Dialects

Although Mandarin Chinese is the official language of China, there are in fact myriad dialects of Chinese in addition to separate languages (such as Tibetan, Mongolian, Manchu, Tai, and Korean spoken by minority peoples). However, in the seventeenth century the Qing dynasty began to establish “correct pronunciation institutes” to try to make the Beijing pronunciation of Mandarin the “standard” pronunciation of the elite, who could afford schooling and thus would train to become part of China’s vast civil service bureaucracy. In 1913 the Republic of China’s Ministry of Education created the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation to again try to establish a standard national language. In those days, and currently in Taiwan, that language was called guo yu that is, the “national language” or the language of the governing elite (hence it became known as “Mandarin” in English). However, after 1949, the Communist government decided to call so-called standard Chinese pu tong hua, or the “common language” so as to downplay the elitist angle. Despite all these efforts, the reality is that thousands of mutually incomprehensible local dialects of Chinese still exist and in fact flourish in China today.

      Officially, there are between seven and twelve main dialect groups, but there are innumerable subdialects within each official regional dialect. For example, Mandarin itself can be broken into two or three main subgroups spread throughout northern, central, and western China. There are five main dialects of Cantonese (all mutually incomprehensible) spoken throughout Hong Kong, Guangdong Province, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Macao, and parts of Hainan Island. Hakka (Kejia) dialects are spoken in the provinces of Guangdong, southwestern Fujian, Hunan, Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hainan Island, Taiwan, and many parts of the Chinese diaspora in Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Many Hunanese speak their own dialect, known officially among linguists as the Xiang dialect. The so-called Min dialects are spoken throughout Fujian Province, eastern Guangdong Province, Hainan Island, large sections of Taiwan, and other Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Gan dialects are spoken in Jiangxi, eastern Hunan, and the southeastern corner of Hubei. Wu dialects are common in Zhejiang, southern Jiangsu, and Anhui.

       So, how different are Chinese dialects from Mandarin and from each other? Very. Not only are the tones different for example, Mandarin has four tones while Cantonese has nine but the grammar can be completely different as well. Linguists have found that French and German share more in common than Mandarin and Shanghaiese (often grouped as part of the Wu dialects). As one longtime Shanghai resident and expert in Shanghai dialect told us, Shanghaiese is actually a combination of
five different languages, including words adopted from the Chinese pronunciation of French and English. The dialect reflects the fact that Shanghai was always a city of immigrants from other parts of China, the man said proudly. These immigrants combined their separate dialects and learned to communicate with the guards of the French- and English-speaking foreign concessions in the city (pre-1949), creating a unique and decidedly multicultural language.


     Hong Kong and Guangzhou (formerly Canton) residents speak a similar form of Cantonese, while inland residents of Guangdong are more apt to speak Taishanese (also called Toisan dialect) or several other less common dialects. Because the Cantonese people made up the largest group of Chinese going overseas for business and immigration before the 1980s, Cantonese in its various forms is the most widely spoken form of Chinese in America. It is also widely spoken among the
business elite in Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, and other Asian countries.

       Differences Between Mandarin and Cantonese

Good-bye
Mandarin: Zai jian
Cantonese: Joi gin
Please give me that book.
Mandarin: Qing gei wo nei ben shu.
(Literally: Please give me that volume book.)
Cantonese: Mmh goi, bei go ben sui bei ngoh la.
(Literally: Please give that volume book to me polite-request-modifier.)
More formal Cantonese request: Cheng bei go ben siu ngoh la.
(Literally: Please give/to that volume book me polite-request-modifier.)


     

     

A final word of warning on dialects. There are many homonyms in Chinese; the difference of one tone or one consonant can change a phrase from innocuous to obscene and vice versa. For example, the very common phrase meaning “to not have” is pronounced mei you (“may yoh”) in Mandarin, but in Nanjing dialect the same phrase sounds, to American ears at least, a lot like a very common Mandarin slur against one’s mother. Thus, if you are speaking in Mandarin and someone responds with a phrase you cannot place but that sounds vaguely obscene, never assume that’s the case. When in doubt, remain calm and try to find someone who can translate for you.