The Chinese language is the key element of the Chinese culture and it is quite important to understand the history and background of Chinese culture itself to fully understand the evolution of the Chinese language. Chinese culture has evolved as a rich culture with many achievements to its credit. Ancient China had land and water trade and commerce exchanges with Japan, Korea, India, Persia and Arabia.
Linguistic experts classify modern Chinese as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family, but some believe that it actually evolved from the Proto-Sino-Tibetan family. The relation between Chinese and other Sino-Tibetan languages is an area of active research. The Chinese language is believed to have had different phases in its evolution classified in terms of Old Chinese sometimes known as ‘Archaic Chinese’. It was common during the Zhou Dynasty. The Middle Chinese classification relates to the use and evolution of the language in the Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties. The development and evolution of the modern spoken Chinese language has been complex.
The need to establish an official national language was felt as early as the 17th century. The concept of national language coalesced around 1910. In the 1913, the Ministry of Education convened a Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation to establish a standard national tongue. Due to the domination of the numerically superior Mandarin-speaking delegates, the Peking dialect was chosen for the general foundation of the new national language 'guoyu' (national speech). It embodies the pronunciation of Peking, the grammar of the Mandarin dialects, and the vocabulary of modern vernacular Chinese literature, but features of various local dialects were also incorporated. Guoyu is now the official language of mainland China, Taiwan and one of the official languages of Singapore. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 it was renamed to putonghua (common language). In 1956, it became the medium of instruction in all schools nationwide and a policy of promoting its use began. It is now the most widely used form of spoken Chinese. In Taiwan, it still goes under the name of guoyu, or 'national speech'. In the West it is generally referred to Mandarin.
Approximately 95 percent of the Chinese population speaks Chinese, as opposed to the non-Chinese languages such as Tibetan, Mongolian, Lolo, Miao, and Tai spoken by minorities. The vast majority of the Chinese-speaking population is in China (over 980 million), Hong Kong, and Taiwan (19 million), but substantial numbers are also found throughout the whole of Southeast Asia, especially in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Important Chinese-speaking communities are also found in many other parts of the world, especially in Europe, North and South America, and the Hawaiian Islands.
The Chinese population has a strong presence in North America. They have a population of over 5,920,000 in United States and of over 3 million in Canada. The numbers are growing each year and the Chinese population is gaining prominence because of the emergence of the Chinese economy and also due to the increased volume of trade and bilateral relations with North America. Therefore it is becoming even more important to communicate effectively and efficiently and bridge the gap in linguistic communication.
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