Language/Mandarin-chinese/Culture/History
Standard Mandarin is one of the six official languages of the United Nations and also the official language in China, Taiwan and Sigapour.
Outside of China, large Chinese communities share the language, which is taught in many high schools and universities around the world.
Today Mandarin becomes the mother tongue of 848 million people and a second language of 178 million, the 1st most spoken language in the world (source Wikipedia).
In the PRC, the Mandrain is called pǔtōnghuà, "common language" 普通話 / 普通话 or hànyǔ 漢語 / 汉语, which designates the language of the dominant Han ethnic group.
In Taiwan, the language is officially called Guóyǔ 國語 / 国语 “national language”. In Chinese communities abroad, particularly in Southeast Asia, the language is known as 華語 / 华语 huáyǔ, "Chinese language" (華 / 华 huá is a term primarily for Chinese culture).
Indeed there is a great variety of Chinese dialects. The Chinese dialect is a language spoken in a region such as Cantonese, but without writing.
The basic unit of Chinese writing is the character called a sinogram. Each Chinese character corresponds to a syllable. A word is usually made up of one or two syllables.
According to legend, Chinese characters were invented by Cang Jie (倉 頡 Cāngjié) in the mythical time of the Yellow Emperor, nearly five thousand years ago. After seeing how a hunter can identify by his footprint the animal he is chasing, he would have formed his first writing system by designating everything with an immediately recognizable mark.
Take a moment to explore these relevant pages as you conclude this lesson: Internet resources for learning Mandarin ..., China Timeline, Current Events and Issues in China and Beyond & Dragon Boat Festival and Zongzi.
China and its history[edit | edit source]
China has a four-thousand-year-old history and occupies a vast territory stretching from the shores of the northeastern Pacific to the peaks of the Himalayas. The Middle Kingdom has had a wide variety of dialects since ancient times.
By modernizing, China decided to standardize its language and opt for the standardization of Chinese.
An ancient and varied language[edit | edit source]
Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family. Archaic Chinese, that spoken before the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 9 AD) was closer to Tibetan than modern Chinese dialects.
Over the dynasties, Chinese evolves. Medieval Chinese is spoken from the 11th to 12th centuries AD. In the course of these developments, we can distinguish popular dialects and dialects reserved for scholars and official writings.
Standardization of the Chinese language[edit | edit source]
The most widely spoken dialect, especially in the northern provinces, was referred to by Europeans as Mandarin. This language appeared in the Zhōngyuán Yīnyùn, a book of rhymes published in the Yuan dynasty between 1269 and 1378. This is the period of Marco Polo's travels. This book is generally considered to be the keystone of this Chinese language.
In 1956, the People's Republic of China adopted Beijing Mandarin as its official language. Standard Mandarin has therefore gradually established itself, although there are still many local dialects in contemporary China.
The Chinese language is, however, the most widely spoken language in the world due to the Chinese population of 1.4 billion people. Mandarin is the language of trade with China and is becoming more and more essential in the business world.
Sources[edit | edit source]
http://www.chinalangue.fr/index-histoire.html
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- Chronology of Historical Events in China
- China Timeline
- Kung Fu
- Internet resources for learning Mandarin Chinese
- Chinese New Year
- Translations of Skyrim
- Why Learn Chinese Mandarin