There are several hundred languages in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. The predominant language is

Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standa ...

, which is based on central Mandarin, but there are hundreds of related

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the ...

s, collectively known as ''Hanyu'' (, 'Han language'), that are spoken by 92% of the population. The Chinese (or 'Sinitic') languages are typically divided into seven major language groups, and their study is a distinct academic discipline. They differ as much from each other morphologically and

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

ally as do English, German and Danish, but meanwhile share the same writing system (

Hanzi Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

) and are mutually intelligible in written form. There are in addition approximately 300 minority languages spoken by the remaining 8% of the population of China. The ones with greatest state support are Mongolian,

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken diale ...

, Uyghur and Zhuang. According to the 2010 edition of ''

Nationalencyklopedin ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish-language encyclopedia, initiated by a favourable loan from the Government of Sweden of 17 million Swedish kronor in 1 ...

'', 955 million out of China's then-population of 1.34 billion spoke some variety of

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

as their first language, accounting for 71% of the country's population. According to the 2019 edition of ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ...

'', 904 million people in China spoke some variety of Mandarin as their first language in 2017.

, known in China as ''Putonghua'', based on the Mandarin dialect of Beijing, is the official national spoken language for the mainland and serves as a

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

within the Mandarin-speaking regions (and, to a lesser extent, across the other regions of

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the China, People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming Island, Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territorie ...

). Several other autonomous regions have additional official languages. For example,

has official status within the

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions ...

and Mongolian has official status within

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

. Language laws of China do not apply to either

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

, which have different official languages (

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

and Portuguese) from the mainland.

Spoken languages

The spoken languages of nationalities that are a part of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

belong to at least nine families: China ethnolinguistic 1967

* The Sino-Tibetan family: 19 official ethnicities (including the Han and

Tibetans The Tibetan people (; ) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.7 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans liv ...

) * The Tai–Kadai family: several languages spoken by the Zhuang, the Bouyei, the Dai, the Dong, and the Hlai (Li people). 9 official ethnicities. * The Hmong–Mien family: 3 official ethnicities * The Austroasiatic family: 4 official ethnicities (the De'ang, Blang, Gin (Vietnamese), and Wa) * The Turkic family:

Uyghurs The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central Asia, Cent ...

Kazakhs The Kazakhs (also spelled Qazaqs; Kazakh: , , , , , ; the English name is transliterated from Russian; russian: казахи) are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to northern parts of Central Asia, chiefly Kazakhstan, but also part ...

, Salars, etc. 7 official ethnicities. Western Yugur is a Turkic language, whereas Eastern Yugur is a Mongolic language. * The Mongolic family:

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

, Dongxiang, and related groups. 6 official ethnicities. * The Tungusic family: Manchus (formerly), Hezhe, etc. 5 official ethnicities. * The Koreanic family:

Korean language Korean (South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographica ...

* The Indo-European family: 2 official ethnicities, the

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

and

Tajiks Tajiks ( fa, تاجيک، تاجک, ''Tājīk, Tājek''; tg, Тоҷик) are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Taj ...

(actually Pamiri people). There is also a heavily Persian-influenced

Äynu language Äynu is a Turkic cryptolect spoken in Western China. Some linguists call it a mixed language, having a mostly Turkic grammar, essentially Uyghur, but a mainly Iranian vocabulary. Other linguists argue that it does not meet the technical req ...

spoken by the

Äynu people The Äynu (also Ainu, Abdal and Aini) are Turkic people native to the Xinjiang region of China, where they are unrecognized ethnic group as part of the Uyghurs. They speak the Äynu language and mainly adhere to Alevism. There are estimated ...

in southwestern Xinjiang who are officially considered Uyghurs. * The Austronesian family: 1 official ethnicity (the Gaoshan, who speak many languages of the Formosan branch), 1 unofficial (the Utsuls, who speak the Tsat language but are considered Hui.) Below are lists of ethnic groups in China by linguistic classification. Ethnicities not on the official PRC list of 56 ethnic groups are italicized. Respective Pinyin transliterations and Chinese characters (both simplified and traditional) are also given.

Sino-Tibetan Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

* Sinitic ** Chinese, 汉语, 漢語 ***

, 官话, 官話 **** Beijing Mandarin, 北京官话, 北京官話 *****

, 普通话, 普通話 *****

Singaporean Mandarin Singaporean Mandarin () is a variety of Mandarin Chinese spoken natively in Singapore. It is one of the four official languages of Singapore along with English, Malay and Tamil. Singaporean Mandarin can be classified into two distinct M ...

, 新加坡华语, 新加坡華語 ***** Malaysian Mandarin, 马来西亚华语, 馬來西亞華語 ****

Taiwanese Mandarin Taiwanese Mandarin, ''Guoyu'' ( zh, s=, t=國語, p=Guóyǔ, l=National Language, first=t) or ''Huayu'' ( zh, s=, t=華語, p=Huáyǔ, first=t, l=Mandarin Language, labels=no) refers to Mandarin Chinese spoken in Taiwan. A large majority of the T ...

, 台湾华语, 臺灣華語 ***** Taipei Mandarin, 台北腔/国语, 臺北腔/國語 **** Northeastern Mandarin, 东北官话, 東北官話 **** Jilu Mandarin, 冀鲁官话, 冀魯官話 **** Jiaoliao Mandarin, 胶辽官话, 膠遼官話 **** Zhongyuan Mandarin, 中原官话, 中原官話 ****

Lanyin Mandarin Lan–Yin Mandarin (Lanyin) () is a branch of Mandarin Chinese traditionally spoken throughout Gansu province and in the northern part of Ningxia. In recent decades it has expanded into northern Xinjiang. It forms part of Northwestern Manda ...

, 兰银官话, 蘭銀官話 ****

Lower Yangtze Mandarin Lower Yangtze Mandarin () is one of the most divergent and least mutually-intelligible of the Mandarin languages, as it neighbours the Wu, Hui, and Gan groups of Sinitic languages. It is also known as Jiang–Huai Mandarin (), named after ...

, 江淮官话, 江淮官話 ****

Southwestern Mandarin Southwestern Mandarin (), also known as Upper Yangtze Mandarin (), is a Mandarin Chinese language spoken in much of Southwest China, including in Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Guizhou, most parts of Hubei, the northwestern part of Hunan, the nort ...

, 西南官话, 西南官話 *** Jin Chinese, 晋语, 晉語 ***

Wu Chinese The Wu languages (; Wu romanization and IPA: ''wu6 gniu6'' [] ( Shanghainese), ''ng2 gniu6'' [] (Suzhounese), Mandarin pinyin and IPA: ''Wúyǔ'' []) is a major group of Sinitic languages spoken primarily in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Zhejiang Provin ...

, 吴语, 吳語 ****

Shanghainese The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the central districts of the City of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan langua ...

, 上海话, 上海話 ***

Huizhou Chinese Huizhou Chinese (), or the Hui dialect (), is a group of closely related Sinitic languages spoken over a small area in and around the historical region of Huizhou (for which it is named), in about ten or so mountainous counties in southern A ...

, 徽语, 徽語 ***

Yue Chinese Yue () is a group of similar Sinitic languages spoken in Southern China, particularly in Liangguang (the Guangdong and Guangxi provinces). The name Cantonese is often used for the whole group, but linguists prefer to reserve that name for ...

, 粤语, 粤語 ****

, 广东话, 廣東話 *** Ping Chinese, 平话, 平話 ***

Gan Chinese Gan, Gann or Kan is a group of Sinitic languages spoken natively by many people in the Jiangxi province of China, as well as significant populations in surrounding regions such as Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, and Fujian. Gan is a member of the Sini ...

, 赣语, 贛語 ***

Xiang Chinese Xiang or Hsiang (; ); Changsha Xiang: ''sian1 y3'', also known as Hunanese (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages, spoken mainly in Hunan province but also in northern Guangxi and parts of neighbori ...

, 湘语, 湘語 ***

Hakka language Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities ar ...

, 客家话, 客家話 ***

Min Chinese Min (; BUC: ''Mìng-ngṳ̄'') is a broad group of Sinitic languages spoken by about 30 million people in Fujian province as well as by the descendants of Min speaking colonists on Leizhou peninsula and Hainan, or assimilated natives of Chaosh ...

, 闽语, 閩語 ****

Southern Min Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwa ...

, 闽南语, 閩南語 *****

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages ...

, 泉漳话, 泉漳話 ***** Teochew dialect, 潮州话, 潮州話 **** Eastern Min, 闽东语, 閩東語 **** Pu-Xian Min, 莆仙话, 莆仙話 ****

Leizhou Min Leizhou or ''Luichew'' Min (, ) is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Leizhou city, Xuwen County, Mazhang District, most parts of Suixi County and also spoken inside of the linguistically diverse Xiashan District. In the classification of Yuan ...

, 雷州话, 雷州話 ****

Hainanese Hainanese ( Hainan Romanised: ', Hainanese Pinyin: ',), also known as Qióngwén, Heng2 vun2 () or Qióngyǔ, Heng2 yi2 (), is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan and Overseas Chinese su ...

, 海南话, 海南話 ****

Northern Min Northern Min () is a group of mutually intelligible Min varieties spoken in Nanping prefecture of northwestern Fujian. Classification and distribution Early classifications of varieties of Chinese, such as those of Li Fang-Kuei in 1937 and ...

, 闽北语, 閩北語 ****

Central Min Central Min, or Min Zhong (), is a part of the Min group of varieties of Chinese. It is spoken in the valley of the Sha River in Sanming prefecture in the central mountain areas of Fujian, consisting of Yong'an, the urban area of Sanming ( Sany ...

, 闽中语, 閩中語 ****

Shao-Jiang Min Shao–Jiang or Shaojiang Min () is a Min Chinese language centered on Western Nanping in Northwest Fujian, specifically in the Nanping counties of Guangze, Shaowu, and Western Shunchang and the Northern Sanming county of Jiangle. Shao-Jiang ...

, 邵将语, 邵將語 * Bai, 白語 **

Dali language Dali or Dalí may refer to: Chinese history * Kingdom of Dali (937–1253 AD), centered in modern Yunnan * Kingdom of Nanzhao or Dali, Kingdom of Dali's predecessor state * Dali, Emperor Daizong of Tang's third and last regnal period (766–779) ...

, 大理語 *** Dali dialect( Bai: Darl lit) *** Xiangyun dialect ** Yitdut language/

Jianchuan language Jianchuan County () is a county in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture located in the western part of Yunnan Province, China. The county is about southwest of Lijiang and north of Dali. The historical town of Shaxi in the southeast of the coun ...

, 剑川语, 劍川語 *** Yitdut dialect( Bai: Yit dut) *** Heqing dialect( Bai: hhop kait) ** Bijiang language *** Bijiang dialect *** Lanping dialect( Bai: ket dant) *** * Tibeto-Burman ** Tujia ** Qiangic *** Qiang ****

Northern Qiang Northern Qiang is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Qiangic branch, more specifically falling under the Tibeto-Burman family. It is spoken by approximately 60,000 people in East Tibet, and in north-central Sichuan Province, China. Unlike its cl ...

**** Southern Qiang *** Prinmi *** Baima *** Tangut ** Bodish ***

**** Central Tibetan (

Standard Tibetan Lhasa Tibetan (), or Standard Tibetan, is the Tibetan dialect spoken by educated people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branc ...

) ****

Amdo Tibetan Amdo Tibetan (; also called ''Am kä'') is the Tibetic language spoken in Amdo (now mostly in Qinghai, some in Ngawa and Gannan). It has two dialects, the farmer dialect and the nomad dialect. Amdo is one of the three branches of traditional c ...

****

Khams Tibetan Khams Tibetan () is the Tibetic language used by the majority of the people in Kham. Khams is one of the three branches of the traditional classification of Tibetic languages (the other two being Amdo Tibetan and Ü-Tsang). In terms of mutual i ...

*** Lhoba ***

Monpa The Monpa or Mönpa () is a major tribe of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. The Tawang Monpas have a migration history from Changrelung. The Monpa are believed to be the only nomadic tribe in Northeast India – they are totally dependen ...

/Monba **

Lolo–Burmese The Lolo-Burmese languages (also Burmic languages) of Burma and Southern China form a coherent branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. Names Until ca. 1950, the endonym ''Lolo'' was written with derogatory characters in Chinese, and for this rea ...

–Naxi *** Burmish ****

Achang The Achang (), also known as the Ngac'ang (their own name) is an ethnic group.They are one of tibeto burman language speaking people. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They also live i ...

*** Loloish **** Yi **** Lisu **** Lahu ****

Hani Hani may refer to: People * Hani (name) * Hani (producer), a record producer and remixer from New York City * Hani (singer), a South Korean singer and member of EXID * Hani people, an ethnic group of China and Vietnam Places * Hani, an island in ...

**** Jino *** Nakhi/ Naxi ** Jingpho–Nungish–Luish *** Jingpho *** Derung *** Nu **** Nusu **** Rouruo

Kra–Dai

(''Possibly the ancient Bǎiyuè 百越'') * Be * Kra ** Gelao * Kam–Sui ** Dong ** Sui ** Maonan ** Mulao/ Mulam * Hlai/Li * Tai ** Zhuang (Vahcuengh) *** Northern Zhuang *** Southern Zhuang ** Bouyei ** Dai *** Tai Lü language ***

Tai Nüa language Tai Nuea or Tai Nüa (Tai Nüa: ; also called Tai Le, Dehong Dai or Chinese Shan; own name: ''Tai2 Lə6'', which means "Upper Tai" or "Northern Tai" or , ; Chinese: ''Dǎinàyǔ'', 傣那语 or ''Déhóng Dǎiyǔ'', 德宏傣语; th, ภาษ� ...

***

Tai Dam language Tai Dam (), also known as Black Tai ( th, ภาษาไทดำ; ; vi, tiếng Thái Đen; "Black Tai language"; ), is a Tai language spoken by the Tai Dam in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and China (mostly in Jinping Miao, Yao, and Dai Auton ...

*** Tai Ya language ***

Tai Hongjin language Tai Ya (), also known as Tai-Cung, Tai-Chung and Daiya, is a Southwestern Tai language of southern China. It is also known as Tai Hongjin () in China. Speakers of Tai Hongjin live in the Red River (红河 or 元江) and Jinsha River (金沙� ...

Turkic

* Karluk ** Ili Turki ** Uyghur ** Uzbek * Kipchak ** Kazakh **

Kyrgyz Kyrgyz, Kirghiz or Kyrgyzstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kyrgyzstan *Kyrgyz people *Kyrgyz national games *Kyrgyz language *Kyrgyz culture *Kyrgyz cuisine *Yenisei Kirghiz *The Fuyü Gïrgïs language in Northeastern China ...

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

* Oghuz ** Salar *

Siberian Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

** Äynu ** Fuyu Kyrgyz ** Western Yugur ** Tuvan ** ''

Old Uyghur Old Uyghur () was a Turkic language which was spoken in Qocho from the 9th–14th centuries and in Gansu. History The Old Uyghur language evolved from Old Turkic after the Uyghur Khaganate broke up and remnants of it migrated to Turfan, ...

(extinct)'' * '' Old Turkic (extinct)''

Mongolic

* Mongolian * Oirat **

Torgut Oirat Torgut, also spelled Torghud, is a dialect of the Oirat language spoken in Xinjiang, in western Mongolia and in eastern Kalmykia (where it was the basis for Kalmyk, the literary standard language of that region). Thus, it has more speakers t ...

* Buryat * Daur * Southeastern ** Monguor *** Eastern Yugur ** Dongxiang ** Bonan ** Kangjia * ''

Tuoba The Tuoba (reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciation: *''tʰak-bɛt''), also known as the Taugast or Tabgach ( otk, 𐱃𐰉𐰍𐰲 ''Tabγač''), was a Xianbei clan in Imperial China.Wei Shou. ''Book of Wei''. Vol. 1 During the Sixteen Kingd ...

(extinct)'' ;

Para-Mongolic Para-Mongolic is a proposed group of languages that is considered to be an extinct sister branch of the Mongolic languages. Para-Mongolic contains certain historically attested extinct languages, among them Khitan and Tuyuhun. Languages The ...

* '' Khitan (extinct)'' * '' Tuyuhun (extinct)''

Tungusic

* Southern **

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) an ...

***

Jurchen Jurchen may refer to: * Jurchen people, Tungusic people who inhabited the region of Manchuria until the 17th century ** Haixi Jurchens, a grouping of the Jurchens as identified by the Chinese of the Ming Dynasty ** Jianzhou Jurchens, a grouping of ...

** Xibe ** Nanai/Hezhen * Northern ** Evenki ** Oroqen

Korean

* Korean

Hmong–Mien

(''Possibly the ancient Nánmán 南蛮, 南蠻'') * Hmong * Mien *

She She most commonly refers to: *She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English. She or S.H.E. may also refer to: Literature and films *'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...

Austroasiatic The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...

* Palaung-Wa ** Palaung/ Blang ** De'ang ** Wa/Va * Vietnamese/Kinh

Austronesian

* Formosan languages * Tsat

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Du ...

* Russian * '' Tocharian (extinct)'' * ''

Saka The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who histo ...

(extinct)'' * Pamiri, (mislabelled as "Tajik") ** Sarikoli ** Wakhi * Portuguese (spoken in Macau) *

(spoken in Hong Kong)

Yeniseian

* '' Jie (Kjet) (extinct)'' (?)

Unclassified Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...

* '' Ruan-ruan (Rouran) (extinct)''

Mixed

* '' Wutun (Mongolian-Tibetan mixed language)'' * '' Macanese (Portuguese creole)''

Written languages

The following languages traditionally had written forms that do not involve

Chinese character Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

s (''hanzi''): * The Dai people ** Tai Lü language – Tai Lü alphabet **

– Tai Nüa alphabet * The Daur people - Daur language - Manchu alphabet * The

Hmong people The Hmong people (RPA: ''Hmoob'', Nyiakeng Puachue: , Pahawh Hmong: , ) are a sub-ethnic group of the Miao people who originated from Central China. The modern Hmongs presently reside mainly in Southwest China ( Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Cho ...

- Hmongic languages - Hmong writing( Pollard script, Pahawh Hmong, Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong, etc.) * The

–

Kazakh language The Kazakh or simply Qazaq (Latin: or , Cyrillic: or , Arabic Script: or , , ) is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia by Kazakhs. It is closely related to Nogai, Kyrgyz and Karakalpak. It is the official langua ...

– Kazakh alphabets * The

Koreans Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula. Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply r ...

–

– Chosŏn'gŭl alphabet * The

–

Kyrgyz language Kyrgyz (; autonym: , tr. ''Kyrgyz tili'', ) is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia. Kyrgyz is the official language of Kyrgyzstan and a significant minority language in the Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture in ...

– Kyrgyz alphabets * The Lisu people -

Lisu language Lisu ( Fraser alphabet: , or ; New Lisu script: ; zh, c=傈僳语, p=Lìsùyǔ; my, လီဆူဘာသာစကား, ) is a tonal Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Yunnan (Southwestern China), Northern Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand and ...

- Lisu script * The Manchus –

Manchu language Manchu (Manchu:, ) is a critically endangered East Asian Tungusic language native to the historical region of Manchuria in Northeast China. As the traditional native language of the Manchus, it was one of the official languages of the Qi ...

– Manchu alphabet * The

–

Mongolian language Mongolian is the official language of Mongolia and both the most widely spoken and best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residen ...

–

Mongolian alphabet Various Mongolian writing systems have been devised for the Mongolian language over the centuries, and from a variety of scripts. The oldest and native script, called simply the Mongolian script, has been the predominant script during most of ...

* The Naxi –

Naxi language Naxi (Naqxi ), also known as ''Nakhi, Nasi, Lomi, Moso, Mo-su'', is a Sino-Tibetan language or group of languages spoken by some 310,000 people, most of whom live in or around Lijiang City Yulong Naxi Autonomous County of the province of Yunna ...

– Dongba characters * The

Qiang people The Qiang people ( Qiangic: ''Rrmea''; ) are an ethnic group in China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognised by the People's Republic of China, with a population of approximately 310,000 in 2000. They live mainly in a ...

- Qiang language or Rrmea language - Rma script * The Santa people ( Dongxiangs in Chinese) - Santa language -

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and th ...

* The Sui – Sui language –

Sui script The Sui script (Sui: ''le1 sui3,'' Simplified Chinese: 水书, Traditional Chinese: 水書, Pinyin: ''Shuǐshū)'' or Shuishu, is a logographic writing system with some pictographic characters that can be used to write the Sui language (Wei 2003:x ...

* The

– Tibetan language – Tibetan alphabet * The

–

Uyghur language The Uyghur or Uighur language (; , , , or , , , , CTA: Uyğurçä; formerly known as Eastern Turki), is a Turkic language written in a Uyghur Perso-Arabic script with 8-11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xi ...

– Uyghur Arabic alphabet * The Xibe – Xibe language – Manchu alphabet * The Yi – Yi language – Yi syllabary Many modern forms of spoken Chinese languages have their own distinct writing system using Chinese characters that contain colloquial variants. These typically are used as sound characters to help determine the pronunciation of the sentence within that language: * Written Sichuanese -

Sichuanese Sichuanese, Szechuanese or Szechwanese may refer to something of, from, or related to the Chinese province and region of Sichuan (Szechwan/Szechuan) (historically and culturally including Chongqing), especially: * Sichuanese people, a subgroup of th ...

* Written Cantonese -

Written Shanghainese The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the central districts of the City of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan languag ...

* Written Hakka -

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

* Written Hokkien -

* Written Teochew - Teochew Some non-Sinitic peoples have historically used Chinese characters: * The

–

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, ...

* The Vietnamese -

Vietnamese language Vietnamese ( vi, tiếng Việt, links=no) is an Austroasiatic language originating from Vietnam where it is the national and official language. Vietnamese is spoken natively by over 70 million people, several times as many as the rest of the ...

Chữ nôm Chữ Nôm (, ; ) is a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language. It uses Chinese characters ('' Chữ Hán'') to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represent ...

* The Zhuang (Tai people) –

Zhuang languages The Zhuang languages (; autonym: , pre-1982: , Sawndip: 話僮, from ''vah'', 'language' and ''Cuengh'', 'Zhuang'; ) are any of more than a dozen Tai languages spoken by the Zhuang people of Southern China in the province of Guangxi and adj ...

– Sawndip *The Bouyei people - Bouyei language - Bouyei writing(方塊布依字) *The Bai people -

Bai language The Bai language (Bai: ; ) is a language spoken in China, primarily in Yunnan Province, by the Bai people. The language has over a million speakers and is divided into three or four main dialects. Bai syllables are always open, with a rich se ...

- Bai writing(僰文) *The

Dong people The Kam people, officially known in China as Dong people (; endonym: , ), a Kam–Sui people of Southern China, are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They are famed for their native-bred ''Kam ...

- Dong language (China) -

Dong writing Dong or DONG may refer to: Places * Dong Lake, or East Lake, a lake in China * Dong, Arunachal Pradesh, a village in India * Dong (administrative division) (동 or 洞), a neighborhood division in Korea Persons *Queen Dong (1623–1681), princes ...

(方塊侗字) Other languages, all now extinct, used separate logographic scripts influenced by, but not directly derived from, Chinese characters: * The Jurchens (Manchu ancestors) –

Jurchen language Jurchen language ( zh, t=女真語, p=Nǚzhēn yǔ) was the Tungusic language of the Jurchen people of eastern Manchuria, the rulers of the Jin dynasty in northern China of the 12th and 13th centuries. It is ancestral to the Manchu language. ...

–

Jurchen script The Jurchen script (Jurchen: ) was the writing system used to write the Jurchen language, the language of the Jurchen people who created the Jin Empire in northeastern China in the 12th–13th centuries. It was derived from the Khitan script ...

* The Khitans (Mongolic people) –

Khitan language Khitan or Kitan ( in large script or in small, ''Khitai''; , ''Qìdānyǔ''), also known as Liao, is a now-extinct language once spoken in Northeast Asia by the Khitan people (4th to 13th century). It was the official language of the Liao E ...

– Khitan

large Large means of great size. Large may also refer to: Mathematics * Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics * Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers * Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms ...

and small scripts * The

Tanguts The Tangut people ( Tangut: , ''mjɨ nja̱'' or , ''mji dzjwo''; ; ; mn, Тангуд) were a Tibeto-Burman tribal union that founded and inhabited the Western Xia dynasty. The group initially lived under Tuyuhun authority, but later submitted ...

(Sino-Tibetan people) –

Tangut language Tangut (Tangut: ; ) is an extinct language in the Sino-Tibetan language family. Tangut was one of the official languages of the Western Xia dynasty, founded by the Tangut people in northwestern China. The Western Xia was annihilated by the M ...

–

Tangut script The Tangut script ( Tangut: ; ) was a logographic writing system, used for writing the extinct Tangut language of the Western Xia dynasty. According to the latest count, 5863 Tangut characters are known, excluding variants. The Tangut characte ...

During

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, palaces, temples, and coins have sometimes been inscribed in five scripts: * Chinese *

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

* Chagatai During the Mongol

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fif ...

, the official writing system was: * 'Phags-pa script Chinese banknotes contain several scripts in addition to Chinese script. These are: *

* Arabic (for Uyghur) * Latin (for Zhuang) Other writing system for Chinese languages in China include: *

Nüshu script Nüshu () is a syllabic script derived from Chinese characters that was used exclusively among women in Jiangyong County in Hunan province of southern China.ProposatextPRC's encouragement, developed phonetic alphabets. According t
a government white paper
published in early 2005, "by the end of 2003, 22 ethnic minorities in China used 28 written languages."

Language policy

One decade before the demise of the

in 1912, Mandarin was promoted in the planning for China's first public school system. Mandarin has been promoted as the commonly spoken language for the country since 1956, based phonologically on the

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

of Beijing. The North Chinese language group is set up as the standard grammatically and lexically. Meanwhile,

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

and

Lu Xun Zhou Shuren (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), better known by his pen name Lu Xun (or Lu Sun; ; Wade–Giles: Lu Hsün), was a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. ...

writings are used as the basis of the stylistic standard. Pronunciation is taught with the use of the romanized phonetic system known as ''pinyin''. Pinyin has been criticized for fear of an eventual replacement of the traditional character orthography. The Chinese language policy in

is heavily influenced by the Soviet nationalities policy and officially encourages the development of standard spoken and written languages for each of the

nationalities of China China's population consists of 56 ethnic groups, not including some ethnic groups from Taiwan. The Han people are the largest ethnic group in mainland China. In 2010, 91.51% of the population were classified as Han (~1.2 billion). Besides the ...

. Language is one of the features used for ethnic identification. In September 1951, the ''All-China Minorities Education Conference'' established that all minorities should be taught in their language at the primary and secondary levels when they count with a writing language. Those without a writing language or with an "imperfect" writing language should be helped to develop and reform their writing languages. However, in this schema,

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...

are considered a single nationality and the official policy of the

(PRC) treats the different

varieties of Chinese Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of mai ...

differently from the different national languages, even though their differences are as significant, if not more so, as those between the various

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. While official policies in

encourage the development and use of different orthographies for the national languages and their use in educational and academic settings, realistically speaking it would seem that, as elsewhere in the world, the outlook for

minority language A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) ...

s perceived as inferior is grim. The

Tibetan Government-in-Exile The Central Tibetan Administration (, , ), often referred to as the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, is a non-profit political organization based in Dharamshala, India. Its organization is modeled after an elective parliamentary government, comp ...

argue that social pressures and political efforts result in a policy of sinicization and feels that Beijing should promote the Tibetan language more. Because many languages exist in China, they also have problems regarding diglossia. Recently, in terms of Fishman's typology of the relationships between bilingualism and

diglossia In linguistics, diglossia () is a situation in which two dialects or languages are used (in fairly strict compartmentalization) by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety (labeled ...

and his

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

of diglossia (Fishman 1978, 1980) in China: more and more minority communities have been evolving from "diglossia without

bilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all ...

" to "bilingualism without diglossia." This could be an implication of mainland China's power expanding. In 2010, Tibetan students protested against changes in the Language Policy on the schools that promoted the use of Mandarin Chinese instead of Tibetan. They argued that the measure would erode their culture. In 2013, China's Education Ministry said that about 400 million people were unable to speak the national language Mandarin. In that year, the government pushed linguistic unity in China, focusing on the countryside and areas with ethnic minorities. Mandarin Chinese is the prestige language in practice, and failure to protect ethnic languages does occur. In summer 2020, the Inner Mongolian government announced an education policy change to phase out Mongolian as the language of instructions for humanities in elementary and middle schools, adopting the national instruction material instead. Thousands of ethnic Mongolians in northern China gathered to protest the policy. The Ministry of Education describes the move as a natural extension of the ''Law of the People's Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language'' () of 2000.

Study of foreign languages

has been the most widely-taught foreign language in China, as it is a required subject for students attending university. Other languages that have gained some degree of prevalence or interest are Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian. During the 1950s and 1960s, Russian had some social status among elites in mainland China as the international language of

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

. In the late 1960s, English replaced the position of Russian to become the most studied foreign language in China. After the Reform and Opening-up policy in 1988, English was taught in public schools starting in the third year of primary school. Russian,

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

language classes have been made widely available in universities and colleges. In

Northeast China Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of ...

, there are many bilingual schools (Mandarin-Japanese; Mandarin-Korean; Mandarin-Russian), in these schools, students learn languages other than English. ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' reported in 2006 that up to one fifth of the population was learning English.

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony ...

, the former British prime minister, estimated that the total English-speaking population in China would outnumber the native speakers in the rest of the world in two decades. There have been a growing number of students studying

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, due to reasons of cultural interest and belief in better job opportunities. The language is also widely studied amongst the

Hui people The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the ...

. In the past, literary Arabic education was promoted in Islamic schools by the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Ta ...

when it ruled mainland China. There have also been a growing number of students choosing to learn

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' CPEC. Interest in Portuguese and Spanish have increased greatly, due in part to Chinese investment in Latin America as well as in African nations such as Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde. Portuguese is also one of the official languages in

, although its use had stagnated since the nation's transfer from

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

to the PRC. It was estimated in 2016 that 2.3% of Macau's locals spoke the language, although with government backing since then, interest in it has increased.

Use of English

In China, English is used as a

in several fields, especially for business settings, and in schools to teach Standard Mandarin to people who are not Chinese citizens. English is also one of the official languages in

References

Citations

Sources

* *

External links

Minzu Yuwen (民族语文): ''Minority Languages of China'' journal

on Muturzikin.com
Audio Bible recordings in various minority languages of China
{{DEFAULTSORT:Languages Of China Separatism in China