Posted 2017/6/21
with one another, owing to a great variety of dialects within Chinese and great difference among the dialects.
A dialect refers to what people call “local language,” which is in contrast with mandarin. While mandarin is spoken nationwide, a dialect is only spoken in some provinces, a specific province or even a smaller region. A dialect is commonly used only in certain places.
Generally speaking, modern Chinese can be divided into seven major dialects, including a northern dialect and six southern dialects. There is slight difference for the northern dialect, most of which can be identified in pronunciation. Compared with southern dialects, the northern dialect is rather unified. As a result, when Heilongjiang people from northern China are talking with those from Yunnan and Guizhou Provinces in southwestern China (Southwestern Chinese also speak northern dialect), they can roughly understand each other, thus ensuring basic communication. Modern Chinese is roughly divided into seven dialects. Actually, the reality is much more complicated.
Generally speaking, modern Chinese comprises seven dialects:
1. The northern dialect: represented by Beijing dialect, most widely distributed, and spoken by 73% of the entire Han ethnic group.
2. Wu dialect: represented by Suzhou dialect, distributed mainly in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, spoken by 7.2% of the entire Han ethnic group.
3. Xiang dialect: represented by Changsha dialect, distributed mainly in Hunan Province, spoken by 3.2% of the entire Han ethnic group.
4. Gan dialect: represented by Nanchang dialect, distributed mainly in Jiangxi Province, spoken by 3.3% of the entire Han ethnic group.
5. Hakka: represented by Meizhou dialect in Guangdong, distributed mainly in Guangdong, Fujian, Taiwan, Jiangxi, and Guangxi Provinces, spoken by 3.6% of the entire Han ethnic group.
6. Min dialect: distributed mainly in Fujian, Hainan and Taiwan, spoken by 5.7% of the entire Han ethnic group.
7. Yue dialect: represented by Cantonese, distributed mainly in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hongkong and Macao, spoken by 4.0% of the entire Han ethnic group.
