Comparison of national standards of Chinese

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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.

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Linguistic differences

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 ]

MeaningFlag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China Flag of Hong Kong.svg  Hong Kong Flag of Macau.svg  Macau Flag of Malaysia 23px.svg  Malaysia Flag of Singapore.svg  Singapore Flag of the Republic of China.svg  Taiwan
SimplifiedTraditionalTraditionalSimplifiedSimplifiedTraditional
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

See also

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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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mandarin Chinese</span> Major branch of Chinese languages

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Standard Chinese</span> Standard form of Chinese and official language of China

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Min Chinese</span> Primary branch of Sinitic spoken in southern China and Taiwan

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese Singaporeans</span> Ethnic group

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cantonese people</span> Han Chinese ethnic subgroup native to parts of Southern China

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.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cai (surname)</span> Surname list

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Star Chinese Movies was a Chinese language pay television channel owned by Disney Networks Group Pacific Ltd. It features Chinese films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Taiwan</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lin (surname)</span> Surname list

Lin is the Mandarin romanization of the Chinese surname written , 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hokkien</span> Sinitic language spoken in East Asia

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.

References

  1. 貨車追撞貨櫃車 1乘客當場慘死
  2. 1 2 港人光大倒裝 詞彙自成一格 Archived 2013-02-09 at archive.today
  3. 「熱米飯帶著走」 韓式飯盒進攻台灣