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The Chinese language enjoys the status as official language in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Taiwan. It is recognized as a minority language in Malaysia. However, the language shows a high degree of regional variation among these territories.
In many cases, those in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan use different words for the same meaning.
This section seeks to illustrate the differences in vocabulary by a limited selected examples. Note that language used in Hong Kong is almost identical to that of Macau, and that Malaysian vocabulary is identical to Singaporean vocabulary.[ citation needed ]
| Meaning |  China |  Hong Kong |  Macau |  Malaysia |  Singapore |  Taiwan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified | Traditional | Traditional | Simplified | Simplified | Traditional | |
| bus | 公交车／大巴 / 公共汽车 | 巴士 | 巴士 | 巴士 | 巴士 | 公車 |
| taxi | 出租车, 的士, 计程车 | 的士, 的 | 的士, 的 | 德士 | 德士 | 計程車, 小黃 |
| police | 公安/警察 | 差人／警察 | 差人／治安警／司警 | 警察/警卫/马达 | 警察/警卫/马达 | 警察 / 員警/警衛 |
| town square | 广场 | 廣場 | 前地 | 广场 | 广场 | 廣場 |
| laser | 激光, 镭射 | 鐳射, 雷射, 激光 | 鐳射, 雷射, 激光 | 激光, laser | 激光, laser | 雷射 |
| rapid transit | 轨道交通／地铁 | 地鐵 | 地鐵 | 地铁 | 地铁 | 捷運 |
| light rail | 轻轨, 有轨电车 | 輕鐵 | 輕軌 | 轻轨 | 轻轨 | 輕軌 |
| instant noodles | 方便面, 泡面 | 即食麵, 公仔麵 | 即食麵, 公仔麵 | 泡面, 快熟面 | 泡面, 快熟面 | 泡麵, 速食麵, 生力麵 |
| Cantonese | 粤语/广东话/广州话 | 粵語/廣東話/廣州話 | 粵語/廣東話/廣州話 | 粤语 | 粤语 | 粵語 |
| Mandarin | 国语/普通话 | 國語/普通話 | 國語/普通話 | 华语 | 华语 | 國語 |
| potato | 土豆, 马铃薯, 地蛋, 洋芋 | 薯仔 | 薯仔 | 马铃薯 | 马铃薯 | 馬鈴薯, 洋芋 |
| pineapple | 凤梨/菠萝 | 菠蘿, 鳳梨(only in 鳳梨酥) | 菠蘿 | 黄梨 | 黄梨 | 鳳梨, 黃梨(in Hakka language), 菠蘿(in 菠蘿包) |
| lorry/truck | 卡车(large truck);货车 | 貨車, 貨櫃車(cargo container truck) | 貨車, 貨櫃車(cargo container truck) | 罗里 | 罗里 | 貨車, 貨櫃車(cargo container truck) [1] |
| tights/pantyhose [2] | 裤袜/连裤袜 | 襪褲 | 襪褲 | 裤袜 | 裤袜 | 褲襪 |
| lunch box/bento [2] | 盒饭 | 飯盒 | 飯盒 | 便当, 盒饭 | 便当, 盒饭 | 便當, 飯盒 [3] |
| butter | 黄油 | 牛油 | 牛油 | 牛油 | 牛油 | 奶油 |
| air-conditioner | 空调 | 冷氣機 | 冷氣機 | 冷气机 | 冷气机 | 冷氣機 |
| paperclip | 回形针/回纹针 | 萬字夾 | 萬字夾 | 回形针 | 回形针 | 迴紋針 |
| rock paper scissors | 石头剪子布 | 包剪揼 | 包剪揼 | 剪刀石头布 | 剪刀石头布 | 剪刀石頭布 |
| plastic bag | 袋子/塑料袋 | 膠袋 | 膠袋 | 塑胶袋, 塑料袋 | 塑胶袋, 塑料袋 | 塑膠袋 |
| wet market | 商场 | 街市 | 商場 | 巴刹 | 巴刹 | 商場 |
| Printer | 打印机 | 打印機 | 打印機 | 打印机 | 打印机 | 印表機 |
Chinese is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in China. Approximately 1.35 billion people, or 17% of the global population, speak a variety of Chinese as their first language.
Mandarin is a group of Chinese language 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 of China. Because Mandarin originated in North China and most Mandarin dialects are found in the north, the group is sometimes referred to as Northern Chinese. Many varieties of Mandarin, such as those of the Southwest and the Lower Yangtze, are not mutually intelligible with the standard language. Nevertheless, Mandarin as a group is often placed first in lists of languages by number of native speakers.
Standard Chinese is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era (1912‒1949). It is designated as the official language of mainland China and a major language in the United Nations, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is largely based on the Beijing dialect. Standard Chinese is a pluricentric language with local standards in mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore that mainly differ in their lexicon. Hong Kong written Chinese, used for formal written communication in Hong Kong and Macau, is a form of Standard Chinese that is read aloud with the Cantonese reading of characters.
Min is a broad group of Sinitic languages with about 70 million native speakers. These languages are spoken in Fujian province as well as by the descendants of Min-speaking colonists on the Leizhou Peninsula and Hainan and by the assimilated natives of Chaoshan, parts of Zhongshan, three counties in southern Wenzhou, the Zhoushan archipelago, Taiwan and scattered in pockets or sporadically across Hong Kong, Macau, and several countries in Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei. The name is derived from the Min River in Fujian, which is also the abbreviated name of Fujian Province. Min varieties are not mutually intelligible with one another nor with any other variety of Chinese.
Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou and its surrounding Pearl River Delta, with over 82.4 million native speakers.
Chinese Singaporeans are Singaporeans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Singaporeans constitute 75.9% of the Singaporean citizen population according to the official census, making them the largest ethnic group in Singapore.
The Han Chinese people can be defined into subgroups based on linguistic, cultural, ethnic, genetic, and regional features. The terminology used in Mandarin to describe the groups is: "minxi", used in mainland China or "zuqun", used in Taiwan. No Han subgroup is recognized as one of People's Republic of China's 56 official ethnic groups, in Taiwan only three subgroups, Hoklo, Hakka and Waishengren are recognized.
The Cantonese people or Yue people, are a Han Chinese subgroup originating from or residing in the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, in southern mainland China. In a strict sense, "Cantonese" refers only to people with roots from Guangzhou and its satellite cities and towns, rather than generally referring to the people of the Liangguang region.
Standard Chinese is a standard form of Mandarin Chinese with de facto official status in China, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Cài is a Chinese-language surname that derives from the name of the ancient Cai state. In 2019 it was the 38th most common surname in China, but the 9th most common in Taiwan, where it is usually romanized as "Tsai", "Tsay", or "Chai" and the 8th most common in Singapore, where it is usually romanized as "Chua", which is based on its Teochew and Hokkien pronunciation. Koreans use Chinese-derived family names and in Korean, Cai is 채 in Hangul, "Chae" in Revised Romanization, It is also a common name in Hong Kong where it is romanized as "Choy", "Choi" or "Tsoi". In Macau, it is spelled as "Choi". In Malaysia, it is romanized as "Choi" from the Cantonese pronunciation, and "Chua" or "Chuah" from the Hokkien or Teochew pronunciation. It is romanized in the Philippines as "Chua" or "Chuah", and in Thailand as "Chuo" (ฉั่ว). Moreover, it is also romanized in Cambodia as either "Chhay" or "Chhor" among people of full Chinese descent living in Cambodia and as “Tjhai”, "Tjoa" or "Chua" in Indonesia.
Star Chinese Movies was a Chinese language pay television channel owned by Disney Networks Group Pacific Ltd. It features Chinese films.
The languages of Taiwan consist of several varieties of languages under the families of Austronesian languages and Sino-Tibetan languages. The Formosan languages, a geographically designated branch of Austronesian languages, have been spoken by the Taiwanese indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Owing to the wide internal variety of the Formosan languages, research on historical linguistics recognizes Taiwan as the Urheimat (homeland) of the whole Austronesian languages family. In the last 400 years, several waves of Han emigrations brought several different Sinitic languages into Taiwan. These languages include Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, and Mandarin, which have become the major languages spoken in present-day Taiwan.
Malaysian Mandarin (simplified Chinese: 马来西亚华语; traditional Chinese: 馬來西亞華語; pinyin: Mǎláixīyà Huáyǔ; Wade–Giles: Ma3-lai2-hsi1-ya4 Hua2-yü3) is a variety of Mandarin Chinese spoken in Malaysia by ethnic Chinese in Malaysia. Today, Malaysian Mandarin is the lingua franca of the Malaysian Chinese community.
Lin is the Mandarin romanization of the Chinese surname written 林, which has many variations depending on the language and is also used in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia.
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.
Colloquial Singaporean Mandarin, commonly known as Singdarin or Singnese, is a Mandarin dialect native and unique to Singapore similar to its English-based counterpart Singlish. It is based on Mandarin but has a large amount of English and Malay in its vocabulary. There are also words from other Chinese languages such as Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew as well as Tamil. While Singdarin grammar is largely identical to Standard Mandarin, there are significant divergences and differences especially in its pronunciation and vocabulary.
Hokkien is a variety of the Southern Min languages, native to and originating from the Minnan region, in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is also referred to as Quanzhang, from the first characters of the urban centers of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou.
Standard Singaporean Mandarin is the standard form of Singaporean Mandarin. It is used in all official Chinese media, including all television programs on Channel 8 and Channel U, various radio stations, as well as in Chinese lessons in all Singapore government schools. The written form of Chinese used in Singapore is also based on this standard. Standard Singaporean Mandarin is also the register of Mandarin used by the Chinese elites of Singapore and is easily distinguishable from the Colloquial Singaporean Mandarin spoken by the general populace.
The usage of Chinese by the Chinese diaspora and their descendants has been determined by a large number of factors, including their ancestry, their migrant ancestors' "regime of origin", assimilation through generational changes, and official policies of their country of residence. The general trend is that more established Chinese populations in the Western world and in many regions of Asia have Cantonese as either the dominant variety or as a common community vernacular, while Mandarin is much more prevalent among new arrivals, making it increasingly common in many Chinatowns, though still not dominant.
