Mandarin, when used in the broad sense to refer to most of the Chinese dialects spoken over northern and southwestern China, covers many variations. This is manifested in two ways: Mandarin   listen[?](Traditional: 北方話, Simplified: 北方话, Hanyu Pinyin: BÄ›ifānghuà, lit. ...

1. Various dialects of Mandarin cover a huge area containing nearly a billion people. As a result, there are pronounced regional variations in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar encountered as one moves from place to place. These regional differences are as pronounced as (or more so than) the regional versions of the English language found in England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Two speakers of northeastern dialect and southwestern dialect can hardly communicate.
2. Standard Mandarin has been promoted very actively by the PRC, the ROC, and Singapore as a second language. As a result, native speakers of both Mandarin varieties and non-Mandarin Chinese varieties frequently flavor it with a strong infusion of the speech sounds of their native tongues. Spoken Taiwanese Mandarin, for instance, has become a fairly consistent variant of standard Mandarin as defined by educational authorities. Mandarin is also sometimes imprecisely referred to as Beijingese (Běijīng huà or Běijīng fāngyán), or a "Beijing drawl" Jīng piànzi (京片子). In Taiwan, those espousing Taiwan independence often insist on using the term Beijing hua instead of Guoyu in order to promote the idea that Taiwanese should be their new national language.

Generally speaking, the local pronunciations of people from other Mandarin-speaking areas depart more and more from the standard as distance from Beijing increases. Some areas, such as Heilongjiang, have pronunciations that are not significantly different from the standard, though this is the exception rather than the rule. Cities very close to Beijing, such as Tianjin, Baoding, Shenyang, or Dalian, already have pronunciations that are markedly different. In general Mandarin can be divided into the following dialect areas: Pronunciation refers to: the way a word or a language is usually spoken; the manner in which someone utters a word. ... A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. ... Grammar is the discovery, enunciation, and study of rules governing the use of language. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK 50. ... Royal motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (Latin: No one provokes me with impunity) (Scots: Wha daur meddle wi me) Scotlands location within the UK Languages with Official Status1 English Gaelic Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK 78,782 km² 1. ... Standard Mandarin is the official Chinese spoken language used by the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. ... In the technical terminology of political science the PRC was a communist state for much of the 20th century, and is still considered a communist state by many, though not all political scientists. ... National motto: None Official language Mandarin Chinese Capital and largest city Taipei President Chen Shui-bian Premier Frank Hsieh Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 138th 35,980 km² 2. ... Taiwan independence (Chinese: 台灣獨立, pinyin: Táiwān dúlì, Taiwanese Romanization: Tâi-oân To̍k-li̍p; abbreviated to 台獨, Táidú, Tâi-to̍k) is a political movement whose goal is primarily to create an independent and sovereign Republic of Taiwan (out of the lands currently administered... Taiwanese (Chinese: 台語, 台灣話 or 福佬話; Taiwanese Pe̍h-oÄ“-jÄ«: Tâi-oân-oÄ“ or Hō-ló-oÄ“; Hanyu Pinyin: TáiyÇ” or Táiwānhuà) is the primary spoken language of 70% of the Taiwanese population. ...   Beijing[?] (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Peking) is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... Heilongjiang (Simplified Chinese: 黑龙江省; Traditional Chinese: 黑龍江省; pinyin: Hēilóngjiāng; Postal System Pinyin: Heilungkiang) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. ...   Beijing[?] (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Peking) is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... Tianjin (Chinese: 天津; pinyin: ; Postal System Pinyin: Tientsin) is one of the four municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Categories: China geography stubs | Cities in China ... Location within China Major districts of Shenyang. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

• Beijing and environs, such as Chengde, Hebei. The basis of Standard Mandarin
• Northeastern, or that spoken in the northeast of China (or what the West knows as Manchuria), except the Liaodong Peninsula
• Ji-Lu, or that spoken in Hebei ("Ji") and Shandong ("Lu") provinces, except the Jiaodong Peninsula
• Jiao-liao, or that spoken in Jiaodong Peninsula and Liaodong Peninsula
• Zhongyuan ("central plain"), or that spoken in Henan province, the central parts of Shaanxi in the Yellow River valley, and southern Xinjiang
• Lan-Yin, or that spoken in Gansu province (with capital Lanzhou) and Ningxia autonomous region (with capital Yinchuan), as well as northern Xinjiang. The Dungan language, a Chinese-derived language spoken in Kyrgyzstan, also belongs to this category
• Southwestern, or that spoken in the provinces of Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and the Mandarin-speaking areas of Guangxi
• Jiang-huai (or Xia-jiang), spoken in the parts of Jiangsu and Anhui on the north bank of the Yangtze, as well as some areas on the south bank, such as Nanjing, Jiangsu; Jiujiang, Jiangxi; etc.

In addition, Jin is sometimes categorized under Mandarin, as the Qin-jin subdivision. However, current practice tends to set it apart as a separate division on equal footing with Mandarin.   Beijing[?] (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Peking) is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... Chengde (承德, Pinyin: Chéngdé) is a city approximately one hundred miles northeast of Beijing in northeastern Hebei province, situated near the Luan River. ... Hebei (Chinese: 河北; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ho-pei; Postal System Pinyin: Hopeh) is a northern province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Standard Mandarin is the official Chinese spoken language used by the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. ... Extent of Manchuria according to Definition 1 (dark red), Definition 3 (dark red + medium red) and Definition 4 (dark red + medium red + light red) Manchuria (Manchu: Manju, Simplified Chinese: 满洲; Traditional Chinese: 滿洲; pinyin: ) is name given to a vast territorial region in northeast Asia. ... The Liaodong Peninsula (sim. ... Hebei (Chinese: 河北; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ho-pei; Postal System Pinyin: Hopeh) is a northern province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Shandong (Simplified Chinese: 山东; Traditional Chinese: 山東; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Shan-tung) is a coastal province of eastern Peoples Republic of China. ... The Liaodong Peninsula (sim. ... Henan (Chinese: 河南; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ho-nan), is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. ... Shaanxi (Simplified Chinese: 陕西; Traditional Chinese: 陝西; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Shan-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Shensi, pronounced like Shahn-shee) is a northwestern province of the Peoples Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River as well as the Qinling Mountains... For other Yellow Rivers, see Yellow River (disambiguation). ... Xinjiang (Chinese: æ–°ç–†; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Hsin1-chiang1; Postal Pinyin: Sinkiang; literal meaning: New Frontier; Uyghur: ), full name Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... Gansu (Simplified Chinese: 甘肃; Traditional Chinese: 甘肅; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kan-su, or modified as Kan-suh) is a province located in the northwest of the Peoples Republic of China. ... 　 Lanzhou (Simplified Chinese: 兰州; Traditional Chinese: 蘭州; pinyin: Lánzhōu; Wade-Giles: Lan-chou; sometimes seen transliterated as Lanchow) is the capital of the Gansu province in China. ... Ningxia (Simplified Chinese: 宁夏; Traditional Chinese: 寧夏; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ning-hsia) is an autonomous region of the Peoples Republic of China, located on the northwest loess highland, the Yellow River flows through a vast area of its land. ... Yinchuan (Simplified Chinese: 银川; Traditional Chinese: 銀川; pinyin: ) is the capital of Ningxia Autonomous Region, China. ... Xinjiang (Chinese: æ–°ç–†; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Hsin1-chiang1; Postal Pinyin: Sinkiang; literal meaning: New Frontier; Uyghur: ), full name Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... The Dungan language (autonym: Хуэйзў йүян [khueuzwu yuuyan]; 东干语 [東干語] in Chinese) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the 50,000 Dungan or (Hui) of Central Asia. ... Not to be confused with the unrelated province of Hebei Hubei (Chinese: 湖北; pinyin: Húběi; Wade-Giles: Hu-pei, also seen as Hupeh), abbreviated to 鄂 (pinyin: È, WG: O), a province of the Peoples Republic of China, lies to the north of the Dongting Lake, giving it the... Sichuan (Chinese: 四川; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ssu-ch`uan; obsolete romanizations include Szechwan and Szechuan) is a province in central-western China with its capital at Chengdu. ... Guizhou (Simplified Chinese: 贵州; Traditional Chinese: 貴州; pinyin: Gùizhōu; Wade-Giles: Kuei-chou; also spelled Kweichow) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China located in the southwestern part of the country. ... Yunnan (Simplified Chinese: 云南; Traditional Chinese: 雲南; pinyin: ) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the far southwestern corner of the country. ... Guangxi (Simplified Chinese: 广西; Traditional Chinese: 廣西; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kuang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kwangsi; Zhuang: Gvangjsih Bouxcuengh Swcigi or (old orthography) ) is an autonomous region of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Jiangsu (Simplified Chinese: 江苏; Traditional Chinese: 江蘇; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-su; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsu) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. ... Anhui (Chinese: 安徽; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: An-hui; Postal System Pinyin: Ngan-hui, Anhwei or An-hwei) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Length 6,380 km Elevation of the source  ? m Average discharge 31,900 m³/s Area watershed 1,800,000 km² Origin Qinghai Province and Tibet Mouth East China Sea Basin countries China The Yangtze River (Chinese: 扬子江; pinyin: ) is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the... Nanjing (Chinese: 南京; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Nan-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Nanking), is the capital of Chinas Jiangsu Province and a city with a prominent place in Chinese history and culture. ... Jiangsu (Simplified Chinese: 江苏; Traditional Chinese: 江蘇; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-su; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsu) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. ... Categories: China geography stubs | Cities in China ... Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; pinyin: Jiāngxī; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze) in the north into hillier areas in the south. ... Jin (simplified: 晋语; traditional: 晉語; pinyin: jìnyǔ), or Jin-yu, is a subdivision of spoken Chinese. ...

See List of Chinese dialects for a comprehensive listing of major Chinese dialects, including Mandarin dialects. The following is a list of major Chinese dialects. ...

Phonology

Due to differences in pronunciation, not all variations of spoken Mandarin are readily mutually intelligible. Specifically, according to SIL International [1]:

Mandarin varieties in the Lower Plateau in Shaanxi are not readily intelligible with Putonghua [Standard Mandarin]. Mandarin varieties of Guilin and Kunming are inherently unintelligible to speakers of Putonghua.

In addition, persons speaking forms of Mandarin which not completely intelligible with Standard Mandarin will often conceptualize their speech as distinct from Standard Mandarin. Educated speakers of the official language of instruction living in southwestern cities such as Guilin and Kunming will be found to speak quite adequate Standard Mandarin, as well as their own mother tongue. However, they will conceptualize their mother tongue to be different than Standard Mandarin. Shaanxi (Simplified Chinese: 陕西; Traditional Chinese: 陝西; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Shan-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Shensi, pronounced like Shahn-shee) is a northwestern province of the Peoples Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River as well as the Qinling Mountains... Lijiang River Guilin (Chinese: 桂林; pinyin: ; Postal System Pinyin: Kweilin; Zhuang: Gveilin) is one of Chinas most picturesque cities, situated northeast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China on the west bank of the Lijiang River (also called the Li River). ... Kunming (Chinese: 昆明; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kun-ming) is the capital of Yunnan province, China. ...

In addition, it is not uncommon for two speakers who both think of themselves as speaking Standard Mandarin to find it difficult to understand each other. Standard Mandarin is the official Chinese spoken language used by the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. ...

Initials

• People in both Manchuria and in southern areas mix initials zh, ch, sh /tʂ tʂʰ ʂ/ and z, c, s /ts tsʰ s/, substituting one for the other. (zhi becomes zi, chi becomes ci, shi becomes si, and ri /ɻ/ or /ʐ/ may sound like IPA /z/.) This is also common in the Mandarin spoken in Taiwan. Most other Mandarin-speaking areas do have separate zh ch sh and z c s, but some have them distributed differently from standard Mandarin.

• The set of initials j- q- x- /tɕ tɕʰ ɕ/ is the result of merger between historical gi- ki- hi- /kj kʰj xj/ and zi- ci- si- /tsj tsʰj sj/. Some dialects keep these separate still. Most that do make the distinction have zi- ci- si- kept with their original pronunciations (the unique pronunciation used in Beijing opera falls into this category). Others, especially some of the Jiao-Liao dialects, tend to have gi- ki- hi- kept close to their original forms as well.

• Many southwestern Mandarin dialects mix f- /f/ and hu- /xw/, substituting one for the other in some or all cases. For example, fei /fei/ "fly" and hui /xwei/ "dust" may be merged in these areas.

• In some (especially southern) areas people do not distinguish between initial l- /l/ and n- /n/ sounds, and may merge them in some or all words, to either l- or n-.

• People in many parts of Mandarin-speaking areas use different initial sounds some or most of the time where standard Mandarin uses initial r- /ɻ/. Common alternatives include y-, l-, n-, and w- /j l n w/.

• Ng- /ŋ/, used as an initial in earlier forms of Chinese, has been lost in Beijing speech (and hence standard Mandarin) but remains in some form in some varieties of Mandarin.

• The dialects of Xi'an and Lanzhou have /pf/ /pfʰ/ /f/ /v/ wherever standard Mandarin has zhu- chu- shu- ru- /tʂw tʂʰw ʂw ɻw/. E.g. /pfu/ "pig" for standard Mandarin zhu /tʂu/, /fei/ "water" for standard Mandarin shui /ʂwei/, /vã/ "soft" for standard Mandarin ruan /ɻwæn/, and so forth.

Extent of Manchuria according to Definition 1 (dark red), Definition 3 (dark red + medium red) and Definition 4 (dark red + medium red + light red) Manchuria (Manchu: Manju, Simplified Chinese: 满洲; Traditional Chinese: 滿洲; pinyin: ) is name given to a vast territorial region in northeast Asia. ... The initial, also called the onset, or in Chinese shengmu (PY: shēngmǔ, TC: 聲母, SC: 声母), is an important concept in the phonological study of Chinese languages. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet. ... In Beijing, September 2002 Beijing Opera or Peking Opera (Simplified Chinese: 京剧; Traditional Chinese: 京劇; Pinyin: JÄ«ngjù) is a kind of Chinese Opera which arose in the mid-19th century and was extremely popular in the Qing dynasty court. ... City nickname: Changan Location Location of Xian Government City Shaanxi Mayor Sun Qingyun Physical characteristics Area      Land      Water 9,983 km²      9,983 km²      0. ... 　 Lanzhou (Simplified Chinese: 兰州; Traditional Chinese: 蘭州; pinyin: Lánzhōu; Wade-Giles: Lan-chou; sometimes seen transliterated as Lanchow) is the capital of the Gansu province in China. ...

Finals

• In many widely scattered Mandarin dialects, finals ai ei ao ou /ai ei ɑu ɤu/ are pronounced as monophthongs (i.e. with no glide).

• Beijing Mandarin and Northeastern Mandarin underwent more vowel mergers than many other varieties of Mandarin. For example:

Standard Mandarin finals such as e, o, ai, ei, ao, u, üe, and ie /ɤ o ai ei ɑu u yɛ iɛ/ often turn up unpredictably as other vowels in other dialects. The rules are complex and must be put into the context of Middle Chinese phonology (especially interactions with final stop consonants) to make any sense.

• The medial -u- /w/, occurring with an alveolar consonant, is often lost in southwestern Mandarin. Hence we get dei /tei/ "right" where standard Mandarin has dui /twei/, ten "swallow" /tʰən/ where standard Mandarin has tun /tʰwən/.

• Southwestern Mandarin have gai kai hai /kai kʰai xai/ in a few (not all) words where standard Mandarin has jie qie xie /tɕiɛ tɕʰiɛ ɕiɛ/. This is a stereotypical feature of southwestern Mandarin, since it is so easily noticeable. E.g. hai "shoe" for standard xie, gai "street" for standard jie.

• In some areas (especially southwestern) final -ng /ŋ/ changes into -n /n/. This is especially prevalent in the rhyme pairs -en/-eng /ən ɤŋ/ and -in/-ing /in iŋ/. As a result, jīn "gold" and jīng "capital" merge in those dialects.

• Some dialects of Mandarin have a final glottal stop in certain words. See the second point under "Tones", below.

• R-coloring, a characteristic feature of Mandarin, works quite differently in the southwest. Whereas standard Mandarin generally has much of the syllable intact after adding the rhotic final -r /ɻ/, in the southwest the -r replaces the nearly the entire rhyme.

The final, also called the rhyme, or in Chinese yunmu (PY: yùnmǔ, TC: 韻母, SC: 韵母), is an important concept in the phonological study of Chinese languages. ... A monophthong (in Greek μονόφθογγος = single note) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation; compare diphthong. ... Middle Chinese (中古漢語, pinyin: zhōnggǔ Hànyǔ), or Ancient Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties (6th century - 10th century). ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ... The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ... Spectrogram of a regular vowel and its rhotacized counterpart. ...

Tones

• In general, no two Mandarin-speaking areas have the exact same set of tone values. On the other hand, most Mandarin-speaking areas have very similar tone distribution -- for example, the dialects of Jinan, Chengdu, Xi'an etc. all have 4 tones that correspond quite well to the Beijing tones of 55, 35, 214, and 51. The exception to this rule lies in the distribution of ancient entering tone words, which are treated differently in different dialects of Mandarin. (See chart below)

• The entering tone, a tone of Middle Chinese, is kept in Jianghuai dialects and a minority of Southwestern dialects. It has short duration compared to the other tones, and wherever it occurs, the syllable ends with a glottal stop /ʔ/. This is in common with non-Mandarin varieties of Chinese, such as Jin and Wu. (Even more conservative varieties such as Cantonese may have a full set of final stop consonants, such as -p, -t, -k, associated with the entering tone.) Older dictionaries such as Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary mark entering tone characters with a superscript 5.

• Standard Mandarin employs many neutral tones for the second syllables of words (syllables whose tone contour is so short and light that it is difficult or impossible to discriminate) -- this is also characteristic of northern dialects. However, in many areas, especially in the south, the tones of both syllables are made clear -- this is also characteristic of non-Mandarin varieties of Chinese in the south.

Tone distribution variation: This article or section uses Ruby annotation. ... Location within China Jinan (Simplified Chinese: 济南; Traditional Chinese: 濟南; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chi-nan) is the capital and a sub-provincial city of Shandong province in China. ... Location within China Chengdu (Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Cheng-tu) is the capital of Sichuan province and a sub-provincial city, located in southwest China, and bordering Tibet. ... City nickname: Changan Location Location of Xian Government City Shaanxi Mayor Sun Qingyun Physical characteristics Area      Land      Water 9,983 km²      9,983 km²      0. ...   Beijing[?] (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Peking) is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... Middle Chinese (中古漢語, pinyin: zhōnggǔ Hànyǔ), or Ancient Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties (6th century - 10th century). ... The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ... Jin (simplified: 晋语; traditional: 晉語; pinyin: jìnyǔ), or Jin-yu, is a subdivision of spoken Chinese. ... Wu (吳方言 pinyin wú fāng yán; 吳語 pinyin wú yÇ”) is one of the major divisions of the Chinese language; linguistically, it is better classified as a Sinitic language. ... Cantonese (粵語/粤语, lit. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ...

V- = unvoiced initial consonant
L = sonorant initial consonant
V+ = voiced initial consonant (not sonorant) In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a member of a class of speech sounds that are continuants produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract. ... In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a member of a class of speech sounds that are continuants produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract. ...

Tone contour variation: Middle Chinese (中古漢語, pinyin: zhōnggǔ Hànyǔ), or Ancient Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties (6th century - 10th century). ... This article or section uses Ruby annotation. ... Middle Chinese (中古漢語, pinyin: zhōnggǔ Hànyǔ), or Ancient Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties (6th century - 10th century). ... Tone contours are numbers that represent the way a pitch varies over a syllable. ...

* Dialects in and around the Nantong area typically have many more than 4 tones, due to influence from the neighbouring Wu dialects. Tones in Chinese derive from the traditional Middle Chinese tone classes, known as Ping Sheng (平聲), Shang Sheng (上聲), Qu Sheng (去聲), and Ru Sheng (入聲), which in English in the linguistic literature, are sometimes called the level, rising, departing and entering tones. ...   Beijing[?] (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Peking) is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... Harbin (Simplified Chinese: 哈尔滨; Traditional Chinese: 哈爾濱; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ha-erh-pin; Russian Харби́н Kharbin) is a sub-provincial city and the capital of the Heilongjiang Province in north-east China. ... Tianjin (Chinese: 天津; pinyin: ; Postal System Pinyin: Tientsin) is one of the four municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Shijiazhuang (Simplified Chinese: 石家庄; Traditional Chinese: 石家莊; pinyin: , literally, The Shi Family Village) is a prefecture-level city about 320 kilometers south of Beijing and the capital of Hebei province. ... Yantai (Simplified Chinese: 烟台; Traditional Chinese: 煙台; pinyin: ) is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Shandong province, Peoples Republic of China. ... Zhengzhou (Simplified Chinese: 郑州; Traditional Chinese: é„­å·ž; pinyin: ) formerly called Zhengxian, is located 24 km south of the Huang He (Yellow River). ... Luoyang (Simplified Chinese: 洛阳; Traditional Chinese: 洛陽; pinyin: ) is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province, Peoples Republic of China. ... City nickname: Changan Location Location of Xian Government City Shaanxi Mayor Sun Qingyun Physical characteristics Area      Land      Water 9,983 km²      9,983 km²      0. ... Tianshui (Chinese: 天水; pinyin: ) is the second largest city in Gansu province in northwest China. ... 　 Lanzhou (Simplified Chinese: 兰州; Traditional Chinese: 蘭州; pinyin: Lánzhōu; Wade-Giles: Lan-chou; sometimes seen transliterated as Lanchow) is the capital of the Gansu province in China. ... Yinchuan (Simplified Chinese: 银川; Traditional Chinese: 銀川; pinyin: ) is the capital of Ningxia Autonomous Region, China. ... Location within China Chengdu (Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Cheng-tu) is the capital of Sichuan province and a sub-provincial city, located in southwest China, and bordering Tibet. ... Xichang is a city as well as an nearby space station and rocket launching site in the province itself SCN in China. ... Kunming (Chinese: 昆明; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kun-ming) is the capital of Yunnan province, China. ... Location within China Modern and ancient Wuhan (Simplified Chinese: 武汉; Traditional Chinese: 武漢; pinyin: ) is the capital of Hubei province, and is the largest and most populated city in central China. ... Liuzhou (Chinese: 柳州; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Liuchow) is a prefecture-level city in north-central Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in southern China. ... Yangzhou (Simplified Chinese: 扬州; Traditional Chinese: 揚州; pinyin: ) is a city in Jiangsu province, China. ... Cities on the Yangtze, between Wuhan and Shanghai Nantong (Chinese: 南通; pinyin: ) is a city in Jiangsu Province, Peoples Republic of China. ... Wu (吳方言 pinyin wú fāng yán; 吳語 pinyin wú yÇ”) is one of the major divisions of the Chinese language; linguistically, it is better classified as a Sinitic language. ...

Vocabulary

In general, the greatest variation occurs in slang, in kinship terms, in names for common crops and domesticated beasts, for common verbs and adjectives, and other such everyday terms. The least variation occurs in "formal" vocabulary -- terms dealing with science, law, or government.

Northeastern Mandarin, in particular, has a number of borrowings from Altaic languages not shared by other varieties of Mandarin. Altaic is a putative language family which would include 60 languages spoken by about 250 million people, mostly in and around central Asia. ...

Grammar

Sentence-final particles

Especially prominent in conversational Chinese, sentence-final particles alter the inherent meaning of a sentence by changing its sentence construction. Much like vocabulary (of which it is a hyponym of), particles can vary a great deal with regards to the locale. For example, the particle 嘛 (ma), which is used in most northern regionalects to denote obviousness or contention, is replaced by 哟 (yo) for southern usage. More examples persist in everyday colloquialism. A hyponym (in Greek: υπονύμιον, literally meaning few names) is a word whose extension is included within that of another word. ... A colloquialism is an informal expression, that is, an expression not used in formal speech or writing. ...

Reduplication

One feature of southwestern Mandarin is its frequent use of noun reduplication, which is almost not used in standard Mandarin. In Sichuan, one hears baobao "handbag" whereas Beijing uses bao'r. Reduplication, in linguistics, is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word, or only part of it, is repeated. ... Sichuan (Chinese: 四川; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ssu-ch`uan; obsolete romanizations include Szechwan and Szechuan) is a province in central-western China with its capital at Chengdu. ...   Beijing[?] (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Peking) is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ...

Mandarin and the Educational System

In both Mainland China and Taiwan, Mandarin in predominantly Han Chinese is taught by immersion starting in elementary school. After the second grade, the entire educational system is in Mandarin, except for local language classes that have been taught for a few hours each week in Taiwan starting in the mid-1990's.

Social Implications

In northern China, Sichuan, and other areas where the "Northern" language is spoken, the local variations of Mandarin are the mother tongues of most of the people who live in those regions. The era of mass education in Mandarin has not erased these earlier regional differences. In the south, the interaction between Mandarin and local variations of Chinese has produced local versions of the "Northern" language that are rather different from that official standard Mandarin in both pronunciation and grammar. For example, the Mandarin spoken in Taiwan by students who speak Taiwanese (a dialect of Southern Min) or Hakka as their mother tongue is usually spoken with a grammar and accent that renders it different from the Kuoyu standard, creating a version of Mandarin commonly known as Taiwan Mandarin. Sichuan (Chinese: 四川; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ssu-ch`uan; obsolete romanizations include Szechwan and Szechuan) is a province in central-western China with its capital at Chengdu. ... Taiwanese (Chinese: 台語, 台灣話 or 福佬話; Taiwanese Pe̍h-oē-jī: Tâi-oân-oē or Hō-ló-oē; Hanyu Pinyin: Táiyǔ or Táiwānhuà) is the primary spoken language of 70% of the Taiwanese population. ... Min Nan, Minnan, or Min-nan (Simplified Chinese: 闽南语; Traditional Chinese: 閩南語; pinyin: ; POJ: Bân-lâm-gú; Southern Min or Southern Fujian language) or Hokkien is the Chinese language/dialect spoken in southern Fujian province, China and neighboring areas, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora. ...

Although Mandarin is considered the standard dialect, speaking Mandarin without the local accent or speaking Mandarin instead of the local dialect can mark a person as being an outsider or as someone who is not "a regular guy." Thus most Chinese, including Chinese political leaders themselves, do not bother to learn to speak Mandarin with the official standard accent. In some cases, such as with both Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-Shek this results in the political leaders' speech being largely unintelligible to large numbers of Chinese. One other consequence of this linguistic diversity, is that Chinese politics does not have a strong tradition of speech-making and a great amount of political discourse occurs in writing. Mao Zedong ( ♫) (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976; Mao Tse-tung in Wade-Giles) was the chairman of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China from 1943 and the chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from 1945 until his death. ... Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887–April 5, 1975) was a Chinese military and political leader who assumed the leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT) after the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925. ... One might be looking for the academic discipline of communications. ...

External links

• Tones in Mandarin Dialects : Comprehensive tone comparison charts for 523 Mandarin dialects.(Compiled by James Campbell)