China's many different
ethnic groups speak many different
languages, collectively called
Zhōngguó
Yǔwén (中国语文), literally "
speech and writing of
China" which mainly span six linguistic families. Most of
them are dissimilar
morphologic and
phonetically and are
mutually unintelligible.
Zhongguo Yuwen includes the many different
Han Chinese language variants (commonly
simply called Chinese) as well as non-Han minority languages such
as
Mongolian,
Tibetan,
Uyghur and
Zhuang.
Chinese language policy in
mainland
China is heavily influenced by Soviet nationalities policy and
officially encourages the development of standard spoken and
written languages for each of the
nationalities of China.
However, in this
schema, Han Chinese are considered a
single nationality, and official policy of the People's
Republic of China
(PRC) treats the different varieties of the
Chinese spoken language
differently from the different national languages. For
example, while official policies in mainland China encourage the
development and use of different orthographies for the national
languages and their use in educational and academic settings, the
same is not true for the different
Chinese spoken languages, despite
the fact that they are more different from each other than, for
example, the
Romance languages of
Europe.
Putonghua or
Standard Mandarin is the official national
spoken language (except in Hong Kong and Macau), although
autonomous regions and
special administrative regions
have additional official languages. For example,
Tibetan has official status within the
Tibet Autonomous Region and
Mongolian has official status
within the
Inner
Mongolian Autonomous Region.
Unofficially, there are large economic, social and practical
incentives to be functional in
Putonghua,
a standardised form of the
Mandarin
group of dialects spoken in northern and southwestern China, which
serves as a
lingua franca among the
different groups within mainland China.
Spoken
The spoken
languages of nationalities that are a part of the People's
Republic of China belong to at least seven families:
- The Sino-Tibetan family:
28 nationalities (including the Han, Tibetans, Miao , and
Yao)
- The Altaic family: 17
- The Austroasiatic
family: 4 (the De'ang, Blang, Gin , and Wa)
- The Kradai family: several
languages spoken by the Zhuang, the Buyei, the Dai people, the
Dong people, and the Hlai .
- The Indo-European
family: 2 (the Russians and
Tajiks). There is also a heavily
Persian-influenced Äynu language
spoken by the Äynu people in
southwestern Xinjinag who are officially considered Uyghurs.
- The Austronesian family:
1 official nationality (the Gaoshan, who
speak many languages), 1 unofficial (the Utsuls, who speak the Tsat
language but are considered Hui.)
Written
The following languages traditionally had written forms that do not
involve
Chinese characters
(
hanzi):
Some formerly have used Chinese characters
Chinese palaces, temples, and coins have traditionally been
inscribed in five scripts:
Chinese banknotes contain several scripts in addition to Chinese
script. These are:
Ten
nationalities who never had a written system have, under the
PRC
's
encouragement, developed phonetic
alphabets. According to
a government white paper published in early 2005, "by
the end of 2003, 22 ethnic minorities in China used 28 written
languages."
Political controversies
Language policy within China is the subject of a number of
political controversies mostly having to do with the political
status of minority nationalities in China. Some critics of the
Beijing government,such as the
Tibetan Government-in-Exile
argue that social pressures and political efforts result in a
policy of
sinicization and often term
PRC policies
cultural genocide .
Supporters of Chinese policies argue that both in theory and in
practice that Chinese policies are rather supportive of
multilingualism and the development of minority languages, and that
China has a far better track record in these issues than some other
countries. .
Study of foreign languages
It is also considered increasingly prestigious and useful to have
some ability in
English, which is a
required subject for persons attending university. During the 1950s
and 1960s,
Russian had some social
status among elites in mainland China as the international language
of
socialism.
The Economist, issue April
12, 2006, reported that up to one fifth of the population is
learning English.
Gordon Brown, the
British Prime Minister, estimated that the total English-speaking
population in China will outnumber the native speakers in the rest
of the world in two decades.
Further reading
- Kane, D. (2006). The Chinese language: its history and
current usage. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle. ISBN
0804838534
- Halliday, M. A. K., & Webster, J. (2005). Studies in
Chinese language. London: Continuum. ISBN 0826458742
- Ramsey, S. R. (1987). The languages of China.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691066949
- Hong, B. (1978). Chinese language use. Canberra:
Contemporary China Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies,
Australian National University. ISBN 0909596298
- Cheng, C. C., & Lehmann, W. P. (1975). Language &
linguistics in the People's Republic of China. Austin:
University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292746156
See also
References
- http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6803197
- Mongolian
language - Mongolian
alphabet
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
