Standard Chinese

Also known as: Mandarin, Mandarin Chinese, 普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà), 国语 (Guóyǔ) and 华语 (Huáyǔ).

The term "standard Chinese" is a politically neutral term for the language shared by mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore. It is commonly referred to as "Mandarin" or "Mandarin Chinese" in English, 普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà) in mainland China, 国语 (Guóyǔ) in Taiwan, and 华语 (Huáyǔ) in Singapore. The standard dates back to 1932 (pre-Communist mainland China), and has been adopted by both mainland China and Taiwan.

Wikipedia states in its Mandarin Chinese article:

From an official point of view, the PRC and ROC governments maintain their own forms of the standard under different names. Technically, both Pǔtōnghuà and Guóyǔ base their phonology on the Beijing accent, though Pǔtōnghuà also takes some elements from other sources. Comparison of dictionaries produced in the two areas will show that there are few substantial differences. However, both versions of "school-standard" Chinese are often quite different from the Mandarin dialects that are spoken in accordance with regional habits, and neither is wholly identical to the Beijing dialect. Pǔtōnghuà and Guóyǔ also have some differences from the Beijing dialect in vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatics.

The existence of a generally agreed-upon standard does not mean that Mandarin is spoken in the same way in these different locations. Every place where Mandarin is spoken has its own regional dialects and accents.

Standard Chinese

See also