Abstract

The variety of Chinese described in this chapter is known in different parts of the Chinese-speaking world as Putonghua (‘common speech’), Guoyu (‘national language’), or Huayu (‘Chinese language’), and in the English-speaking world as Mandarin. Sociolinguistically, it may be characterised as ‘Modern Standard Chinese’ (Chen 1999; Kratochvíl 1968), officially based on Beijing dialect for its pronunciation and style, as well as the classic works of modern vernacular prose for its grammatical norms (Chen 1999).