The world's most-spoken first language, based on the Beijing dialect and codified as Standard Chinese (Putonghua) — the official language of mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Where it’s spoken
Mandarin is the official language of the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and one of four official languages of Singapore. Its standardized form, Putonghua, is taught in every Chinese school and used in government and broadcasting. Beyond East Asia, Mandarin is spoken by tens of millions in diaspora communities from Malaysia to North America.
What it sounds like
Mandarin is a tonal language with four contrastive tones plus a neutral tone. The syllable “ma” can mean “mother,” “hemp,” “horse,” or “scold” depending on pitch contour. Its consonant inventory is relatively small, but it features distinct retroflex sounds (zh, ch, sh) and aspirated/unaspirated pairs that English speakers often conflate.
How it’s written
Mandarin is written with Chinese characters (Hanzi), each representing a morpheme rather than a sound. Mainland China uses simplified characters since the 1950s reforms, while Taiwan and Hong Kong retain traditional forms. Romanization with Pinyin, introduced in 1958, is used for teaching and input methods worldwide.
History
The “Mandarin” name comes from the Portuguese mandarim, used for Ming-dynasty officials whose koine dialect became the standard. Modern Putonghua was formalized in 1955.
Find more languages by letter
Mandarin Chinese starts with M and ends with E. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Mandarin Chinese":