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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Asia > China > Chinese, Mandarin

Chinese, Mandarin

A language of China

ISO 639-3: cmn

Population	840,000,000 in China (2000 census), increasing. 70% of Chinese language users speak a Mandarin dialect as their mother tongue, including 9,816,805 Hui (2000 census) and 10,682,262 Manchu. 1,182,950,000 Han in China (2005 census). Population total all countries: 845,456,760.
Region	Widespread north of Changjiang River, a belt south of the Changjiang from Qiujiang (Jiangxi) to Zhenjiang (Jiangsu), Hubei, except southeast corner, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, northwest part of Guangxi, and northwest corner of Hunan. Also in Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Indonesia (Java and Bali), Laos, Libya, Malaysia (Peninsular), Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Philippines, Russian Federation (Asia), Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam, Zambia.
Language map	China
Alternate names	Beifang Fangyan, Guanhua, Guoyu, Hanyu, Mandarin, Northern Chinese, Putonghua, Standard Chinese
Dialects	Huabei Guanhua (Northern Mandarin), Xibei Guanhua (Northwestern Mandarin), Xinan Guanhua (Southwestern Mandarin), Jinghuai Guanhua (Jiangxia Guanhua, Lower Yangze Mandarin). Wenli is a literary form. Written Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect, but heavily influenced by other varieties of Northern Mandarin. Putonghua is the official form taught in schools and is inherently intelligible with Beijing dialect and other Mandarin varieties in the northeast. Mandarin varieties in the Lower Plateau in Shaanxi are not readily intelligible with Putonghua. Mandarin varieties of Guilin and Kunming unintelligible to Putonghua speakers. Taibei Mandarin and Beijing Mandarin are fully mutually inherently intelligible. Nearly all L1 speakers in Taiwan speak with Min-influenced grammar and various degrees of Min-influenced pronunciation. Many educated strive to cultivate standard pronunciation. Grammatical differences of the Taiwan variety often appear in writing.
Classification	Sino-Tibetan, Chinese A member of macrolanguage Chinese [zho] (China).
Language use	National language. Vigorous. 178,000,000 L2 speakers. All domains. All ages. Many also use some English.
Language development	Literacy rate in L2: 91%. Official language taught in all schools in mainland China and Taiwan. Fully developed. Bible: 1874–1983.
Writing system	Bopomofo script. Han script, Simplified variant. Han script, Traditional variant.
Comments	SVO, SOV. Traditional Chinese religion, Confucianist, Daoist, Buddhist, Muslim (Hui), Jewish, Christian, secular.

Also spoken in:

Brunei

Language name	Chinese, Mandarin
Population	10,600 in Brunei (2006).

Indonesia (Java and Bali)

Language name	Chinese, Mandarin
Population	460,000 in Indonesia (1982).
Region	Scattered throughout Indonesia.
Language use	Most also use Indonesian [ind] or other Chinese languages.

Malaysia (Peninsular)

Language name	Chinese, Mandarin
Region	Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak.
Language use	Positive attitude.
Language development	Taught in primary and secondary schools.
Comments	Primarily urban, in commerce.

Mongolia

Language name	Chinese, Mandarin
Population	35,000 in Mongolia (Johnstone 1993). 2,000 Qotong.
Region	Northwestern Mongolia, Uvs Aimag.
Alternate names	Hoton, Hui, Hui-Zu, Hytad, Mandarin, Northern Chinese, Qotong, Xui
Language use	Also use Halh Mongolian [khk].
Language development	Literacy rate in L2: High literacy rate in Halh, or Mandarin.
Comments	Traditional religion, Maoist, Confucianist, Muslim.

Philippines

Language name	Chinese, Mandarin
Population	550 in Philippines. All ethnic Chinese are 53,273 (1990 census).

Singapore

Language name	Chinese, Mandarin
Population	201,000 in Singapore (1985).
Alternate names	Guoyu, Huayu
Language use	Official language. Increasing use. 880,000 L2 users. Some also use other Chinese varieties or English.
Language development	Literacy rate in L1: 65% (2001 census). Taught in primary and secondary schools.
Comments	2,505,209 ethnic Chinese (2000 census).

Taiwan

Language name	Chinese, Mandarin
Population	4,320,000 in Taiwan (1993).
Region	Mainly Taipei and 5 provincial cities.
Language map	Taiwan
Alternate names	Guoyu, Kuoyu, Mandarin, Putonghua
Dialects	Taibei Mandarin.
Language use	Official language. 15,000,000 L2 speakers. Many 30- to 50-year-olds also use Taiwan Min [nan].
Language development	Kuoyu taught in all schools.
Comments	Traditional Chinese, Buddhist, Christian, Secular.

Thailand

Language name	Chinese, Mandarin
Population	5,880 in Thailand (1984).
Region	Bangkok, provincial towns, and Kra Peninsula in the south.
Dialects	Ho (Haw, Cin Haw, Yunnanese, Western Mandarin, Hui, Hui-Tze, Hwei, Panghse, Pantha, Panthe, Pathee).
Comments	Chinese folk religion; Hui: Muslim.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

ABBOTT, Gary Steven, author. 1992. The function of sentence topics in oral and written Mandarin narrative.

AUMANN, Greg; PAN Chengqian, authors. 2004. Report on the Iu Mien—Chinese—English dictionary project.  

BISHOP, Nancy M., author. 1990. "A grammatical sketch of Mandarin Chinese."

BLAIR, Frank, author; LU Dai, translator. 2006. Shuangyu diaochai jingyi.

CHIUNG, Wi-vun Taiffalo, author. 2000. Review of: Modern Chinese: history and sociolinguistics, by Ping Chen.

GRIMES, Joseph E., author. 1983. "Graphemic theory and Chinese data entry."

HASHIMOTO, Mantaro J., author. 1981. "A phonological characterization of syllabic intonations in the so-called tone languages."

HE Lifeng; TAN, William, authors. 2004. Yunnan teshu yuyan yanjiu.

KESS, Joseph F.; MIYAMOTO, Tadao, authors. 1997. "Psycholinguistic aspects of Hanji processing in Chinese."  

LIM, Hermanto; MEAD, David, authors. 2011. "Chinese in Indonesia: A Background Study."  

SLATER, Keith W.; STUART, Kevin; ÜJIYEDIIN Chuluu; ZHU Yongzhong, authors. 1997. "Gangou Chinese dialect: A comparative study of a stronglyaltaicized Chinese dialect and its Mongolic neighbor."

WARDLAW, Terrance R., author. 2001. Review of: Mandarin Chinese: an introduction, by Mobo C. F. Gao.

ZIMAN, Han, author. 2004. "Idiomaticity or Hybridity: a case study of language in literary translation."

Vernacular Publications

Dai Lü First year kindergarten first semester physical education teacher's manual. 2007.

Dai Lü first year kindergarten primer track first semester teacher's manual. 2007.

Dai Lü First year kindergarten first semester art teacher's manual. 2007.

Dai Lü first year kindergarten first semester math teacher's manual. 2007.

Dai Lü First year kindergarten first semester music teacher's manual. 2007.