Author: Alex (Henghao) Zhang
Editor: Colette Bobenrieth
Some people say they speak Chinese. Some people say they speak Mandarin. But what exactly is the difference between the two?
Furthermore, does that difference have anything to do with the difference between Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese?
The answer to this question, simply put, is that “Chinese” (中文) refers to a broad range of languages and dialects sharing the same writing system based on Chinese characters. Conversely, “Mandarin”(普通话/官话) is the most common, standard spoken language in China, based on the dialect originating from the capital city: Beijing.
In addition to the variety of spoken “Chinese”, this range of languages also has two writing systems. In short, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese are two very similar but different ways to write, the first using characters with fewer strokes, and appearing simpler, and the second using the older, more complex version of characters. To illustrate this difference, 开 (Simplified) and 開 (Traditional) are the two ways of writing the word kāi (to open), but Simplified obliterates the outer part (門) of the Traditional character. Traditional Chinese is still used more widely in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, while Simplified Chinese is used in mainland China, Singapore, as well as the United Nations.
On the other hand, “Mandarin”, “Cantonese”, “Shanghainese”, etc., are different dialects/languages spoken in specific regions in China, and which have varying mutual intelligibility with each other. For instance, a Cantonese-speaker from Hong Kong may have difficulty understanding a Mandarin-speaker from Taipei, but they will be able to fully understand each other once they write out what they want to express in Traditional Chinese script. Note that there still exists a unified grammar and official conventions for written Chinese language, as modern standard Chinese (现代标准汉语)––no matter whether written in Simplified or Traditional script––is mainly based on Mandarin.
I find it fascinating that these subtle differences are very China-specific and usually unfamiliar to speakers of English, French, Spanish or any other alphabet-based language. Unlike these languages, the Chinese language is not based on letters or other phonograms; while the written characters in English, French, and most other languages represent sounds, the Chinese characters (hànzì, 汉字) represent meaning or individual words. While most other languages in the world do not distinguish between the 语 (yǔ, “the spoken language”) and the 文 (wén, “the written script”), Chinese is a language that does, thereby confusing many.
Hence, the Chinese language is exceptional among the world’s various languages as it is mainly based on ideograms and logograms, much like the Egyptian hieroglyphs, where each written character represents a word or morpheme. One character alone is enough to convey both the visual image and the mental concept of something, such as 木 (mù) which both means tree and looks like one. However, while the Egyptian hieroglyphs have long been a dead language, the Chinese language is the baseline for all surviving ideographic languages used throughout the world today.
Chinese characters “木” and “森”, meaning tree and forest respectively. (Image source: Pickchur.com)
Therefore, as the same written text in Chinese can be pronounced differently in different dialects, each written element automatically corresponds to a certain meaning but not necessarily to a certain sound. If given the same text, speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, etc., will all be able to understand its meaning when reading it, but they may not be able to understand each other if they read it out loud in their own dialect.
For example, while the same modern standard Chinese phrase “我喜欢你” (meaning “I like you”) is pronounced “wǒ xǐ huān nǐ” in Mandarin, and is pronounced “ngóh héi fūn néih” in Cantonese. Note that these sound very similar, and due to the popularity of Hong Kong cinemas across China in the 80’s-90’s, the Cantonese pronunciations of modern standard Chinese texts are usually easily intelligible to Mandarin speakers.
Interestingly, when intending to specify which pronunciation they mean to use online, Chinese netizens would try to mimic the sound of the Cantonese pronunciation by inventing words in Mandarin that match the Cantonese pronunciation. For instance, to specify that they are expressing “我喜欢你” (“I like you”) by using the Cantonese pronunciation, one would use the phrase “我黑凤梨”, which is pronounced in Mandarin as “wǒ hēi fèng lí”, similar to the Cantonese pronunciation of “我喜欢你” (ngóh héi fūn néih). However, 我黑凤梨” actually means “I, black pineapple”.
Lyrics from the famous Cantonese song, Beyond’s 《喜欢你》, in simplified Chinese (Mandarin pronunciation).
However, one should also note that Chinese dialects may have varying degrees of local vocabulary that is not easily intelligible for speakers of other dialects when spoken. For instance, while “我喜欢你” (“I like you”) can be understood in both Mandarin and Cantonese, this sentence would sound “too formal” to a Cantonese speaker, as 喜欢 (to like) is a modern standard Chinese word usually found in written forms and not often used in daily conversation in Cantonese. In Cantonese, the word 中意 is used instead of 喜欢 to express liking, such as in the more colloquial Cantonese expression “我中意你” (“I like you”), which is pronounced “ngóh jūng yi néih”. This phrasing may be much more difficult for Mandarin speakers to understand directly.
Lastly, in a broader perspective, Old Japanese and Old Korean can also be considered as “part of the Chinese language family” as their writing systems were almost entirely based on Chinese characters, although they evolved to be pronounced drastically different from Mandarin or other Chinese dialects. Theoretically, five hundred years ago, a Chinese-speaking individual and a Japanese-speaking individual would have had almost no difficulty understanding each other if they wrote down what they wanted to express. But, in this case, there was no ambiguity between Chinese vs. Mandarin as the Japanese individual’s speech would definitely not have been Mandarin or any other Chinese dialect, even though they could write “in Chinese.” Yet, as the Chinese characters (Japanese Kanji / Korean Hanja) could not fully represent the sound or grammar of Japanese or Korean, Japan and Korea ended up developing their own syllabaries to better match their spoken language.
Nihon Shoki (日本書紀), the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history, is written entirely in classical Chinese. (Image source: Wikipedia)
Image: “Sinosphere” (literally “Han character cultural circle”) in Japanese Kanji, Vietnamese Chữ Nôm, Korean Hanja, simplified and traditional Chinese, as well as their latinized pronunciations.
Terminology and its English-Chinese translations:
1. Mandarin: 3 possible translations
“普通话”：literally “the common language”, mainly used in mainland China
“国语”：literally “the national language”, mainly used in Taiwan
“官话”：literally “the official language”, a bit archaic term but is sometimes used
2. Chinese (the language): 2 possible translations with subtle differences
“中文”：literally “the Chinese script”, referring more to the written language, but may also include the spoken language as well.
“汉语”：literally “the Han language”, referring more to the spoken language, and includes different Han dialects such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Sichuanese, etc.
3. Modern Standard Chinese: 2 possible translations
“现代标准汉语”：literally “modern standard Han language”, an formal term for the official language. Only refers to Mandarin.
“白话文”：literally “the plain language script”, often used in contrast to “文言文” (Classical Chinese) which was the official written language in China from 5th century BCE to 20th century CE. Usually refers to Mandarin. It can also refer to the written scripts of other modern Han dialects such as Cantonese, Shanghainese, etc., but in this case it would not translate to Modern Standard Chinese.
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