There are 56 ethnic groups in China, so there are many languages ​​and characters. The area of ​​residence of national minorities occupies half of country, so language of national minorities is also one of main dialects of China. The Han, Hui, and Manchus use Chinese, while remaining 53 ethnic groups have their own languages. Due to fact that some ethnic groups use multiple languages, number of languages ​​in China is greater than number of ethnic groups. There are 72 languages ​​in China. Generally speaking, Chinese languages ​​can be divided into Sino-Tibetan, Altaic, Austronesian, Austronesian, and Indo-European families.

The Han nationality, Tibetan nationality and many ethnic groups of Southwest China share same ancestry and same origin, which is also reflected in language, and they all belong to Sino-Tibetan language family. The Sino-Tibetan language family is divided into three language families: Tibeto-Burmese, Miao-Yao and Zhuang-tung. About 50,000 years ago, people of yellow race migrated to region of Yunnan and Burma, and then split into three branches and entered mainland of China. , one of which entered mainland China, Tibet became Tibetan nationality, and other branch entered Weihe plain and became Huaxia people. This "ancient qiang" branch is a Tibeto-Burmese language family that includes Han, Tibetan, Monba, Kangla, Lhoba, Qiang, Pumi, Dulong, Jingpo, and, Lisu, Hani, Lahu, Naxi, Jinguo, Nusu, Anong, Rou . Ruo, Tujia, Zaiva, Achang, etc.

Two other branches, one entered China from Guangxi and migrated along coast, forming Baiyue ethnic group, that is, Zhuang-dong language group, which includes Zhuang, Buyi, Dai, Dong, Shui, Mulao, Maonan, Lajia and Li, ethnic group Gelao. Another group entered Yangtze River basin and were called "barbarians", that is, Miao-Yao language family. They used languages ​​such as Bunu, Mian and She.

The Altaic language family is mainly used by northern nomads and their ethnic groups mostly contain more brown race genes (C). The Altaic language family can be divided into three groups: Mongolian, Turkic and Tungusic. Among them are Mongolian, Dahurian, Dongxiang, East Yugui, Tuhebaoan and other languages; Uighur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tatar, Salar, Western Yugu and others belonging to Turkic language family; Man, Sibe, Hezhe, Evenks. In Oroqen and other languages, these ethnic groups were collectively referred to as "Jurchens" in history.

Austronesian languages ​​are rare in China and are mainly spoken by Gaoshan people in Taiwan. The Russian language of Indo-European family is spoken mainly by ethnic Russians.

Chinese is most widely spoken language in China and most widely spoken language in world. Due to China's large area and large population, there are many dialects of Chinese. Generally speaking, Chinese language has seven main dialects, namely Jin, Wu, Min, Cantonese, Hakka, Gan, and Xiang. At same time, in a complex dialect area, some of them can be divided into several more dialect parts (also called subdialects) and even further into "dialect parts", clearly defined for each location (city, county, certain district) The dialect of a city or a certain village ) is called local dialect. Let's first introduce dialects other than Mandarin.

Informal dialects of Chinese are mainly spoken in south, but Jin is an exception and is mainly spoken in Shanxi Province. The population of Jin dialect is about 63 million. In addition to Shanxi, it also includes northern Shaanxi, Hetao and Zhangjiakou, Hebei. The biggest feature of Jin dialect that differs from Mandarin is that it retains incoming tones. Most jin dialects have five tones, and some areas have six, seven, or four tones. Jin dialect tones have a complex continuous sandhi tone. In Jin dialect, there are four different evolutionary paths for fully voiced sounds. The Jin dialect has many characteristic words that are very different from Mandarin and archaic words have been preserved.

Wu dialect, also known as Jiangdong dialect, Jiangnan dialect and Wuyue dialect, is mainly spoken in southern Jiangsu, Zhejiang and a small number of Jiangxi and Fujian provinces with a population of 90 million people. The modern Wu dialect has more ancient phonetic elements than Mandarin, and its pronunciation is largely consistent with ancient rhyme books such as "Qie Yun" and "Guang Yun". The Wu dialect retains all voiced sounds and preserves up- and up-down phonological rhythms, and in some areas differentiation of pointed and round sounds is retained, as well as older Chinese words and expressions of high cultural value. Wu is native language of Wuyue people, and more than 100 cities make up Wu metropolitan area, led by Shanghai and Jiangnan cultural circle. People call this language "Wu Nong's soft language" and Xin Qiji has a poem "Wu Yin is charming when drunk." The Hui language is mainly spoken in ancient area of ​​Huizhou with only about 4 million inhabitants. It is a dialect other than Wu, mainly spoken in Huizhou area.

Min is most complex and internally divergent of Han dialects and is mainly spoken in provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Taiwan and Hainan, as well as parts of Guangxi, Jiangsu and Jiangxi with a population of about 80 million. The Ming dialect is divided into five regional dialects: Eastern Fujian, Southern Fujian, Northern Fujian, Central Fujian, and Putian. The Hokkien language developed from Hokkien Yue language in ancient times and language of people who migrated south to Central Plains. Thus, Minsk dialect retains many ancient Chinese features, such as absence of light mouth sounds and ancient supralingual sounds.

The Gan language is mainly spoken in Jiangxi region. In ancient times, it was called Xi language, also known as Jiangxi dialect, with a population of about 60 million people. Jiangxi is located at junction of states of Chu and states of Wu. Although Ghanaian dialects have hundreds of different sounds inside, there are still many similarities in phonology. Most Ghanaian dialects have a large number of text-verbal readings, frequent syllables, and none of them dental bites.

Distribution of southeastern dialect

Cantonese, also known as vernacular, is predominantly spoken in Lingnan area, and number of Vietnamese speakers in world has reached 80 million. Some experts believe that formation of Cantonese is mainly due to southward migration of Chu people, while others believe that it is preservation of Central Plains dialect during Tang Dynasty. Cantonese has a full set of nine tones and six tones and retains more features of Old Chinese. It has a full set of characters and can be fully expressed in Chinese characters (Cantonese characters) It is only Chinese language that, apart from Mandarin, has independent research at overseas universities. In addition, Pinghua in Guangxi is also a branch of Cantonese.

Geographical and cultural distribution of Guangdong

Xiang, also known as Hunanese, is spoken primarily in Xiangjiang River Basin in Hunan Province, where about 45 million people speak. The Xiang language was formed as a result of a long fusion of ancient language of southern Chu and language of central plains. The current Xiang dialect is divided into old Xiang dialect and new Xiang dialect. The new Xiang dialect is mainly popular in Changsha and northern Hunan, and has been greatly influenced by Mandarin dialect and Jiangxi dialect. The old Xiang dialect is common in Hengyang and Xiangxiang and is less influenced by external dialects.

Hakka, also known as Hakka, is widespread in provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan and Taiwan, with a population of 50 million people. The Hakka people migrated from Central Plains to south. Although they lived scattered, Hakka dialect still formed its own system, and internal differences were not too great. Sichuan Hakka and Guangdong Hakka, Zhejiang Hakka and Fujian Hakka are separated by thousands of mountains and rivers, and they can talk to each other. The Hakka language was brought by immigrants from Central Plains in ancient times, so it has inherited many features of ancient Chinese language.

Mandarin is first-class dialect of Chinese with largest population and most widespread use as a mother tongue. It was called "yayang" during Zhou dynasty and "guanhua" during Ming and Qing dynasties." Currently, more than 900 million people use Mandarin as a dialect. Mandarin is divided into Northeast Mandarin, Jiao Liao, Beijing Mandarin, Jilu Mandarin, Central Plains Mandarin, Jianghuai Mandarin, Lanying Mandarin and Southwest Mandarin, a total of eight types.

Beijing Mandarin Chinese is national standard for Chinese. Beijing Mandarin is mainly spoken in Beijing, Hebei Province and western Liaoning, among which Luanping County in Chengde is place where standard pronunciation of Mandarin is collected. In ancient China, "Fine Tongue" of Central Plains was official common language. During Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, large numbers of people from Central Plains moved south, and this elegant language also migrated to Nanjing. . During Yongle period of Ming Dynasty, capital was moved to Beijing and 400,000 people migrated from Nanjing, which changed Beijing's language structure. During Qing Dynasty, Beijing dialect was used as standard dialect, during Republic of China it was designated as "national dialect", and in New China it was designated as "Mandarin" and was promoted throughout country.

Jiaoliao Mandarin originated in Shandong Peninsula. It is a dialect formed by fusion of ancient Dongyi (wild language Qidong) and Chinese with a population of about 15 million. During Qing Dynasty, a large number of Shandong residents participated in ranks of those who entered Guangdong and brought this dialect to Dalian, Dandong and Yingkou in Liaodong Peninsula. This dialect is currently surrounded and has gradually evolved into an insular dialect.

Jilu Mandarin is found in most of Hebei Province, northern Henan Province, western Shandong Province, Beijing Pinggu District, Guangling County, Shanxi Province, and Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia. It can be roughly divided into three films: Baotang films, Shiji films, and Canghui films. The population of users is about 90 million people. Jilu Mandarin is closest Mandarin language to Beijing Mandarin, with exception of Northeastern Mandarin. The main functions are three tones and four tones, and ancient input tones are sent to enter level and Qu tones.

Northeastern Mandarin is a Dongbei dialect spoken in Heilongjiang and Jilin, most of Liaoning, eastern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and northeastern Hebei. population about 120 million. Northeastern Mandarin is a dialect formed by fusion of Central Plains dialect and Northeastern ethnic language. Although there are slight differences in accents and accents in various parts of Northeast, this difference is only in depth of "Northeast flavor", and there is no difference in vocabulary or major changes in pronunciation.

Central Plains Mandarin is a language system based on Luoyang Yayang dialect, which is mainly spoken in Henan, southern Hebei, southwestern Shandong, northern Jiangsu, northern Anhui, southern Shanxi, Guanzhong , southeast Gansu. In areas such as southern Ningxia and northeastern Qinghai, number of speakers is second only to southwestern Mandarin, reaching 186 million. Central Plains Mandarin is very close to Mandarin in pronunciation, and people who speak Central Plains Mandarin in eastern region can converse fluently with native Mandarin speakers.

Lanyin Mandarin is mainly distributed in Hexi region, with a population of about 17 million people. "Lan" refers to Lanzhou and "Yin" refers to Yinchuan. Lanying Mandarin is dominant dialect in northwest of my country. Due to low population density in distribution area, Lanyin Mandarin has become largest official language and least widely spoken dialect. in China.

Southwestern Mandarin is mainly distributed in southwestern region, most of Hubei, western Hunan and southern Shaanxi, with a population of 270 million. It is most widely spoken dialect in China. It can generally be divided into Sichuan dialect, Chongqing dialect, Guizhou dialect, Yunnan dialect, Guilu dialect, Hubei dialect, etc. depending on region. Southwestern Mandarin is a Mandarin dialect gradually formed from Ming Dynasty due to "Tune north to fill south" and "Huguang to fill Sichuan". Its phonetic system is also simplest among Mandarin dialects. Most are flat and have a twisted tongue which is a transitional southern mandarin.

Jianghuai Mandarin, also known as Xiajiang Mandarin, is found in most of Jiangsu Province, central Anhui Province, northeastern Hubei Province, parts of Jiujiang City in northern Jiangxi Province, and selected dialect islands in other provinces . , The population of users is about 70 million people. Nanjing dialect and Yangzhou dialect are commonly used as representative pronunciation of official Jianghuai dialect. In past, Nanjing dialect was used as representative pronunciation of official Jianghuai dialect, but now Yangzhou dialect is commonly used as representative pronunciation of official Jianghuai dialect. “Yang Xiong's dialect records show that already during Han Dynasty, there was a dialect area in western part of province, connected to north and south of Huai River in west. This dialect area was located in north and south, and gradually developed and developed under influence of northern and southern dialects and other political, economic and cultural aspects. It became Jianghuai dialect area, and it became three dialect areas in Jiangsu, central Anhui and whole province .