China is a huge country with the largest population. Now more than a billion people live here. Perhaps that is why in the state use many dialects and dialects. Although there is also an official language that is used in most regions. Also there is its oral variety and written. So, today we will find out if Mandarin has something in common with citrus, and also where and by whom it is used.
Where from?
Speaking about this dialect, it is worth starting with the main thing. North Chinese is not just the most spoken language in the country. It is also considered the main dialect group. This is where the Mandarin Chinese belongs. Besides the fact that Dungan belongs to North Chinese, it is most often referred to as “mandarin” (from the word “putonghua”). This name may be justified. Although Mandarin is only part of the group. But the North Chinese received such a name thanks to Western literature, in particular Europeans. In the understanding of the inhabitants of the CIS, it is Chinese that is North Chinese, or its version of Putonghua.
Variety of north china
As mentioned earlier, not only putonghua (Mandarin), but also other dialects belong to this dialect. They are all divided into 8 subgroups. Moreover, they are classified thanks to the regions of the republic. For example, there is a northeastern subgroup of dialects. It is easy to guess that the inhabitants of this particular region of China use it. There is also a Beijing subgroup spoken by residents of the capital.
There are, of course, more complex associations, according to which it is difficult for ordinary people to understand the identity of the speakers of the dialect. For example, the Jianghuai subgroup occupies a small territory, which is located along the Yangtze River. Among other things, there are Zhongyuan, Doe-Yin, Ji-Lu and Jiao-Liao subgroups. They occupy a large territory. But the most common, perhaps, can be considered a southwestern subgroup. In the photo below, those areas where the Mandarin dialect is used are dark green.
Addition
Along with Mandarin, in the North Chinese group there are less common ones. For example, only 45 million people use Jin speech. They live in Shanxi, as well as in northern Shaanxi and Hebei.
Beijing branch
This includes seven major dialects. Of the most famous: Beijing and Putonghua (Mandarin). Among other things, there are special dialects that, in principle, have similar roots to the standard Chinese language. But still they are distinguishable due to their distribution and carriers.
There are Karamay, Hailar, Chifeng dialects, as well as the dialect Chengde and Jin, which were mentioned earlier. All these language forms belong, in particular, to the Beijing branch and are most understandable for those who study the Chinese language, as they are the most standardized.
Formality
The official language of the PRC is Chinese. It has 10 dialect groups. For communication, the population uses the normative Chinese language, which is called putonghua here. It is also used in Singapore (huayu), and in Hong Kong and Taiwan it is called goyu. Putonghua is usually called an adverb that is spoken. In written language, the standard is called Baihua.
The foundation
As mentioned earlier, putonghua belongs to the Beijing dialect, which belongs to the North Chinese group. The grammar of the language meets all the norms that are enshrined in literary works.
Title
Putonghua may be called differently in different regions. The official name is used directly in Beijing and nearby territory. As mentioned earlier, in Singapore it is called huayu, as well as in Malaysia. But in Taiwan - goyu. Putonghua in the West got a strange name - Mandarin. It all started with European literature. And they like to call it not just putonghua, but the whole North Chinese group.
In addition, in the West they often use a special term for this dialect - Standard Mandarin. It has many options: Mandarin, Mandarin Chinese, etc. In Russia, it is customary to distinguish between putonghua and its related dialects. And the "citrus" version is not at all accepted by the academic community. Although the media for the "red words" like to use this name.
Portuguese roots
The Mandarin dialect of the Chinese language owes to such a "citrus" name of Portugal. Few people know that the North Chinese language is sometimes called guanhua. Literally, this is translated as “official speech”. This once again proves that putonghua is used only by educated and very well-read people.
In Portugal, often dignitaries were called "tangerines", which meant "minister, official." In the days of imperial China, this is how the Portuguese called influential people. Therefore, a little later, tracing paper for guanhua appeared, and putonghua received an unofficial name - "mandarin".
A variety of "mandarin"
In general, besides the fact that putonghua is a very common dialect, it still has several subgroups. This is due, first of all, to the fact that when it was introduced as an official dialect, those areas that had not previously spoken a single dialect of North Chinese reformatted putonghua into its own version. As a result, dialects of the Mandarin language, as mentioned earlier, are common in other regions. Among them are the Taiwanese goyu, Singapore huayu, and also the Guangdong variety of putonghua.
Historical base
Prior to putonghua, the unofficial oral form of the northern dialect, guanhua, was previously used. It is likely that it began to form in 1266. Then the Chinese capital was transferred to the territory of modern Beijing. At that time, the Yuan Dynasty began its reign . In 1909, the gooy became famous, which for some time was the official standard. He was later renamed Putonghua. This standard included not only written, but also oral norms.
Who is talking?
The authorities faced the task of actively disseminating putonghua as the oral equivalent of speech in those areas of China where other dialects are used. This issue was even fixed in the Chinese Constitution. But the distribution process itself is quite slow. Nowadays, putonghua is used on TV and radio, but only half of the country's population can be explained in this language. Only 18% use the dialect at home, in communication. And 42% of residents speak putonghua at school and at work.
To control this issue, an exam was introduced that shows the level of fluency in the dialect. Determining who speaks Mandarin has become much easier. But it turned out that the results are not what we would like to see after more than 30 years of implementation of putonghua.
The highest indicator is the level of “1-A”. It is assigned to those who made less than 3% of the mistakes. More often than not, born Peking take an exam for this result. And among the rest of the population this indicator is extremely rare. If in Beijing 90% of the students received it, then the nearest leader was the city of Tianjin with 25% of those who passed it.
To work on radio and television, you can make no more than 8% of errors, and this is the level of "1-B". Representatives of the media should receive such an exam result. To become a teacher of Chinese literature, you can make no more than 13% of mistakes - level “2-A”. Despite such depressing indicators of the spread of putonghua, many Chinese are still able to understand this dialect. Although they may not be able to speak this dialect.