The Sinitic languages (), often synonymous with the Chinese languages, are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute a major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is a primary split between the Sinitic languages and the rest of the family (the Tibeto-Burman languages). This view is rejected by some researchers but has found phylogenetic support among others. The Macro-Bai languages, whose classification is difficult, may be an offshoot of Old Chinese and thus also Sinitic; states " ... may form a constituent of Sinitic, albeit one heavily influenced by Lolo–Burmese." otherwise, Sinitic is defined only by the many varieties of Chinese unified by a shared linguistic evolution and writing system (i.e. Written Chinese), and use of the term "Sinitic" may reflect the linguistic view that the Chinese language constitutes a family of distinct languages, rather than variants of a single language.
Etymology "Sinitic" came from Late Latin , 'the Chinese', probably from Arabic 'China', from the Chinese dynastic name Qin (OED). From Merriam-Webster: "borrowed from New Latin Siniticus "Chinese," from Late Latin Sinae "Chinese" + New Latin -iticus... — more at SINO-." From Collins English Dictionary: "Origin: see Sino-, -ite, & -ic."
In 1982, Paul K. Benedict proposed a subgroup of Sino-Tibetan called "Sinitic" comprising Bai and Chinese. The precise affiliation of Bai remains uncertain and the term Sinitic is usually used as a synonym for Chinese, especially when viewed as a language family rather than as a language.
Population Over 91% of the Chinese population speaks a Sinitic language, of whom about three-quarters speak a Mandarin variety. Estimates of the number of global speakers of Sinitic branches as of 2018–2019, both native and non-native, are listed below: Note that the numbers are uncertain due to uncertainty in the population estimates of China.
Branch Speakers Mandarin 1,118,584,040 Yue 85,576,570 Wu 81,817,790 Min 75,633,810 Jin47,100,000 Hakka44,065,190 Xiang 37,400,000 Gan 22,200,000 Hui 5,380,000 Pinghua 4,130,000 Bai 1,300,000Total1,523,187,400100%
Languages
Dialectologist Jerry Norman estimated that there are hundreds of mutually unintelligible Sinitic languages. They form a dialect continuum in which differences generally become more pronounced as distances increase, though there are also some sharp boundaries. The Sinitic languages can be divided into Macro-Bai languages and Chinese languages, and the following is one of many potential ways of subdividing these languages. Some varieties, such as Shaozhou Tuhua, are hard to classify and thus are not included in the following briefs.
Macro-Bai languages
This is a language family first proposed by linguist Zhengzhang Shangfang, and was expanded to include Longjia and Luren. It likely split off from the rest of Sinitic during the Old Chinese period. The languages included are all considered minority languages in China and are spoken in the Southwest. The languages are: Bai Cai-Long: Caijia, Longjia, Luren All other Sinitic languages henceforth would be considered Chinese.
Chinese The Chinese branch of the family is classified into at least seven main families. These families are classified based on five main evolutionary criteria: The evolution of the historical fully muddy () initials The distribution of rimes across the four tone qualities, as conditioned by voicing and aspiration of initials The evolution of the checked () tone category The loss or retention of coda position plosives and nasals The palatalisation of the initial () in front of high vowels The varieties within one family may not be mutually intelligible with each other. For instance, Wenzhounese and Ningbonese are not highly mutually intelligible. The Language Atlas of China identifies ten groups: Mandarin Jin Yue Hakka Min Wu Hui Gan Xiang Pinghua and Tuhua with Jin, Hui, Pinghua, and Tuhua not part of the seven traditional groups.
Mandarin Varieties of Mandarin are used in the Western Regions, the Southwest, Huguang, Inner Mongolia, Central Plains and the Northeast, by around three-quarters of the Sinitic-speaking population. Historically, the prestige variety has always been Mandarin, which is still reflected today in Standard Chinese. Standard Chinese is now an official language of the Republic of China, People's Republic of China, Singapore and United Nations. Re-population efforts, such as that of the Qing dynasty in the Southwest, tended to involve Mandarin speakers. Classification of Mandarin lects has undergone several significant changes, though nowadays it is commonly divided as such, based on the distribution of the historical checked tone: Northeastern Beijing (sometimes considered part of Northeastern) Jiaoliao (sometimes "Peninsular") Jilu (sometimes "Northern") Central Plains (or "Zhongyuan") Lanyin (sometimes "Northwestern" and considered part of Central Plains) Jin (often considered a top-level group due to the Language Atlas of China) Southwestern (sometimes "Upper Yangtse") Jianghuai (or "Lower Yangtze", sometimes "Huai", "Southern" or "Southeastern") as well as other lects, which do not neatly fall into these categories, such as Mandarin Junhua varieties.
Varieties of Mandarin can be defined by their universally lost -m final, low number of tones, and smaller inventory of classifiers, among other features. Mandarin lects also often have rhotic erhua rimes, though the amount of its use may vary between lects. Loss of checked tone is an often cited criterion for Mandarin languages, though lects such as Yangzhounese and Taiyuannese show otherwise.
Mandarin Non-Mandarin Gloss Beijing Jinan Zhengzhou Xi'an Taiyuan Chengdu Nanjing Guangzhou Meizhou Xiamen Anyi 'sound' 'heart'
Northeastern and Beijing Mandarin Northeastern Mandarin is spoken in Heilongjiang, Jilin, most of Liaoning and northeastern Inner Mongolia, whereas Beijing Mandarin is spoken in northern Hebei, most of Beijing, parts of Tianjin and Inner Mongolia. The two families' most notable features are the heavy use of rhotic erhua and seemingly random distribution of the dark checked tone, and generally having four tones with the contours of high flat, rising, dipping, and falling. + Tone contour of historically dark checked tone () characters Northeastern/Beijing Other Gloss Harbin Changchun Shenyang Beijing Heyuan Chaozhou Suzhou Hefei Wuhan ˨˩˧ ˥˧ ˨˩˧ ˥˧ ˥ ˨˩ ˥˥ ˥ ˨˩˧ 'guest' ˦˦ ˦˦ ˧˧ ˥˥ ˥ ˨˩ ˥˥ ˥ ˨˩˧ 'eight' ˨˩˧ ˨˩˧ ˨˩˧ ˨˩˧ ˥ ˨˩ ˥˥ ˥ ˨˩˧ 'north' Northeastern Mandarin, especially in Heilongjiang, contains many loanwords from Russian. Term Pronunciation Meaning Origin 'rutabaga' bryukva 'machine' mashina 'jail' politsiya Northeastern Mandarin lects can be divided into three main groups, namely Hafu (including Harbinnese and Changchunnese), Jishen (including Jilinnese and Shenyangnese), and Heisong. Notably, the extinct Taz language of Russia is also a Northeastern Mandarin language. Beijing is sometimes included in Northeastern Mandarin due to its distribution of the historical dark checked tone, though is listed as its own group by others, often due to its more regular light checked tones.
Jilu Mandarin Jilu Mandarin is spoken in southern Hebei and western Shandong, and is often represented with Jinannese. Notable cities that use Jilu Mandarin lects include Cangzhou, Shijiazhuang, Jinan and Baoding. Characteristically Jilu Mandarin features include merging the dark checked into the dark level tone, the light checked into light level or departing based on the manner of articulation of the initial, and vowel breaking in tong rime series' () checked-tone words, among other features.
Jilu Mandarin can be classified into Baotang, Shiji, Canghui and Zhangli. Zhangli is of note due to its preservation of a separate checked tone.
Jiaoliao Mandarin
Jiaoliao Mandarin is spoken in the Jiaodong and Liaodong Peninsulae, which includes the cities of Dalian and Qingdao, as well as several prefectures along the China-Korea border. Like Jilu Mandarin, its light checked tone is merged into light level or departing based on the manner of articulation of the initial, though its dark checked is merged into the rising. Its initial () terms are pronounced with a null initial (apart from open rime series () finals), unlike the of Northern and Beijing Mandarin.
Based on, for example, the pronunciation of the palatalized initial (), Jiaoliao Mandarin can be divided into Qingzhou, Denglian and Gaihuan areas. Yantai Weihai Qingdao Dalian Gloss 'to hand in' 'to see'
Central Plains and Lanyin Mandarin Central Plains Mandarin is spoken in the Central Plains of Henan, southwestern Shanxi, southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu, as well as most of Shaanxi, southern Ningxia and Gansu and southern Xinjiang, in famous cities such as Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, Luoyang, Xuzhou, Xi'an, Xining and Lanzhou. Central Plains Mandarin lects merge the historical checked tones with a lesser muddy () and clear () initial together with the rising tone, and those with a fully muddy () initial are merged with the light level tone.
Lanyin Mandarin, spoken in northern Ningxia, parts of Gansu, and northern Xinjiang, is sometimes grouped with Central Plains Mandarin due to its merged lesser light and dark checked tones, though it is realised as a departing tone.
Subdivision of Central Plains Mandarin is not fully agreed upon, though one possible subdivision sees 13 divisions, namely Xuhuai, Zhengkai, Luosong, Nanlu, Yanhe, Shangfu, Xinbeng, Luoxiang, Fenhe, Guanzhong, Qinlong, Longzhong and Nanjiang. Lanyin Mandarin, on the other hand, is divided as Jincheng, Yinwu, Hexi, and Beijiang. The Dungan language is a collection of Central Plains Mandarin varieties spoken in the former Soviet Union.
Jin
Jin is spoken in most of Shanxi, western Hebei, northern Shaanxi, northern Henan and central Inner Mongolia, often represented by Taiyuannese. It was first proposed as a lect separate from the rest of Mandarin by Li Rong, where it was proposed as lects in and around Shanxi with a checked tone, though this stance is not without disagreement. Jin varieties also often has disyllabic words derived from syllable splitting (分音詞), through the infixation of .
As per the Language Atlas by Li, Jin is divided into Dabao, Zhanghu, Wutai, Lüliang, Bingzhou, Shangdang, Hanxin, and Zhiyan branches.
Southwestern Mandarin Spoken in Yunnan, Guizhou, northern Guangxi, most of Sichuan, southern Gansu and Shaanxi, Chongqing, most of Hubei and bordering parts of Hunan, as well as Kokang of Myanmar and parts of northern Thailand, Southwestern Mandarin speakers take up the most area and population of all Mandarinic language groups, and would be the eighth most spoken language in the world if separated from the rest of Mandarin. Southwestern Mandarinic tends to not have retroflex consonants, and merges all checked tone categories together. Except for Minchi, which has a standalone checked category, the checked tone is merged with another category. Representative lects include Wuhannese and Sichuanese, and sometimes Kunmingnese.
Southwestern Mandarin tends to be split into Chuanqian, Xishu, Chuanxi, Yunnan, Huguang and Guiliu branches. Minchi is sometimes separated as a remnant of Old Shu.
Huai
Huai is spoken in central Anhui, northern Jiangxi, far western and eastern Hubei and most of Jiangsu. Due to its preservation of a checked tone, some linguists believe that Huai ought to be treated as a top-level group, like Jin. Representative lects tend to be Nanjingnese, Hefeinese and Yangzhounese. The Huai of Nanjing has likely served as a national prestige during the Ming and Qing periods, though not all linguists support this viewpoint.