But do you know what else they’re very diverse in? The language! That’s right, even though we know Mandarin Chinese as being the official language, there are many dialects. There are mainly ten languages or dialects in China. So if you go there, you’ll most likely hear more than just one way in which Chinese people express themselves.
We bring you our top 5 Chinese dialects for you to get to know more about the linguistic culture. And so you don’t feel so lost next time you’re in China.
Mandarin Dialect
You’ve probably heard of this one. Mandarin is widely known all over the world. It’s the second most spoken language worldwide with over 1 billion speakers! It’s just right after English and before Spanish and Hindi. It’s no surprise why the importance of learning it keeps increasing. It’s also the most spoken dialect in China, as 70% of the population speak it.
It’s divided in four geographical categories: Northern, Northwestern, Southwestern, and Southern. See? It really has a presence in all of China. And as we just realized, even in Mandarin Chinese dialect there can be nuances.
The so-called Standard Chinese or simply Mandarin that foreigners know is the one that comes from the Mandarin spoken in Beijing. And it’s known by Chinese as Putonghua, the language spoken in Taiwan.
What you must know about Mandarin to speak it properly is that almost all syllables have three parts: initial, final, and tone. In terms of tones, there are four: the first tone (mā), the second tone (má), the third tone (mǎ), and the fourth tone (mà).
The Mandarin Blueprint YouTube channel calls them “singing ton”, “unsure ton”, “zombie tone” and “assertive tone”, which is a reference to how they sound. And they name a fifth tone (ma), “contrarian tone”; you must know some people don’t think this is a tone, but some others do.
Cantonese Dialect
This is also a popular one that you might’ve heard of already. It’s spoken in Hong Kong, Macau, the Canton province, the Guangdong province, and Guangxi. As well as in parts of Southeast Asia, like Vietnam.
Cantonese comes from the Yue Chinese dialect. In fact, it simply is a more prestigious form of Yue Chinese.
It presents different characteristics from the Ancient Chinese. For example, it still has a lot of the final consonants that you can also find in Ancient Chinese.
Contrary to Mandarin, Cantonese has six tones! High flat tone, mid rising tone, mid flat tone, low falling tone, low rising tone, and low flat tone.
Some people consider that there are, actually, nine tones. These are named historical tones, because in the past they were for syllables that ended in “p”, “t” and “k”. But for the most part, everyone considers now the six ones above.
Wu Dialect
This is the second most spoken Chinese dialect with a little more than 80 million speakers! So its importance is also very high. Sometimes people call it “Shanghainese”, though that’s not the real name of this language.
It’s spoken in Shanghai, the Zhejiang province, part of the Jiangsu province, part of Anhui, and part of Jiangxi.
Wu was the name of one of the kingdoms that emerged at the end stage of the Han Dynasty. So that’s where the name of this dialect comes from.
The Wu language has initial voiced stop sounds, contrary to Standard Chinese.
This one has even more tones than Mandarin and Cantonese. This makes it harder to pronounce the sounds of the language correctly if you’re only familiarized with Mandarin.
Min Dialect
Here’s another popular Chinese dialect, as it is spoken by 60 million speakers. It’s spoken in Taiwan, in the Fujian province, and in Hainan Island. It’s also spoken in communities of Singapore and Malaysia.
Min is part of the Sinitic languages, which at the same time is a group of the Sino-Tibetan languages. The Sino-Tibetan languages are formed by Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages. So, as you can see Min has a wide linguistic history background.
There are different variations of Min. It’s mainly divided into Northern and Southern Min. But other people state there’s also an Eastern and a Central Min, and a type of Min called Puxian.
Even more, others say there are nine types of this dialect. All with nuances and differences from one another. So, there’s a lot of linguistic richness in the Min language.
One of the main differences between Northern and Southern Min is that in the first one they have nasal sounds at the end of the words. While Southern Min doesn’t have them.
Hakka Dialect
Hakka people are the ones who speak the Hakka dialect and live in areas where it’s spoken. The Hakka language is mainly in Southern China. It has presence in provinces like Guangdong and Jiangxi and Hainan. As well as in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. It’s the language of over 47 million speakers!
Many Hakka people have started to speak Mandarin or Cantonese, because of their proximity and cultural exchange with other regions.
This dialect also uses the initial and final consonants that you find in Cantonese. Oh, and it also has six tones.
Because of all the regions it’s spoken in there are different versions or types of Hakka. One very characteristic of it is the Meixian dialect, which people from Meizhou speak.
Which Chinese Dialect is the Best for Business?
We could argue that the best Chinese dialect to speak depends on the place you’re doing the business in. Is it in Meizhou? Then Hakka would be the best option. Right? But the truth is that we must go beyond that. Because one day you could be doing business there and the next in another province, city, or part of China.
Who knows maybe you aren’t even in China but work in a Chinese company in your own country. Or maybe you have coworkers, business partners and investors from different Chinese regions.
Based on that, we’d argue that a more popular dialect would be a better option. Maybe Mandarin or Cantonese. Even though Cantonese is spoken in a great city for business, like Hong Kong, we think Mandarin is the best option for business.
Like we said before, Mandarin is spoken all over China. Even if there are slight differences per region, people still know it. So you can do business in the south or in the north and you’ll be alright. Conversations will be fluent. You’ll understand and be understood.
We also told you that this is the second most popular language in the world! Not only Chinese people speak it, but so do foreigners of different countries and cultures. This means you can have a multicultural meeting speaking all Mandarin and it’ll be a success, at least in language terms.
Since Mandarin is very popular now, it also means you can find more classes and resources to learn it and support your studies.
Plus, in 2023, LinkedIn named Mandarin Chinese as one of the essential languages for international business.
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