List of varieties of Chinese

Distribution of Chinese dialect groups within the Greater China Region

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This video explains the differences in pronunciation and vocabulary among Mandarin Dialects (Std. Mandarin, Sichuan Mandarin and NE Mandarin) and Cantonese.

The following is a list of Sinitic languages and their dialects. For a traditional dialectological overview, see also varieties of Chinese.

Classification[]

Linguists classify these varieties as the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Within this broad classification, there are between seven and fourteen dialect groups, depending on the classification.

The conventionally accepted set of seven dialect groups first appeared in the second edition of the dialectology handbook edited by Yuan Jiahua (1961). In order of decreasing number of speakers, they are:

1. Guan (including Beijing and Nanjing variants)
2. Wu (including the Shanghainese and Suzhounese variants)
3. Yue (including the Cantonese and Taishanese variants)
4. Min (including the Hokkien and Fuzhounese variants)
5. Hakka (Kejia)
6. Xiang (Hunanese)
7. Gan (Jiangxinese)

The revised classification of Li Rong, used in the Language Atlas of China (1987) added three further groups split from these:

1. Mandarin → Jin
2. Wu → Huizhou
3. Yue → Pinghua
4. Min
5. Hakka (Kejia)
6. Xiang
7. Gan

Summary[]

The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2019) and were rounded:^[2][3][4]

List of languages and dialects[]

In addition to the varieties listed below, it is customary to speak informally of dialects of each province (such as Sichuan dialect and Hainan dialect). These designations do not generally correspond to classifications used by linguists, but each nevertheless has characteristics of its own.

Gan[]

• 赣语/贛語

Gan in Mainland China.

The main dialect areas of Gan in Mainland China.

Mandarin[]

• 官话/官話

The main dialect areas of Mandarin in Mainland China.

The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2019) and were rounded:^[5]

Hui[]

• 徽语/徽語

Sometimes subcategory of Wu.

Jin[]

• 晋语/晉語

The main dialect areas of Jin in China.

Sometimes a subcategory of Mandarin.

Hakka[]

• 客家话/客家話

Min[]

• 闽语/閩語

The main dialect areas of Min in Mainland China, Hainan and Taiwan.

Wu[]

• 吴语/吳語

The main dialect areas of Wu in Mainland China.

Xiang[]

• 湘语/湘語

Language map of Hunan Province.
New Xiang is orange, Old Xiang yellow, and Chen-Xu Xiang red. Non-Xiang languages are (clockwise from top right) Gan (purple), Hakka (pink along the right), Xiangnan Tuhua (dark green), Waxianghua (dark blue on the left), and Southwestern Mandarin (light blue, medium blue, light green on the left; part of dark green).

Yue[]

• 粤语/粵語

Distribution of Pinghua and Yue dialect groups in Guangxi and Guangdong^[8]

Guibei (N Pinghua)      Gou–Lou      Guinan (S Pinghua)      Guangfu (Yuehai)      Siyi      Yong–Xun      Gao–Yang      Qin–Lian      Wu–Hua

The main dialect areas of Cantonese (Yue) in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau.

Pinghua[]

• 平话/平話

Ba-Shu[]

• 巴蜀语/巴蜀語

Other[]

The non-Min dialects of Hainan were once considered Yue, but are now left unclassified:

Mixed languages[]

In addition to the varieties within the Sinitic branch of Sino-Tibetan, a number of mixed languages also exist that comprise elements of one or more Chinese varieties with other languages.

List in the Atlas[]

The extensive 1987 Language Atlas of China groups Chinese local varieties into the following units:^[9]

• Supergroup (大区 dàqū), of which there are but two: Mandarin and Min
• Group (区 qū), corresponding to the varieties of Chinese of the ISO standard
• Subgroup (片 piàn), which may be mutually unintelligible with other subgroups^[10]
• Cluster (小片 xiǎopiàn), which may be mutually unintelligible with other clusters
• Local dialect (点 diǎn), which are the dialects sampled by the Atlas

In the list below,^[11] local dialects are not listed. Groups are in bold, subgroups are numbered, and clusters are bulleted.

Unclassified topolects

• Shehua (the Chinese variety now spoken by the She people)
• Danzhou dialect
• Xianghua
• Shaoguan Tuhua

See also[]

• Varieties of Chinese
• Written Chinese
• Dialect (discussion of human)

Notes and references[]