Standard Mandarin

Standard Mandarin is the official Chinese spoken language used by the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore.

Related Topics:
Chinese spoken language - People's Republic of China - Republic of China - Taiwan - Malaysia - Singapore

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The phonology of Standard Mandarin is based on that of the Beijing dialect, which belongs to Mandarin, a large and very diverse group of Chinese dialects spoken across northern and southwestern China. The vocabulary is largely drawn from this group of dialects. The grammar of Standard Mandarin is standardized to the body of modern works written in Vernacular Chinese, which in practice follows the tradition of the Mandarin group of dialects most closely with some notable exceptions. As a result, Standard Mandarin itself is usually called "Mandarin" in non-academic, everyday usage. However, linguists use "Mandarin" to refer to the entire group of dialects. This convention will be adopted by the rest of this article.

Related Topics:
Beijing dialect - Mandarin - Dialect - Vernacular Chinese - Linguists

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Standard Mandarin is officially known in the People's Republic of China as Putonghua (Simplified Chinese: 普通话 Hanyu Pinyin: Pǔtōnghuà, literally "ordinary speech"), in the Republic of China (Taiwan) as Guoyu (Traditional Chinese: 國語 Tongyong Pinyin: Guóyǔ, Wade-Giles: Kuo-yü, literally "national language"), and in Malaysia and Singapore as Huayu (Traditional Chinese: 華語 Simplified Chinese: 华语; Hanyu Pinyin: huáyǔ, literally "the Chinese (in a cultural sense) language"). All three terms are used interchangeably in Chinese communities around the world where different groups have come into contact.

Related Topics:
People's Republic of China - Simplified Chinese - Hanyu Pinyin - Republic of China - Taiwan - Traditional Chinese - Tongyong Pinyin - Wade-Giles - Malaysia - Singapore

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