Page 14 - MAndarin_Neat

The Chit'lese Lat'l9'-'a9e ( Han}:f-1) at'ld
"Commot'l Speech" (Pufonghua)

The Chinese lan9'-'age ( Han)(IA) 1 the ma jol" lan9"age of the Chinese people with
a histol"}:' of mol"e than 5,000 }:'ea..-s is one of the oldest langtAages in the wo,.ld. Jn spite
1
of its old age 1 Chinese ts now one of the most widel}:' tASe.d living lan9"ages. The langtAage
is spoken in man}:' legions of China 1 as well as in man}:' ovel"seas Chinese coi'YimiAI'lities,
especial!}:' in Singapol"e and Mala}:'Sia. ;And the..-e al"e mol"e than a billion native speake..-s of
Chinese Wol"ldwide. Jt ts one of the Wol"kiv.g langtAages of the United Nations.

Chinese belones to the Sino-Tibetan la"'gtAage famil}:'. Among the 56 ethnic 9f"OCAps in
China, the f-fan1 fitjl Manchu and othel" ethnic 9""0CAps1 COI1SfltlAting 94% of the pof'l'llation
of China, speak Chinese.
Chinese inci~Ades val"iants f'om seven main d ialect eJI"OCAps. The nol"thel"''l ol" Mandal"in
dialect cove..-s th..ee fOCAI"ths of China's tel"'"itol"}:' and ind.des two thil"ds of its poptAiation.

Standal"d Chinese is also known b}:' its official designation, 'Pt-donghua, litel"all}:' "common
speech". PtAfonghua is based on the no..them dialect 1 lASing the d ialect of Beijing as ihe
basis fol" its PI"OI'\IAI'\Ciation and model"!'\ Vel"''\aC!Aial" litel"atwe fOI" its erCU'YIM'latical sti"'ACtwe.