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General situation of language and writing in China
There are 56 ethnic groups in China, which is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-dialect and multi-lingual country. According to The Language of China[1]Atlas of Chinese Language[2]There are more than 130 languages and about 30 languages in China.
The national common language is Mandarin and standard Chinese characters.
Chinese is the language of the Han nationality,[3]It is the most widely used language in China, one of the major languages in the world and one of the six official working languages of the United Nations.[4]In China, except for the Han nationality, which accounts for 91.51% of the total population, all ethnic minorities use Chinese to varying degrees, and some ethnic groups also switch to Chinese.[5]Modern Chinese can be divided into standard language (Mandarin) and dialect.
Putonghua takes Beijing pronunciation as the standard pronunciation, northern dialect as the basic dialect, and typical modern vernacular writings as the grammatical norm. The Constitution of People’s Republic of China (PRC) stipulates: "The state promotes Putonghua, which is commonly used throughout the country." On October 31st, 2000, the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on National Common Language and Characters confirmed Putonghua as the national common language.
Chinese dialects are usually divided into seven dialects: Northern Dialect, Wu Dialect, Hunan Dialect, Gan Dialect, Hakka Dialect, Guangdong Dialect and Min Dialect. There are several power languages and many kinds of "local languages" in each dialect area. Among them, the northern dialect with the largest number of users is divided into four sub-dialects: Northern Mandarin, Northwest Mandarin, Southwest Mandarin and Xiajiang Mandarin.[6]
Among the 55 ethnic minorities in China, which account for 8.49% of the total population, most of the Hui and Manchu have switched to Chinese, and the other 53 ethnic groups have their own languages.[7]
In terms of language families, the languages spoken by 56 ethnic groups in China belong to five major language families: Sino-Tibetan, Altai, austronesian family, South Asian and Indo-European. Sino-Tibetan language family is divided into three language families: Chinese, Tibetan-Burmese, Miao-Yao and Zhuang-Dong. Belonging to the Tibeto-Burman language family are Zang, Jiarong, Menba, Cangla, Luoba, Qiang, Pumi, Dulong, Jingpo, Yi, Lisu, Hani, Lahu, Bai, Naxi, Jino, Nusu, Anong, Rouruo, Tujia, Zaiwa and Aru. Miao, Bunu, Mian, She and other languages belong to Miao-Yao language family. Zhuang, Buyi, Dai, Dong, Shui, Mulao, Maonan, Raja, Li, Gelao and other languages belong to the Zhuang and Dong language families. Altaic language family is divided into three language families: Mongolian, Turkic, Manchu-Tungusic. Mongolian languages include Mongolian, Daur, Dongxiang, Yugur, Tu and Baoan in the east. Turkic languages include Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz, Uzbek, tatar, Salar, Yugur in the west and Tuwa. Manchu, Xibe, Hezhe, Ewenki, Oroqen and other languages belong to Manchu-Tungusic language family. Austronesian family belongs to Gaoshan languages, and Hui dialect of Hui nationality. Wa, De ‘ang, Brown, Kemu and other languages belong to the Monkhmer family of South Asian language family. Belonging to Indo-European language family are Russian belonging to Slavic language family and Tajik belonging to Iranian language family.[8]There is no consensus on the families of some languages, such as Korean and Beijing.
Chinese characters are written to record Chinese.[9]It is a common language used by the Han nationality, and some nationalities have completely used Chinese characters. At the same time, Chinese characters are the common language of all ethnic groups in China. Chinese characters were produced in the Neolithic Age before 3000 BC.[10]The Chinese characters used now are gradually evolved from ancient Chinese characters. The Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the National Common Language and Characters determines the standardized Chinese characters as the national common characters.
Since the 1950s, the state has sorted out and simplified the existing Chinese characters, and formulated and published the first batch of variant forms, simplified Chinese characters, modern Chinese common characters, modern Chinese common characters, printed common Chinese characters, and Chinese character order (stroke order) specification for GB13000.1 character set. On June 5, 2013, the Notice of the State Council on Publishing the List of Chinese Characters with General Norms (Guo Fa [2013] No.23) was issued. The List of Chinese Characters with General Norms is an important standard for Chinese characters, which implements the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on National Common Languages and Characters and meets the needs of Chinese characters application in various fields of society in the new situation. After the publication of the General Specification Chinese Character List, the use of Chinese characters in the general application field of society should be based on the General Specification Chinese Character List, and the original related word lists should be stopped.
Before the founding of People’s Republic of China (PRC), 21 ethnic minorities had their own scripts. After the founding of People’s Republic of China (PRC), the government has worked out writing schemes for Zhuang, Buyi, Yi, Miao, Hani, Lisu, Naxi, Dong, Wa and Li nationalities.[11]
Judging from the writing system and letter form, Chinese characters are ideographic, syllabic and ideographic in terms of writing types, and there are ancient Indian letters, Uighur letters, Arabic letters, square letters, Latin letters and Slavic letters in terms of letter writing system.[12]
On February 11th, 1958, the Fifth Session of the First National People’s Congress passed a resolution to promulgate the Chinese Pinyin Scheme. The Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the National Common Language stipulates: "The Chinese Pinyin Scheme is used as a spelling and phonetic notation tool for the national common language. The Chinese Pinyin Scheme is a unified standard for the spelling of Roman letters in Chinese’s names, place names and Chinese documents, and is used in areas where Chinese characters are inconvenient or unusable. Primary education should be taught in Chinese Pinyin. "
The Constitution of People’s Republic of China (PRC) stipulates that "all ethnic groups have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages". The Law on Regional National Autonomy in People’s Republic of China (PRC) stipulates that "the organs of self-government of ethnic autonomous areas guarantee the freedom of all ethnic groups to use and develop their own spoken and written languages", "the organs of self-government of ethnic autonomous areas educate and encourage cadres of all ethnic groups to learn from each other" and "educate cadres and masses of all ethnic groups to trust each other, learn from each other, help each other and respect each other’s spoken and written languages". The Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on National Common Language and Characters stipulates that "the state insists on popularizing Putonghua and promoting standardized Chinese characters" and that "the use of minority languages and characters is based on the relevant provisions of the Constitution, the Law on Regional National Autonomy and other laws". The implementation of these laws by the state plays an important role in safeguarding national unity and national unity, building a harmonious language life and promoting economic, social and cultural development.
Over the years, China has persistently promoted the national common spoken and written language. According to the sampling survey conducted by the Institute of Language and Written Application of the Ministry of Education in 2010, the national Putonghua penetration rate reached over 70%, and the proportion of literate people using standardized Chinese characters exceeded 95%.
On December 4, 2012, the Ministry of Education and state language commission jointly issued the Outline of the National Medium-and Long-Term Reform and Development Plan for Language and Literature (2012-2020) (hereinafter referred to as the Outline). The Outline puts forward the overall goal of language and writing work: "By 2020, Putonghua will be basically popularized throughout the country, the standardization of social application of Chinese characters will be further improved, and Chinese Pinyin will play a better role. The standard of language and writing basically meets the needs of society, and the level of informatization has been further improved. The language and writing social management service capacity has been comprehensively improved, and the social management service system has been basically completed. The scientific protection of the spoken and written languages of all ethnic groups has been strengthened. The role of language and writing in inheriting and carrying forward Chinese excellent culture has been further exerted. The national language strength has been significantly enhanced, the national language ability has been significantly improved, and the social language life has developed harmoniously. " The Outline defines seven major tasks of language and writing in the new period: vigorously popularizing and popularizing the national common language and writing, promoting the standardization and informatization construction of language and writing, strengthening the supervision and inspection and service of social application of language and writing, improving the application ability of national language and writing, scientifically protecting the languages and writing of all ethnic groups, promoting and spreading the excellent Chinese culture and strengthening the legal system construction of language and writing. Six key tasks and sixteen measures were determined, including popularization, infrastructure construction, supervision service, capacity improvement, scientific protection and cultural inheritance. Put forward "innovative ideas", "innovative working mechanism", "innovative management service" andEight innovation and guarantee measures, such as opening wider to the outside world, strengthening talent guarantee, improving scientific research level, increasing publicity and ensuring fund investment. The release of the Outline is an important measure to implement the spirit of the 18th CPC National Congress and the Sixth Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee, an important action to promote the construction of a strong socialist culture, and an important program to guide the language and writing work at present and in the future.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the national language and writing system has given full play to the unique role of language and writing in cultivating and practicing socialist core values, comprehensively improving citizens’ moral quality, enhancing cultural soft power, and enhancing national cohesion. On the basis of adhering to effective work measures such as the standardization of urban language and writing, the Putonghua proficiency test, and the nationwide promotion of Putonghua publicity week, Constantly innovating the work carriers such as Chinese classic reading, Chinese character dictation conference, China idiom conference, and the construction of Chinese language resources audio database have improved the language literacy of the broad masses of the people, strengthened the scientific protection of the languages of various ethnic groups, carried forward Chinese virtues and spread Chinese excellent culture. On June 5 -6, 2014, the China government cooperated with UNESCO to successfully hold the World Language Conference, reached the Suzhou Consensus, and put forward the concept of "language capacity building" at the UNESCO conference for the first time, which played an important role in promoting language teaching and improving language ability in various countries. After the World Language Congress, relevant departments, universities and academic groups successively held academic seminars on language ability and language development strategy, language ability and national security, social development and cultural communication, which promoted academic prosperity and the development of language and writing.
Remarks: The manuscript was reviewed by some national language advisory committees.
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[1] edited by Sun Hongkai, published by the Commercial Press in 2007.
[2] Co-edited by China Academy of Social Sciences and City University of Hong Kong, published by Commercial Press in 2012.
[3] Quoted from Modern Chinese Dictionary (6th Edition), published by the Commercial Press.
[4] Quoted from "Encyclopedia of China Language", China Encyclopedia Publishing House.
[5] Cited the data of the sixth population census, and referred to "China Ethnic Language Work", edited by Jin Xinghua and published by Ethnic Publishing House.
[6] This passage refers to Modern Chinese, edited by Huang Borong and Liao Xudong, and published by Higher Education Press.
[7] Cited the data of the sixth population census and referred to: Atlas of Chinese Language, edited by China Academy of Social Sciences and City University of Hong Kong, published by the Commercial Press in 2012; Ethnic Language Work in China, edited by Jin Xinghua, published by Ethnic Publishing House.
[8] This passage mainly refers to The Language of China, edited by Sun Hongkai and published by the Commercial Press in 2007.
[9] Quoted from Modern Chinese Dictionary (6th Edition), published by the Commercial Press.
[10] Quoted from "Encyclopedia of China Language", China Encyclopedia Publishing House.
[11] This paragraph mainly refers to "China Ethnic Language Work", edited by Jin Xinghua and published by Ethnic Publishing House.
[12] This paragraph mainly refers to the Language Survey Course edited by Dai Qingxia and the Study on the Present Situation and Evolution of Minority Languages in China.