Chinese Dialect Groups中国方言

    China has a vast territory and a largepopulation. Even though people all use the Chinese language, they speak indifferent ways in different areas, which are called dialects. Generally calledlocal languages, dialects are branches of the Chinese language in differentregions, and are only used in certain areas. At present, the Chinese languagehas seven dialects^①: northern dialect, Wu dialect, Xiangdialect, Gan dialect, Hakka, Min dialect and Cantonese. Among them, northerndialect is one used most widely. Hakka, Fujian dialect and Guangdong dialectare also used by overseas Chinese.

    Wu（吴方言）: spoken in the provinces of Jiangsu,Zhejiang and the municipality of Shanghai. Wu includes Shanghainese, sometimestaken as the representative of all Wu dialects. Wu’ssubgroups are extremely diverse, especially in the mountainous regions ofZhejiang and eastern Anhui. The group possibly comprises hundreds of distinctspoken forms, which are not mutually intelligible.

    Gan (赣方言):spoken in Jiangxi. In the past, it wasviewed as closely related to Hakka dialect because of the way Middle Chinesevoiced initials have become voiceless（清声） aspirated initials as in Hakka, and werehence called by the umbrella term Hakka-Gan dialect.

    Xiang (湘方言): spoken in Hunan. Xiang is usually dividedinto the old and new dialects, with the new dialects being significantlyinfluenced by Mandarin.

Min languages (闽方言): spoken in Fujian, Taiwan, parts ofSoutheast Asia (particularly Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore), and amongoverseas Chinese who trace their roots to Fujian and Taiwan, particularly popularin New York City in the United States. Min is the only branch of Chinese thatcannot be directly derived from Middle Chinese. It is also the most diverse,with many varieties used in neighboring countries, and in the mountains ofwestern Fujian even in adjacent villages, being mutually unintelligible.

Hakka (客家方言): spoken by the Hakka people, a subgroup ofthe Han Chinese, in several provinces across southern China, in Taiwan, and inparts of Southeast Asia such as Malaysia and Singapore. The term “Hakka” itselftranslates as “guest families”, and Hakka people consider themselves to bedescended from Song Dynasty and later refugees from North China. Hakka has keptmany features of northern Middle Chinese that have been lost in the North.

Cantonese (粤方言): spoken in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong,Macau, parts of Southeast Asia, and by overseas Chinese people with an ancestrytracing back to the Guangdong region. But not all varieties of Cantonese aremutually intelligible.

Dialects of the Chinese language are verycomplicated. Various dialects differ from each other on three aspects:pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. And the difference in pronunciation isthe most outstanding. There is a saying in coastal areas of southeastern China --“Pronunciationsdiffer within 10-li (Chinese unit of measurement, 1 li=0.5 km) area”. If allpeople in different areas speak in local dialects, it will lead to the troublein communications.

Compared with dialects“differing within 10-liarea”, Mandarin can be understood by all people. Since it is beneficial tocultural exchange and information transmission between ethnic groups and peoplein different places, Chinese government attaches great importance topopularizing Mandarin and encourages people to speak Mandarin.

                                                        Abridgedand revised from

                                       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varieties_of_Chinese

Notes:

①sevendialects：七大方言区，中国分为七大方言区：北方方言，吴方言，闽方言，粤方言，客家方言，赣方言，湘方言。其中范围最广使用人数最多的是北方方言。