Editing Pluricentric language (section)

=== Chinese ===
{{Main|Varieties of Chinese}}
Until the mid-20th century, most Chinese people spoke only their local [[varieties of Chinese]].
These varieties had diverged widely from the written form used by scholars, [[Literary Chinese]], which was modelled on the language of the [[Chinese classics]].
As a practical measure, officials of the [[Ming Dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing Dynasty|Qing]] dynasties carried out the administration of the empire using a [[Mandarin (late imperial lingua franca)|common language based on northern varieties]], known as ''Guānhuà'' (官話, literally "speech of officials"), known as ''Mandarin'' in English after the officials.
Knowledge of this language was thus essential for an official career, but it was never formally defined.<ref name="Norman">{{cite book
  | surname = Norman | given = Jerry | author-link = Jerry Norman (sinologist)
  | title = Chinese | pages = 136–137
  | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1988
  | isbn = 978-0-521-29653-3
  }}</ref>

In the early years of the 20th century, Literary Chinese was replaced as the written standard by [[written vernacular Chinese]], which was based on [[Mandarin Chinese|northern dialects]].
In the 1930s, a [[Standard Chinese|standard national language]] ''Guóyǔ'' (國語, literally "national language") was adopted, with its pronunciation based on the [[Beijing dialect]], but with vocabulary also drawn from other northern varieties.<ref>{{cite book
  | surname = Ramsey | given = S. Robert 
  | title = The Languages of China | pages = 3–15
  | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 1987 | isbn = 978-0-691-01468-5
  }}</ref>
After the establishment of the [[People's Republic of China]] in 1949, the standard was known as ''Pǔtōnghuà'' (普通话/普通話, literally "common speech"), but was defined in the same way as ''Guóyǔ'' in the [[Republic of China]] now governing Taiwan.<ref name="Norman"/> It also became one of the official languages of [[Singapore]], under the name ''Huáyǔ'' (华语/華語, literally "Chinese language").

Although the three standards remain close, they have diverged to some extent. Most Mandarin speakers in Taiwan and Singapore came from the southeast coast of China, where the local dialects lack the retroflex initials /tʂ tʂʰ ʂ/ found in northern dialects, so that many speakers in those places do not distinguish them from the [[apical consonant|apical]] sibilants /ts tsʰ s/. Similarly, retroflex codas (''[[erhua]]'') are typically avoided in Taiwan and Singapore. There are also differences in vocabulary, with [[Taiwanese Mandarin]] absorbing loanwords from [[Min Chinese]], [[Hakka Chinese]], and [[Japanese language|Japanese]], and [[Standard Singaporean Mandarin|Singaporean Mandarin]] borrowing words from English, [[Malay language|Malay]], and southern varieties of Chinese.<ref>{{cite book
  | surname = Bradley | given = David | author-link = David Bradley (linguist)
  | chapter = Chinese as a pluricentric language | pages = 305–324
  | title = Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations
  | editor-given = Michael G. | editor-surname = Clyne
  | publisher = Walter de Gruyter | year = 1992 | isbn = 978-3-11-012855-0
  }}</ref><ref>{{cite book
  | surname = Chen
  | given = Ping
  | title = Modern Chinese: History and sociolinguistics
  | location = New York
  | publisher = Cambridge University Press
  | year = 1999
  | isbn = 978-0-521-64572-0
  | pages = [https://archive.org/details/modernchinesehis00chen/page/46 46–49]
  | url-access = registration
  | url = https://archive.org/details/modernchinesehis00chen/page/46
  }}</ref>