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Introduction to
Chinese Languages
Sim Tze Wei
simtzewei@mail.soasalumni.org
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After following this presentation, you will
be able to understand why
Chinese is NOT just one language.
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Table of Content
Chapter 1: Spoken Languages
Chapter 2: The Similarities and Differences between Chinese
Languages
Chapter 3: Classical Chinese (The Latin of East Asia)
Chapter 4: The Replacement of Classical Chinese with
Mandarin Chinese
Chapter 5: The Chinese Writing System
Summary: How Chinese languages were taught in schools:
the historical change
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Chapter 1:
Spoken Languages
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Linguistic Diversity in China
Each Chinese language sounds very
different and they have different
grammatical rules.
We can compare the diversity of Chinese
languages to the Germanic or Latin
branch of European languages.
They share some lexical and grammatical
features with each other, but are roughly
as similar only as English is to Swedish or
Portuguese is to Romanian.
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Linguistic Diversity in China

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Chapter 2:
The Similarities and Differences
between Chinese Languages
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Similarities in Vocabularies
Sometimes, some Chinese languages share the same
vocabularies. These vocabularies have the same root.
They sound similar (but not exactly the same) throughout
China. Therefore they can share the same characters.
An Analogy:
House (English) and Haus (German) have the same root so
they can share the same character.
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Imagine these different pronunciations
represented by just one character
FR: L histoire du systme d ecriture chinois
CA: La histria del sistema d escriptura xinesa
ES: La historia del sistema de escritura china
PT: A histria do sistema de escrita chins
IT: La storia del sistema di scrittura cinese

Latin
EN: The history of the Chinese writing system
DE: Die Geschichte des Chinesischen Schreibsystems
SV: Det kinesiska skriftsystemets historia

Germanic
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Differences in Vocabularies
However, there are many words that do not share the same
root.
The word male is nan in Mandarin Chinese but cha po in
Hokkien Chinese. It has one syllable in Mandarin but two
syllables in Hokkien. Therefore, they cannot share the
same character.
The Mandarin speakers created the character to mean
male whereas the Hokkiens created two characters to
mean the same thing.
An analogy:
Train (English) and Bahn (German) have different roots so
cannot share the same character.

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People speaking different Chinese languages do not
necessary understand each other. Mandarin speakers do not
understand what cha po/ (in Hokkien) means and Hokkien
speakers do not understand what nan/ (in Mandarin) means.
Owing to the fact that Mandarin language is the official written
language of China, everyone in China is trained to recognise
(in Mandarin) but not (in Hokkien).
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Grammatical Differences
Noun Modifier
Hen
ke bo Hokkien
gai la Cantonese
g mi Vietnamese
chicken female
Meaning in
English
Guest
lang kheh Hokkien
yan hak Cantonese
ngi khch Vietnamese
person guest
Meaning in
English
Modifier Noun
Hen
mu ji
female chicken
Guest
ke ren
guest person
Northern Languages
Southern Languages
The Southern Chinese
languages more
closely resemble
Vietnamese than the
Chinese languages in
the north!
How come?
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Grammatical Differences
Subject Verb Adverb
Cantonese Koei hoei sin
Thai khao pai gorn
English He eats first.
Subject Adverb Verb
Mandarin Ta xian qu
meaning He/she first go
English He goes first.
Northern Languages Southern Languages
Indirect
object
Direct
object
Mandarin gei wo fan chi
meaning Give me rice eat
English
(Someone) gives me rice to
eat.
Direct
object
Indirect
object
Hokkien hoo png goa chiah
Cantonese bei faan ngo sik
Thai hai khao rao gin
meaning give rice me eat
English
(Someone) gives me rice to
eat.
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Tai-Kadai and Austro-asiatic
Substratum in Southern Chinese
Many of the early Southern states (first millennium B.C)
mentioned in Chinese history [] were actually Tai
kingdoms. These kingdoms were Sinified and gradually
swallowed up by the expanding Chinese civilisation.
Most of the local Tai people became Chinese themselves
through cultural and linguistic assimilation.
One ethnographer has estimated that at least 60 percent of
the Cantonese people must be descended from an aboriginal
Tai-speaking population.
The Tai people shifted to speak Chinese but there are still
remnants of Tai influences in southern Chinese languages.
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Chapter 3:
Classical Chinese
(The Latin of East Asia)
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Classical Chinese:
the Latin of East Asia
Classical Chinese is an archaic language believed to resemble the
spoken language of the inhabitants along the Yellow River, thousands of
years ago.
It was the lexifier for many Asian languages. It provided vocabularies
to Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese and all other Chinese languages. This
is why these East Asian languages share many common vocabularies.
Its grammatical structure is different from any Chinese languages
spoken today.
It was the officially recognised written language in China until 1919.
Before 1919, the use of spoken language in writing was not encouraged.
The government only promoted Classical Chinese.
People in East Asia read Classical Chinese text in their own accent
and with their own pronunciations.
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Different-mouth-same-voice
(Unanimous)
Yi Kou Tong Sheng
(Mandarin)
D Khu ng Thanh
(Vietnamese)
Yi Hau Thung Seng
(Cantonese)

I Gu Dong Seong
(Korean)

I Ku Do Sei
(Japanese)
I Khau Tong Siann
(Hokkien)
An Example of Classical Chinese Text
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Chapter 4:
The Replacement of Classical Chinese
with Mandarin Chinese
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Mandarin was promoted as the new
Latin in 1919
It is not easy to learn an archaic written language.
Instead of using an archaic language when writing, Mandarin
was promoted as the official written language in 1919 and
Classical Chinese was abolished.
Mandarin was promoted because its speakers are the largest
linguistic group in China.
The Mandarin language of Beijing (Beijing hua) was chosen as
the official language.
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It is important to note that people in East Asia had been reading Classical Chinese text in
their own accents and their own pronunciations for thousands of years.
After Classical Chinese was replaced by Mandarin Chinese in 1919, people in non-
Mandarin speaking regions of China carried on the same tradition.
They read Mandarin Chinese text in their own pronunciations as if they were reading
Classical Chinese text. (See page 22 for more elaboration)
This continued until 1956 when the state council announced that everyone in China should
read Mandarin Chinese text in Beijings pronunciation.
Due to political separation, Hong Kong wasnt affected by this ruling and people in Hong
Kong continue to learn/read Mandarin Chinese text in Cantonese pronunciation to this
day. (See page 24 for more elaboration)
English He had a meal before work.
Mandarin
Ta xian chi le fan cai gong zuo.
Mandarin text read in Cantonese
pronunciation
Taa sin hek liu faan coi gung zok.
Cantonese Keoi sik zo faan sin zi zou je.

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Many Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, Shanghaiese people etc. continue to write
in their own languages, with distinctive sets of characters and grammatical
rules (in blue), but these written languages are not recognised by the
government and therefore have no official status.
These written languages only appear in unofficial publications such as comics,
newspapers, magazines or TV programmes.
The Mandarin of Beijing (in green) with its own sets of characters and
grammatical rules is the only widely recognised written language in China.
English He had a meal before work.
Mandarin
Ta xian chi le fan cai gong zuo.
Mandarin text read in Cantonese
pronunciation
Taa sin hek liu faan coi gung zok.
Cantonese Keoi sik zo faan sin zi zou je.

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(Mandarin text) makes no sense in Cantonese but
it can still be pronounced by a Cantonese speaker.
(Cantonese text) makes no sense in Mandarin but
it can still be pronounced by a Mandarin speaker.
NOTE: Due to the fact that Chinese characters are logographic (just symbols),
people from different linguistic groups can pronounce characters of other
languages . They can have a rough guess of the pronunciations of a different
language based on characters from their own language.
Mandarin Text Cantonese
Text

Mandarin
Pronunciation
Ta xian chi le fan
cai gong zuo.
Qu shi zuo fan
xian zhi zuo ye.
Cantonese
Pronunciation
Taa sin hek liu
faan coi gung
zok.
Keoi sik zo faan sin
zi zou je.
This makes
no sense to a
Mandarin
speakers ear
because it is
Cantonese
text read in
Mandarin
pronunciation
This makes no sense to a Cantonese
speakers ear because it is Mandarin
text read in Cantonese pronunciation.
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Many people speak their local language as well as Beijings
Mandarin (the official language).
When they read text written in their own language, they pronounce
it in their own language.
When they read text written in Mandarin, they pronounce it in
Mandarin.
A Wikipedia article
written in Shanghaiese.
A Wikipedia article
written in Mandarin.
Shanghaiese people
read the Shanghainese
language with
Shanghainese
pronunciation.
Shanghaiese people
read the Mandarin
language with Mandarin
pronunciation.
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The peculiar linguistic phenomenon in
Hong Kong
People in Hong Kong read both Mandarin and Cantonese
texts with the Cantonese pronunciation. (See the 2
nd

bullet point on page 17 for the explanation.)
A Wikipedia article
written in Cantonese.
A Wikipedia article
written in Mandarin.
People in Hong Kong
read the Cantonese
language with
Cantonese
pronunciation.
People in Hong Kong
read the Mandarin
language with
Cantonese
pronunciation.
Note: When writing an official document in Mandarin, people in Hong
Kong write in a language which does not resemble how they speak.
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The Summary of the Historical Changes
Before 1919 1919-1956 After 1956
Written Language
Classical
Chinese
Mandarin Mandarin
Pronunciation
Local
pronunciation
Local
pronunciation
Beijing's
Mandarin
Before 1919 1919-1956 After 1956
Written Language
Classical
Chinese
Mandarin Mandarin
Pronunciation
Local/Cantonese
pronunciation
Local/Cantonese
pronunciation
Local/Cantonese
pronunciation
The Rest of China
Hong Kong
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Chapter 5:
The Chinese Writing System
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The Chinese Writing System
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Neither Mandarin nor Cantonese were written several hundred
years ago.
Classical Chinese was the only written language.
The written forms of Mandarin and other Chinese languages
were created later on.
The classical Chinese characters serve as a resource to the
modern Chinese languages.
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Chinese characters were mainly used to write classical Chinese before 1919.
Chinese characters in their early formation period were mainly pictographic and
ideographic, based on the drawing of concrete images.
However, it is difficult to represent abstract concepts by creating characters on
these principles.
This lead to the prevalence of phono-semantic compounds" (compound
characters formed by other new characters for its sound).
The coinage of phonetic and semantic parts become an important strategy for
the people in east Asia to create new characters.

Chong
(to flush)

(water)

Zhong
(middle)
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Chinese character classification
Category Percentage of characters
Phono-semantic compounds 82%
Ideographic compounds 13%
Pictographic 4%
Ideographic Less than 1%
Pictographic: (tree), (knife), (sun), (moon)
Ideographic: (blade), (on top), (below)
Ideographic compounds: (bright), (good)
Phono-semantic compounds: (serve), (time), (power), (empty)


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A case in point: Japanese

The vocabularies of the local languages that have different roots
from classical Chinese could not/hardly be written with the
Chinese characters.
Therefore, the Japanese language uses 3 different type of scripts
at the same time: Kanji , Hiragana , Katakana

Kanji is generally used to write words that have their roots in
classical Chinese.
Hiragana is generally used to write word that originated
in Japan.
Katakana is generally used to write words that originated
from outside Japan and China.

However, in some other parts of east Asia, people make use of several classical
Chinese characters to create new phono-semantic characters for local use.
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Japanese
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Vietnamese Ch Nm text
Vietnamese
functional
words that are
local to
Vietnam are
written smaller.
The
vocabularies
that have the
same root with
the classical
Chinese are
written bigger.
However, in some other parts of east Asia, people make use of several classical
Chinese characters to create new phono-semantic characters for local use.

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Cantonese text in the 14
th

century
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Vernacular written forms are invented
Classical
Chinese

Mandarin
Chinese

Hokkien
Chinese

Cantonese
Chinese

The original meaning of this character, in Classical Chinese is the
circular target of a dartboard. This word was randomly taken from
classical Chinese, by the Mandarin speakers, to represent the
sound de in Mandarin that means something else.
The Cantonese speakers created this character by combining
(mouth) + (left) to mean already.
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When did people start to write
Mandarin?
Written Mandarin has been developing since the 6th century.
By the 9th century, it was used to record folk stories and
mythologies.
This development led to the birth of some famous literary works
such as Journey to The West (), Outlaws of the Marsh (
), Dream of the Red Chamber () etc.
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When did people start to write in
other Chinese languages?
The first written Cantonese was
recorded in a genre of song books
known as wooden fish books ()
from around 1368 to 1644.
The first written vernacular Hokkien
publication was published in 1566 in a
Southern Opera script called Nai Keng
Ki().
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Summary:
The historical changes of how Chinese
languages were taught in schools
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Classical Chinese was taught in
schools before 1919
These forms which resemble the real spoken
languages were not recognised by the government and
were regarded as vulgar
Mandarin Hokkien Cantonese
Zhang lang


Kat Choah


Gaat Zaat


Language taught in schools before 1919
Example: Cockroach
(Classical Chinese)
Mandarin
pronunciation
Hokkien
pronunciation
Cantonese
Pronunciation
Pronunciati
ons taught
in schools
Fei lian Pui liam Fei lim
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From 1919 to 1956
After the New Cultural Movement in 1919
Classical Mandarin Hokkien Cantonese
Written
form

Language taught in schools from 1919 to 1956
Cockroach
(Mandarin)
Mandarin
Pronunciation
Hokkien
Pronunciation
Cantonese
Pronuciation
Pronunciations
taught in
schools
Zhang lang Chiunn long Zeong long
Mandarin was taught in Cantonese
pronunciations.
Mandarin replaced classical Chinese
as the national language.
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Current situation
The language taught in schools after 1956
Cockroach
(Mandarin)
Throughout
mainland China
since 1956
Taiwan since year
2001
Hong Kong since
1919
Pronunciations
taught in schools
Zhang lang Kat Choah
(not Chiunn Long)
Zoeng long
(not Kaat Zaat )
The Taiwanese government
implemented the teaching of
Hokkien as a second language
Native vocabularies are taught
in schools.
Hong Kong government policy
supports the continued teaching
of Mandarin vocabularies with
Cantonese pronunciation.
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The End.