Sage-Tips

What is the mother tongue of China?

Mandarin
China/Official languages
Mandarin Chinese is known as 普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà), the “common speech,” and it has only been the official language of China since the 1930s, when the country established it as the standard dialect and began pushing to make this a reality nationwide.

Is Shanghainese a Mandarin?

Since Shanghai is in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the official language of the city is standard Mandarin Chinese, also known as Putonghua. However, the traditional language of the Shanghai region is Shanghainese, which is a dialect of Wu Chinese which is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin Chinese.

Do they speak Cantonese in Malaysia?

While it may be quite surprising to many locals in Hong Kong, most ethnic Chinese Malaysians can actually understand and speak Cantonese. Cantonese is predominantly used in the areas of Peninsula Malaysia like the capital city Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang and also some parts of East Malaysia.

What is the mother tongue of Cantonese?

By that token, the mother tongue of the Chinese people, including Cantonese in Hong Kong, should be Hanyu, taught in modern China as Mandarin, but also known as Putonghua in Hong Kong. Song’s thesis is premised on his vision of a hierarchy of languages in China, with Mandarin, the lingua franca, at the pinnacle, and superior to all dialects.

Is Hokkien/Teochew a dialect of Mandarin?

That Singapore is the only country outside of mainland China that uses simplified Chinese characters is never questioned, and Chinese languages that fall outside this simple perimeter are dismissed as mere dialects. In other words, Hokkien/Teochew (or Minnan), Cantonese, Hakka, etc are treated only as improper subsets of “Chinese” Mandarin.

What is northern Chinese (Mandarin)?

Northern Chinese, also known as Mandarin, is the mother tongue of about 70\% of Chinese speakers and is the accepted written language

Can Gentle Bones speak Mandarin in Singapore?

On 15 June, local musician Gentle Bones responded in English to a Mandarin host at the Singapore Cultural Centre’s Cultural Extravaganza, leading to the publication of a Rice Media thought piece on language and ethnic Chinese identity in Singapore.