Are China’s Dialects Dying?
If you’ve ever studied Chinese and then tried to understand someone from Sichuan, or Xinjiang, or pretty much any city, you know that for most people there is not a single language called “Chinese.” Standard Chinese, known as Mandarin in English, or Putonghua (普通话）in, uh, Mandarin, became the official national language of China in 1912 with the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
Yet it wasn’t until much more recently, really with the widespread use of television that featured people speaking in standard Chinese, that Mandarin started to be understood nearly universally. However, understanding and speaking are hardly the same. While most people under 40, even from more remote provinces, tend to speak something that resembles “Chinese,” many people in their 50s and over speak only dialect, or have thick accents.
Often people will talk about Sichuan dialect, or Henan dialect, but even those divisions are really misnomers. I can still remember a few years ago telling my friend that I was having difficulty understanding her husband because he kept speaking in Chengdhua (dialect). She started laughing and explained he could not even speak Chengduhua because he was from Chongqing. The cities are only separated by a few hours, but her response told me all I needed to know about the differences.
Spending my Spring Festival in Ningbo, the generational language gap is amazing clear. Unlike many dialects around the country, Ningbohua is aboout 95% different from Mandarin. It is slightly less similar to “Chinese” than is Shanghainese. I can only pick up tiny bits and pieces of conversations with the older folks (even when they are talking with people my age). Even when they switch to “Mandarin” it can still be an uphill battle slogging through the accents. Yet the children around all speak clear Chinese. Some have accents, but they tend to be mild enough that it’s pretty unnoticeable. Typically they can understand their grandparents, but respond in Mandarin.
All of this makes me wonder what the future of the thousands of local Chinese dialects is. The prominent ones like Shanghainese and Chengduhua are still widely spoken, but as more people marry outside of their provinces, go to schools taught in some semblance of standard Chinese, and watch national broadcasts, it’s clear that the languages are slowly disappearing. From the point of view of a foreigner frustrated that he can’t understand some of the people around the Spring Festival dinner table, the trend has some appeal. But from the point of view of someone who also sees thousands of years of history slipping away, it is sad to see a diverse culture slowly homogenize.
Share This
canrun responds:
Posted: February 10th, 2008 at 11:29 pm →
I’ve been at the in-laws in Liuzhou, Guangxi for the past ten days and have not understood one.bloody.word. Heck, it beats Cantonese any day, though!
Larry responds:
Posted: February 11th, 2008 at 12:20 am →
Cantonese ? Which Cantonese ? In hilly areas, villages separated by a hill speaks differently. Not just pronunciation, but also phraseology. The same food can have different name just across the creek!!
HaoJie responds:
Posted: February 11th, 2008 at 4:07 am →
It was the dream of China’s first Emperor Qin, so why not finally see it happen?
Speaking of which, why isn’t China Qina?
Will Lewis responds:
Posted: February 12th, 2008 at 7:09 am →
Not completely on point, but this recent (and short) Scientific American article, speaks to the evolution of Indo-European languages, and it uses an empirical study to trace their evolution. That new fangled picture box, though, seems to be accelerating the pace of language evolution, what with words adding quite a bit to the entertainment of the moving pictures.
nanheyangrouchuan responds:
Posted: February 13th, 2008 at 3:01 pm →
These aren’t dialects (like different versions of English, of which American is the most powerful and correct!
These are literally different languages dating back to neolithic times that represented other civilizations.
Who cares about emporer qin’s dreams, he was a complete nut job, drinking mercury for long life, what a boob.
NPR had a story about an old woman who had recently died, she was the last member of a small branch of the Inuit and she took much of her language to the grave, linguists had manage to record alot but only in dictionary terms.
I imagine that this is happening alot in China, especially when Beijing is so bent on “harmonizing” it will destroy millenia of human heritage to achieve its sick visions. The only bright spot is that economically and politically powerful areas like Guangzhou, HK, Shanghai and Chongqing will see their dialects live on. Last time I was in Guangzhou the subway had two languages for the PA, english and cantonese, same with HK. As long as young, educated people have enough pride in their local lingo to use it on a daily basis, these languages won’t die.
Pang Hui responds:
Posted: February 17th, 2008 at 3:33 pm →
1. Survival the fittest.
2. If the kids you met in Ningbo had not been taught standard Chinese in school, they may be confined to Ningbo for the rest of their lives, which, I’m afraid, is not what they want.
3. Glad to talk to you again.
jing wa su responds:
Posted: June 14th, 2008 at 8:43 am →
Cantonese where ever it is spoken, no matter up the creek or on the island, or in a country far in the west is a very old language its even older than mandarin and is still used in lots of places even in Latin American countries where there are several Chinatown and it is spoken more than other dialects so don’t worry the language will survive through out the generations and will not be replaced. I personally think that Cantonese sounds way better than others thank you it sounds more poetic and very rhythmic 苏进华