Cheenese Leid

Oreeginally the indigenous leids spoken bi the Han Cheenese in Cheenae, it forms ane o the branches o Sino-Tibetan family o leids. Aboot ae-fift o the warld’s population, or ower ae billion fowk, speaks some variety o Cheenese as their native leid. Internal diveesions o Cheenese are uisually perceived bi their native speakers as dialects o a single Cheenese leid, raither than separate leids, although this identification is considered inappropriate bi some linguists an Sinologists.

Cheenese
汉语／漢語 or 中文 Hànyǔ or Zhōngwén
Hànyǔ (Cheenese) written in Hanzi
Native tae	Fowkrepublic o Cheenae (PRC, commonly kent as Cheenae), Republic o Cheenae (ROC, commonly kent as Taiwan), Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysie, Brunei, the Unitit States, Canadae, the Philippines, Australie, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesie, Mauritius, Peru, an ither places wi Cheenese communities
Native speakers	1.2 billion (2004)
Leid faimily	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Cheenese
Staundart forms	Mandarin
Dialects	Mandarin Jin Huizhou Wu (includin Shanghainese) Hunanese Jiangxinese Hakka Yue (includin Cantonese-Taishanese) Pinghua Shaojiang Northren Min Eastren Min (includin Fuchow) Central Min Pu Xian Soothren Min (includin Amoy, Taiwanese) Teochew (includin Swatow, Chaozhou, Jieyang, pairts o Shanwei/Meizhou)
Writin seestem	Cheenese characters, zhuyin fuhao, pinyin, Xiao'erjing
Offeecial status
Offeecial leid in	Unitit Naitions  Fowkrepublic o Cheenae  Republic o Cheenae (Taiwan)  Singapore (ane o the fower offeecial leids) Wa State, Burma (alangside the Wa leid)  Brunei  Hong Kong (alangside Inglish)  Macau (alangside Portuguese)
Recognised minority leid in	Unitit States (minority an auxiliary)  Malaysie (minority an auxiliary)  Philippines (minority an auxiliary)
Regulatit bi	In the PRC: Naitional Commission on Leid an Script Wirk In the ROC: Naitional Leids Committee In Singapore: Promote Mandarin Cooncil /Speak Mandarin Campaign
Leid codes
ISO 639-1	zh
ISO 639-2	chi (B) zho (T)
ISO 639-3	zho – inclusive code Individual codes: cdo – Min Dong cjy – Jinyu cmn – Mandarin cpx – Pu Xian czh – Huizhou czo – Min Zhong gan – Gan hak – Hakka hsn – Xiang mnp – Min Bei nan – Min Nan wuu – Wu yue – Yue och – Auld Cheenese ltc – Late Middle Cheenese lzh – Classical Cheenese
Linguasphere	79-AAA
Cairt o the Sinophone warld. Information:   Kintras identified Cheenese as a primary, admeenistrative, or native leid   Kintras wi mair nor 5,000,000 Cheenese speakers   Kintras wi mair nor 1,000,000 Cheenese speakers   Kintras wi mair nor 500,000 Cheenese speakers   Kintras wi mair nor 100,000 Cheenese speakers   Major Cheenese speakin settlements

Spoken Cheenese is distinguisht bi its heich level o internal diversity, although aw spoken varieties o Cheenese are tonal an analytic. There atween seiven an thirteen main regional groups o Cheenese (dependin on classification scheme), o whilk the maist spoken, bi far, is Mandarin (aboot 850 million), follaed bi Wu (90 million), Cantonese (Yue) (70 million) an Min (50 million). Maist o thir groups is mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang an the Soothwest Mandarin dialects, mey share common terms an some degree o intelligibility.

Staundart Mandarin (Putonghua / Guoyu / Huayu) is a staundardised form o spoken Cheenese, based on the Beijing dialect, whilk is pairt o a lairger group o North-Eastren an Sooth-Wastren dialects, aften takken as a separate leid. The Mandarin Cheenese leid is referred tae as 官话/官話 Guānhuà or 北方话/北方話 Běifānghuà in Cheenese. Staundart Mandarin is the offeecial leid o the Fowkrepublic o Cheenae (PRC) an the Republic o Cheenae (ROC, an' a' kent as Taiwan), as weel as ane o fower offeecial leids o Singapore. Cheenese—de facto, Staundart Mandarin—is ane o the sax offeecial leids o the Unitit Naitions. O the ither varieties, Stanudart Cantonese is common an influential in Guangdong Province an Cantonese-speakin owerseas communities, an remains ane o the offeecial leids o Hong Kong (thegither wi Inglis) an o Macau (thegither wi Portuguese). Min Nan, pairt o the Min leid group, is widely spoken in soothren Fujian, in neighbourin Taiwan (whaur it is kent as Taiwanese or Hoklo) an in Sootheast Asie (kent as Hokkien in Singapore an Malaysie).