is chinese a language?

Question

i was told that chinese is actually not a single language but a group of many (cantonese, mandarin, etc,..)

Answer 1

Chinese or the Sinitic language(s) (汉语/漢語, Pinyin: Hànyǔ; 华语/華語, Huáyǔ; or 中文, Zhōngwén) can be considered a language or language family. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages[1]. About one-fifth of the world’s population, or over 1 billion people, speak some form of Chinese as their native language. The identification of the varieties of Chinese as "languages" or "dialects" is controversial.[2] As a language family Chinese has nearly 1.2 billion speakers; Mandarin Chinese alone has around 850 million native speakers, outnumbering any other language in the world.

Answer 2

Yes, Chinese is a language composed of many dialects.

The main dialects are Mandarin (the official language of China), Cantonese (spoken in HK and Southern China), Fukienese (spoken in Fujian and Taiwan), Shanghainese, etc.

Although the dialects sound differently and have different language expressions, they are still based off the Chinese language and use the Chinese characters.

Answer 3

Chinese is the language. Cantonese, Mandarin,etc are dialects.

Answer 4

They are each convenient. The British executive oughtn't ditch French and German for Chinese, in view that China is not aspect of the EU. You would have had a factor 30 years in the past whilst Hong Kong was once a British ownership, however in this day and age France and Germany are extra intently incorporated with the British economic climate than ever. As for your final query, the dilemma is in no way whether or not you are going to or would possibly not be ready to gain knowledge of Chinese (as I mentioned, it is convenient), however my fear is that, if you happen to shouldn't have the subject to get a grade bigger than a 'D' in French, you do not have the subject to gain knowledge of Chinese both (specifically if you're self-instructing). Language research is repeatedly dull or irritating, it is very tempting to mention to your self "I do not wish to spend ANOTHER 2 hours finding out hanzi in these days", however having the subject to make your self do that's the important thing to language research. Good success!

Answer 5

It's a matter of semantics really. Chinese does consist of dialects like Mandarin and Cantonese. But when I ask my wife to speak Chinese she knows exactly what I mean.

Answer 6

Chinese is often used to refer to the Mandarin language, the official language of the state... but you were told right, there are so many dialects from place to place.

Best wishes,

Cs.

Answer 7

There are different dialects of Chinese, but they're all considered to be part of the Chinese language.

Check out this for starters.

I guess while there is a debate amongst scholars, the Chinese view is that there is a single Chinese language not many languages.

Answer 8

That is correct. Think of “Chinese” as this large umbrella with a bunch of languages under it. Mandarin is one of those languages underneath. If Chinese were to be replaced with the word “dog,” then you could replace Mandarin with any dog breed, such as “Dalmatian.” So Chinese is to dog, as Mandarin is to Dalmatian.

So if Chinese is all dialects spoken within China, then what is Mandarin specifically? “普通话 (pǔ tōng huà) Mandarin ” is labeled by the Chinese government as the official language of China. It is considered the standard language, and is spoken throughout China. It is taught in all schools in China, and most people in China speak it as a first language or as a second language to their regional dialect. The name itself, 普通话 (pǔ tōng huà), means “common language.”

Mandarin is based on a Beijing dialect, and the Beijing accent is considered the standard Mandarin accent. This is important as the accent in which people speak Mandarin varies across all of China. The Beijing accent is identifiable by 儿话音 (èr huà yīn), which is where certain words have the “儿 (ér)” sound at the end. For example, “baby” in Chinese: 宝贝 (bǎobèi) VS. 宝贝儿 (bǎobèir). The former accent is spoken in southern China and in Taiwan.

People instantly assume when you say “Chinese” you mean “Mandarin” because it is the standard language. If someone were to refer to a specific dialect, it is likely they would say the name of that dialect instead of “Chinese.” For example, another Chinese dialect is Cantonese. This is perhaps the second most spoken Chinese dialect and it is spoken in areas of southern China, with many Cantonese speakers living abroad. Cantonese is a completely different spoken language than Mandarin, and uses 9 tones instead of just 4 as in Mandarin!

Answer 9

Chinese is just the name we give to that group of dialects. We split it into many dialects like cantonese, mandarin, shanghainese, 'chiu-chaunese', and there are proabably more, but only very small areas speak them.

Answer 10

You make a very good point. Dialects in Chinese are more than dialects that we think of with different pronunciations. They are almost like different language having completely different words and syntax. Some Chinese are so different they cannot communicate with each other.

However, they ARE considered all Chinese.