Dialects of China by J. N. Anderson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 31, 1903

Dialects of China

By J. N. Anderson

J. N. ANDERSON

In many particulars China and the Chinese are unknown and misunderstood. This I am confident is especially true of the speech, or language, in use by the four hundred million of the Middle Kingdom. The statement that China’s dialects are well nigh as numerous and as different as are the languages of Europe would be received by most people as erroneous or grossly exaggerated; yet such is the case so far as the spoken language is concerned. The one redeeming feature is that the written language, with its arbitrary characters, is one throughout the empire, being used in city, the same way that all Europe employs only one system of numerical notation,—the Arabic,—which is pronounced differently in each nation, but everywhere conveys the same meaning and possesses the same value. A native of Peking could as little understand one of Canton as a native of Berlin could one of London, or a Spaniard an Italian; but were they to pick up the same book, both could read and get the same meaning with different pronunciation, just as a Frenchman and an Englishman could read the same multiplication table, with the same understanding, but, of course, with different pronunciation.

These so-called dialects are, in truth, not dialects as we use the term, spoken by a few thousand, in a small section of country, but rather full-grown, distinct languages, spoken by millions both high and low. They are, to be sure, cognate languages bearing to one another a relation similar to that which exists between the Arabic, the Hebrew, the Syriac, the Ethiopic, and the other members of the Semitic family; or, again, between English, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, etc.

Broadly speaking, then, there are throughout China no less than eight main divisions of speech, or language, generally called dialects; which are here named according to their supposed relative age: Cantonese, Hakka, Amoy, Swatow, Hainanese, Shanghai, Ningpo, and Mandarin. All these differ so radically that only the term language can properly define them.

It will be seen from this classification that instead of the Mandarin being the oldest, and hence the parent language of China, it is, together with its many cognate branches, the youngest. The Cantonese, instead, is generally regarded as being the oldest and most nearly akin to the ancient language of China (spoken three thousand years ago), while the Hakka also gives evidence of being of a much greater antiquity than the Mandarin. The same may also be said of the Swatow, Amoy, Shanghai, and no doubt of the others. Hence it is generally held that the languages spoken in the southeast of China are more nearly allied to the ancient speech, whereas the Mandarin is a comparatively modern language.

So much for the main divisions of the spoken language of China. It remains now to be said that each of these languages is in turn subdivided into what may more properly be called dialects. Some of these are spoken by tens and even hundreds of thousands of natives, and in other parts of the world would be dignified as languages. Of the province of Kwangtung (which is a fair sample of China) it is said that the speech differs for every one hundred miles to such an extent that even the natives experience considerable difficulty in understanding one another. Nor is this all; for it is well known that these dialects break up into lesser divisions of subdialects. This is often seen in a single city, as is the case in Canton.

In regard to the range of the different languages, we find that the Mandarin is by far the most widespread. In one form or another it is the speech of fourteen or fifteen out of the eighteen provinces which compose China proper. This language is divided into three main branches, known as the northern, southern, and western, having for their respective centers Peking, Nanking, and Chingtu. These divisions of the Mandarin present less variations than similar divisions of other languages, so that a good knowledge of Mandarin gives a person access to the great majority of China’s millions. As this is the language employed by the officials throughout the empire, it is given the name Mandarin.

The other languages of China represent much smaller sections of country, and are employed by much smaller populations. Yet they are of sufficient importance to command respect. For example, the Cantonese, so called from Canton, the metropolis of South China, is spoken by about twenty millions in the Kwangtung and Kwangsi provinces. Like all the other languages, the Cantonese has an almost endless number of dialects and groups of dialects. One group consists of the San-wui, San-ning, Yan-ping, and the Hoi-ping; another consists of the Tung-Kwuse, San-on, Pok-lo, and Tsang-sheng dialects. All these are again subdivided, as, for instance, the San-wui dialect can be divided into three, and this threefold division is still further broken into smaller subdivisions, all of which present many but not insuperable difficulties to an individual of a different dialect. Nor does the matter end with these dialectic differences, since the speech of people on the boats differs from that of people on land, and there are, even, certain words used by women

which the men are never supposed to use.

Several futile attempts have been made by the Chinese themselves to unify this babel of languages, but nothing of permanent value has resulted. This is still a vexed problem, which, if ever solved, will no doubt be solved by Europeans; and in the race for the supremacy, it must be admitted that the Mandarin dialect has by far the best prospect of winning.

Hongkong, China.