Scholars at home and abroad have always been controversial about the status of Chinese dialects. Because according to the general view of linguistics, if two texts can't talk directly, they can be defined as two different languages; If there are big or small differences between them, but they can talk directly, they can be defined as two different dialects of the same language. Many western linguists regard Chinese as a language family and call it the Chinese family. Judging from the unity of characters, users, politics and culture (so-called unified thinking), most China scholars believe that Chinese is a language. Therefore, in the compilation of ISO 639-3 international language code in 2007, the International Organization for Standardization directly divided Chinese into 13 languages, namely CDO- Mindong, cjy-Jin, cmn- Northeast, cpx- Puxian, czh-Hui, czo- Minzhong, Gan-Gan and Gan-Zhong. At present, both Chinese mainland and Taiwan Province Province use modern standard Chinese as the common language, but at the same time, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao and many overseas Chinese use Cantonese as the common language. In addition, people who use Mandarin, Hakka, Minnan or other hometown languages (Chinese dialects) will use their mother tongue as the common language for community communication. The language types contained in Chinese are controversial in the field of linguistics. At present, there are two different views: one is that Chinese only includes one language; Another view is that Chinese includes many languages such as Min, Cantonese, Hakka, Wu, Gan and Xiang. Most domestic scholars support the former, while most foreign scholars, especially those in the west, support the latter from the linguistic point of view. Those who support the latter view believe that Chinese is not a single language, but a group of interrelated languages. Those who support the former list Fujian, Cantonese, Hakka, Wu, Gan and Xiang as Chinese dialects. For example, Zhao Yuanren thinks that the standard language (Mandarin) is a dialect, and Min and Cantonese are also dialects [5]. But in fact, the so-called "Chinese dialects" can't communicate with each other, nor can they communicate with standard Chinese, and the language distance is often farther than that between languages in the same language family in Europe. For example, a person who can only speak Spanish may barely communicate with another person who can only speak Portuguese in Spanish, but a person who can only speak Cantonese and a person who can only speak Gan can't understand each other at all. It should be noted that the universal benchmark of western scholars' analysis is pinyin, so the applicability of this view to Chinese (as well as symbols similar to Chinese) is debatable. According to the different characteristics of different branches of Chinese, domestic linguists in China divide Chinese into seven traditional dialects. Within these seven dialects, there are different sub-dialect areas. Sometimes users in these dialect areas can't understand each other. People in different dialect areas also have certain differences in language awareness. For example, a Xiamen native who speaks Xiamen dialect may feel that there are many similarities with Haikou native who speaks Hainan dialect, although it may be difficult to understand each other. Regional dialect differences are also obvious, because the region leads to inconvenient communication and language separation. In North China Mandarin, Northwest Mandarin or Southwest Mandarin areas, people who are hundreds of kilometers apart can generally communicate orally, although there are great differences in pronunciation and vocabulary in some areas; However, in many areas of southern China, especially in mountainous areas, there may be dialects that are difficult to communicate with each other in a small geographical area. To give an extreme example, for example, in eastern Fujian or Ruian, Pingyang, Cangnan and other places in Wenzhou, Wu dialect in the south, Wu dialect in the north, Manchu dialect and Min dialect are intertwined, and local residents who are only ten kilometers apart may not be able to communicate freely. 1. Putonghua, or Putonghua dialect, northern dialect, etc. : refers to the mother tongue dialects used in North China, Northeast China, Northwest China, most of Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Guizhou, northern Hunan, Jiangxi along the Yangtze River, Anhui, Jiangsu and other places. Mandarin can be roughly divided into North China Mandarin, Northwest Mandarin, Southwest Mandarin and Jianghuai Mandarin. North China Mandarin is distributed in the eastern part of the north, represented by Beijing dialect, Northwest Mandarin is distributed in the western part of the north, represented by Xi 'an dialect, Southwest Mandarin is distributed in the western part of the south, represented by Chengdu dialect, and Jianghuai Mandarin is distributed in the eastern part of the south, represented by Yangzhou dialect. In ancient times, the elegant sounds of the Central Plains were divided into Middle Ages after the Wu Rebellion and the Southern Crossing of Yiguan. Modern "Mandarin Dialect" was mainly formed in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. After the formation of Mandarin, it developed in the north and south respectively, divided into southern Mandarin and northern Mandarin, and became the official language of China in later generations. Northern Mandarin is still the basis of modern standard Chinese (called Mandarin in Chinese mainland and Mandarin in Taiwan Province Province). People who use this dialect account for 70% of the population in China. It should be pointed out that the "Mandarin Dialect", once called "Northern Dialect", is not limited to northern China. On the contrary, the southern dialects in Southwest China and Jianghuai area also belong to Mandarin dialects, but compared with the northern dialects in other areas, the accessibility of Southwest Mandarin and Jianghuai Mandarin in Mandarin areas is relatively low, and it is difficult for many Mandarin users in northern areas to understand the language of users in Southern Mandarin areas, and vice versa. The obvious features of Mandarin include: all the tones in the Middle Ages were lost (except for a few small pieces in Southwest Mandarin, such as Guanchi pieces), and "? 6? 1p，？ 6? 1t，？ 6? 1k，？ 6? 1m，？ 6? 1n，？ 6? 1ng "rhyme is now talented"? 6? 1n，？ 6? 1ng ",but there are many rhymes"? 6? 1r ". The initial consonant "G, K, H" originally connected with vowel "I, ü" has been transformed into initial consonant "J, Q, X" by jaw sound. In the process of losing the opposition between clarity and turbidity, Putonghua did not have a sharp tone differentiation, but appeared a light tone beyond the medieval level. Therefore, Putonghua dialect contains a large number of homophones and corresponding compound words. The above phenomenon is relatively rare in other dialects. Secondly, Wu dialect, or Wu dialect, is mainly used by Wu immigrants in southern Jiangsu, southern Anhui, Shanghai, most parts of Zhejiang, northeastern Jiangxi and northwest corner of Fujian, as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan Province Province, Kyushu Island and San Francisco. The typical Wu dialect is represented by Suzhou dialect. Among them, southwest Anhui is influenced by Gan dialect, and south Zhejiang retains many features of ancient Baiyue dialect, so that it is impossible to talk with Taihu Lake, a typical Wu dialect, and the number of speakers accounts for about 8.4% of the total population. The most important feature is that the fully voiced initials in the Middle Ages still retain fully voiced phonemes, such as [t], [t? 0? 1], [d] (the initial consonant of "Dong" in Mandarin is [t]), although the voiced initial in northern Wu dialect is usually voiced at the beginning or when read alone, that is, it is only voiced in words or sentences, and the voiced initial expression in southern Wu dialect is generally voiced. The voiced initials in Wu dialect basically retain the characteristics of Middle Chinese, with the number of 8 to 1 1, so the number of initials in Wu dialect is the largest in Chinese dialects, generally around 30, while the number of initials in Minnan dialect is only 16, and that in Cantonese is 17. Wu dialect is a dialect with single vowel as the main body. In Putonghua, ai, ei, ao and ou are all diphthongs, and they are pronounced with a long voice and a loose mouth, but in Wu dialect, the opposite is true. Generally speaking, what are the corresponding sounds of ai, ei, ao and ou in Mandarin? 0? 7/? 0? 3，e，？ 0? 0, o, are all single vowels, and the mouth is tight when pronounced. Vowels are reserved in most areas (except Dongou and Jinqu in Jinhua, all vowels are accepted [? 0? 3])。 3. Hakka dialect, or Hakka dialect: It is widely used in Taiwan Province Province or South China, Hsinchu, Miaoli and Kaohsiung Pingtung in Taiwan Province Province, as well as in South China including eastern Guangdong, northern Fujian, southwestern Jiangxi and southeastern Guangxi, with Meixian dialect as the representative. Although it is a southern dialect, Hakka dialect was formed under the influence of northern immigrants going south. Therefore, Hakka dialect retains some features of Zhongyuan dialect in the Middle Ages. The population using Hakka dialect accounts for about 5% of the total population. Hakka dialect is characterized by a rising tone, which is divided into yin and yang, and a flat tone, which is divided into yin and yang. 4. Min dialect, or Min dialect: used in Fujian, Hainan, Guangdong, the Philippines, Taiwan Province, Singapore, Malaysia and other overseas Chinese. Due to great internal differences, Min dialect is usually divided into Minnan dialect (represented by Xiamen dialect), Northern Fujian dialect (represented by Jian 'ou dialect), Eastern Fujian dialect (represented by Fuzhou dialect), Puxian dialect and Central Fujian dialect. Among all dialects, Min dialect is the only dialect that does not completely correspond to the rhyme book of Middle Ancient Chinese, among which Minnan dialect has the greatest influence. However, according to the existing phonetics research, the pronunciation of Min dialect is quite close to that of ancient Chinese. Minnan dialect (in a narrow sense, Fujian-Taiwan Minnan dialect) * * * has "? 6? 1m，？ 6? 1n，？ 6? 1ng，？ 6? 1p，？ 6? 1t，？ 6? 1k，？ 6? 1? 0? 3 "Seven consonants end. In the tone [? 6? 1p/？ 6? 1t/？ 6? Before 1k] disappears, "tone weakening" appears first, [? 6? 1p/？ 6? 1t/？ 6? 1k] all done? 0? 3 (Shanxi dialect still retains this weakened tone). Minnan dialect is one of the dialects with complex tones in Chinese. Quanzhou has eight tones (excluding light tone), and Zhangzhou, Xiamen, Tongan and Taiwan Province provinces usually have seven tones (excluding light tone and high tone). At the same time, Minnan dialect is also one of the most complete dialects that preserved Middle Ancient Chinese. Quanzhou pronunciation and Zhangzhou pronunciation are the mother tongues of other branches, and the Minnan dialect in Fujian (South) Taiwan films is relatively consistent. In a broad sense, Minnan dialect also includes Hainan dialect, Chaozhou dialect and southern Zhejiang Min dialect. The population using Minnan dialect accounts for about 4.2% of total population. 5. Cantonese Cantonese: Cantonese is the standard for Chinese in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao, Guidong and overseas. Some ethnic minorities in China, such as the Jing people and some Zhuang people, also use Cantonese. Cantonese is one of the most complicated tones in many branches of Chinese. Standard Cantonese has nine tones, and some dialects, such as Goulou Dialect and Guinan Dialect, have ten tones. Cantonese completely retains ancient Chinese? 6? 1p 、? 6? 1t 、? 6? 1k 、? 6? 1m 、? 6? 1n 、? 6? 1ng hexasyllabic rhyme. There is no mixed tone in Cantonese, so it can be considered that the ancient Chinese elements preserved in Cantonese are earlier than Wu dialect, but later than Min dialect, which corresponds to the middle ancient Chinese in Sui and Tang dynasties. Most Chinese characters have corresponding Cantonese pronunciations. There are great differences in vocabulary and grammar between spoken Cantonese and modern Chinese vernacular widely used in society, and there is a serious phenomenon of text-language separation. Cantonese has its own written vernacular expression, see Cantonese vernacular. There are many dialects in Cantonese. Please refer to Cantonese dialect for details. The population of Han people who use Cantonese accounts for about 5% of the total population of Han people. A considerable number of overseas Chinese, especially those in the United States and Australia, are Cantonese immigrants, and Cantonese is widely used. [Editor] Xiang Dialect Xiang Dialect, or Xiang Dialect: Users are mainly distributed in Xiangshui and its tributaries in Hunan. The interior of Xiang dialect can be classified according to whether the voiced initials are preserved or not, and it can be divided into two categories: old Xiang dialect and new Xiang dialect, in which the voiced initials of new Xiang dialect have been basically eliminated. The formation time of the new Xiang dialect is not too long. Influenced by Gan dialect and northern immigrants, the phonetic system is obviously close to Mandarin [7]. Only a few places in the new Xiang dialect retain the fully voiced initials, while the fully voiced initials in the old Xiang dialect are relatively complete. For example, Shaoyang (Caiqiao) dialect has 33 initials, including voiced fricative, voiced stop and voiced stop [8]. Loudi dialect: wave [p], slope [p? 0? 1] and po [b] are different. Hunan dialect is represented by Changsha dialect (new) and Shuangfeng dialect (old) respectively, and its users account for about 5% of the total population. According to the population statistics of major cities in Xiang dialect, the population of Xiang dialect is 35.96 million, and the total population of Hunan is 64.4 million, accounting for about 56% of the province's population. 6. Gan Dialect Gan Dialect, or Gan Dialect: represented by Nanchang Dialect, is mainly used in most areas of Jiangxi and southeastern Hunan. The number of users is about 2.4%. Gan dialect and Hakka dialect are very similar in phonology, so there is a suggestion in academic circles to divide Gan dialect into Hakka dialects. 7. It is still controversial whether dialects below other dialects constitute an independent large dialect area: Jin dialect: it is popular in most areas of western Shanxi, northwestern Shaanxi, western Hebei, northwestern Henan and Hetao area of Inner Mongolia. , represented by Taiyuan dialect, and has an entering rhyme-[? 6? 1? 0? 3] (in the tone [? 6? 1p/？ 6? 1t/？ 6? Before 1k] disappears,' tone weakening' appears first, [? 6? 1p/？ 6? 1t/？ 6? 1k] all become [? 6? 1? 0? 3])。 Its white reading system is completely different from Mandarin. In the past (now many linguists) classified it as Mandarin. Pinghua: It is used in some areas of Guangxi. Traditionally, Guinanping dialect is classified as Cantonese. In recent years, it has been argued that Beiping dialect in Guangxi exists as an isolated dialect. Hui language: used in southern Anhui and some adjacent areas of Jiangxi and Zhejiang. In the past (and now there are some linguists), it was classified as Wu dialect. 8. Donggan is a special variant of Zhongyuan Mandarin and Lanyin Mandarin outside China. It combines some words from Russian, Arabic, Persian and Turkic.