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Standard Chinese, known in China as Putonghua, based on the Mandarin dialect of Beijing, [5] is the official national spoken language for the mainland and serves as a lingua franca within the Mandarin-speaking regions (and, to a lesser extent, across the other regions of mainland China).
Standard Chinese is an official language of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan), one of the four official languages of Singapore, and one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin and was first officially adopted in the 1930s.
It is designated as the official language of mainland China and a major language in the United Nations, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is largely based on the Beijing dialect. Standard Chinese is a pluricentric language with local standards in mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore that mainly differ in their lexicon. [ 7]
In the early 20th century, a standard form based on the Beijing dialect, with elements from other Mandarin dialects, was adopted as the national language. Standard Chinese is the official language of China [4] and Taiwan, [5] as well as one of the four official languages of Singapore.
In China, it is the sole official language as Standard Chinese; in Taiwan, it is the de facto official language; while in Singapore (as Mandarin) it is one of the four official languages. In Hong Kong and Macau it is co-official as Cantonese, alongside English and Portuguese respectively. Chinese is also an official language in the Shanghai ...
The earliest historical linguistic evidence of the spoken Chinese language dates back approximately 4500 years, [1] while examples of the writing system that would become written Chinese are attested in a body of inscriptions made on bronze vessels and oracle bones during the Late Shang period ( c. 1250 – 1050 BCE), [2] [3] with the very ...
Standard Chinese is the official spoken language of the People's Republic of China and Taiwan, and is one of the official languages of Singapore. [16] It has become a pluricentric language, with differences in pronunciation and vocabulary between the three forms. [17] [18]
The Chinese language has always consisted of a wide variety of dialects; hence prestige dialects and linguae francae have always been needed. Confucius (c. 551 – c. 479 BC) referred to yayan 'elegant speech' modeled on the dialect of the Zhou dynasty royal lands rather than regional dialects; texts authored during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) also refer to tongyu (通語 'common ...