Mandarin (language)

The Mandarin , (, “language of official”, “spoken about North”), is a category of the Chinese Langues spoken in north and south-east about the continental China. Under consideration like a language, it is that which counts the greatest number of speakers in the world. He is written by means of the Sinogramme S and one it transcribed generally maintaining in Pinyin (as in the majority of the articles of Wikipédia), but also in Bopomofo.

Even if he is taught today with all Chinese, the older Chinese do not speak all Mandarin but about others Chinese Langues, as the Cantonnais, or others like the Tibetan. Mandarin, that the Communist leaders indicated like the Common language of their whole nation in a standardized version (called 普通話 pǔtōnghuà , “common language”), was initially that of Chinese communities of the North of the country. Although also having an old literary history, it does not derive from the traditional written language literary and artificial (文言 wényán ), given up in 1919 after being used like official language written and arts person during more than two thousand years: indeed, it is of a spoken vernacular Language (白話 '' báihuà '', “simple language”) that Mandarin proceeds.

In French, Mandarin refers to two distinct concepts:

the Chinese standard or standard Mandarin ( Putonghua/Guoyu/Huayu ), which is based on the Dialecte Mandarin of Beijing. Standard Mandarin is the official Langue in Popular republic of China, with Taiwan and one of the four languages of Singapore. The " chinois" - in practice standard Mandarin - is one of the six official languages of the the United Nations. This standardized version of Mandarin is the object of the article standard Mandarin;
various dialects spoken in north, the center and the south-east of the continental China. This group of dialects is the object of this article.

In 1956, it is the alternative of Beijing which is promoted with the row of official language. One often regards it as the standard alternative of this language. Mandarin of Beijing however has specificities (like the frequent use of the vocalic Rétroflexion noted by means of the Suffixe - er) and one often says that the Pekinese one have a “accent”. Mandarin of a Taiwanese will be thus somewhat different from that of such Pekinese.

Apart from the China, important Chinese communities share this language, which is taught in many colleges and universities all over the world.

Like the other Chinese languages, it is a Langue with tons. It uses four high Tonèmes, which changes the direction of the word, and dish, amount, descending then tonic slightly (modulated) and going down.

Let us tons are represented as a Popular republic of China by the accents on the vowels of the syllables of the romanized writing known as Pinyin and, with Taiwan, by the same accents on the Graphème S of the Bopomofo. One uses also the number of the ton at the end of the Syllabe when the technical constraints prevent from entering or to read the accents.

With the daily newspaper, " mandarin" fact generally reference to standard Mandarin ( Putonghua / Guoyu ). From abroad, Mandarin sets up a group of dialects, of which mutual intelligibility is variable. This group of spoken is the object of a recognition established in the linguists, but who is not necessarily recognized apart from the academic circles. When one questions a speaker of a dialect Mandarin, this one generally will not recognize that he speaks an alternative about Mandarin, but rather its local alternative (ex: Dialect of Sichuan or dialect of the North-East), by regarding it as different from the " standard Mandarin " (putonghua) ; it will not be necessarily aware that the linguists classify their dialect like a form of the " Mandarin" with the direction linguistic or seen from abroad. There does not exist besides cultural identity related to Mandarin transversal with the various dialects, from in particular the important cultural diversity of the speakers and their geographical scattering.

How for others Chinese Langues, there is a controversy on the fact that Mandarin must be regarded as a Langue or a Dialecte

Names

The French term comes from the Portuguese mandarim (of the Malayan mentari or mantari , itself borrowed from the Sanskrit mantrin- , meaning “Ministre”); it is the translation of Chinese 官話/官话 guānhuà , which means “language of the mandarins literally” (magistrates of the Empire). The term guānhuà is often regarded as an antiquated name by the sinophones of today.

In RPC, the language in its standardized version is named 普通話/普通话 pǔtōnghuà , “language common” or guóyǔ 國語/国语, “national language”. With Taiwan, the language is officially named 國語/国语 guóyǔ . In the Chinese communities abroad, particularly in the South-East Asia, the language is known like 華語/华语 huáyǔ , “language Chinese” (華/华 huá is a term indicating mainly the Chinese culture). The term Hanyu 漢語, indicates the whole of the dialects of the Han ethnos group, and not only Mandarin: thus, confined it is an alternative of the Hanyu , (“language of the Han”) as well as Mandarin.

By their pronunciation (in particular the presence or not of final consonants others that N ), the various dialects can be more or less close to antiquated Chinese. In this respect, hakka and confined are closer to the original language than Mandarin.

The standard form of Mandarin is based on the pronunciation specific to the speakers of Beijing (cf Prononciation of Mandarin ), without certain phonetic characteristics. There exists indeed a great diversity in the regional pronunciations, for two reasons mainly. First is that the geographical surface where this language is the Native tongue of the majority of the speakers is if wide that one meets necessarily variations of pronunciations from one zone to another. These regional differences are of comparable nature that those which one hears in the various French-speaking areas of France, of Belgium, of Switzerland, of Africa, of Quebec, etc the second reason is that many speakers have Mandarin like second language. These speakers the thus frequently contaminate with the phonological system of their maternal own language. Mandarin of Taiwan, for example, became a relatively homogeneous alternative of standard Mandarin as defined by the educational authorities.

Mandarin is sometimes still named in an abstract way Pekinese (北京話/北京话 Beǐjīng huà , 北京方言 Beǐjīng fāngyán , “regional language of Beijing”, or 京片子 Jīng piànzi ). In Taiwan, the partisans of the Indépendance of Taiwan frequently insist so that one uses the term of Beǐjīng huà in the place of 國語/国语 guóyǔ in order to promote the idea that the Taiwanese should be their national language.

History
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The Chinese Langues developed starting from a named common language Chinese antiquated , then Chinese medieval .

The majority of the alive Chinese in China of north, with the Sichuan, and, in fact, in a large arc of active circle of the North-East (Mandchourie) in south-west (Yunnan), use several dialects of Mandarin as native tongue. The prevalence of Mandarin in all China of north is mainly the result of the geography, in particular the plains of the north of China. In comparison, the mountainous areas and river of China of the south knew a greater linguistic diversity. The presence of Mandarin in Sichuan is largely due to an epidemic to XIIe century. This epidemic, perhaps the Black Death, having decimated the population of this area, it allowed later a colonization by the Chinese of the north of China and, indirectly, explains the establishment of a language of North in a southernmost area. ( it east is necessary .)

(The presence of Mandarin in Sichuan is because of the massacres of the conquests of the Mongol-Tibetans and the Manchus. Before the 12 century, i.e. before the conquest of the Mongols, the dialect of this area was completely differing that Mandarin. In 13 century, Mongolian had conquered China of north in 1234, they made the greatest massacre of the world also. In 1241 the large ones spangled Tibetans sought to join Mongolian, into exchange, Mongolian were converted of lamaïste later. This particular relation between them always exists until our times. Then the area of Sichuan had become half-strangled by the force Mongol-Tibetan immediately. Under the conquest of Mongol-Tibetan, the population from here had fallen much, the old dialect were disappeared. Then, in 17 century, under the conquest of Manchu-Mongolian, the catastrophe fell down on this area. The Manchu ones and Mongolian (Western) were combined by the marriage. After the death of the emperor of Huang-Taiji 1643, the Manchu ones conquered China under the reign of a Mongolian lady, the empress dowager Xiaozhuang 孝莊文皇后, the widow of Huang-Taiji (皇太極) and the mother of the young emperor Shunzhi (順治). that allowed later a colonization by the Chinese of the remainder of the country, rather of the south that north of China, but between them they used the common language, of which Mandarin with the accent of the south. It is the current dialect of this area. Except Hakka which kept their own language. )

(In the history of China, the conquest of the monades forced former Chinese to leave the country of north, and Chinese to plant itself in the south. For example, 4 century, the Chinese sedentaries had lost their territory of north to the 5 barbarians, therefore Huns (匈奴 Xiongnu), Xianbei (鮮卑 a proto-Mongolian tribe), Qiang (or K' iang, 羌 people proto-Tibetan), Jie (羯), the di (氐). Then the many Chinese refuges crossed Yangtzé, the Chinese language of the north of this time were planted in the south of the country.

The conquest of the monades also allows the dialect of the north of China to be evolved/moved quickly, and to mix with the accent of the monades. For example, as former Chinese of north existed sound consonants which survive in Shanghaien, the syllables closed by the occlusive ones (入聲) which survive in Shanghaien and Cantonnais. Those which do not exist any more in Mandarin. Into Pekinese there were differences between /si/ and/ɕi/(分尖團). The /si/ syllables (like so French) and/ɕi/(as French ch+i) confused with is arrived of the Manchu ones. Because the Manchu ones had evil to pronounce /si/ well, like the Pekinese current one.

Moreover, as for Beijing even, is beside the great wall, that sufficiently to say it were border of the sedentaries and monades. It was selected like the capital by the monades to control the Chinese sedentaries and the Chinese nomads. Beijing became the capital of the state, the first time, is under the dynasty Liao (907 - 1125) founded by the Khitan, people proto-Mongolian, then the dynasty Jin (1115-1234) founded by the Jurchen, proto-Manchu people continued to settle there. Then, the dialect of Beijing naturally is mixed more with the altaïque accent. The capital of old China is Xi' year.

In these reasons there, much of poetry traditional Chinese, mainly the Dynasty Tang (唐, 618-907) and the Dynasty Song (宋, 960-1279), one cannot find the rhymes with Mandarin, but with the shanghaien and confined it etc )

There does not exist clear distinction of when medieval Chinese finishes and when Mandarin itself begins; however, the Zhōngyuán Yīnyùn (中原音韵), a Book of rhymes dating from the Dynasty Yuan, is generally regarded as an angular stone of the history of Mandarin. It is in this book that one sees for the first time appearing many characteristics of Mandarin, such disappearance of the final Consonne, and the reorganization of tons of medieval Chinese.

Until the middle of the XXe century, the majority of the alive Chinese in China of the south did not speak Mandarin. However, in spite of social diversity between members of the administration and common peoples speaking various Chinese dialects, Pekinese Mandarin had become the dominant language at least under the Dynastie Qing, whose official language was the Mandchou. Since the XVIIe century, the Empire had created academies of “Orthoépie”, 正音書院/正音书院 zhēngyīn shūyuàn , in an attempt to make the pronunciation in conformity with the standard of Beijing. Their success had proven very limited.

This situation developed with the creation (in RPC and in Taiwan) of a system of education of elementary school reserved for the teaching of Mandarin. Consequently, Mandarin became the language most usually spoken by the majority of the inhabitants of continental China and Taiwan. With HongKong, however, the language of education and formalities remains the Cantonese standard, although standard Mandarin is increasingly present.

Mandarin and Pekinese

See also: Syllable in Mandarin

A common error consists in believing that Mandarin would be the Pekinese dialect . It is true that the standard pronunciation and that the grammar of the taught language is based mainly on the dialect of Beijing, but the concept of standard Mandarin remains a rather vague concept because it rather represents a whole of languages manufactured and imposed on the population, which one asks to forget his usual regional pronunciations. The accent of the inhabitants of Harbin, formerly in Manchu zone, would have remained that nearest to current Mandarin. Vast surface which extends from Mandchourie in the North-East of China until the Yunnan in south-west, the native tongue of the majority of the inhabitants is Mandarin (in its general direction), but these native tongues differ all in the pronunciation, the vocabulary and even sometimes grammar, of the taught language.

Specifically, in accordance with the language of the natives of Beijing, the majority of the speakers conform well to the standard pronunciation of the consonants rétroflexes (noted by zh , CH , HS and laughed in Pinyin), but they often add the '' - final er '' ─ commonly used as Diminutif ─ to words that other speakers would leave such as it is. This dialectal feature is named 兒音/儿音 éryīn , “pronunciation with - er ”. There also exists of many lexical elements largely attested in the Pekinese zone but extremely rare elsewhere. In addition to all these differences, as it is the case for the Western languages, there is more accent clean in Beijing, dependant on the social status, education, etc

These some exceptions put aside, the local pronunciation of the natives of Beijing generally conforms very well to the standard pronunciation. In general, the local pronunciations of the natives of other surfaces of Mandarin are different more especially as they are far away from the capital. The people who live with Tianjin have also a rather standard pronunciation. The people who live in the North-East of China usually transform the syllables starting with what the pinyin note J in syllables starting with G or K (in accordance with the etymology, of the remainder) and have difficulties of pronouncing the sounds starting with R . The people who live in the surfaces more in the south often transform the consonants rétroflexes standard Mandarin: zh becomes Z , CH becomes C , HS becomes S and R decides rather like Z . This remark is also true for Mandarin spoken in Taiwan. In certain areas the speakers do not make the distinction between L and N (mainly when they have Cantonese like native tongue), and in others the velar final ng is changed into N .

Moreover, the taught language employs the many ones tons light (an absence of Tonème which makes the syllable less distinct; cf Pronunciation of Mandarin ) for the second syllables of the made up words (to consult Sinogramme ), whereas in many areas, in particular in the south, the tone of the two syllables is clearly marked.

Grammatical and lexical variations

Vocabulary

There are more polysyllables in Mandarin than in any other Chinese language, except for the Shanghaïen. This is due partly to the fact that Mandarin underwent more modifications in its pronunciation during the history than of other varieties of Chinese, and was consequently to compose with more homophons (see in particular: the Poet eater of lions in his stone reference mark); many words were created by composing them of two or several Sinogramme S, or by adding a Affixe S such lao- (老), - zi (子), - (E) R (儿), and - tou (头). There exist however words which were polysyllabic since the antiquated Chinese , such húdié (蝴蝶, butterfly).

The singular Pronom in Mandarin are wǒ (我) " Je" , nǐ (你) " Tu" , nín (您) " you (singular) " , and tā (他/她/它) " It/It/(It-neutral) " , with - men (们) to add to give plural. Moreover, there exists a distinction between the plural pronoun of the first nobody zánmen (咱们), which includes that which listens, and wǒmen (我们), which excludes that which listens. The dialects of Mandarin have an quasi-equivalent use of these pronouns, but not necessarily the other varieties of Chinese (for example, the Shanghaïen uses 侬 not " tu" and 伊 yi " it/elle").

Other morphemes which the dialects mandarins have generally in common are the particles of aspect and environment, such it (了), - zhe (着), and - guo (过). Other varieties of Chinese on the other hand use other words for these contexts (for example in Cantonese 咗 and 緊). From the contact with the cultures of Central Asia, Mandarin includes certain altaïques words of origin , which do not exist in other Chinese languages, such Hútong (胡同) " allée". The southernmost varieties of Chinese on the other hand integrated words of the Thai Langues or Langues austronésiennes.

Systems of transcription

Since the first Westerners entered to China and tried to learn Mandarin (or, rather, to translate the Bible in a will of evangelization) appeared the need for a romanisation allowing to note the Chinese characters. Since, many systems of phonetic transcription were proposed. To be accepted the overall first is the system known as Lagging-Gilles, named according to his inventors of the 19th century. This system always is used today, but not in continental China. It meets especially in old editions of Western books, like for a rather great number of Chinese terms lexiconized in the Western languages. The French School of the Far East also used a system named EFEO, now null and void.

At the 20th century, the Chinese linguists proposed many systems of transcription. One of them proposes even new a syllabic Alphabet, it is the 注音符號/注音符号 zhǔyīnfúhào , “symbols phonetic” (or, in a less formal way, bopomofo ). Most profitable of these systems is however the 漢語拼音/汉语拼音 hànyǔ pīnyīn , “method phonetically to spell Mandarin”, more often named pīnyīn , which was accepted like official system of transcription for the Chinese language by the RPC in 1958 and then by the the United Nations like by other international organizations. During the Fifties, one even thought in China, without success, to replace the Chinese characters by the pīnyīn. The thing is indeed not feasible, because of the many cases of Homonymie S in the language, homonymies due to the particular syllabic structure of Mandarin.

One finds this diversity of systems of transcription also in Taiwan. The central government of Taiwan indeed adopted the 通用拼音 tōngyòng pīnyīn in 2002 (alternative of the pīnyīn of RPC) while allowing the local governments not to apply this decision to prefer their own system of romanisation. The zhǔyīn is used for the training of the pronunciation of the characters and grammar in the schools. The efforts aiming at replacing this system in favor of the pīnyīn were blocked because, mainly, of dissensions on the type of pīnyīn to be used in replacement as well as effort very great to provide to correct all the teaching documents existing and to reform the teaching body completely.

Among the other systems of romanisation, one also counts:

the postal pīnyīn (derivative of the Lagging-Gilles);
the romanisation Yale;
the Gwoyeu romatzyh ;
MPS II.

Mandarin literature

At the beginning of the XXe century, the Chinese written was an original language (Chinese traditional, written), and definitely distinct from the spoken language. In the beginning, this one close to the spoken language (Chinese medieval, was however spoken), but deviated some with time, a little the image of the place which occupied the Latin in the European companies of Romance Langue until the XVIIIe century.

The written language, called Chinese traditional or arts person, is more concise than the current language. With the writing, the problem of the Homonyme S does not arise and the language comprises only few ambiguities. For example, 翼 (yì, wing) is not ambiguous in written Chinese, but has approximately 75 Mandarin homonyms (spoken).

For a formal writing, such of the official documents, and like for more literary texts, the written language more economic and was organized more, as well for the writing with the hand as in printing works.

But to reproduce a conversation, traditional Chinese is not suitable. Even the transcription with the writing of a professor such Zhu Xi (1130-1200) approached the spoken language. Since at least the plays of the Dynastie Yuan which told the epopees of the Robin of Wood Chinese until the news of the Dynastie Ming, such Shui Hu Zhuan (水滸傳/水浒传/Shuǐhǔ Zhuàn, At the edge of water ), or the news of the Dynastie Qing Hónglóu mèng (紅樓夢/红楼梦/Hónglóu mèng, generally translated by the Dream in the red house ) and beyond that, they developed a literature close to the oral style (Báihùa wénxúe). In many cases, this written language approaches spoken Mandarin. If the pronunciations are not carried by the Sinogramme S, the writing however conveys grammar and the style in all the areas of language tangerine. These writings are generally expressed in standard Mandarin for the formal readings.

A major actor of the Chinese literature of the beginning of the XXe century, Hu Shi, wrote a thorough study of this literary tradition, called Báihuà wénxué shǐ (a history of the vernacular literature).

Lexicon

French loans

The French borrowed relatively few words from Mandarin or the other Chinese languages. Let us note however the words Litchi , Ginseng (literally “plant-man”), Mah-jong (“I gain”), and kaolin . This last word comes from two Chinese words meaning “raised hill”, according to the place from where the rock was extracted.

Other words keep a strong resemblance but evolved/moved slightly with the languages of the people which brought them to France, like Badiane ( bajiu , by the Persan), tofu ( doufu , by the Japanese) or Soja ( shiyu , also via Japanese) or Ketchup ( koechiap , in the dialect of Amoy by the Malayan and the English).

Sinogramme ;
Chinese antiquated;
Chinese traditional;
Chinese spoken;
Pronunciation of Mandarin;
Grammar of Mandarin;
Chinese Languages.
Swadesh List of Mandarin (Chinese characters + pīnyīn)

To learn Mandarin

Free Audio Base of Chinese Words
basic Chinese sentences and the vocabulary used usually. Dictionary French-Mandarin.
Method of Chinese 40 lessons on line and free to learn how to speak, read and write Chinese Mandarin.
To learn and listen to practical Mandarin expressions (with audio and illustrations)
Chinese Forum Translation, interactive assistances, any level.
Re-examined bilingual " Xiao Douzi" , teaching Chinese and French review.
To learn how Chinese To learn essential Chinese, HSK Preparation, To learn the tangerine - Chinese Pinyin, Dictionary, Chinese Level.

Dictionaries on line

Dictionary French-Chinese with recognition of writing
Chinese Dictionary (Mandarin) French Chinese research, pinyin or French.
Dictionary Chinese-French-English
Dictionary Chinese Multilingual Chinese, French, English, Spanish, German,…
Dictionnaire English-Chinese Contains more than 40000 entries.
chinese-english Dictionnaire of the Université Yale
Chinese Dictionnaire Mandarin Dictionary of the Chinese Mandarin-English, include/understand the phonetic writing Pinyin as well as the Chinese characters.

Simple: Mandarin language

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