Standard Mandarin is the official Chinese spoken language used by the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Malaysia and Singapore. The history of Standard Mandarin as the standardized version of Chinese, however, is relatively recent. Standard Mandarin – also known as Standard Chinese or Standard spoken Chinese – is the official Chinese spoken language used by the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Singapore. ... Spoken Chinese The Chinese spoken language(s) comprise(s) many regional variants. ... Motto none Anthem National Anthem of the Republic of China Capital Taipei (formerly and de jure Nanking) Largest city Taipei Official languages Standard Mandarin (GuóyÇ”) Government Semi-presidential system  -  President Chen Shui-bian  -  Vice President Annette Lu  -  Premier Chang Chun-hsiung Establishment Xinhai Revolution   -  Independence declared October 10, 1911...

Before Mandarin

Since ancient history, the Chinese language has always consisted of a wide variety of dialects; hence prestige dialects and lingua francas have always been needed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán (雅言), or "elegant speech", rather than colloquial regional dialects; text during the Han Dynasty also referred to tōngyǔ (通語), or "common language". Rime books, which were written since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times. However, all of these standard dialects were probably unknown outside the educated elite; even among the elite, pronunciations may have been very different, as the unifying factor of all Chinese dialects, Classical Chinese, was a written standard, not a spoken one. Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zhōngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (汉语/漢語, 华语/華語, or 中文; Pinyin: H nyǔ, Hu yǔ, or Zhōngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ... Confucius (Chinese: ; Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kung-fu-tzu, lit. ... Han Dynasty in 87 BC Capital Changan (202 BC–9 AD) Luoyang (25 AD–190 AD) Language(s) Chinese Religion Taoism, Confucianism Government Monarchy History  - Establishment 206 BC  - Battle of Gaixia; Han rule of China begins 202 BC  - Interruption of Han rule 9 AD - 24 AD  - Abdication to Cao... A rime dictionary or a rime book is a type of Chinese dictionary that was used in ancient times. ... This article is about China. ... Look up pronunciation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese based on the grammar and vocabulary of very old forms of Chinese , making it very different from any modern spoken form of Chinese. ...

Adoption of Mandarin

The Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1912) began to use the term guānhuà (官話), or "official speech", to refer to the speech used at the courts. It seems that during the early part of this period, the standard was based on the Nanjing dialect, but later the Beijing dialect became increasingly influential, despite the mix of officials and commoners speaking various dialects in the capital, Beijing. In the 17th century, the Empire had set up Orthoepy Academies (正音書院, Zhèngyīn Shūyuàn) in an attempt to make pronunciation conform to the Beijing standard. But these attempts had little success. As late as the 19th century the emperor had difficulty understanding some of his own ministers in court, who did not always try to follow any standard pronunciation. Nevertheless, by 1909, the dying Qing Dynasty had established the Beijing dialect as guóyǔ (国语/國語), or the "national language"; Ming China under the Yongle Emperor Capital Nanjing (1368-1421) Beijing (1421-1644) Language(s) Chinese Government Monarchy Emperor  - 1368-1398 Hongwu Emperor  - 1627-1644 Chongzhen Emperor History  - Established in Nanjing January 23, 1368  - Fall of Beijing 1644  - End of the Southern Ming April, 1662 Population  - 1393 est. ... Events Timur ascends throne of Samarkand. ... // Events February to August - Explorer Abel Tasmans second expedition for the Dutch East India Company maps the north coast of Australia. ... Flag (1890-1912) Anthem Gong Jinou (1911) Territory of Qing China in 1892 Capital Shengjing (1636-1644) Beijing (1644-1912) Language(s) Chinese Manchu Mongolian Government Monarchy Emperor  - 1636-1643 Huang Taiji  - 1908-1912 Xuantong Emperor Prime Minister  - 1911 Yikuang  - 1911-1912 Yuan Shikai History  - Establishment of the Late... // Events February to August - Explorer Abel Tasmans second expedition for the Dutch East India Company maps the north coast of Australia. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... A royal or noble court, as an instrument of government broader than a court of justice, comprises an extended household centered on a patron whose rule may govern law or be governed by it. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Beijing (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: BÄ›ijÄ«ng; IPA: ;  ), a metropolis in northern China, is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... Orthoepeia means the correct use of words, from the Greek orth- + -epos, correct + word, speech. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Flag (1890-1912) Anthem Gong Jinou (1911) Territory of Qing China in 1892 Capital Shengjing (1636-1644) Beijing (1644-1912) Language(s) Chinese Manchu Mongolian Government Monarchy Emperor  - 1636-1643 Huang Taiji  - 1908-1912 Xuantong Emperor Prime Minister  - 1911 Yikuang  - 1911-1912 Yuan Shikai History  - Establishment of the Late...

After the Republic of China was established in 1912, there was more success in promoting a common national language. At first there was an attempt to introduce elements from other Chinese dialects into the national language, in addition to those existing in Beijing dialect. But this was deemed too difficult, and in 1924 this attempt was abandoned and the Beijing dialect became the major source of standard national pronunciation, due to the status of that dialect as a prestigious dialect since the Qing Dynasty. Elements from other dialects continue to exist in the standard language, but as exceptions rather than the rule. Motto none Anthem National Anthem of the Republic of China Capital Taipei (formerly and de jure Nanking) Largest city Taipei Official languages Standard Mandarin (GuóyÇ”) Government Semi-presidential system  -  President Chen Shui-bian  -  Vice President Annette Lu  -  Premier Chang Chun-hsiung Establishment Xinhai Revolution   -  Independence declared October 10, 1911... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Flag (1890-1912) Anthem Gong Jinou (1911) Territory of Qing China in 1892 Capital Shengjing (1636-1644) Beijing (1644-1912) Language(s) Chinese Manchu Mongolian Government Monarchy Emperor  - 1636-1643 Huang Taiji  - 1908-1912 Xuantong Emperor Prime Minister  - 1911 Yikuang  - 1911-1912 Yuan Shikai History  - Establishment of the Late...

The government of the People's Republic of China, established in 1949, continued the effort. In 1955, guóyǔ was renamed pǔtōnghuà (普通話), or "common speech". (The name change was not recognized by the Republic of China which has governed only Taiwan and some surrounding islands since 1949.) Since then, the standards used in mainland China and Taiwan have diverged somewhat, though they continue to remain essentially identical. 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... Year 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar). ... Motto none Anthem National Anthem of the Republic of China Capital Taipei (formerly and de jure Nanking) Largest city Taipei Official languages Standard Mandarin (GuóyÇ”) Government Semi-presidential system  -  President Chen Shui-bian  -  Vice President Annette Lu  -  Premier Chang Chun-hsiung Establishment Xinhai Revolution   -  Independence declared October 10, 1911... ...

After the handovers of Hong Kong and Macau, the term Putonghua is used in those Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China. And the pinyin system is widely used for teaching of Putonghua. This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Standard Mandarin refers to the official Chinese spoken language used by the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. ... Special administrative region may be: Peoples Republic of China Special administrative regions, present-day administrative divisions (as of 2006) set up by the Peoples Republic of China to administer Hong Kong (since 1997) and Macau (since 1999) Republic of China Special administrative regions, also translated as special administrative... Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), commonly called Pinyin, is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ...

In both mainland China and Taiwan, the use of Standard Mandarin as the medium of instruction in the educational system and in the media has contributed to the spread of standard Mandarin. As a result, Standard Mandarin is now spoken fluently by most people in mainland China and in Taiwan. However in Hong Kong, due to historical and linguistic reasons, the language of education and both formal and informal speech remains the local Standard Cantonese but standard Mandarin is becoming increasingly influential. ... Standard Cantonese is a variant, and is generally considered the prestige dialect of Cantonese Chinese. ...

Modern Standard Mandarin vs. historical Mandarin

Historically, and properly speaking, the word "Mandarin" (官話) refers to the language spoken in the 19th century by the upper classes of Beijing as well as by the higher civil servants and military officers of the imperial regime serving in Beijing or in the provinces. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Beijing (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: BÄ›ijÄ«ng; IPA: ;  ), a metropolis in northern China, is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ...

This Mandarin language is quite close to modern-day Standard Mandarin (普通话 / 普通話/ 國語), but there exist some differences. The Mandarin language used many polite and humble words which have almost entirely disappeared in daily conversation in modern-day Standard Mandarin, such as jiàn (賤 "my humble"), guì (貴 "your honorable"), bì (敝 "my humble"), etc.

The grammar of the Mandarin language was almost identical to the grammar of modern-day Standard Mandarin, with sometimes very slight differences in the choice of grammatical words or the positioning of words in the sentence. The vocabulary of the Mandarin language was also largely the same as the vocabulary of modern-day Standard Mandarin, although some vocabulary items used in the Mandarin language have now disappeared from modern-day Standard Mandarin.

In order to allow comparisons, here are four dialogues in the Mandarin language with their equivalent below in modern-day Standard Mandarin. These are authentic dialogues extracted from the Compass of the Mandarin language (官話指南), a phrasebook published by the Japanese legation in Beijing in the 1880s and translated into several western languages.

Please note: the dialogues are written in simplified Chinese characters, followed by traditional characters. Simplified Chinese character (Simplified Chinese: or ; Traditional Chinese: or ; pinyin: or ) is one of two standard sets of Chinese characters of printed contemporary Chinese written language, simplified from traditional Chinese by the Peoples Republic of China in an attempt to promote literacy. ... Traditional Chinese characters refers to one of two standard sets of printed Chinese characters. ...

Dialogue #1

Historical Mandarin (官話 / 官话) version
A- 您贵姓？ / 你貴姓？ (What is your family name?)
B- 鄙姓吴。 /鄙姓吳。 (My family name is Wu)

A- 请教台甫？ / 請教台甫？ (Pray tell me your courtesy name)
B- 草字资静。 / 草字資靜。 (My courtesy name is Zijing) A Chinese style name, sometimes also known as a courtesy name, is an extra name that could be used in place of the given name. ...

A- 贵昆仲几位？ / 貴昆仲幾位？ (How many brothers do you have?)
B- 我们弟兄三个。 / 我們弟兄三個。 (We are three brothers)

A- 贵处是哪一省？ / 貴處是那一省？ (Which province are you from?)
B- 敝处河南省城。 / 敝處河南省城。 (I am from the capital city of Henan province)

A- 府上在城里住吗？ / 府上在城裏住嗎？ (Is your abode inside town?)
B- 是，在城里住 / 是，在城裏住。 (Yes, I live inside town)

Standard Mandarin (普通话) version
A- 您贵姓？
B- 我姓吴

A- 请问您的字号是什么？ （Not a valid question because courtesy names are no longer used)
B- 我字资静。

A- 你有几个兄弟
B- 我有两个兄弟

A- 你家在哪个省？
B- 我家在河南省的省会。

A- 你家在城里吗？
B- 是的，我家在城里。

Dialogue #2

Dialogue between a Chinese person (A) and a foreigner (B) who apparently learnt Chinese in Xiamen, southern China.
Historical Mandarin (官話) version
A- 你懂得中国话吗？ (Do you understand Chinese?)
B- 略会一点儿。那厦门的话别处不甚懂。(I understand it a little bit. But the dialect of Xiamen is hardly understood anywhere else.)
A- 中国话本难懂，各处有各处的乡谈，就是官话通行。 (Chinese is naturally difficult to understand, each region has its own dialect. However, Mandarin is found everywhere.)
B- 我听见人说官话还分南北音哪。 (I heard that the pronunciation of Mandarin is not the same in the north and in the south.)
A- 官话南北腔调儿不同， 字音也差不多。 (The accent of Mandarin is different from north to south, but the pronunciation of characters is approximately the same.) A view of the Xiamen University campus Xiamen (Simplified Chinese: 厦门; Traditional Chinese: 廈門; Hanyu Pinyin: ) is a coastal sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian province, Peoples Republic of China. ...

Standard Mandarin (普通话) version
A- 你懂中国话吗？ / 你懂中國畫嗎？
B- 我懂一点，但是厦门的话对外地人来说很难懂。 / 我懂一點，但是廈門的話對外地人來說很難懂。
A- 中国话本来就很难懂，每个地方都有自己的方言，不过普通话到处都可以用。 / 中國話本來就很難懂，每個地方都有自己的方言，不過普通話到處都可以用。
B- 我听说北方和南方的普通话发音不一样。 / 我聽說北方和南方的普通話發音不一樣。
A- 北方和南方的口音不同，不过汉字的发音还是基本相同的。 / 北方和南方的口音不同，不過漢字的發音還是基本相同的。

Dialogue #3

Historical Mandarin (官話) version
A- 这个猫怎么总不管闲事？！！ (Why is this cat not doing its job?!!)
B- 满地的耗子它也不拿！ (There are rats everywhere, and it doesn't catch them!)
A- 明儿个不用喂它就好了。 (Tomorrow we mustn’t feed it, that'll be better.)
B- 这耗子真闹得凶，吵得睡不着觉。 (These rats make so much noise. It's impossible to sleep.)
A- 东西也咬了个稀烂。这可怎么好？！ (And they also gnaw objects to pieces. How can we be happy with that?!)

Standard Mandarin (普通话) version
(Could a native Chinese speaker (preferably from Beijing) please adapt the above dialogue into putonghua.)

A- 这个猫怎么吃饱不做事？
B- 到处都是老鼠，它也不抓。
A- 明天我们不给它吃的。
B- 那些老鼠吵得好厉害，连觉都睡不好。
A- 它们把东西都咬碎了，这可怎么办？

Dialogue #4

Historical Mandarin (官話) version
A- 老弟是解家里来吗？ (Young man, are you coming from home?)
B- 喳，是解家里来。 (Yes sir. I am coming from home.)
A- 怎么这几天我没见你呀？是干什么来着？ (Why! These past days I haven't seen you. What were you doing?)
B- 我是出外打围去了。 (I went out of town hunting.)
A- 是同谁去的？ (Whom did you go with?)
B- 是同着我们一个街坊去的。 (I went with one of our neighbors.)
A- 是上哪儿打围去了？ (Where did you go hunting?)
B- 上东山打围去了。 (To the Eastern Mountain.)
A- 多咱回来的？ (When did you come back?)
B- 昨儿晚上回来的。 (Yesterday evening.)
A- 打了些个什么野牲口来？ (What sort of game did you shoot?)
B- 打了些个野鸡、野猫，还打了个野猪。 (We shot pheasants, wild cats, and also one wild boar.)

Standard Mandarin (普通话) version
A- 年轻人，你从家里出来的？
B- 是的，我从家里来。
A- 好些天没见到你了，你干什么去了？
B- 我出城打猎去了。
A- 和谁去的？
B- 我和一个邻居一起去的。
A- 你们到哪里去打猎了？
B- 到东山去了。
A- 你们什么时候回来的？
B- 昨天傍晚。
A- 打到了些什么？
B- 打了些野鸡，野猫，还有一个野猪。