Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin ( MAN-dər-in) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are natively spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers, spread over a large geographical area that stretches from Yunnan in the southwest to Xinjiang in the northwest and Heilongjiang in the northeast. Its spread is generally attributed to the overall greater ease of travel in the North China Plain compared to the more mountainous south, combined with the relatively recent spread of northern varieties to frontier areas. Many varieties of Mandarin, such as those of the Southwest and the Lower Yangtze, are not mutually intelligible with the Beijing dialect. Nevertheless, Mandarin as a group is often placed first in lists of languages by number of native speakers (with nearly one billion). Because Mandarin originated in North China and most Mandarin varieties are found north of the Yangtze River, the group is sometimes referred to as Northern Chinese. Most Mandarin varieties have four lexical tones, alongside unstressed syllables commonly described as having a neutral tone. The final stops of Middle Chinese have disappeared in most of these varieties, but some have merged them as a final glottal stop. Many Mandarin varieties, including that of Beijing, retain retroflex initial consonants, which have been lost in southern Chinese varieties. The historical capitals of China have been within the Mandarin-speaking area for most of the last two millennia, making these dialects very prestigious. Some form of Mandarin has served as a lingua franca for government officials and the courts since at least the 14th century. In the early 20th century, a standard language based on the Beijing dialect, with elements from other Mandarin varieties, was adopted as the national language. Today, Standard Chinese is the official language of China and Taiwan, one of four official languages of Singapore, and one...