Dialects

The Chinese language has eight major dialects.

The eight dialect areas are: North China (for the Northern dialect), Jiangsu-Zhejiang (for the Wu dialect), Hunan (for the Hunan dialect, Jiangxi (for the Jiangxi dialect), Kejia (for the Kejia dialect, a form of Chinese spoken by descendants of northerners who moved to Guangdong and nearby provinces century ago), northern Fujian (for the northern Fujian dialect), southern Fujian (for the southern Fujian dialect) and Guang-dong (for the Yue, another name of Guangdong Province dialect). Of all the Chinese -speaking population, about 70% speak the Northern dialect, which is the reason why it has been made the basis of the common speech.

The vocabulary and grammar are basically the same in all the dialects, the chief difference being in pronunciation. In order to remove barriers caused by dialectal differences and to facilitate and bring about a further political, cultural and economic development, a nationwide campaign has been started to popularize the common speech.

Let's look at the following chart. It demonstrates the classification of the Chinese language.

Useful Websites:

http://www.sungwh.freeserve.co.uk/chinese/chinasch.htm

http://www.sungwh.freeserve.co.uk/chinese/ch-intro.htm.

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chinese_spoken.htm#mandarin

http://www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/deall/jin.3/c231/handouts/h17.htm

Created by Ling Wang

Dec, 2001