In the West, many people talk about learning ‘Chinese’ or refer to someone as a ‘Chinese speaker’.
In essence, ‘Chinese’ is an umbrella language encompassing various languages, including Cantonese and Mandarin.
But most of the time, when we talk about ‘Chinese’, we’re referring to Mandarin Chinese.
- ‘Chinese’ – Depending on its use, this can be a broad term encompassing all languages under the Chinese language umbrella (Min, Xiang, Hakka, Cantonese, etc) but most of the time, this word refers to Mandarin Chinese.
- ‘Mandarin’ – The most common spoken dialect and official language of the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan.
- ‘Cantonese’ – This is the predominant Chinese variety spoken in Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Guangdong province in Southern China and parts of Guangxi province. it’s also spoken by many overseas Chinese who have emigrated from southern areas of China.
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin is the most popular and spoken dialect under the Chinese language umbrella, with over 1.1 billion speakers across the Chinese diaspora.
It is referred to in a number of ways within Mandarin Chinese, but the three you’re most likely to hear are:
中文 (Zhōngwén) – Chinese Language (all families)
A very common way to say ‘Chinese’ but this term doesn’t specifically mean ‘Mandarin Chinese’. If you say you’re studying ‘中文’, most Chinese people will assume you’re studying Mandarin.
汉语 (Hànyǔ) Chinese Language (Mandarin)
This term specifically refers to Mandarin Chinese. 汉 (Hàn) comes from the Han Ethnic Group, which is the majority ethnic group in China. 92% of the Chinese population and more than 97% of the Taiwanese population are Han.
普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà) – Mandarin (The Common Language)
Translated into English,普通话 means ‘common tongue.’ 普通话 is the “official language” in China and refers to standard Mandarin Chinese.
Standard Mandarin: A Brief History
While most parts of China still retain their own local language, the variant of Mandarin as spoken by educated classes in Beijing was made the official language of China by the Qing dynasty in the early 1900s.
The People’s Republic, founded in 1949, retained this standard, calling it 普通话 (pǔtōnghuà).
Over the second half of the twentieth century, more and more Chinese have become proficient in Standard Mandarin. According to statistics, Some 54% of speakers of Mandarin varieties could understand the standard language in the early 1950s, rising to 91% in 1984. Nationally, the proportion understanding the standard rose from 41% to 90% over the same period.
This standard language is now used in education, the media, and formal occasions in both Mainland China and Taiwan, as well as among the Chinese community of Singapore.
The Sinitic Languages
Like most languages, Mandarin Chinese has variations depending on Geography.
I’ve noticed in China that changes in Mandarin are very noticeable, not only from town to town but even from village to village!
But sometimes, it goes beyond an accent and into the realm of a whole other language.
Mandarin Chinese might be the most widely spoken language in China, but there are quite a few others, too.
The most widely spoken are…
| The Wu Dialect – 吴语 (Wúyǔ) | Spoken by a majority of the people living in Zhejiang and the southern areas of Jiangsu and Anhui province. |
| The Min Dialect – 闽语 (Mǐnyǔ) | Spoken mostly in Fujian province and the islands of Taiwan and Hainan. Some of eastern Guangdong and the Leizhou Bandao Peninsula, and in areas of Southeast Asia. During World War I, a large number of Chinese emigrated from Fujian to Taiwan. |
| The Xiang Dialect – 湘语(Xiāngyǔ) | Also known as Hunanese and primarily spoken in Hunan Province in southern China. |
| The Gan Dialect – 赣语 (Gànyǔ) | Spoken mainly by those in Jiangxi province, with a smattering of others in surrounding regions like Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, and Fujian. |
| Hakka – 客家语 (Kèjiāyǔ) | The Hakka ethnic group is a subgroup of the Han that in the 13th century migrated from northern China to southern areas like the Guangdong area, southwestern Fujian, and southern Jiangxi. You’ll also find Hakka people in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and other parts of East Asia. |
| Yue – 粤语 (Yuèyǔ) | Often referred to as Cantonese, although many linguists prefer to reserve that name for the variety used in Guangzhou, Wuzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau. |
Cantonese
Many people often assume that Cantonese is the second most widely spoken dialect in China. However, this isn’t the case. Both the English and Chinese versions of Wikipedia tell us the following:
- Mandarin: 798.6 million (66.2%)
- Min (“Fujianese”): 75 million (6.2%) — incl. Hainan, Hokkien, Teochew
- Wu (“Jiangnanese”): 73.8 million (6.1%)
- Jin (“Shanxinese”): 63 million (5.2%) — prev. incl. in Mandarin
- Yue (“Cantonese”): 58.8 million (4.9%) — incl. Taishan (Toisan)
- Gan (“Jiangxinese”): 48 million (4.0%)
- Hakka: 42.2 million (3.5%)
- Xiang (“Hunanese”): 36.4 million (3.0%)
- Pinghua (“Guangxinese”): 7.8 million (0.6%) — prev. incl. in Yue
- Huizhou (“Anhuinese”): 3.3 million (0.3%) — previ. incl. in Wu
Unlike other dialects, however, Cantonese has been standardised and there is a very high mutual intelligibility of its speakers throughout Guangdong as well as the overseas Chinese community.
Cantonese is also the official medium in Macau and Hong Kong, with many Chinese immigrants throughout the world speaking it, too.
Hong Kong’s media has been well exported to the world throughout the second half of the twentieth century.
The Differences between Mandarin and Cantonese
The Tones
Cantonese and Mandarin are both tonal dialects. Mandarin has four tones and a neutral tone. However, this neutral tone is a de-emphasized syllable with no tone distinction.
Cantonese has nine varying tones.
The tones are vital when trying to convey meaning, causing some people to say that Cantonese is harder to learn than Mandarin Chinese.
In Hong Kong Cantonese, three of the nine tones are merged, meaning there are currently only six.
Which areas of China do they speak ‘Chinese’?
As previously mentioned, Mandarin is the official Mainland China language. It is widely spoken throughout China, which is why it is known as lingua franca or the main Chinese dialect.
Mandarin is spoken mainly in the north of China. However, it is also used all over Taiwan and is one of the four official languages of Singapore.
Cantonese is a local dialect of the south of China. The sub-dialect is spoken mainly in Guangdong
Province. Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong, was formerly known as Canton, which is why the language is known as Cantonese.
The Written Form
Technically, Mandarin and Cantonese use the same characters.
However, in reality, nearly all Mandarin speakers on the mainland switched over to simplified characters in the 1960s, while Cantonese in Hong Kong and Macau continue to use traditional characters.
So, although Mandarin and Cantonese speakers may pronounce the same characters differently, the character used still has the same meaning.
However, it’s not that simple.
Check out the video below for a better explanation.
Difference in Grammar
While pronunciation is entirely different in Cantonese and Mandarin, the grammar is almost identical.
However, similarity in grammar does not mean similarity in grammatical structure. Both feature a slight
difference in structure.
For many people, Cantonese grammar is slightly easier since it follows a more logical set of patterns. Moreover, Cantonese is slightly more fluid in its sentence structure and can round the order of words easier than Mandarin.
‘Usefulness’ of Mandarin and Cantonese
Which is more useful? This is an impossible question to answer as everyone’s circumstances are different.
In Mainland China, nearly all businesses and government activities are carried out in Mandarin. You will now be hard-pressed to find a native of Guangdong who can’t speak Mandarin (unless they’re quite old).
Nearly all schools in mainland China are now Mandarin only, and there is a government initiative to make Mandarin as widely spoken as possible.
Ease of Learning
All languages come with individual hurdles, and no matter whether you choose to learn Mandarin or Cantonese, you’re going to have to learn characters.
Simplified characters were simplified by the Chinese government back in the day to make Chinese more accessible. Somewhat ironically, many believe traditional characters are easier to learn as they’re more distinctive from each other and have retained many of their original components.
Others prefer simplified because they’re tidier and less dense with stroke order and stuff.
Many believe that Cantonese is the more challenging of the two dialects for beginners because Cantonese has more tones to master.
I will say that if you’re going beyond a beginner level in either of these languages, neither one is more difficult than the other.
Further Reading
- 100+ MANDARIN LEARNING RESOURCES: THE FASTEST WAY TO FLUENCY
- LEARNING CHINESE: 15+ LISTENING TOOLS PERFECT FOR BEGINNERS
- THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO LEARNING CHINESE IN CHINA
- THE 24 BEST MANDARIN STUDY RESOURCES FOR BEGINNERS
- 14 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD LEARN MANDARIN CHINESE
- IS IT EASY TO LEARN MANDARIN CHINESE?
- THE 21 BEST APPS TO LEARN CHINESE
- STUDYING MANDARIN AT A UNIVERSITY IN CHINA: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW