That year summer

Chinese contains language problems in the field of linguistics, the controversial, but in the domestic academic circles without controversy. There are two kinds of Views: a kind of viewpoint thinks Chinese includes only the Chinese language; another foreign view Chinese including min, Cantonese, Hakka, Wu, Gan dialect, language, as a Chinese language rather than the same language. Chinese domestic scholars mostly support the former, the min, Cantonese, Hakka, Wu, Gan dialect, as a Chinese dialect, for example Zhao Yuanren thinks the standard language ( Mandarin ) is a dialect, min, Cantonese is also a dialect.

But outside of China especially western the majority of scholars from the perspective of linguistics to support the latter, is that Chinese is not a single language, but a cluster of interconnected related languages. However, traditionally called" dialects" between each other or with standard Chinese language distance between cannot exchange, often than European dialects of the same language under various languages between more distant. For example, a Spanish man might be able to use Spanish and another will only Portuguese people reach communication (written cannot communicate ), but only a Cantonese and a will only Taiwanese people talk,study mandarin is totally do not understand what is being said the ( writing to communicate ).

Chinese domestic linguists according to Chinese branches of the different characteristics of the Chinese traditional, divided into seven dialects. In the seven major dialects, there are still different dialect areas. Sometimes these dialect area within the user cannot understand each other. In a different dialect region of human language consciousness also to have certain difference. For example, a use of Cantonese in Hongkong may feel with the parade of Taishan dialect of Cantonese have many points in common, though they may not be able to understand each other.

Geographically the dialectal differences is very obvious. In North China, northwest and southwest mandarin Mandarin Mandarin area, separated by hundreds of kilometres of people in general can be verbal communication, but in some areas of speech and lexical change is great; however in many parts of southern China, especially a mountainous area, smaller geographic may exist within each oral communication difficult dialect. To take an extreme example, such as Fujian Province, separated by only ten kilometers of local residents may have freely verbal communication.

Dialects of Mandarin, Mandarin dialect or : refers to North China, northeast and northwest regions, most of Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Guizhou, northern Hunan, northern Anhui, in the north in Jiangsu by the use of the mother tongue dialect. Mandarin is broadly divided into North China, northwest, Southwest Mandarin Mandarin Mandarin, Jianghuai Mandarin, Mandarin in the north eastern part of North China distribution, represented by Beijing dialect, Mandarin is distributed in the North West of the northwest, to Xi'an dialect representing distribution in the South West, Southwest Mandarin, in Chengdu words to represent the Jianghuai Mandarin, distribution in the South East, Yangzhou words for words representative of jianghuai.

In ancient times, Chinese sounds in five wild China, Yi south after, differentiate into the Middle Chinese phonetic. While the modern" Mandarin", formed mainly in the song and Yuan dynasties. Mandarin after formation, in the north and south respectively by the development, differentiation into Southern Mandarin and Northern Mandarin, for later Chinese dynasties official language, Northern Mandarin so far is the basis for modern standard Chinese ( mainland is called Putonghua, Taiwan called Mandarin ). The use of this dialect people accounted for 70% of the Chinese population.