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Language in China

An unknown language is always a problem when crossing from one country to another. When the country that one is entering has more than one language, it is even more of a problem unless a significant number of people understand and speak your own language.

China has around fifty minority languages plus three major languages. The major languages are based in particular areas of the country. The major languages, all of which are of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages, are Mandarin, Wu and Cantonese. Around 800 million people speak Mandarin, sometimes referred to as Han since it was the language of the Han dynasty in China from 202 BC to 220 AD. The fifty or so non-Han languages are spoken by around six percent of the Chinese people.

The Wu language is the native language of around ninety million Chinese people while Cantonese is the home language of around eighty million people in the country. The Cantonese language is the language of the southern areas of China including Hong Kong, Macau and Guangxi. Wu is native to people in Anhui, Zhejians, and Jiangsu areas.

Although some of the languages are not mutually intelligible, they are all considered to be dialects of the national language, Mandarin. This is largely because of the writing system of China. Although the languages are not similar enough to be well-understood outside their native regions, they all use the same writing system which has been used for centuries. The Chinese writing has changed little over the centuries although spoken languages have grown distinct to a greater degree.

The Chinese writing style has greatly influenced two neighbouring countries, Korea and Japan. They both use Chinese characters in their written forms.

Traditional Chinese character for love

Chinese writing is not entirely pictographs with pictures representing meanings. They are somewhat based on pictographs but also have symbols which are stylized and have abstract meaning. Of some fifty thousand Chinese written characters, only around five thousand are frequently used.

Supposedly, Chinese characters were invented around 2600 BC by a Chinese emperor. This is legend and may not be accurate.

All varieties of Chinese language are tonal in nature with four basic tones needing to be mastered to speak the languages correctly. The spoken Mandarin language is not extremely difficult to learn. However, reading and writing Chinese script is a major challenge to learners of any of the Chinese dialects. One invention which helps somewhat in the language-learning concept is the Pinyin, a way of trying to write in Roman script what one hears in the spoken Chinese language.

Chinese has fewer grammatical matters to consider than many other languages. There are no plural forms, no gender markers, no verb conjugations to learn, and the two major articles "the" and "a" do not exist in Chinese. Word order seems to be a concept with which westerners tend to have problems.

The Chinese people, much as people in other cultures, tend to admire foreigners who are trying to learn their language. It is a compliment to their culture to know that outside people consider it a worthwhile endeavour.

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