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Is Chinese A Language? The Languages Of China Explained

You may be wondering what languages do they speak in China? Is Chinese a language?

From Mandarin to Cantonese and Shanghainese…what’s the difference? Chinese is often referred to as though it’s one language, but there’s much more to it than that.

In this post we’ll debunk all the myths about the Chinese language and finally set the record straight on if Chinese really is a language.

Is Chinese A Language?

No, Chinese is not a language but it is a group of languages. 

The word ‘Chinese’ is actually a blanket term for over 300 different languages and dialects spoken across China.

You’ve probably heard of several Chinese languages including Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Wu, Xiang and more. These are all Chinese languages.

A good analogy is that an apple is a type of fruit and Mandarin is a type of Chinese.

It is important to note that in China, the different Chinese languages are officially referred to as ‘dialects’. 

However it is widely accepted by linguists that many of these ‘dialects’ are actually different languages.

This is due to the fact that they are not mutually intelligible with other Chinese languages e.g. someone who speaks Mandarin can’t understand someone who speaks Cantonese.

Linguists have previously noted that the Chinese languages are just as divergent as the Romance languages (e.g. French, Spanish, Italian etc) so they should be considered different languages rather than simply just dialects. 

For example, you would never claim that French and Spanish are the same language.

The Chinese languages form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family so they are closely related.

Diagram showing the Sino-Tibetan language family tree.
Diagram showing the Sino-Tibetan language family tree.

Around 1.3 billion people, representing 16% of the world’s population, speak a variety of Chinese as their native language. 

This means that, theoretically, 1 in 6 people across the world speak a Chinese language.

What is the Official Language of China?

The official language of China is Mandarin. 

Mandarin is actually the most spoken language in the world with over 1 billion speakers. 

As well as being the official language of China, Mandarin is also the official language of Taiwan and one of the four official languages of Singapore.

Even though Mandarin is the native language of hundreds of millions of people, many of these people speak different versions of the language. 

For example, Taiwanese Mandarin has many differences to Standard Mandarin but the 2 are mutually intelligible.

The differences are mainly pronunciation, differing tones and some different vocabulary words.

A good comparison is American English and British English.

These are clearly the same language as Americans and Brits can easily understand each other, however there are small differences in vocabulary and pronunciation.

There are, however, many other Mandarin dialects that are not mutually intelligible at all or only have partial mutual intelligibility with Standard Mandarin.

Although there are over 300 different Chinese languages, every school in China is required to teach Standard Mandarin to its students. 

This means that nearly everyone in China can speak Mandarin even if they use a different Chinese language at home.

How Many Languages Are Spoken In China?

There are actually 302 different languages spoken in China. 

Many of them are not mutually intelligible, meaning that someone speaking one language could not be understood by someone who speaks another. 

Most of the differences between them are in the pronunciation of the language and vocabulary but there are a few smaller grammatical differences.

In fact, these 302 Chinese languages can be divided into 8 primary ones.

Each of these 8 primary languages then have many different dialects.

What Are The Different Chinese Languages?

Let’s take a look at the most spoken Chinese languages and dialects which have been around for a long time. 

The modern Chinese languages that we know today evolved between the 8th and 3rd centuries BC. 

According to linguists these languages evolved from the 2 original Chinese languages, Old Chinese and Middle Chinese. 

Below we have summarized the 8 most spoken Chinese languages and dialects including how many people speak them and where they are spoken.

Map of China which shows the top 8 most spoken languages in China and where they are spoken.
Map of China which shows the top 8 most spoken languages in China and where they are spoken.

1. Standard Mandarin

Standard Mandarin is the largest spoken dialect in China with nearly 900 million speakers.

This version of Mandarin is the official language of China and is taught in every school across China. 

Most people in China have some knowledge of this language even if it’s not their native tongue.

2. Modern Standard Mandarin

Modern Standard Mandarin is very similar to Standard Mandarin but there are some slight differences. 

Modern Standard Mandarin is the dialect that is primarily spoken in Beijing and Northern China. 

One of the main differences is the ‘r’ sound that is used a lot in Modern Standard Mandarin.

Speakers of this dialect tend to add an ‘r’ sound to the end of words. 

An example is the word for ‘flower’ which is 花儿. This word would normally be pronounced ‘hua’ in Standard Mandarin but in Beijing, they add an ‘r’ on the end so it’s pronounced ‘huar’.

Modern Standard Mandarin and Standard Mandarin are mutually intelligible.

3. Wu

Wu Chinese is one of the oldest Chinese languages and has actually managed to preserve some aspects of the ancient Old Chinese language that other Chinese languages did not.

The Wu Chinese language has many dialects. The most widely spoken Wu dialect is Shanghainese Wu, spoken in the city of Shanghai.

There are many other Wu dialects spoken in other provinces in eastern China including Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi.

Wu Chinese is spoken by around 85 million people mainly in eastern China.

4. Min

Min Chinese is another group of languages that has many dialects including Northern Min, Southern Min (Min Nan), Central Min and Shaojiang Min. 

As a whole, Min is spoken by around 75 million people mainly in the Fujian province located on the southeastern coast of China. 

There are also many speakers of a Min dialect in Taiwan, where the language is known as Hokkien-Taiwanese, and other parts of southern China. In fact, most people in Taiwan speak this language.

You’ll also find many Min speakers in Southeast Asia, mainly Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.  

Many of these Min varieties are not mutually intelligible with each other or any other variety of Chinese.

5. Gan

The Gan dialect is primarily spoken in southeastern China and has around 60 million speakers. 

The language is mainly spoken in the Jiangxi province of China. There are also significant populations of speakers in the surrounding regions including Hunan, Hubei, Anhui and Fujian.

There are also several different Gan dialects with some not being mutually intelligible with each other. 

6. Xiang

The Xiang dialect of Chinese is primarily spoken in the Hunan province which is part of the south central China region.

There are also speakers in Guangxi, Guizhou and Hubei. 

Xiang is also sometimes referred to as Hunanese. It is spoken by around 37 million people. 

Xiang can be divided into 5 main dialects.

7. Hakka

The Hakka language is most closely related to the Gan language and the 2 dialects even share several of the same words. 

Hakka is mainly spoken by the Hakka people and today almost 80 million people speak it although there are several different Hakka dialects. 

Some of these dialects are mutually intelligible and some are not. 

Hakka is spoken in many parts of Southern China and by some people in Taiwan. It is also spoken by significant communities across the world, especially in Southeast Asia. 

It is mainly spoken by people living in the Guangdong province but also by many people living in Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Hunan and Sichuan.

8. Cantonese

Cantonese, a type of Yue Chinese, is one of the most well-known Chinese languages. 

Cantonese has around 60 million speakers and is most commonly spoken in various parts of southern China. It is widely used in Guangdong, Macau and Hong Kong. 

Even though Cantonese is less widely spoken than other Chinese dialects, it is very well-known mainly due to its use in international cities like Hong Kong.

There are also significant populations of Cantonese speakers all over the world.

There are several other Yue languages too – some of these are mutually intelligible with Cantonese but many are not.

Written Chinese

Chinese is actually the world’s oldest written language as the writing system was developed over 6,000 years ago!

Turtle shells were found with Chinese character inscriptions on them that dated back to the Shang Dynasty which ran from 1766 to 1123 BC.

Whilst today a Chinese dictionary would usually contain around 40,000 characters, you only need to know between 2,000 and 3,000 characters to read a newspaper.

Whilst many of the spoken Chinese languages are not mutually intelligible, the interesting thing is that all of the Chinese languages share the same writing system.

This means that regardless of which Chinese language you speak, if you’re reading something written in another Chinese language, you’ll still be able to understand it. 

Whilst Chinese characters have changed over the years, they are still universally used across China.

Historically traditional Chinese characters were used by the whole of China. In the 1950s, simplified Chinese characters were declared as the new main writing system in order to help improve literacy rates.

The main exception to this is Cantonese which still uses traditional characters rather than the simplified ones.

The simplified characters are much easier to learn and write. Check out the differences below.

Comparison of traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters.
Comparison of traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters.

This written language has no single standard of pronunciation. The reader of a text would simply apply the rules of pronunciation from their own language when reading.

This works quite well because, even though there are over 300 different languages spoken in China, everyone can read the same newspapers, TV subtitles, magazines etc. 

What Language Do Chinese People Speak?

You may now be wondering how to know what language a Chinese person speaks. 

Most Chinese people (in China) can speak Mandarin at least to a basic level. 

Many of these people may also speak another Chinese language, such as Cantonese, Wu, Min etc, as their mother tongue but they probably speak some Mandarin as well. 

As Mandarin is taught in schools and is used as the lingua franca in China, most people can speak it to a certain extent. 

What is the Difference Between Mandarin and Chinese?

This is a common question asked by many people across the world – what is the difference between Mandarin and Chinese?

Having read this article, you might now already know the difference but just in case you’re still unsure here it is:

Mandarin is a type of Chinese language. There are hundreds of Chinese languages including Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Min, Xiang and so many more. 

These languages can all be grouped together and referred to as Chinese; however it’s important to note that many of them are not mutually intelligible. 

This means that if 2 people speak ‘Chinese’ they may not actually be able to speak and understand each other as they may speak different varieties of Chinese. 

What is the Difference Between Mandarin and Cantonese?

Mandarin and Cantonese are different Chinese languages.

Many people often ask ‘what is the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese’ as they are the most internationally recognised Chinese languages.

Whilst there are some similarities between them, they are not mutually intelligible.

This means that someone who speaks Mandarin would understand little to nothing if a Cantonese speaker were talking to them. 

The two languages are just as different as Spanish and French.

I’ve summarized some of the key differences between Mandarin and Cantonese below.

  • Mandarin has 4 tones whereas Cantonese has 9 tones.
  • In writing, Mandarin tends to use simplified Chinese characters whereas Cantonese still uses traditional Chinese characters. 

Please note that traditional Chinese characters are still used in Mandarin by the people of Taiwan however mainland China now uses simplified characters. 

Cantonese also has some unique written Cantonese characters.

  • Cantonese has significantly different vocabulary compared with Mandarin as a whole.

There are some similarities between the vocabulary used. 

For example, apple is 苹果 pronounced ‘pinguo’ in Mandarin but is 蘋果 pronounced ‘penguo’ in Cantonese. As you can see, the writing system makes these words look different but the pronunciation is very similar.

In general though, Cantonese and Mandarin are very different in terms of verbs, adjectives and other vocabulary.

Some words even feature in both languages but have totally different meanings. 

For example, the word 奶奶 pronounced ‘nainai’ features in both languages however in Cantonese this word means ‘mother-in-law on husband’s side’ but in Mandarin this word means ‘paternal grandmother’. 

  • There are many grammatical differences between Cantonese and Mandarin including word order. 

These are just a few of the many differences between Mandarin and Cantonese. 


Thanks for reading this post on the languages spoken in China which answers the question ‘is Chinese a language?’. 

Hopefully you’re now well equipped and know all the differences between Mandarin, Cantonese and more.

It’s super interesting to learn about the 302 different languages of China, their writing system, how they relate and how they evolved.

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