Han

Han (汉語) is the language of Han nationality, specifically referred to as narrow Chinese (中国語). It's used to write the analytic language of East Asia using ideographic characters (Hanzi). In Japan, it is referred to as "Chinese".

※This article is about the "Language of Han nationality", a language used in China since ancient times. For Sino-Japanese vocabulary, see "Kango".

Overview

Due to China is a multi-nationality, multi-lingual, and multi-characters national, so in all, there are more than 80 languages and 30 characters. In this case, the Han nationality's language is named "Han" in China to distinguish it from the languages of China's minority nationality (For example the Tibetan nationality and Uyghur nationality).

There are five main branches of languages under the Han: Mandarin, Cantonese, Min, Hakka and Wu, which are considered as word branches because they have difficulty communicating with each other, and each branch under a word branch is considered as an independent language with a unified script. In any case, all of the above languages are equally a part of Han, and Han is a collection of them, not any one language alone.

Han includes two parts: written and spoken. The ancient written language is called Classical Han (文言), while the modern written language generally refers to Mandarin written, i.e., Han written style using standard Mandarin grammar and vocabulary.

In Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, the Cantonese writing style is also in vogue. There are also occasional people in Wu residential areas who write in Wu.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to take into account the practical needs of language use, the government officially defined Han nationality's modern standard language as "Mandarin" (普通話) and abolished the designation "national language" at the National Character Reform Conference in 1955s.

Currently, the laws of the People's Republic of China do not stipulate an official or national language, but only define Mandarin as the "national lingua franca". In addition, the government of China officially emphasizes the difference between "national lingua franca" and "official language" or "national language," and does not agree with viewing Mandarin as the "official language". The original "Simplified Chinese/Traditional Chinese" became "Simplified Hanzi/Traditional Hanzi".

At the same time, some Chinese netizens and scholars have pointed out that calling Han or Mandarin is "Chinese" or "national language" is discriminatory and disrespectful to Han nationality and minority nationality. Nevertheless, the governments of Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR still refer to Han as the "Chinese" and even refer to it as such on their official websites.

Currently, only Japan and a few other countries refer to "Han" as "Chinese" in the international arena.