chineselanguageintro4 - THE CHINESE LANGUAGE Overview and...

THE CHINESE LANGUAGE:
Overview and Recent Findings
Chris Wen-Chao Li
San Francisco State University

Outline
1. Terminology
2. Classification
• Genetic Affiliation
• Dialect Variation
• Historical Development
3. The Modern Standard Language
• Definitions
• Pluricentricity
• Social Perceptions
4. Language Structure
• Syllable structure
• Consonants
• Vowels
• Tones
5. New Developments

Terminology:
中文、華語、國語、漢語、普通話
中文 漢語
漢語
formal
（中文
inf
）
漢語
formal
（中文
inf
）
漢語
formal
（中文
informal
）
All
Chinese
dialects
中文 華語
華文
中文 中文
（華文）
中文
漢語
formal
(written)
中文
國語
華語
普通話
中文 中文
國語
（華語）
中文
普通話
（國語）
(spoken) Mandarin
(Modern
Standard
Chinese)
Overseas
Chinese
Singapore Hong Kong
Macau
Taiwan China (mainland)

Terminology Debate: 國語 vs 普通話
(2000-present)
Against 國語 “national language” ：
• discrimination against non-Han minorities
Against 普通話
(Sun 2004; Cao 2004) ：
• Intended meaning: 普遍通用 “common
language” as in “shared language”
• Lay connotations: 普普通通 “common
language” as in “ordinary, unremarkable
language”
• [NOTE: socialist/communist background]

Spoken Language: Genetic Affiliations
View from without
• Language family
• Neighboring languages
View from within
• Dialect classification
• Classification methods
• Degree of diversity

View from Without:
Sino-Tibetan Family Tree

View from Without:
Sino-Tibetan & Neighboring Languages

View from Without:
Language admixture
Neighboring language groups
(Altaic; Kam-tai; Austro-asiatic; Austronesian)
• Mandarin: Sino-Altaic mixture
(Hashimoto 1976; 1980; 1984; 1986)
• Cantonese/Min: Mixture with Austroasiatic
(Zhou and You 1987)

View from Without:
Language admixture
(DNA evidence)
《中國姓氏 : 群体遺傳和人口分布》
• 其實南北兩地的漢族血緣相差甚遠，甚至比
中國少數民族的差距還要大。這項研究發
現，從生物遺傳學的角度來說，中國的漢族
只是文化上而非血緣上的完整群體。
( 袁義達 2005)

View from Without:
Language admixture
(DNA evidence)

View from Within:
The Chinese Language Family
CLASSIFICATION METHODS
LINGUISTIC: Sound change -- path
of evolution from reconstructed
ancestor language
PHILOLOGICAL: Status of rhyme
dictionary and rhyme table
categories

View from Within:
The Chinese Language Family
閩北 Northern Min
閩南 Southern Min
(Taiwanese)
閩 Min / Hokkien
粵 Yue / Cantonese 華南 Southern
客家 Kejia / Hakka
贛 Gan (Jiangxi)
漢語
Chinese
湘 Xiang (Hunan) 江南 Yangtze (Central)
吳 Wu (Shanghai)
中原
Northern-
Central
官話 Mandarin (Northern)
(schema from Ao 1996)

View from Within:

View from Within:
Classification Controversies
閩南、閩北
• One category or two?