Chinese language: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:51, 16 September 2005

Revision as of 09:30, 18 September 2005

Line 17:

About one-fifth of the people in the world speak some forms of Chinese as their native language, making it the language with the most native speakers. The Chinese language, spoken in the form of [[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]], and one of six official languages of the [[United Nations]]. Spoken in the form of [[Standard Cantonese]], Chinese is one of the official languages of [[Hong Kong]] (together with [[English language|English]]) and of [[Macau]] (together with [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]) and is a spoken language in Singapore (together with Mandarin, English, [[Bahasa Melayu]] (i.e. [[Malay language|Malay]]), and [[Tamil language|Tamil]]).

Among [[Overseas Chinese|Chinese diaspora]], [[Cantonese (linguistics)|Cantonese]] is the most common language one can hear in Chinatowns, thanks to early immigrants from Southern China. However, the rise of Northern and Taiwanese immigrants has led to the an increase in the use of [[Mandarin (linguistics)|Mandarin]] and various [[Min]] dialects.

[[Image:Zhongwen.png|frame|left|"Chinese (written) language" (pinyin: zhōngwén) written in Chinese characters]]