CHINESE LANGUAGE LINKS

The Chinese language (Pinyin: Hànyu, Huáyu or Zhongwén) forms part of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. About one-fifth of the people in the world speak some form of Chinese as their native language, making it the language with the most native speakers. In general, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. However, Chinese is also distinguished for a high level of internal diversity. Regional variation between different variants/dialects is comparable to the Romance language family; many variants of spoken Chinese are different enough to be mutually incomprehensible. There are between six and twelve main regional groups (depending on classification scheme), of which the most populous are Mandarin, Wu, and Cantonese, in that order. The identification of the varieties of Chinese as "languages" or "dialects" is a controversial issue. The standardized form of spoken Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect, a member of the Mandarin group. Standard Mandarin is the official language of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore (together with English, Malay, and Tamil). Chinese - de facto, Standard Mandarin - is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (alongside English, Arabic, French, Russian, and Spanish). Spoken in the form of Standard Cantonese, Chinese is one of the official languages of Hong Kong (together with English) and of Macau (together with Portuguese).

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