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The following is a list of Sinitic languages and their dialects. For a traditional dialectological overview, see also varieties of Chinese.
"Chinese" is a blanket term covering many different varieties spoken across China. Mandarin Chinese is the most popular dialect, and is used as a lingua franca across China.
Linguists classify these varieties as the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Within this broad classification, there are between seven and fourteen dialect groups, depending on the classification.
The conventionally accepted set of seven dialect groups first appeared in the second edition of the dialectology handbook edited by Yuan Jiahua (1961). In order of decreasing number of speakers, they are:
The revised classification of Li Rong, used in the Language Atlas of China (1987) added three further groups split from these:
The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2019) and were rounded: [2] [3] [4]
| Number | Branch | Native Speakers | Dialects |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mandarin | 850,000,000 | 51 |
| 2 | Wu | 95,000,000 | 37 |
| 3 | Yue | 80,000,000 | 52 |
| 4 | Jin | 70,000,000 | 6 |
| 5 | Min | 60,000,000 | 61 |
| 6 | Hakka | 55,000,000 | 10 |
| 7 | Xiang | 50,000,000 | 25 |
| 8 | Gan | 30,000,000 | 9 |
| 9 | Huizhou | 7,000,000 | 13 |
| 10 | Pinghua | 3,000,000 | 2 |
| Total | Chinese | 1,300,000,000 | 266 |
In addition to the varieties listed below, it is customary to speak informally of dialects of each province (such as Sichuan dialect and Hainan dialect). These designations do not generally correspond to classifications used by linguists, but each nevertheless has characteristics of its own.
| Dongkou Gan | 洞口话 | 洞口話 |
| Huaining Gan | 怀宁话 | 懷寧話 |
| Fuzhou Gan | 抚州话 | 撫州話 |
| Ji'an Gan | 吉安话 | 吉安話 |
| Leiyang Gan | 耒阳话 | 耒陽話 |
| Nanchang Gan | 南昌话 | 南昌話 |
| Xianning Gan | 咸宁话 | 鹹寧話 |
| Yichun Gan | 宜春话 | 宜春話 |
| Yingtan Gan | 鹰潭话 | 鷹潭話 |
The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2019) and were rounded: [5]
| Number | Branch | Native Speakers | Dialects |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beijing | 35,000,000 | 7 |
| 2 | Ji–Lu | 110,000,000 | 4 |
| 3 | Jianghuai | 80,000,000 | 6 |
| 4 | Jiao–Liao | 35,000,000 | 4 |
| 5 | Lan–Yin | 10,000,000 | 3 |
| 6 | Northeastern | 100,000,000 | 4 |
| 7 | Southwestern | 280,000,000 | 11 |
| 8 | Zhongyuan | 200,000,000 | 11 |
| Total | Mandarin | 850,000,000 | 50 |
Sometimes subcategory of Wu.
| Jixi Hui | 绩溪话 | 績溪話 |
| Shexian Hui | 歙县话 | 歙縣話 |
| Tunxi Hui | 屯溪话 | 屯溪話 |
| Yixian Hui | 黟县话 | 黟縣話 |
| Xiuning Hui | 休宁话 | 休寧話 |
| Wuyuan Hui | 婺源话 | 婺源話 |
| Dexing Hui | 德兴话 | 德興話 |
| Fuliang Hui | 浮梁话 | 浮梁話 |
| Jiande Hui | 建德话 | 建德話 |
| Shouchang Hui | 寿昌话 | 壽昌話 |
| Chun'an Hui | 淳安话 | 淳安話 |
| Sui'an Hui | 遂安话 | 遂安話 |
| Majin Hui | 马金话 | 馬金話 |
Sometimes a subcategory of Mandarin.
| • Baotou dialect | 包头话 | 包頭話 |
| • Datong dialect | 大同话 | 大同話 |
| • Handan dialect | 邯郸话 | 邯郸话 |
| • Hohhot dialect | 呼市话 | 呼市話 |
| • Taiyuan dialect | 太原话 | 太原話 |
| • Xinxiang dialect | 新乡话 | 新鄉話 |
| • Huizhou (Hakka) dialect | 惠州客家话 | 惠州客家話 |
| • Meizhou dialect | 梅州客家话 | 梅州客家話 |
| • Wuhua dialect | 五华客家话 | 五華客家話 |
| • Xingning dialect | 兴宁客家话 | 興寧客家話 |
| • Pingyuan dialect | 平远客家话 | 平遠客家話 |
| • Jiaoling dialect | 蕉岭客家话 | 蕉嶺客家話 |
| • Dabu dialect | 大埔客家话 | 大埔客家話 |
| • Fengshun dialect | 丰顺客家话 | 豐順客家話 |
| • Longyan dialect | 龙岩客家话 | 龍岩客家話 |
| • Lufeng (Hakka) dialect | 陆丰客家话 | 陸豐客家話 |
| Chang–Yi Xiang (New Xiang) | 长益片 | 長益片 |
| • Changsha dialect | 长沙话 | 長沙話 |
| • Zhuzhou dialect | 株洲话 | 株洲話 |
| • Xiangtan dialect | 湘潭话 | 湘潭話 |
| • Ningxiang dialect | 宁乡话 | 寧鄉話 |
| • Yiyang dialect | 益阳话 | 益陽話 |
| • Xiangyin dialect | 湘阴话 | 湘陰話 |
| • Miluo dialect | 汨罗话 | 汨羅話 |
| • Yueyang dialect | 岳阳话 | 岳陽話 |
| Hengzhou Xiang (Hengzhou Xiang) | 衡州片 | 衡州片 |
| • Hengyang dialect | 衡阳话 | 衡陽話 |
| • Hengshan dialect | 衡山话 | 衡山話 |
| • Hengdong dialect | 衡东话 | 衡東話 |
| Lou–Shao Xiang (Old Xiang) | 娄邵片 | 婁邵片 |
| • Loudi dialect | 娄底话 | 婁底話 |
| • Shuangfeng dialect | 双峰话 | 雙峰話 |
| • Xinhua dialect | 新化话 | 新化話 |
| • Xiangxiang dialect | 湘乡话 | 湘鄉話 |
| • Shaoyang dialect | 邵阳话 | 邵陽話 |
| • Shaodong dialect | 邵东话 | 邵東話 |
| • Wugang dialect | 武冈话 | 武岡話 |
| • Qidong dialect | 祁东话 | 祁東話 |
| • Qiyang dialect | 祁阳话 | 祁陽話 |
| Chen–Xu Xiang (Chen-Xu Xiang) | 辰溆片 | 辰漵片 |
| • Chenxi dialect | 辰溪话 | 辰溪話 |
| • Xupu dialect | 溆浦话 | 漵浦話 |
| • Luxi dialect | 泸溪话 | 瀘溪話 |
| Yongquan Xiang (Yong-Quan Xiang) | 永全片 | 永全片 |
| • Yongzhou dialect | 永州话 | 永州話 |
| • Quanzhouxian dialect | 全州话 | 全州話 |
|
| Guibei Pinghua (Northern Ping) | 桂北平话 | 桂北平話 |
| • Tongdao Pinghua | 通道平话 | 通道平話 |
| Guinan Pinghua (Southern Ping) | 桂南平话 | 桂南平話 |
| Ba-Shu Chinese | 巴蜀语 | 巴蜀語 |
| 岷江话 | 岷江話 |
The non-Min dialects of Hainan were once considered Yue, but are now left unclassified:
| Hainan "Yue" | 海南方言 | |
| • Danzhou dialect | 儋州话 | 儋州話 |
| • Mai dialect | 迈话 | 邁話 |
In addition to the varieties within the Sinitic branch of Sino-Tibetan, a number of mixed languages also exist that comprise elements of one or more Chinese varieties with other languages.
| Linghua | 伶话 | 伶話 | A Mandarin Chinese and Miao mixed language |
| Maojia | 猫家话 | 貓家話 | A Qo-Xiong Miao and Chinese dialects mixed language |
| Shaozhou Tuhua | 韶州土话 | 韶州土話 | A group of distinctive Chinese dialects in South China, including Yuebei Tuhua and Xiangnan Tuhua. It incorporates several Chinese dialects, as well as Yao languages. |
| Tangwang | 唐汪话 | 唐汪話 | A Mandarin Chinese and Dongxiang mixed language |
| Waxiang | 瓦乡话 | 瓦鄉話 | An independent Chinese language variety |
| Wutun | 五屯话 | 五屯話 | A Mandarin Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian mixed language |
The extensive 1987 Language Atlas of China groups Chinese local varieties into the following units: [7]
In the list below, [8] local dialects are not listed. Groups are in bold, subgroups are numbered, and clusters are bulleted.
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.
Hakka forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people in parts of Southern China and some diaspora areas of Taiwan, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities around the world.
Yue is a branch of the Sinitic languages primarily spoken in Southern China, particularly in the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi.
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.
There are several hundred languages in China. The predominant language is Standard Chinese, which is based on Beijingese, but there are hundreds of related Chinese languages, collectively known as Hanyu, that are spoken by 92% of the population. The Chinese 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 phonetically as do English, German and Danish, but meanwhile share the same writing system (Hanzi) 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, Uyghur and Zhuang.
There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast part of mainland China. The varieties are typically classified into several groups: Mandarin, Wu, Min, Xiang, Gan, Jin, Hakka and Yue, though some varieties remain unclassified. These groups are neither clades nor individual languages defined by mutual intelligibility, but reflect common phonological developments from Middle Chinese.
Wu is a major group of Sinitic languages spoken primarily in Shanghai, Zhejiang Province, and the part of Jiangsu Province south of the Yangtze River, which makes up the cultural region of Wu. Speakers of various Wu languages sometimes labelled their mother tongue as Shanghainese when introduced to foreigners. The Suzhou dialect was the prestige dialect of Wu as of the 19th century, but had been replaced in status by Shanghainese by the turn of the 20th century. The languages of Northern Wu are mutually intelligible with each other, while those of Southern Wu are not.
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, in about ten or so mountainous counties in southern Anhui, plus a few more in neighbouring Zhejiang and Jiangxi.
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 Sinitic languages of the Sino-Tibetan language family, and Hakka is the closest Chinese variety to Gan in terms of phonetics.
Xiang or Hsiang, 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 neighboring Guizhou, Guangdong, Sichuan, Jiangxi and Hubei provinces. Scholars divided Xiang into five subgroups, Chang-Yi, Lou-Shao, Hengzhou, Chen-Xu and Yong-Quan. Among those, Lou-shao, also known as Old Xiang, still exhibits the three-way distinction of Middle Chinese obstruents, preserving the voiced stops, fricatives, and affricates. Xiang has also been heavily influenced by Mandarin, which adjoins three of the four sides of the Xiang-speaking territory, and Gan in Jiangxi Province, from where a large population immigrated to Hunan during the Ming dynasty.
Pinghua refers to various Sinitic language varieties spoken mainly in parts of Guangxi, with some speakers in Hunan. Pinghua is a trade language in some areas of Guangxi, spoken as a second language by speakers of Zhuang languages. Some speakers are officially classified as Zhuang, and many are genetically distinct from most other Han Chinese. The northern subgroup is centered on Guilin and the southern subgroup around Nanning. The Southern dialect has several notable features such as having four distinct checked tones, and using various loanwords from the Zhuang languages, such as the final particle wei for imperative sentences.
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.
Shaozhou Tuhua, also known as Yuebei Tuhua (粤北土话), is an unclassified Chinese variety spoken in northern Guangdong province, China. It is mutually unintelligible with Xiang, Cantonese, and Mandarin.
The Sinitic languages, often synonymous with the Chinese languages, are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute a major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is a primary split between the Sinitic languages and the rest of the family. This view is rejected by a number of researchers but has found phylogenetic support among others. The Macro-Bai languages, whose classification is difficult, may be an offshoot of Old Chinese and thus Sinitic; otherwise Sinitic is defined only by the many varieties of Chinese unified by a shared historical background, and usage of the term "Sinitic" may reflect the linguistic view that Chinese constitutes a family of distinct languages, rather than variants of a single language.
Waxiang is a divergent variety of Chinese, spoken by the Waxiang people, an unrecognized ethnic minority group in the northwestern part of Hunan province, China. Waxiang is a distinct language, and is very different from the surrounding Southwestern Mandarin, Xiang Chinese, and the Eastern Miao (Xong) languages.
Old Xiang, also known as Lou-Shao, is a conservative Xiang Chinese language. It is spoken in the central areas of Hunan where it has been to some extent isolated from the neighboring Chinese languages, Southwestern Mandarin and Gan languages, and it retains the voiced plosives of Middle Chinese, which are otherwise only preserved in Wu languages like Shanghainese. See Shuangfeng dialect for details. Mao Zedong was a speaker of Old Xiang with his native Shaoshan dialect.
The Southern Min Wikipedia, also known as Min Nan Wikipedia and Holopedia is the Southern Min edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. It is the second largest Wikipedia in a Sinitic language, after Mandarin. Written in Pe̍h-ōe-jī, it mainly uses the Taiwanese Hokkien dialect. As of 3 April 2024, it has 432,928 articles.
The Language Atlas of China, published by Hong Kong Longman Publishing Company in two parts in 1987 and 1989, maps the distribution of both the varieties of Chinese and minority languages of China.
The Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects is a compendium of dictionaries for 42 local varieties of Chinese following a common format. The individual dictionaries cover dialects spread across the dialect groups identified in the Language Atlas of China:
The Hailu dialect, also known as the Hoiluk dialect or Hailu Hakka, is a dialect of Hakka Chinese that originated in Shanwei, Guangdong. It is also the second most common dialect of Hakka spoken in Taiwan.
| Major groups |
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Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
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| Western Himalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim) |
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| Eastern Himalayas (Tibet, Bhutan, Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo-Burmese border |
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| East and Southeast Asia |
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| Dubious (possible isolates) (Arunachal) |
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| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||
