China Roads > Languages in China: an astonishing diversity

Languages in China: an astonishing diversity

With a history stretching back over 500 years, the Middle Kingdom is a vast territory with a multitude of landscapes and ancestral traditions. This cultural richness is reflected in its remarkable linguistic diversity: the country is an immense mosaic of idioms and dialects. Here’s an overview of the countless languages in China.

What languages are spoken in China?

The ethnologue.com website lists 302 living languages in the People’s Republic of China in 2022.

There are two categories of languages spoken in the region:

• the Chinese language family ;
• minority languages.

First of all, there is Chinese. In reality, we should be talking about Chinese languages, as there are over 200 regional variants. They are generally considered to be dialects, because they are transmitted orally and do not have their own standards.

These languages are often mutually unintelligible. However, they have a single script and form a single unit. They belong to the Sino-Tibetan language family and are used mainly by the majority Han ethnic group.

Then there are the minority languages spoken largely by the country’s ethnic minorities. Of the 56 ethnic groups present in the country, 29 speak a language other than Chinese. There are at least 100 idioms in this group.

What is the official language of the People’s Republic of China?

Standard Mandarin is the official language of China. This language is codified and based largely on the Beijing dialect and other dialects from the north. It is the country’s main language of communication today.

It is also known by other names:

• Guoyu 国 语 is a term used mainly in Taiwan that means ‘national language’.
• Putonghua 普 通 话 means official Chinese.
• Hanyu 汉 语 refers to the idiom spoken by the Han ethnic group.
• Zhongwen 中文 refers to written communication.

Most learners of Chinese study standard Mandarin. To help you better understand this language, this article from Chinois Tips suggests some simple and effective methods for learning Mandarin.

What are the Chinese dialects?

According to the most recent classification (Sun, Hu & Huang, 2007: 98), there are 8 groups of Chinese dialects. Some linguists count 10, including Pinhua and Huizhou.

Mandarin (guānhuà 官话)

It is the most widely spoken variety of Chinese. It is the mother tongue of 65.7% of the population. This language group includes Pekingese, Sichuanese and Dungan. The country’s official language, Putonghua, is based on this dialect. In general, the term ‘Mandarin’ is used to designate official Chinese.

The wu (wúyǔ 吴语)

With nearly 80 million speakers, Wu is the second-largest dialect in China. It is used by the inhabitants of Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces. A well-known variety of Chinese is Shanghainese. The Wenzhou and Suzhou dialects are also well known.

The min (mǐn yǔ 闽语)

Min is mainly spoken in the coastal province of Fujian, Taiwan and Hainan. There are also speakers in southern Zhejiang and Guangdong. This Chinese dialect is spoken by over 75 million people and is the variety with the most sub-categories.

There are generally 2 main branches: Minbeihua and Minnanhua. The latter is also called Hokkien and forms the basis of Taiwanese. It is spoken in overseas communities in South-East Asia and the United States.

The yue (yuèyǔ 粤语)

Yue speakers are native to Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macau. It is one of the largest dialects of Chinese spoken in the diaspora. The most common variant is Cantonese. In general, the term ‘Cantonese’ refers to the Yue group as a whole.

Although only spoken by 5.6% of the Chinese population, Cantonese has become famous abroad thanks to Hong Kong martial arts films. Alongside Mandarin, it is the variety of Chinese best known to non-Chinese-speaking communities.

The xiang (xiāng yǔ 湘语)

Xiang is most commonly spoken in the provinces of Hunan and Sichuan. Some people in Guangxi, Guizhou and Hubei also communicate in this dialect. It is sometimes called Hunanese, as most speakers are from Hunan. This variety of Chinese is spoken by around 3% of the population.

The gan (gàn yǔ 赣语)

Speakers of Gan come from the province of Jiangxi. For this reason, it is sometimes called Jiangxihua. It is also spoken in neighbouring regions such as Anhui, Fujian, Hubei and Henan.

Spoken by 3.9% of the population, this group shares many similarities with Hakka and Archaic Chinese. The Nanchang dialect is representative of this variant.

The hakka (kèjiāhuà 客家话)

Hakka is a collection of Chinese dialects used in Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guanxi and Sichuan. It is also used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Because of the geographical disparity of the speakers, this variant is made up of many sub-groups.

It is also widespread among the diaspora in East and South-East Asia, and is one of the best-known varieties after Mandarin and Cantonese. Around 3.5% of the Chinese population speak Hakka.

The jin (jìn yǔ 晋语)

Once included in the Mandarin category, Jin is now classified as a group in its own right. It is spoken in Shanxi and neighbouring regions such as Shaanxi, Henan and Inner Mongolia. It is spoken by around 45 million people.

 

What are the minority languages in China?

In addition to the varieties of Chinese, there are over 100 minority languages in China. Most of these are used by minority ethnic groups. Zhuang and Uyghur are the languages with the most native speakers, with 14 million and 7.2 million speakers respectively.

 

 

These languages belong to the following 8 language groups:

• the Sino-Tibetan family;
• the austro-asiatic family ;
• the austronesian family ;
• the hmong-mien family ;
• the tai-kadai family;
•  the altaic family ;
• the Korean language family ;
• the Indo-European language family.

In general, these languages have their own form of writing and often bear the same name as their nationality (e.g. Uyghur, Tibetan, Tajik, Russian, Korean, etc.). As the populations live in compact groups in remote regions, these local languages are relatively well preserved.

The mosaic of languages in China

China has more than 300 languages. These include the different varieties of Chinese and minority languages. This linguistic plurality is the result of geographical disparities, territorial expansion and political conflicts over the course of history. China’s languages offer an insight into the country’s cultural and ethnic richness.