LANGUAGE

by: Sarah K.

Everyone's their own person, right? We all look different, act different, wear different clothes, have different styles, like different music and so on. But there is one thing that we have in common. We all have our own language. Every person in a country speaks a certain language, and in China, that language is Mandarin. "Over 90% of Chinese people speak Mandarin" (The Language of China)! That is why Mandarin is the official main language of China. Mandarin Chinese Mandarin is not only a language, but also an influence, just like how you set an example for your younger siblings. Mandarin Chinese has a hand in Chinese dialects, literature, and history. That's a lot of things to influence!

Did you know that every person in a certain area has their own dialect?! Seeing as how that world is bigger than big, that is a lot of dialects! A dialect is something like an accent. You could be speaking that same language as everyone, but it might sound different than someone else. There are so many different dialects, even in our own country! From New York city to Los Angeles, there are many different dialects that people speak. But could you imagine just __one__ country having over **400** different dialects?! You got it. China has just that many dialects but Mandarin was able to stand out and become the most well known out of all the other dialects.

Mandarin Chinese is not only spoken but used to write bother serious and fun things. Mandarin is used for documents that the government will use for to settle problems and China a better place. But Mandarin is not used for just serious things. It's used in books that people love to read, just like Harry Potter or Twilight. In China, some of the famous novels are //Outlaws of the Marsh// and //Dream of the Red Chamber//. Books that any person could enjoy. These books are not only fun to read, but brought people closer together because if people started to understand Mandarin, they could understand each other.



Languages usualy have a really long history, am I right? They go back to the time of dungeons, knights, and kings and queens, but Mandarin Chinese doesn't. Mandarin Chinese has not lived as long as Spanish or German becuase of a small little rhyme that says so. This little book says that Mandarin bascially started in the Yuan Dynasty, which was not that far back. People could tell that it was true because there were characters, something like letters, of Mandaring used. To think that a national language was created not that long ago!



You can see that Mandarin Chinese plays and enormous part in Chinese life! It goes from how people speak, to how people write, to even how people read. It probably influences even more areas! If there was a list it would be as long as a mile maybe! But even though Mandarin Chinese is popular, it's not the easiest language so if you are learning Mandarin Chinese, good luck!

Girl Reading Mandarin. [Online Image] Available http://www.poppingpandas.com/uploaded_images/Mandarin-Chinese-300-Beginning-Characters-751453.jpg March 23, 2009. Mandarin Book. [Online Image] Available http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Blsx_6dnFT4/R2P4MJ9rFaI/AAAAAAAAAYY/xw2zFGgZ16c/s400/ist2_2270836 _written_mandarin_chinese.jpg, March 23, 2009. Mandarin Chinese. [Online Image] Available http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/images/Chinese%20logos.gif, March 23, 2009.
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