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ISBN: 1-877209-00-7
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Modern Standard Chinese
The curriculum issued by the Ministry of Education is entitled CHINESE in the New Zealand Curriculum. However, the vast majority of NZ schools say that they are teaching "Mandarin". On the other hand, six of our seven Universities including the Auckland University of technology, and major Polytechnics, such as the Christchurch Polytechnic of Technology all teach courses in modern standard CHINESE, and some of our secondary schools also prepare their pupils for the University of Cambridge ordinary and advanced level examinations in modern standard CHINESE.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines "MANDARIN" to mean "the standard Chinese spoken language". In books on linguistics, the term "Mandarin" is used to denote a group of Chinese dialects spoken by the majority of Chinese, and is further subdivided into northern Mandarin, southern Mandarin, western Mandarin, south-western Mandarin and so on. In the past, the spoken standard was the speech of the imperial court, and was called Guanhua ( 官 话) which means in English "the official speech", but was interpeted by some Europeans to mean "the speech of the officials", and since Chinese officials were called "mandarins" in English, (a term derived via Portuguese from the Latin root "mandare = to command"), English-speakers of the nineteenth century used the term "mandarin" to describe the language they spoke as well. However, in a description of the Chinese Empire published as long ago as 1855, we can already read that:
"The language called Guanhua is that which Europeans wrongfully designate by the name of Mandarin language, as if it were exclusively reserved for the Mandarins or functionaries of government."
The term Guanhua has not been used in China since the fall of the empire in 1911, early this century. It was in fact the speech of all the inhabitants of the region surrounding the imperial court, and not just that of the court officials. Since the fifteenth century, this has been the region surrounding Beijing. Today the modern spoken standard is based on the variety of Mandarin spoken in Beijing, and is spoken by most educated Chinese throughout the Chinese-speaking world, regardless of their dialect, except possibly in Hong Kong.
Since the 1960s, linguistics texts such as Kratochvil: The Chinese language today, have referred to this form of the language as a whole, ie spoken and written, as Modern Standard Chinese, often shortening it to "standard Chinese", "modern Chinese", or simply "Chinese". In the same way, we speak usually of teaching English, French, or German in our schools. We do not give courses or award degrees in the QUEEN'S English, PARISIAN French or HIGH German. And so to say "MANDARIN Chinese" where "Chinese" is meant is unnecessary, as well as being misleading.
We normally refer to "standard" English only when we have to make a distinction between it and some other variety of English. Thus we need to say "standard" Chinese only if we are comparing it with another variety of Chinese. Many non-Cantonese speakers do not seem to be aware that Cantonese is simply a spoken variety of Chinese, and that all educated Cantonese-speakers, like speakers of other dialects of Chinese, write in standard Chinese, just as all English-speakers write in "standard" English or English, whether they be from Birmingham, New York, Sydney or Auckland.
Most of our schools teach both spoken and written Chinese, so that it gives a false impression to say that they are teaching only "Mandarin". In Chinese, the modern standard spoken form is today called Putonghua (普 通 话 ) or Guoyu (国 语 ). In Chinese, Chinese-speakers never spoke of "writing Guanhua ", and today do not speak of "writing Putonghua ", or of "writing Guoyu". Nor do Cantonese-speakers speak of "writing Cantonese". All Chinese-speakers, regardless of their dialect, speak only of "writing Chinese" or "writing Zhongwen (中 文) ". Thus while it may be permissible in English to say "to speak Mandarin" in some contexts, it is certainly incorrect to say "to write Mandarin". On the other hand we can learn to both speak and write "Chinese" or "standard Chinese".
It is perhaps too much to expect journalists and other laypeople to give up a long-standing erroneous usage that has a history of over 150 years, but at least English-speaking teachers of Chinese and others dealing with China should be aware that the official language of China is Chinese, and not simply "Mandarin". The fact that an error is one of long date, does not justify holding on to it. The use of the term "mandarin" in Hong Kong and Singapore English is a relic of a nineteenth century colonial past.
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This page last revised: 27th December, 2000