] with the [[May Fourth Movement]] beginning in 1919.

=== Rise of northern dialects ===
After the fall of the [[Northern Song]] dynasty and subsequent reign of the Jurchen [[Jin dynasty (1115–1234)|Jin]] and [[Mongol]] [[Yuan dynasty|Yuan]] dynasties in northern China, a common speech (now called [[Old Mandarin]]) developed based on the dialects of the [[North China Plain]] around the capital.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|p=48}}
The 1324 ''[[Zhongyuan Yinyun]]'' was a dictionary that codified the rhyming conventions of new ''[[sanqu]]'' verse form in this language.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|pp=48–49}}
Together with the slightly later ''[[Menggu Ziyun]]'', this dictionary describes a language with many of the features characteristic of modern Mandarin dialects.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|pp=49–51}}

Until the early 20th century, most Chinese people only spoke their local variety.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|pp=133, 247}} Thus, as a practical measure, officials of the [[Ming]] and [[Qing]] dynasties carried out the administration of the empire using a [[Mandarin (late imperial lingua franca)|common language based on Mandarin varieties]], known as {{zhi|s=官话|t=官話|p=Guānhuà|l=language of officials}}.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|p=136}} For most of this period, this language was a [[koiné]] based on dialects spoken in the [[Nanjing]] area, though not identical to any single dialect.{{sfnp|Coblin|2000|pp=549–550}} By the middle of the 19th century, the Beijing dialect had become dominant and was essential for any business with the imperial court.{{sfnp|Coblin|2000|pp=540–541}}

In the 1930s, a [[Standard Chinese|standard national language]] ({{zhi|s=国语|t=國語|p=Guóyǔ}}), was adopted. After much dispute between proponents of northern and southern dialects and an abortive attempt at an artificial pronunciation, the [[National Languages Committee|National Language Unification Commission]] finally settled on the Beijing dialect in 1932. The People's Republic founded in 1949 retained this standard but renamed it {{zhi|s=普通话|t=普通話|p=pǔtōnghuà|l=common speech}}.{{sfnp|Ramsey|1987|pp=3–15}} The national language is now used in education, the media, and formal situations in both mainland China and Taiwan.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|p=133}}

In [[Hong Kong]] and [[Macau]], Cantonese is the dominant spoken language due to cultural influence from Guangdong immigrants and colonial-era policies, and is used in education, media, formal speech, and everyday life—though Mandarin is increasingly taught in schools due to the mainland's growing influence.{{sfnp|Zhang|Yang|2004}}

=== Influence ===
{{See also|Adoption of Chinese literary culture|Sino-Xenic vocabularies}}
[[File:Tripitaka Koreana.jpg|thumb|right|The ''[[Tripitaka Koreana]]'', a Korean collection of the [[Chinese Buddhist canon]]]]

Historically, the Chinese language has spread to its neighbors through a variety of means. Northern Vietnam was incorporated into the [[Han dynasty]] (202&nbsp;BCE{{snd}}220&nbsp;CE) in 111&nbsp;BCE, marking the beginning of a [[Chinese domination of Vietnam|period of Chinese control]] that ran almost continuously for a millennium. The [[Four Commanderies of Han]] were established in northern Korea in the 1st century&nbsp;BCE but disintegrated in the following centuries.{{sfnp|Sohn|Lee|2003|p=23}} [[Chinese Buddhism]] spread over East Asia between the 2nd and 5th centuries&nbsp;CE, and with it the study of scriptures and literature in Literary Chinese.{{sfnp|Miller|1967|pp=29–30}} Later, strong central governments modeled on Chinese institutions were established in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, with Literary Chinese serving as the language of administration and scholarship, a position it would retain until the late 19th century in Korea and (to a lesser extent) Japan, and the early 20th century in Vietnam.{{sfnp|Kornicki|2011|pp=75–77}} Scholars from different lands could communicate, albeit only in writing, using Literary Chinese.{{sfnp|Kornicki|2011|p=67}}

Although they used Chinese solely for written communication, each country had its own tradition of reading texts aloud using what are known as [[Sino-Xenic pronunciations]]. Chinese words with these pronunciations were also extensively imported into the [[Korean language|Korean]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]] and [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] languages, and today comprise over half of their vocabularies.{{sfnp|Miyake|2004|pp=98–99}} This massive influx led to changes in the phonological structure of the languages, contributing to the development of [[moraic]] structure in Japanese{{sfnp|Shibatani|1990|pp=120–121}} and the disruption of [[vowel harmony]] in Korean.{{sfnp|Sohn|2001|p=89}}

Borrowed Chinese morphemes have been used extensively in all these languages to coin compound words for new concepts, in a similar way to the use of [[Latin]] and [[Ancient Greek]] roots in European languages.{{sfnp|Shibatani|1990|p=146}} Many new compounds, or new meanings for old phrases, were created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to name Western concepts and artifacts. These coinages, written in shared Chinese characters, have then been borrowed freely between languages. They have even been accepted into Chinese, a language usually resistant to loanwords, because their foreign origin was hidden by their written form. Often different compounds for the same concept were in circulation for some time before a winner emerged, and sometimes the final choice differed between countries.{{sfnp|Wilkinson|2000|p=43}} The proportion of vocabulary of Chinese origin thus tends to be greater in technical, abstract, or formal language. For example, in Japan, [[Sino-Japanese words]] account for about 35% of the words in entertainment magazines, over half the words in newspapers, and 60% of the words in science magazines.{{sfnp|Shibatani|1990|p=143}}

Vietnam, Korea, and Japan each developed writing systems for their own languages, initially based on [[Chinese characters]], but later replaced with the {{tlit|ko|[[hangul]]}} alphabet for Korean and supplemented with {{tlit|ja|[[kana]]}} syllabaries for Japanese, while Vietnamese continued to be written with the complex {{lang|vi|[[chữ Nôm]]}} script. However, these were limited to popular literature until the late 19th century. Today Japanese is written with a composite script using both Chinese characters called [[kanji]], and kana. Korean is written exclusively with hangul in North Korea, although knowledge of the supplementary Chinese characters called [[hanja]] is still required, and hanja are increasingly rarely used in South Korea. As a result of its historical colonization by France, Vietnamese now uses the Latin-based [[Vietnamese alphabet]].

[[List of English words of Chinese origin|English words of Chinese origin]] include ''tea'' from [[Hokkien]] {{zhc|c=茶|poj=tê}}, ''[[dim sum]]'' from Cantonese {{zhc|c=點心|j=dim2 sam1}}, and ''[[kumquat]]'' from Cantonese {{zhc|c=金橘|j=gam1 gwat1}}.