Mandarin

This page contains Chinese characters in C-W communication traditional or simplified like their transcription in pinyin. See ithelp on Unicode or test your navigator if posting is incoherent.
Mandarin (???/??? /p?t?nghuà)
Spoken in China, Taiwan, Singapore
Area Asia of the East
A number of speakers 885 million
Classification 1
Typology to supplement
Classification by family
Official statute and codes of language
Official language of China, Taiwan, Singapore
Governed by
ISO 639-1 zh
ISO 639-2 chi (B)/ zho (T)
ISOSAY 639-3 cmn (in)
SIL CHN
Sample

Article first of the Declaration of the rights of man (to see the French text)

? ? ?

? ? ? ? ? ?, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??

</div>

See also: language, list languages, code color


Mandarin, ??? /??? p?t?nghuà ("common language") or?? /?? hàny? ("language of Hàn", dominant ethnos group in China), is language official in People's Republic of China, with Taiwan and with Singapore. It is written by means of sinogrammes and one it transcribed generally maintaining in pinyin (as in the majority of the articles of Wikipédia), but also in bopomofo.

Chinese Mandarin (very often named simply Chinese) is the language most spoken in the world. However, even if it is taught today with all Chinese, the older Chinese do not speak all Mandarin but about others Chinese languages, like Cantonese, or others like Tibetan. This language, that the communist leaders indicated like common language of their whole nation (from where the term of??? p?t?nghuà, "common language"), was initially that of Chinese communities of the North of the country. Although also having an old literary history, it does not derive from traditional language arts person and artificial (?? wényán), given up in 1919 after usebeing used as official language written and arts person during more than two thousand years: indeed, it is of one vernacular language spoken (?? báihuà, "simple language") that Mandarin proceeds. In 1956, it is the alternative of Peijing who is promoted with the row of official language. One often regards it as the standard alternative of this language. Mandarin of Peijing however has specificities (like the use attends rétroflexion vocalic noted by means of suffix - er) and it is often said that the Pekinese one have a "accent". Mandarin of a Taiwanese will be thus somewhat different from that of such Pekinese.

Apart from China, important Chinese communities share this language, who is taught in many colleges and universities all over the world.

Like the other Chinese languages, it is one language with tone. It uses four tonèmes, who change the direction of the word, high and dish, amount, descending then tonic slightly (modulated) and going down.

The tone are represented in People's Republic of China by the accents on the vowels of the syllables of the writing romanized said pinyin and, with Taiwan, by the same accents on graphèmes bopomofo. One uses also the number of the ton at the end of syllable when the technical constraints prevent from entering or to read the accents.

Synopsis

Names

The French term comes from Portuguese mandarim (of Malayan mentari or mantari, itself borrowed from Sanskrit mantrin-, meaning " minister "); it is the translation of Chinese?? /?? gu?nhuà, who means "language of the mandarins literally" (magistrates of the Empire). The term gu?nhuà is often regarded as an antiquated name by the sinophones of today.

In RPC, the language is named??? /??? p?t?nghuà, "common language" or?? /?? hàny?, "language of Han ". With Taiwan, the language is officially named?? /?? guóy?, "national language". In the Chinese communities abroad, particularly in the South-East Asia, the language is known like?? /?? huáy?, "Chinese language" (?/? huá is a term indicating mainly the Chinese culture). To note that although the term of hàny? that is to say commonly used to refer to Mandarin, this terminology is sometimes disputed by the speakers of other alternatives of Chinese, who find that the name implies that this language would be closer toformer Chinese that other dialects. Certain speakers of hakka, for example, affirm rightly that their own dialect should be precisely named hàny? because its structure is closer to that of the old texts.

The standard form of Mandarin is based on the pronunciation specific to the speakers of Peijing (cf Pronunciation of Mandarin), without certain phonetic characteristics. There is indeed a great diversity in the regional pronunciations, for two reasons mainly. First is that the geographical surface where this language is mother tongue majority of the speakers are if wide that one meets necessarily variations of pronunciations from one zone to another. These regional differences are of comparable nature that those which one hears in the various French-speaking areas of France, from Belgium, from Switzerland, from Africa, from Quebec, etc. The second reason is which a many speakers have Mandarin like second language. These speakers it contaminate thus frequently with the phonological system of their own mother tongue. Mandarin of Taiwan, for example, became a relatively homogeneous alternative of standard Mandarin as defined by the educational authorities.

Mandarin is sometimes still named in an abstract way Pekinese (???/??? Be?j?ng huà, ???? Be?j?ng f?ngyán, "regional language of Peijing", or??? J?ng piànzi). In Taiwan, partisans ofindependence of Taiwan frequently insist so that one uses the term of Be?j?ng huà in the place of?? /?? guóy? in order to promote the idea that it Taiwanese should be their national language.

History

Chinese languages developed starting from a named common language antiquated Chinese.

Majority of the alive Chinese in China north, with Sichuan, and, in fact, in a large arc of active circle of the North-East (Mandchourie) in south-west (Yunnan), use several dialects of Mandarin as mother tongue. The prevalence of Mandarin in all China of north is mainly the result of the geography, in particular plains of the north of China. In comparison, the mountainous and river zones of China of the south knew a greater linguistic diversity. The presence of Mandarin in Sichuan is largely due to an epidemic to XIIe century. This epidemic, perhaps Black Death, having decimated the population of this area, it allowed later a colonization by the Chinese of the north of China and, indirectly, explain the establishment of a language of North in a southernmost area.

Until the middle of the XXe century, the majority of the alive Chinese in China of the south did not speak Mandarin. However, in spite of social co-education between members of the administration and various common peoples speaking Chinese dialects, Pekinese Mandarin had become the dominant language at least under Qing dynasty, whose official language was it Manchu. Since the XVIIe century, the Empire had created academies of " orthoepy ", ????/???? zh?ngy?n sh?yuàn, in an attempt to return the pronunciation conforms to the standard of Peijing. Their success had proven very limited.

This situation developed with the creation (in RPC and in Taiwan) of a system of education of elementary school reserved for the teaching of Mandarin. Consequently, Mandarin became the language most usually spoken by the majority of the inhabitants of continental China and of Taiwan. With Hong Kong, however, the language of education and the formalities remains it Cantonese, although Mandarin is increasingly present.

Mandarin and Pekinese

A common error consists in believing that Mandarin would be it Pekinese dialect. It is true that the standard pronunciation and that grammar of the taught language be based mainly on the dialect of Peijing, but concept of standard Mandarin remain a rather vague concept because it represents a whole of languages rather manufactured and imposed to the people, with which one requires to forget his usual regional pronunciations. Vast surface which extends from Mandchourie in the North-East of China until Yunnan in south-west, the mother tongue of the majority of the inhabitants is Mandarin (in its general direction), but these mother tongues differ all in the pronunciation, the vocabulary and even sometimes grammar, taught language.

Specifically, in accordance with the language of the natives of Peijing, the majority of the speakers conform well to the standard pronunciation of the consonants rétroflexes (noted by zh, CH, HS and laughed in pinyin), but they often add it - er final ? commonly used like diminutive ? with words that other speakers would leave just as it is. This dialectal feature is named?? /?? éry?n, "pronunciation with - er ". There also exists of many elements lexical largely attested in the Pekinese zone but extremely rare elsewhere. In more of all these differences, as it is the case for the Western languages, there is more one accent clean in Peijing, depending on the social standing, of education, etc.

These some exceptions put aside, the local pronunciation of the natives of Peijing generally conforms very well to the standard pronunciation. In general, the local pronunciations of the natives of other surfaces of Mandarin are different more especially as they are far away from the capital. The people who live in Tianjing have also a rather standard pronunciation. The people who live in the North-East of China usually transform the syllables commencant by what the pinyin note J in syllables starting with G or K (in accordance with the etymology, remainder) and have difficulties in pronounce the sounds commencant by R. The people who live in the surfaces more in the south often transform the consonants rétroflexes standard Mandarin: zh becomes Z, CH becomes C, HS becomes S and R decide rather like Z. This remark is also true for Mandarin spoken in Taiwan. In certain areas the speakers do not make the distinction enters L and N (mainly when they have Cantonese like mother tongue), and in others the velar final ng is changed into N.

Moreover, the taught language employs many tone light (an absence of tonème who makes the syllable less distinct; cf. Pronunciation of Mandarin) for the second syllables of made up words (to consult Sinogramme), whereas in many areas, in particular in the south, the tone of the two syllables is clearly marked.

Grammatical and lexical variations

From an official point of view, there are two mandarins, since the government of Peijing refers to that of the continent as being it??? /??? p?t?nghuà, "common language", whereas the government of Taipei name its official language?? /?? kuo-yü (in pinyin: guóy?), "national language". Officially, p?t?nghuà includes the pronunciations of several areas, whereas it kuo-yü is based theoretically on only phonemes Mandarin of Peijing. The comparison between dictionaries of the two zones shows that there are some substantial differences. However, the two versions of school Mandarin are rather often different from Mandarin such as really spoken, which is subject to the influence of regional variations.

Moreover, all the alternatives of Mandarin are not directly mutually understandable. To be more precise, according to SIL ([ 1 ]):

"varieties of Mandarin of the lower plate of Shaanxi are not directly understandable with the putonghua. Varieties of Mandarin of Guilin and of Kunming are basically inintelligibles to the speakers of the putonghua. "

However, the speakers educated alive in the cities of South-west such as Guilin and Kunming speak one p?t?nghuà enough correct in more of their mother tongue.

In China of North, with Sichuan, and in other surfaces where language of North is spoken, what one would name "local alternatives of Mandarin" is in fact one of the mother tongues speakers of these zones. The period of education of mass of Mandarin did not erase these former regional differences. In the South, the interaction between Mandarin and the other Chinese languages created local versions of language of North, who are rather different from standard official Mandarin both for the pronunciation grammar. For example, Mandarin spoken in Taiwan by the students who speak Taiwanese (a dialect of min of the south) or hakka as mother tongue is generally spoken with a grammar and an accent which make it different from kuo-yü standard, giving rise to a version of Mandarin commonly named Mandarin of Taiwan.

Although Mandarin is regarded as the standard dialect, to speak Mandarin without local accent or to speak Mandarin in the place about the local dialect can make become the speakers for a foreigner or somebody ofabnormal. For this reason majority of the speakers, political leaders including, does not force itself to speak Mandarin with the official standard accent.

Systems of transcription

Since the first Westerners entered to China and tried to learn Mandarin (or, rather, to translate the Bible in a will of evangelization) the need for one appeared romanisation allowing to note them Chinese characters. Since, many systems of transcription phonetics were proposed. To be accepted the overall first is the system known as Lagging-Giles, named according to its inventors of XIXE century. This system is always used today, but not in continental China. It meets especially in old editions of Western books, like for a rather great number of Chinese terms lexiconized in the Western languages. The French School of the Far East also used a named system EFEO, now null and void.

With XXE century, the Chinese linguists proposed many systems of transcription. One of them proposes even new alphabet syllabic, it is the????/???? zh?y?nfúhào, "phonetic symbols" (or, in a less formal way, bopomofo). Most profitable of these systems is however the????/???? hàny? p?ny?n, "method to spell Mandarin phonetically", more often named p?ny?n, who was accepted like official system of transcription for the Chinese language by the RPC in 1958 and then by The United Nations like by other international organizations. During the Fifties, one even thought in China, without success, to replace the Chinese characters by the p?ny?n. The thing is indeed not feasible, because of the many cases ofhomonymies in the language, homonymies due to particular syllabic structure of Mandarin.

One finds this diversity of systems of transcription also in Taiwan. Did the central government of Taiwan indeed adopt it???? t?ngyòng p?ny?n in 2002 (alternative of the p?ny?n of RPC) while allowing the local governments not to apply this decision to prefer their own system of romanisation. zh?y?n is used for the training of the pronunciation of the characters and grammar in the schools. The efforts aiming at replacing this system in favour of the p?ny?n were blocked because, mainly, dissensions on the type of p?ny?n to be used in replacement as well as effort very great to provide to correct all the teaching documents existing and to reform the teaching body completely.

Among the other systems of romanisation, one also counts:

Pronunciation

To consult Pronunciation of Mandarin. for a complete article

Mandarin, following the example others Chinese languages, is one language with tone (four) primarily monosyllabic (i.e. the unit morphemic, and not lexical, is syllable). Moreover, it is characterized by a set of oppositions between the consonants not relating to the difference of voicing (as in French, where [p] is opposed to [B], [F] with [v], etc.) but of aspiration: B = [p] is opposed to p = [p?], zh [??] with CH [???], etc. There does not exist, in addition to for the vowels, that few sound phonemes (of which the emission is accompanied by vibrations of the glottis, like [Z] or [G] in French). In fact, an Chinese will have evil to differentiate cake, catho and gift.

In addition, one notes a significant number of consonants rétroflexes, i.e. marked with the point of the language going up against the hard palate and of palatal consonants. Moreover, there are the numerous ones diphthongs ([have], [wa], etc.) and triphthongs ([wai], yao [ja?], etc.). Certain syllables do not have a vowel but a consonant vocalized : if [S?], [??] (to note that the p?ny?n represents this absence of vowel by the letter I after the consonants which cannot be followed sound [I]).

Lastly, the structure of syllable is very rigid: one can obtain only approximately four hundred different syllables (without counting the tone), no syllable can start with the phoneme ng [?] or by two consonants (PS [PS] like KH [kx] are impossible), any syllable is to end in a vowel, N [N] or ng [?], certain continuations of phonemes are prohibited ([fi], [to] or [nw??] are not allowed), etc.

Adaptation of the foreign words

Chinese having few possibilities as for the possible syllables, the speakers of Mandarin have great difficulties in pronounce the words of other languages, all the more when they are rich in continuations of consonants (frequent in the languages of Europe); the syllables which do not conform to the model of Mandarin cannot moreover not be directly written in Chinese characters. There is thus an official system making it possible to represent them lexical loans by using Chinese characters, who gives however sometimes strange results. It functions according to two extremes: that is to say the word is translated or copied lexeme by lexeme, either it is transcribed phonetically by means of characters chosen carefully (from which the direction does not have however to be too far away from the context or of which them connotations are positive when it acts of a proper name). There is also a series of natures stripped of real direction which is used only for the transcription (in the beginning, that of terms Sanskrits clean with Buddhism, frequent in average Chinese). The article Sinogramme detail also this question.

For example, the word telephone was transcribed by delüfeng in the Twenties, but was changed later into a purely Chinese form, ?? /?? diànhuà, "electric word". The word for microphone, however, remained??? /??? màikèf?ng who, character with character, any direction (either "corn does not have", "gram", "wind"). To note that picturesque translation?? /?? huàt?ng, "tube of word", tendency has to replace the purely phonetic transcription. Because of the proximity enters written Chinese and them kanji Japanese, Mandarin borrowed many words Japanese drawn from European words adopted at the end from XIXE century and at the beginning of XXe.

This method of incorporation of the foreign words with lexicon Chinese not being practical, it is easier for the Chinese to create neologisms to borrow foreign words directly. These neologisms are generally polysyllabic. Often, one of the syllables indicates it topic General of made up word, process which points out the way in which many Chinese words are themselves made up. For example, the word for "train", ?? /?? hu?ch?, mean "vehicle literally (functioning with) fire". In the same way, the whole of the technical and scientific expressions international derived from Latin and of Greek does not find itself in Mandarin. The terms are generally translated and not transcribed.

Lexicon

French loans

French relatively few words borrowed from Mandarin or the other Chinese languages. Let us note the words however litchi, ginseng (literally "plant-man"), mah-jong ("I gain"), and kaolin. This last word comes from two Chinese words meaning "raised hill", according to the place where the rock was entrayait.

Other words keep a strong resemblance but evolved/moved slightly with the languages of the people which brought them to France, like star anise (bajiu, by Persan), tofu (doufu, by Japanese) or soya (shiyu, also by the intermediary of Japanese) or ketchup (koechiap, in the dialect ofAmoy by Malayan and itEnglish).

Related articles

Resources for students

Dictionaries on line

Gate Chinese World - Reach the articles of Wikipédia concerning the Chinese world.


 

  > French to English > fr.wikipedia.org (Machine translated into English)