The standard Mandarin is the Chinese language spoken official used in Popular republic about China, in République of China (Taiwan), Malaysia and Singapore. The history of Mandarin standard' as a standardized version of the spoken Chinese language, is relatively recent.
Before Mandarin
Since old times, the Chinese Langue always presented a broad variety of dialects; the linguistic registers were always wide, of the languages of prestige to the popular dialects. Confucius for example, was expressed in yǎyán (雅 言), or " spoken élégant" , more than in one spoken popular regional; during the Dynastie Han was generally spoken the tōngyǔ (通 語), or " language commune". The dictionaries rhymes, which were written since the Dynasties of North and the South, also give an account of one or more Prononciation S standard in these old times. However, these spoken standard was probably little known out of the elite and in addition educated. Even within these seraglios, the pronunciations were probably very different, since the unifying factor of all the dialects of Chinese was the traditional Chinese , which was a standard written without phonetic references and not an oral standard.
Adoption of Mandarin
The Dynasty Ming (1368 - 1644) and the Dynastie Qing (1644 - 1912) started to use the term guānhuà (官 話), or " spoken officiel" , for evoked the spoken language in. It seems that during the first part of this period, the spoken standard one was based on the Dialecte of Nankin, but that the Dialecte of Beijing taken an increasingly significant part. At the XVIIe century, the Empire had set up of the academies of Orthoépie (正 音 書 院, Zhèngyīn Shūyuàn) to try to establish in various places a pronunciation in conformity with the standard of Beijing. This attempt met however only little success. At the end of the XIXe century, the Emperor always had difficulties in include/understand some of his ministers, who could not or did not want to adopt a standard pronunciation. However, in 1909, the Dynastie Qing declining adopted the dialect of Beijing as a guóyǔ (国 语/國語), or " National language " ;
After the République of China was founded in 1912, the attempts to promote a national language were more profitable. There was first of all an attempt to introduce into a national language of the elements coming from various dialects, in addition to those coming from the dialect from Beijing. But that proved too complex, and this attempt was abandoned in 1924. The Dialecte of Beijing became again the primary source of inspiration for the pronunciation of the national language, the prestige acquired under the Qing dynasty always confers a prominence to him. The elements of other dialects were more present only as exception.
The government of the Popular republic of China, establishes in 1949, continued to try to promote a national language. In 1955, the guóyǔ was famous pǔtōnghuà (普 通 話), or " language commune". (This name change was not recognized by the République of China, since bench with close Taiwan and some small islands.) Since, the standards used in continental China and in Taiwan somewhat diverged, although essence remains common.
After the resumption of HongKong and Macao, the " term; Putonghua" was used in these special administrative Régions of the Popular republic of China. And the system Hanyu pinyin east largely désomais used for the teaching of Putonghua.
As well in continental China as in Taiwan, the use of standard Mandarin as a vector of instruction in the education system and the media contributed to its diffusion. The consequence is that standard Mandarin from now on is spoken by many people in continental China and in Taiwan. However, with HongKong, this due to historical and linguistic reasons, the language of enesignement and the spoken formal one, are always the Cantonese standard, in spite of a growing influence of standard Mandarin.
Modern Mandarin vis-a-vis historical Mandarin
Historically and with properly spoken in French, the " term; mandarin" (官 話) refers to the spoken language with the XIXe century by the class higher of Beijing, the civils servant and the officers of the occupied imperial mode in the capital or the province.This language historical tangerine was rather close to the standard Mandarin modern (普 通 话/普 通 話/國 語), but there exist some differences. Mandarin used many polished expressions and humble words of which the use practically disappeared nowadays in the informal standard Mandarin talk, such jiàn (賤 " my humble"), guì (貴 " your honorable"), bì (敝 " my humble"), etc
The grammar of historical Mandarin was practically identical to that of contemporary standard Mandarin, with however some differences in the choice of the grammatical words or the position of the words in a sentence. The vocabulary of this historical Mandarin was also essentially identical to that of standard Mandarin, although certain words disappeared and others were done day to answer new uses.
To allow comparisons, you will find below four dialogs in historical Mandarin and their equivalent in contemporary standard Mandarin. These are authentic dialogs resulting from Compass off the Mandarin language (官 話 指 南), a book published by Japanese legation in Beijing in the Années 1880, and translated into several Western languages.
Please note that these dialogs are written with a play of simplified Chinese characters, followed by traditional Chinese characters.
Dialog #1
historical version Mandarin (官話/官话)A- 您贵姓? /你貴姓? (Which 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? (PLEASE tell me your Nom of courtesy)
B- 草字资静. /草字資靜. (My name of courtesy is Zijing)
A- 贵昆仲几位? /貴昆仲幾位? (How much brothers do have you?)
B- 我们弟兄三个. /我們弟兄三個. (We have three brothers)
A- 贵处是哪一省? /貴處是那一省? (From which province do come you?)
B- 敝处河南省城. /敝處河南省城. (I am capital of the province of Henan)
A- 府上在城里住吗? /府上在城裏住嗎? (Is Your residence it in the city?)
B- 是, 在城里住/是, 在城裏住. (Yes, I live in the city)
Version in standard Mandarin (普通话)
A- 您贵姓?
B- 我姓吴
A- 请问您的字号是什么? （This question is not valid any more, the names of courtesy being 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.
Dialog #2
Dialog between Chinese (A) and a foreigner (B) which apparently learned Chinese with Xiamen, in southernmost China.Version in historical Mandarin (官話)
A- 你懂得中国话吗? (You Include/understand it Chinese?)
B- 略会一点儿. 那厦门的话别处不甚懂. (I include/understand it a little. But the dialect of Xiamen is difficult to include/understand elsewhere.)
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 include/understand, each area has his own dialect. However, Mandarin exists everywhere.)
B- 我听见人说官话还分南北音哪. (I hear that the pronunciation of Mandarin is not the same one in north and the south.)
A- 官话南北腔调儿不同, 字音也差不多. (The accent of Mandarin is different in north and the south, but the pronunciation is approximatibvement the same one.)
Version in standard Mandarin (普通话)
A- 你懂中国话吗?
B- 我懂一点, 但是厦门的话对外地人来说很难懂.
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.
B- 我听说北方和南方的普通话发音不一样.
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.
Dialog #3
Version in historical Mandarin (官話)A- 这个猫怎么总不管闲事?!! (Why this cat does not make T it not its work?!!)
B- 满地的耗子它也不拿! (There are rats everywhere, and it does not catch them!)
A- 明儿个不用喂它就好了. (Tomorrow it should not any more be nourished, that will be better.)
B- 这耗子真闹得凶, 吵得睡不着觉. (These rats make noise so much. It is impossible to sleep.)
A- 东西也咬了个稀烂. 这可怎么好?! (And they put also objects of pieces. How can be content with that?!)
Version in standard Mandarin (普通话)
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?
Dialog #4
Version in historical Mandarin (官話)A- 老弟是解家里来吗? (Young man, arrive of on your premise?)
B- 喳, 是解家里来. (Yes Sir, I arrive of at home.)
A- 怎么这几天我没见你呀? 是干什么来着? (Why! These last days I did not see you. What made?)
B- 我是出外打围去了. (I left the city to drive out.)
A- 是同谁去的? (With which are you gone?)
B- 是同着我们一个街坊去的. (I went with one of my neighbors.)
A- 是上哪儿打围去了? (Where be you gone to drive out?)
B- 上东山打围去了. (In the Eastern mountains.)
A- 多咱回来的? (When be you returned?)
B- 昨儿晚上回来的. (Yesterday evening.)
A- 打了些个什么野牲口来? (Which kind of game drew?)
B- 打了些个野鸡、 野猫, 还打了个野猪. (We drew from pheasants, the wildcats, and also a wild pig.)
Version in standard Mandarin (普通话)
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.
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