Mandarin (linguistics)

:This article is on all of the Northern Chinese dialects. For the standardized official spoken Chinese language (Putonghua/Guoyu), see Standard Mandarin.

Standardized Mandarin

Main article: Standard Mandarin

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From an official point of view, there are two versions of standardized spoken Mandarin, since the Beijing government refers to that on the Mainland as Putonghua, whereas the Taipei government refers to their official language as Kuo-yü (Guoyu in pinyin).

Related Topics:
Standardized spoken Mandarin - Beijing government - Taipei government - Pinyin

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Technically, both Putonghua and Guoyu base their phonology on the Beijing dialect, though Putonghua also takes some elements from other sources. Comparison of dictionaries produced in the two areas will show that there are few substantial differences. However, both versions of "school" Mandarin are often quite different from the Mandarin that is spoken in accordance with regional habits, and neither is identical to even Beijing dialect. Putonghua and Guoyu also differ from the Beijing dialect in vocabulary, grammar, and usage.

Related Topics:
Phonology - Beijing dialect

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It is important to note that the terms "Putonghua" and "Guoyu" refer to speech, and hence the difference in the use of simplified characters and traditional characters is not usually considered to be a difference between these two concepts.

Related Topics:
Simplified characters - Traditional characters

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