Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T07:01:06.151Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2020

Gina Anne Tam
Affiliation:
Trinity University, Texas
Get access

Summary

What language represents the Chinese nation? Seemingly a straightforward question, the simplest answer would be what in English we call “Mandarin.” Known as Putonghua (普通话), or the common tongue in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), it is the nation’s official language. Putonghua is the language PRC children learn in schools. It is the language that broadcasts on the nation’s television and radio, that blares in shopping centers, and announces subway stops. It is also the titular Chinese language abroad. Today it is taught in millions of “Chinese” language classes across the world. At the United Nations, translators asked to render speeches delivered in Russian or Arabic into “Chinese” would recite them in Putonghua’s four tones.

But on a day-to-day basis, remarkably few people within the PRC’s borders speak this language exclusively. Nearly 80 percent of PRC citizens grew up speaking one or several fangyan (方言): local Chinese languages that are often mutually unintelligible with spoken Putonghua.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Introduction
  • Gina Anne Tam, Trinity University, Texas
  • Book: Dialect and Nationalism in China, 1860–1960
  • Online publication: 28 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108776400.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Gina Anne Tam, Trinity University, Texas
  • Book: Dialect and Nationalism in China, 1860–1960
  • Online publication: 28 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108776400.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Gina Anne Tam, Trinity University, Texas
  • Book: Dialect and Nationalism in China, 1860–1960
  • Online publication: 28 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108776400.001
Available formats
×