CHINA’S DIALECT AREAS

The Chinese language has 8 (eight) major dialects. The eight dialect areas are: North China (for the Northern dialect), Jiangsu-Zhejiang (for the Wu dialect), Hunan (for the Hunan dialect), Jiangxi (for the Jiangxi dialect), Kejia (for the Kejia dialect, a form of Chinese spoken by descendants of the northerners who moved to Guangdong and nearby provinces centuries ago. Northern Fujian (for the Northern Fujian dialect), Southern Fujian (for the Southern Fujian dialect) and Guangdong (for the Yue, another name of Guangdong Province, dialect).

Of all the Chinese-speaking population, about 70% speak the Northern dialect (also known as Beijing dialect or Mandarin). It is the reason why Mandarin has been made the basis of the common speech (Putonghua) and also national language in China.

The vocabulary and grammar are basically the same in all the dialects; the main difference is their pronunciations. In order to remove barriers caused by the dialectal differences and to facilitate and bring about a further political, cultural and economic development, a nation-wide campaign has been done to popularize the common speech.