The
Sino Tibetan
Family of Languages
The
membership and classification of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages
is highly controversial.
The 'Sinitic' part of the name refers to the
various Chinese languages (often referred to as 'dialects');
the
'Tibetan' part refers to several languages found mainly in Tibet,
Burma, and nearby territories.
But as there are notable similarities
with many other languages of the region, some scholars 'adopt
a much
broader view of the family, so as to include the Tai and Miao-Yao
groups.
The Sinitic languages are spoken
by
over 1,000 million people. The vast majority of these are in China
(over 980 million) and Taiwan (19 million), but substantial numbers are
to be found throughout the whole
of South-east Asia, especially in Hong
Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand,
and Singapore.Important
Chinese- speaking communities are also found in
many other parts of the world, especially in the USA.
There
are nearly 300 languages in the Tibeto- Burman family, and these have
been classified in several
different ways. It is possible to identify
'clusters' of languages which have certain features in common,
such as
the 50 or so Lolo languages, spoken by around 3 million people in parts
of Burma, Thailand,
Vietnam, Laos, and China. The 80 or so Naga, Kuki
and Chin languages spoken in Burma and India,
comprise another group. But groupings of this kind display many
differences as well as similarities and
it has not yet proved possible
to find a neat way of classifying these, and the other groups thought
to
belong to the same family, into two or three types. It is by no
means clear, for example, whether the
small group of Karen languages,
spoken by around 2 million people in Burma, should be included or
excluded from the Sino-Tibetan family.
After
Chinese,
Burmese and Tibetan are the two main languages of this family. Burmese
is spoken by
over 25 million people in Burma as a mother tongue, and
several million more use it as a second language
throughout the region.
It has written records dating from the 11th century. Speaker estimates
for Tibetan are
very uncertain, largely because of the influence of
Chinese in recent years; but a figure of 34 million seems
likely. There
are several major dialects, which are sometimes viewed as separate
languages. Written records
date from the 8th century AD, treating
largely of Buddhist religious subjects. The alphabet of this period,
which
reflects the pronunciation of the time, is still in use today.
with the result that there is considerable divergence
between spelling
and modern Tibetan speech.
The
Languages of China
Because
there has long been a single method for writing Chinese, and a common
literary and cultural history,
a tradition has grown up of referring
to, the eight main varieties of speech in China
as dialects'. But in fact they
are as different from each other
(mainly in pronunciation and vocabulary) as French or Spanish is from
Italian, the
dialects of the south-east being linguistically the
furthest apart. The mutual unintelligibility of the varieties is the
main
ground for referring to them as separate languages. However, it
must also be recognized that each variety consists
of a large number of
dialects, many of which may themselves be referred to as languages. The
boundaries between
one so-called language and the next are not always
easy to define.
The
Chinese refer to themselves and their language, in any of the forms
below, as Han - a name which derives from
the Han dynasty (202 BC-AD
220). Han Chinese is thus to be distinguished from the non-Han minority
languages used
in China.
There are over 50 of these languages (such as Tibetan, Russian, Uighur,
Kazakh, Mongolian, and Korean),
spoken by around 6% of the population.
THE
CHINESE
LINGUISTIC REVOLUTION
The 20th-century movement
for language reform in China
has resulted in the most ambitious programme of language
planning the
world has ever seen. The programme has three aims: (i) to simplify the
characters of classical written
Chinese, by cutting down on their
number, and reducing the number of strokes it takes to write a
character; (ii) to
provide a single means of spoken communication
throughout the whole of China,
by popularizing the Beijing-based
variety, which has been chosen as a
standard; (iii) to introduce a phonetic alphabet, which would gradually
replace
the Chinese characters in everyday use.
There
have been moves to reform the language from as early as the 2nd century
BC, but there has been nothing to
equal the complexity of the
present-day programme. in which frequent reference is made to the names
of several
different varieties of the Chinese language
.
Wén-yán
('literary speech' or 'body of classical writing'). The cultivated
literary language, recorded from around
1,500BC. and the traditional
unifying medium for all varieties of Chinese. Its complex system of
characters is
explained on p. 200. It differs greatly from everyday
speech, especially ln lts terse grammatical style and
specialized
literary vocabulary. It is now less widely used, because of the success
of the current reform
movement for written Chinese.
Wén-yán
literary Style -
Examples
These phrases, usually of four
characters, illustrate the telegraphic literary style of Wén-yán. The
nearest
equivalent to this first proverb in English is perhaps 'Like
father, like son.' Mao Zedong
was particularly
adept at incorporating classical features af this kind
into his political speeches. The equivalent phrase
for the second
phrase would be 'It never rains but it pours".
"Tigers do not
breed
dogs"________"Calamities do not occur singly"
Bái-huŕ
('colloquial language'). A simplified, vernacular style of writing,
introduced by the literary reformer Hu Shih
in 1917, to make the
language more widely known to the public, and to permit the expression
of new ideas. A style
of writing which reflected everyday speech had
developed as early as the Sung dynasty (AD 9~0-lZ79), but had
made
little impact on the dominant Wén-yán. However, the (May Fourth
Movement' (which originated in political
demonstrations on 4 May 1919
after the Paris Peace Conference) adopted Hu Shi'h's ideas, and Bái-huŕ
was
recognized as the national language in 1922.
Pűtônghuŕ
('common language'). The variety chosen as a standard for the whole of
China, and widely promulgated
under this name after the establishment
of the People's Republic of China in 1949. (In Taiwan, it goes under
the
name of guó yu , or 'national speech'; in the West. it is generally
referred to simply as 'Mandarin'.) It embodies the
pronunciation of
Beijing;
the grammar of the Mandarin dialects, and the vocabulary of colloquial
Chinese literature.
In 1956, it became the medium of instruction in all
schools. and a policy of promoting its use began. It is now the
most
widely used form of spoken Chinese, and is the normal written medium
for almost all kinds of publication.
Pin yin
('phonetic spelling'). After several previous attempts to write Chinese
using the letters of the roman
alphabet, this 58-symbol writing system
was finally adopted in 1958. Its main aims are to facilitate the spread
of Pűtônghuŕ, and the learning of Chinese characters. Pin-yin is now
in widespread use. In the 1970s, for example,
a new map of China
was published using the alphabet, and a list of standard spellings for
Chinese place name
was compiled. New codes were devised for such diverse
uses as telegraphy, flag signals, braille, and deaf
finger-spelling.
The future of the
reform programme
is not entirely clear. It may be that pin-yin will ultimately supplant
the general
use of characters, or there may be a receaction to preserve
the traditional written language. With Pűtônghuŕ, new
varieties of
regional pronunciation are certain to develop (for instance, Mao Zedong
spoke it with a marked Hunan
accent), which may lead to problems of
intelligibility. And if Pűtônghuŕ is to succeed as a popular means of
communication, it needs to anticipate the potential conflict with local
regional dialects (for example, whether
local words should be used).
Much will depend on how flexibly the authorities interpret the notion
of standard,
and whether they are able to achieve a balance between
the competing pressures of respecting popular usage
(where there is a
strong case for variety) and the need for national communication (which
could lead to a form
of centralized laying down of prescriptive
linguistic rules).
Romanizing
Chinese
Several
systems of romanization for Chinese have been invented. The oldest in
current use is known as Wade-Giles,
introduced by Sir Thomas Wade in
1859, and developed by his successor in Chinese Studies at Cambridge
University,
Herbert Giles. This is the system which is most familiar to
western eyes. In the 1930s, a system known as gwoyeu
romatzyh
('national romanization') was devised by Lin Yu-t'ang and Chao
Yuen-ren. During the Second World War,
Yale University
introduced an intensive programme of Chinese training for Air Force
pilots, and introduced a new
system, related more clearly to American
pronunciation. But pin-yin has now become the dominant system.
The name for China
illustrates some of the differences between these systems:
The Chinese
characters are: 
This
is romanized in the different systems as follows:-
Wade Giles: Chungkuo
Gwoyeu romatzyh: Jonhhwo
Yale: Junggwo
Pin-yin:
Zhongguo
Here are some familiar
[Wade-Giles] spellings. with their
pin-yin equivalents :
Wade-Giles Pin-yin
Peking Beijing
Canton Guangzhou
Mao Tse-tung Mao Zedong
The
Main Chinese "Dialects"
Dialect' Where spoken
Cantonese (Yüeh) In the south, mainly Guangdong, southern Guangxi, Macau, Hong Kong.
Hakka Widespread, especially between Fujian and Guangxi.
Hsiang (Hunan). South central region, in Hunan
Kan Shanxi and south-west Hebei.
Mandarin A wide range of dialects in the northern, central and western regions. North Mandarin, as found in Beijing,
is the basis of the modern standard
language.
Northern Min (Min North-west Fujian. Pei)
Southern Min (Min The south-east, mainly in parts of Zhejiang, Nan) Fujian, Hainan Island and Taiwan.
Wu
Parts of Anhui, Zhejians. and Jiangsu.
Paul
Halsall
http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/%7Ephalsall/texts/chinlng2.html
Source: David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987)
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