hey,

I don't know if this is a current debate, but I was wondering what people think about the spread of putonghua (standard mandarin) and its effect on regional dialects. Does anyone know the government's current position on dialects and the other language groups within the Chinese territories? I have the impression that, while people are allowed to speak their dialects, they're gradually dropping out of use because only Mandarin is taught in schools, plus you need to speak mandarin in order to get a good job in many places. On one hand, I can see how a unified language is necessary to develop the economy. But on the other, I feel that valuable cultural and historical information is vanishing as these languages die. I heard that recently there have been movements in places like Germany to revive local dialects. Does anyone know if there are similar movements in China?

sunrose205

I learned while I was in China last year that the Manchu language is now spoken only by about 300 people, and is now the object of intense preservation efforts. And Manchu, until (relatively!) recently, was the official language of one of the most powerful empires in the world!

I think it also depends on the minorities involved. I once visited the naxi minority close to lugu lake, and many of the people there couldn't speak
standard mandarin. The government didn't seem to care much.

I guess they push it harder when they have some political reason, residents of Kashgar and the Tibetan parts of Sichuan have to study standard mandarin.

I think it also depends on the minorities involved. I once visited the naxi minority close to lugu lake, and many of the people there couldn't speak
standard mandarin. The government didn't seem to care much.

I guess they push it harder when they have some political reason, residents of Kashgar and the Tibetan parts of Sichuan have to study standard mandarin.

I could be wrong, but my impression is that there is less pressure now than say 25 years ago by the government to make schools "putonghua" only. This is especially true in the South. Some of my older Chinese friends said they were punished for speaking their dialect in school. Now I hear that dialects are spoken freely in the school yard. China is so diverse, of course, what happened in one area isn't representative of any other area. Does anyone know more about this?

The "putonghuaisation" of China is what happened in France centuries ago with French...
But now regional languages are very protected.

I think the reason Chinese government tried to push Putonghua is to help people communicate.

I lived in Shanghai which is called Wu Yu district. The pronunciation is different from other areas. Further south in Zhejiang, some areas may have dozens of different pronunciation for the same character. So Putonghua helps people to understand each other better.

At home, we speak Putonghua mostly. So our two kids know Putonghua only. When my husband and I need to say something and don't want the two little ones understand, we will speak in Shanghai style. They have no clue at all.

I imagine it would take only another generation or two for most people to be assimilated into speaking putonghua. On the other hand, the cynic in me wonders if, as China becomes more and more capitalistic, there could be some advantage for businesses to have an underclass that doesn’t speak the standard language…

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