Jayanti Dasgupta

Major varieties of Chinese include: P?t?nghuà (Mandarin) Mandarin (p?t?nghuà/huáy?/guóy?) Mandarin is spoken by possibly more people than any other language: over 1.3 billion. It is the main language of government, the media and education in China and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages in Singapore. Further details Wú Wúy? Wú is spoken in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and in Shanghai and Hong Kong by about 90 million people. Major dialects of Wu include Shanghainese and Suzhou. Further details of Shanghainese Yuè (Cantonese) Cantonese (gwóngdùngwá/yuhtyúh) Cantonese is spoken by about 70 million people in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces and Hainan island in China, and also in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia and many other countries Further details M?n Nán (Southern Min) mínnánhuà (bân-lâm-oe) M?n Nán is in the south of Fujian province, Guangdong province, southern Hainan Island, in the south of Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces, and also in Taiwan, Singapore and many other countries. Further details Jìny? jìny?/sh?nx?huà Jinyu is spoken mainly in Shanxi province and also in Shanxi and Henan provinces by about 45 million people. It used to be considered as a dialect of Mandarin, but is now thought to be a separate variety of Chinese. Hakka hak ga va (kèji?huà) Hakka is spoken in south eastern China, parts of Taiwan and in the New Territories of Hong Kong. There are also significant communities of Hakka speakers in such countries as the USA, French Guiana, Mauritius and the UK. Further details Xi?ng (Hunanese) xi?ngy?/húnánhuà Xiang (Hunanese) is spoken by about 25 million people in China, mainly in Hunan province, and also in Sichuan, Guangxi and Guangdong provinces. Further details Gàn gàny?/ji?ngx?huà Gan is spoken by about 20.5 million people in Jiangxi province and in parts of Hubei, Anhui, Hunan and Fujian provinces. Further details Mín B?i (Northern Min) mínb?ihuà Mín B?i has about 10.3 million speakers mainly in Northern Fujian Province and Singapore. Mín is the Classical Chinese name for Fujian province and B?i means 'north' or 'northern'. Mín D?ng (Eastern Min) mínd?nghuà Mín D?ng is spoken mainly in east central Fujian Province and also in Brunei, Indonesia (Java and Bali), Malaysia (Peninsular), Singapore, Thailand. The approximate number of native speakers is 9.5 million. Mín Zh?ng (Central Min) mínzh?nghuà Mín Zh?ng is spoken mainly in central Fujian Province by about 3.1 million people. Dungan (?????? ????) Dungan is spoken by the Muslim Hui people in China, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. There are approximately 50,000 speakers. Dungan is the only variety of Chinese not with Chinese characters. Instead it is written with the Cyrillic alphabet. Further details P?-Xián p?xiánhuà P?-Xián is spoken by about 2.6 million people mainly in east central Fujian Province, and and also in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the USA. Hu?zh?u hu?zh?uhuà Hu?zh?u is spoken in southern Anhui and northern Zhejiang provinces. It used to be considered as a dialect of Mandarin, but is now thought to be a separate variety of Chinese.