Mandarin

See also: mandarin and mandarín

English

Etymology

An extension of mandarin (“bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire”) to the language used by the imperial court and sometimes by imperial officials elsewhere. As such, it was adopted as a synonym for Modern Standard Chinese in the 20th century. The term became ambiguous, however, as its use was extended to the various Northern dialects of Chinese.

Pronunciation

Proper noun

Mandarin

  1. Standard Mandarin, the official language of China and Taiwan, and one of four official languages in Singapore; Putonghua, Guoyu or Huayu
  2. A branch of the Chinese languages, consisting of many dialects; Guanhua or Beifanghua.

Usage notes

  • Standard Mandarin (language of the media and education) and Mandarin Chinese (the group of Northern Chinese dialects together with Standard Mandarin) are not always interchangeable and are referred to differently in Chinese. Both are a part of the broader group of languages (see Chinese: Zhongwen, Hanyu), dialects, or topolects.

Synonyms

Translations

See also

  • Wiktionary's coverage of Mandarin terms
  • Appendix:Mandarin Swadesh list for a Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words in Mandarin
  • Hanyu
  • Zhongwen

Further reading

Anagrams

German

Noun

Mandarin m (genitive Mandarins or Mandarines, plural Mandarine)

  1. mandarin (Chinese Imperial official)

Descendants

Proper noun

Mandarin n (genitive Mandarins)

  1. Mandarin, standard Chinese

Synonyms

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