05.08.08
你会讲国语吗?…How to Say “Chinese” in Chinese
Anytime one moves to a new location where the same language is spoken as in their previous location, a certain degree of modification to their lexicon occurs. Living in Chicago, and doing my best to keep up my Chinese, I have also noticed several inadvertent shifts in my own vocabulary as well.
One such example is the word for the Chinese language itself. Actually, there are several words in Chinese for “Chinese.” The most common is probably 汉语 (han4 yu3) which literally means “language of the Han people.” 汉语 is typically used to describe the language as it comes from a mouth. This, in contrast to 中文(zhong1 wen2), which means “Chinese words” and usually refers to the written language, such as when speaking of a “Chinese book” or “Chinese song.” There is no set rule on the different situations to use 汉语 and 中文 and thus a certain degree of overlap in the use of these terms exists.
In addition to 语 and 文 the character 话 is often placed after the name of a group of people to construct an informal name for their language or dialect, creating the term 中国话 (zhong1 guo2 hua4). This term is not common, but used on occasion to differentiate the speech of one group of people from another’s. So while the technical name for Polish, for example, is 波兰语 (bo1 lan2 yu3) it would not be uncommon for Chinese to refer to it as 波兰话 (bo1 lan2 hua4) in the context of comparing it to say, the speech of Germans. To refer to American English, in contrast to British English the term 美国话 (mei3 guo2 hua4) is used as well. Furthermore in China, 话is used to differentiate the various dialects of Chinese. So for example, the Fuzhou dialect is called 福州话 (fu2 zhou1 hua4). The name of the dialect of virtually any location in China can be constructed simply by adding a 话 to the end of it.*
Yet another term 普通话 ( pu2 tong1 hua4) or “common language” is used to differentiate China’s official language, what we call “Mandarin” in the West, from the many local dialects. Especially in areas such as Fujian, where dialects are still commonly spoken, it is not uncommon to hear to locals use this term, as it is necessary to differentiate the Chinese they speak in their hometowns with the lingua franca used across the country.
One more term exists, and this is one which I have only heard used by Tibetans. 汉话 (han4 hua4), literally means “the words of the Han people,” and is a rarely used by Han Chinese, but is probably the most commonly used term by Tibetan Mandarin speakers.
With the multitude of terms used in Chicago, it will probably come as little surprise that here in Chicago, there is a totally different dominant term for the Chinese language. Literally meaning “language of the country,” 国语 (guo2 yu3) is the most prominent word used for “Mandarin” in Taiwan and Hong Kong…and in Chicago as well. To me, this term has always had political undertones, as to somehow indicate, “that is what THEY speak in THEIR country”…as opposed to 中文, the combined language of the Chinese people, thus including Taiwan and Hong Kong. (I could be totally off base on this assertion, so it would be nice to get the input of some Chinese readers). Interestingly enough, in Chicago I have noticed that even mainlanders tend to use the word 国语 when referring to “Mandarin.” I would imagine that this usage is not connected with politics per se, but rather an adaptation to the collective Chicago Chinese dialect, as laid down by the first wave of immigrants, most of whom were from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Regardless of any connotations, I have also found my own Chinese idiolect has been subconsciously shifting to say 国语 as opposed to 汉语 or 中文. This would have sounded quite strange if I was still in Fuzhou, especially coming from a 6 foot white guy. But in 芝加哥中国话 (Chicago Chinese), 国语 is the name of the game.
*There are several names of dialects which are not constructed this way. For example Cantonese is often called 粤语 (yue2 yu3) or 白话 (bai2 hua4). However terms such as 广东话 (guang3 dong1 hua4) and 广州话 (guang3 zhou1 hua4) would be acceptable as well.
Sue
said,
May 8, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I think 国语 was the term for mandarin since the republic era of China, and continued in Taiwan, just means national language.
T.
said,
May 8, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Guoyu has Kuomingtang connotations actually, since it was under the Nationalists that established a standard national language in China. So when the KMT moved to Taiwan the name guoyu went with them (and in taiwan, mandarin is guoyu, not putonghua).
Matt Miles
said,
May 9, 2008 at 6:01 am
I’m not particularly well travelled within China but the only people I’ve ever heard say 汉语 are Mark Roswell and foreigners.
Tora
said,
May 9, 2008 at 11:27 am
Personally I avoid saying 汉语 when speaking because it feels a bit awkward and tend to go with 普通话 or 中文 depending on the context. I get the feeling that 汉语 might just be the official word but in spoken conversation isn’t used as often, a bit like 大夫 or 同屋 (医生 and 室友 respectively) which are taught to us foreigners but are not used as often as others.
Imagethief
said,
May 9, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Imagethief Blogroll…
My blogroll has finally got a bit unwieldy for the sidebar, and I’ve been getting complaints from people…
Jeff
said,
May 10, 2008 at 4:35 am
中国话 not common? In my experience it, along with 普通话, is the most common. I’ve rarely heard 汉语 except from foreigners. I’ve heard a few mainlanders use 国语 too. Maybe it’s all regional but obviously there aren’t any rigid rules to which one to use.
FOARP
said,
May 10, 2008 at 8:07 am
“To me, this term has always had political undertones, as to somehow indicate, “that is what THEY speak in THEIR country”…as opposed to 中文, the combined language of the Chinese people, thus including Taiwan and Hong Kong. (I could be totally off base on this assertion, so it would be nice to get the input of some Chinese readers).”
Totally off base, 国语 is just the KMT flip-side of the communist 普通话 . 普通话 is as much a political statement as 国语 is, one means the language of the ‘common’ (i.e., pro-communist) people, the other the national language. Taiwan, HK and the US contain many of the descendants of refugees from mainland China, many of whom were associated with the KMT – hence the total non-use of the term 普通话 in Taiwan, and the way it has only be used in HK since 1997. It is also a term which you may hear on the mainland, when I lived in Nanjing (former KMT capital) I often heard people use it – usually people who, if you dug a bit deeper, had some familial connection to the former regime.
汉语 is a term I did not hear in Taiwan, although there have been suggestions that it should now be used to replace the term 国语 in schools, but once the KMT comes back into power this is likely to be shelved. 中国话 is also a term I doubt very much that the Taiwanese would be inclined to use.
Phillip
said,
May 10, 2008 at 9:15 am
Just to add a little fact here:
A have a Naxi friend. Of course, except for rather educated Naxi people, most Naxi speak only a bit of Mandarin. When my friend was telling me how her mother’s Mandarin was not all that good, she happened to use the term 汉话. It struck me as odd, but now I can see that she was making the distinction with 普通话 and 纳西话. I’ve never heard any of her family members refer to their mother tongue as 纳西语.
Dan
said,
May 10, 2008 at 10:53 am
As I recall during my travels in southern China, particularly parts of Hunan and Sichuan province, people there also referred to mandarin as “guoyu”(国语). Some of the taxi drivers in Shenzhen (who probably were from Hunan, Anhui, or rural Guangdong) would use it too. At any rate, I don’t think that term carries many significant connotations vs 普通话. Maybe it’s akin to the way some people say “faucet” and other people use the word “tap” to describe what is attached to a sink.
FOARP
said,
May 10, 2008 at 2:06 pm
As an aside, it’s worth remembering that neither 国语, 普通话, nor even 汉语 were in fact very accurate names for Chinese until relatively recently in historical terms. Probably before 1949 and certainly before the advent of the KMT Nanjing government in 1927 neither the majority of people in China proper, nor the majority of the ‘common’ people throughout China, nor even the majority of ‘Han’ Chinese could speak Mandarin. In fact, ‘Mandarin’ is probably the most accurate name for the form of Chinese that is most widely used in China nowadays, since this language was the language of Qing-dynasty officialdom, and owes its prevalence throughout China to this fact.
Anqi Dai
said,
May 11, 2008 at 3:01 am
I did not hear the word “Guoyu” for Chinese until the mid/late 80’s in China. “Guoyu” is a fairly new word for Chinese in mainland China. It was probably “impoted” from Hong Kong or Taiwan during that period time when Teresa Teng (Deng Li-Jun) and the Taiwan/HK movies began to invade mainland China.
Vera
said,
May 15, 2008 at 1:47 am
I think 中文 is more related to the written Chinese, like you can describe a book is 中文教材 ( Chiense langauge text book) 汉语 is more related to hearing, sound and culture thing. accordingly, you can refer to Americans and British speak 英语, Japanese speak 日语. You won’t say Japanese speak 日文， but you can say the subtitles of a movie is 日文
My another view I want to share with you is that the character 话 is more often applied to describing Chinese dialect. examples : 上海话， 宁波话， 武汉话，北京话, 白话( 粤语).
GnuDoyng
said,
May 18, 2008 at 11:06 am
Guoyu is not a new term from Taiwan. It was widely used throughout China until the communists’ take0ver of the mainland.
holty
said,
May 21, 2008 at 6:38 am
Thanks for the author to bringing this topic to the attention, this was something hit me several time but never thout it can be turned into an interesting blog post .
This is what i thought:
语 refers to language as a general
文 refers to written language
话 refers to verbal language.
普通话 means “common language”, but it meant to “standard language” intentionally as it is created to solve the communication problem among the people who uses different dialects.
汉语 means language of Han people, it is more appropriate to refer “Chinese Language”.
But in recent years chinese people especially han chinese people tend to use 国语 to mean “Chinese Language” .
Why??? I think the main reason is lately many han chinese people adopting a concept of “greater china” with unified language, unified identity and values. which means all the ethnic minorities should accept 汉语 as national language rather than a official language.
This may sounds rather rational to outsiders, but for a ethnic minority it is a sign of a threat of further assimilation.
Chris
said,
May 28, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Holty is right with the different meanings of the three (语, 文, and 话）, although 中文 can EITHER mean written language exclusively, or both written/spoken language as comprising the entire language – akin to the way that you could tell someone, “your English is really good” either by saying that (in the context of their spoken English being good) or by writing it in an email (in the context that their written English is very good). As for my experience, people almost exclusively say, “你的中文这么好“ － in a speaking-only context (ie, they’re obviously not referring to my knowledge of 汉字, the written language). Were they to say, “你说汉语说的很好” － this would be the most grammatically correct, and specific to saying, “You speak Chinese really well” – but I’ve never heard this on the street – only in textbook conversations.
Side note: the subtitle at the top of the page is wrong, I think – did mean to use 说 (shuo) instead of 进 (jin)?
Tom
said,
May 29, 2008 at 8:13 pm
You made a mistake in your title… it should be 你会说国语吗， not 你会进国语吗。Can you enter Chinese, or speak it?
Olx
said,
June 12, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Tom,
He didn’t use 進，he used 講。 which also means to speak.
Jetso
said,
July 27, 2008 at 10:26 pm
FYI, M’sians, S’poreans and other Straits Chinese called their version of Mandarin as Huayu (华语）。
shane
said,
August 15, 2008 at 8:45 pm
中文 means the chinese language, most specifically the already standardized written characters, can technically be used to denote any spoken version of chinese
国语 means the spoken national language, Mandarin, including all the sub/regional dialects of Mandarin. Speakers of Mandarin are usually mutually understandalbe, which is not the case with Cantonese and Mandarin speakers.
国语 inside China is generally Putonghua, but 国语 outside China is any version of Mandarin, may or may not be standard Putonghua, which does not offically recognize many words and slangs
普通话, Putonghua is literally the “common tongue”, is Standardized Beijing Mandarin offically taught and used in Chinese schools. Chinese pupils who already speak a Mandarin dialect are taught to speak in Putonghua, which offically excludes a number of slang words common in some Mandarin dialects and is used as the basis for PinYin
Talwanese do not consider the Mandarin they speak Putonghua, even though they have neglible differences, mainly in some slangs and word meanings and its being more informal.
你会说国语吗