Dialects
Written by Paul
In the China many different
dialects are used. These different dialects can vary from
province to province. The eight main dialects in China include:
A Dialect Map
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1. Northern (This includes
Mandarin) has about 387,000,000* speakers
2. Jiangsu-Zhejiang which has approximate 46,000,000 speakers
3. Hunan that has 26,000,000 speakers
4. Jiangsi with 13,000,000 speakers
5. Hakka at approximant 20,000,000 speakers
6. Northern Min and with 7,000,000 speakers is the least spoken of
these eight dialects
7. Southern Min with its 15,000,000 speakers
8. Cantonese with 27,000,000 speakers
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China is not only very
unique in its places and people, but that it also has many
dialects. With so many dialects, it can be very hard to
understand one another. For instance, if you speak the Northern
dialect and traveled to southern China where they speak Cantonese, you
may have a little trouble communicating with other people.
An interesting fact is that Mandarin, not English, is the most widely
spoken language in the world with about 1,000,000,000 people that speak
Mandarin. Mandarin is also the official language of China.
Very little English is spoken throughout China. Students most
commonly will speak Mandarin.
A nice thing about written Chinese is that everybody uses the same
characters. Even if individuals speak different dialects, they
can communicate using writing.
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Sources:
http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Culture/language-dialects.jpg
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