Chinese is a fascinating language. Here are some facts about it:
Chinese in the UN
Chinese is one of the six official languages used for communications within the United Nations. The others being Spanish, Russian, English Arabic and French.
Standard Mandarin
Today, the most common form of Chinese is known as Standard Mandarin (普通话), It is based on a dialect spoken in Beijing. The Chinese government realized the need for a unified language and enforced the teaching of standard Mandarin in schools. In 1956 it was officially defined as the standard form of modern Chinese.
Different dialects
Most cities in China have their own dialect. Some dialects sound so different from standard Chinese as to be unintelligible to people who don’t live there. This is why TV in China is subtitled: to allow country-wide comprehension.
Traditional writing in Taiwan
While the Taiwanese do speak standard mandarin, they write in traditional form. The difference between simplified and traditional writing is quite significant. For example 会 is written as 會.
Logograms and phonograms
Chinese characters are called logograms. A logogram is a written character that represents a word or a phrase. English letters represent sounds and are called phonograms.
Changes in the way Chinese is read
Chinese used to be written vertically in columns going from right to left. In 1955 national newspapers and textbooks changed to writing left to right and top to bottom. A famous Chinese scholar called 叶籁士 was at the forefront of these changes as he believed it to be a quicker way of reading.
What an amazing language!
Thanks for reading!