|
| Chinese | |
|---|---|
| 汉语／漢語，华语／華語 or 中文 Hànyǔ, Huáyǔ or Zhōngwén | |
 Hànyǔ (Chinese) written in Hanzi | |
| Native to | People's Republic of China (PRC, commonly known as China), Republic of China (ROC, commonly known as Taiwan), Canada, Peru, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, Mauritius, Australia, the United States, the Philippines and other places with Chinese communities |
| Native speakers | (1.2 billion cited 1984–2000) |
| Language family | Sino-Tibetan
|
| Standard forms | |
| Dialects | Wu (including Shanghainese) Yue (including Cantonese-Taishanese) Eastern Min (including Fuchow) Southern Min (including Amoy, Taiwanese) Teochew (including Swatow, Chaozhou, Jieyang, parts of Shanwei/Meizhou) |
| Writing system | Chinese characters, zhuyin fuhao, pinyin, Xiao'erjing |
| Official status | |
| Official language in | 
 Brunei |
| Recognised minority language in |  United States (minority and auxiliary) Malaysia (minority and auxiliary) Philippines (minority and auxiliary) |
| Regulated by | In the PRC: National Commission on Language and Script Work In the ROC: National Languages Committee In Singapore: Promote Mandarin Council/Speak Mandarin Campaign |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | zh |
| ISO 639-2 | chi (B) zho (T) |
| ISO 639-3 | zho – inclusive code Individual codes: cdo – Min Dong cjy – Jinyu cmn – Mandarin cpx – Pu Xian czh – Huizhou czo – Min Zhong gan – Gan hak – Hakka hsn – Xiang mnp – Min Bei nan – Min Nan wuu – Wu yue – Yue och – Old Chinese ltc – Late Middle Chinese lzh – Classical Chinese |
| Linguasphere | 79-AAA |
 Map of the Sinophone world. Information: Countries identified Chinese as a primary, administrative or native language Countries with more than 5,000,000 Chinese speakers Countries with more than 1,000,000 Chinese speakers Countries with more than 500,000 Chinese speakers Countries with more than 100,000 Chinese speakers Major Chinese speaking settlements | |
 | This article contains Chinese text. Without the correct software, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. |
| Chinese languages (Spoken) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 漢語 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 汉语 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Han language | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese language (Written) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 中文 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Chinese text | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Chinese language is the group of languages used by Chinese people in China and elsewhere. It forms part of a language family called the Sino-Tibetan family of languages.
 |
|
