List of Chinese dialects

The following is a list of Chinese dialects and s.

Classification

Linguists classify these languages as the ''Sinitic'' branch of the family. Within this broad classification, linguistics identify between seven and fourteen subgroups.

Tradition classification

Traditional Chinese classification lists seven groups, comprising:



.

Modern linguistic classification

James Matisoff's widely accepted classification is as follows:



's list uses the common English names of the groups, ordered by decreasing number of speakers of languages within the group.

Ethnologue

The Ethnologue lists 14 language groups, namely:



See also Campbell's article on classifying Chinese dialects and ChinaDC's chart of Sino-Tibetan languages.

As the above categories illustrate, there are three common approaches to naming categories and languages in English:

* A Romanization of the name in Standard Mandarin
* The common English name, where there is one
* A Romanization of the name in the principal language of the group

The classification used here is a combination of the classifications given above.

Distinction between dialects and languages

In addition to the languages and dialects given below, it is customary to speak informally of languages and dialects belonging to each province, e.g. ''Sichuan dialect'', ''Henan dialect''. These designations do not always correspond to classifications used by linguists, but each nevertheless has approximate characteristics of its own.

The question of whether these should be called dialects or languages in their own right is particularly interesting in Chinese. On the one hand, the designation seems to be as much socio-political as linguistic, reflecting Max Weinreich's comment that "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy." Purely from a linguistic point of view, many of these idioms seem to meet the criteria of a language. On the other hand, to a large degree the various Chinese idioms share a common written language and literature, lending weight to calling them "dialects". Because the written language is grammatically closest to Standard Mandarin, many Chinese speakers view Standard Mandarin as "the Chinese language", and everything else as dialects.

List of dialects and languages

Gan - 赣语/贛語

Guan - 官话/官話

Hui - 徽語

Sometimes subcategory of Wu.

Jin - 晋语/晉語

Sometimes subcategory of Mandarin.

Kejia - 客家話

Min - 閩語/闽语

北語'''
|-
|   ? Jian'ou dialect || 建甌話
|-
|-bgcolor="E6E6FA"
|Min Dong || 閩東語
|-
|   ? Fu'an dialect || 福安話
|-
|    ? Fuding dialect || 福鼎話
|-
|    ? Xiapu dialect || 霞浦話
|-
|    ? Shouning dialect || 壽寧話
|-
|    ? Zhouning dialect || 周寧話
|-
|    ? Ningde dialect || 寧德話
|-
|    ? Zherong dialect || 柘榮話
|-
|   ? Fuzhou dialect || 福州話
|-
|    ? Minhou dialect || 閩侯話
|-
|    ? Yongtai dialect || 永泰話
|-
|    ? Minqing dialect || 閩清話
|-
|    ? Changle dialect || 長樂話
|-
|    ? Luoyuan dialect || 羅源話
|-
|    ? Lianjiang dialect || 連江話
|-
|    ? Fuqing dialect || 福清話
|-
|    ? Pingtan dialect || 平潭話
|-
|    ? Pingnan dialect || 屏南話
|-
|    ? Gutian dialect || 古田話
|-
|-bgcolor="E6E6FA"
| Min Nan || 閩南語
|-
|-bgcolor="f0f0fa"
| ? ''Mintai division'' || 閩台片
|-
|   ? Quanzhou dialect || 泉州話
|-
|   ? || 廈門話
|-
|    ? Taiwanese || 台灣話
|-
|    ? Lan-nang dialect || 咱人話/咱儂話
|-
|   ? Zhangzhou dialect || 漳州話
|-
|    ? Penang Hokkien || 檳城福建話
|-
|-bgcolor="f0f0fa"
| ? ''Zhenan division'' || 浙南片
|-
|   ? Longhai dialect || 龍海話
|-
|   ? Zhangpu dialect || 漳浦話
|-
|   ? Anxi dialect || 安溪話
|-
|   ? Hui'an dialect || 惠安話
|-
|   ? Tong'an dialect || 同安話
|-
|-bgcolor="f0f0fa"
| ? ''Chaoshan division'' || 潮汕方言
|-
|   ? || 潮州話
|-
|   ? Shantou dialect || 汕頭話
|-
|   ? Chaoyang dialect || 潮陽話
|-
|   ? Puning dialect || 普寧話
|-
|   ? Huilai dialect || 惠來話
|-
|   ? Hailufeng dialect || 海陸豐話
|-
|-bgcolor="f0f0fa"
| ? ''Zhongshan Min division'' || 中山閩方言
|-
|   ? Longdu dialect || 隆都話
|-
|   ? Sanxiang dialect || 三鄉話
|-
|   ? Zhangjiabian dialect || 張家邊話
|-bgcolor="E6E6FA"
|Min Zhong || 閩中語
|-
|   ? Yong'an dialect || 永安話
|-
|   ? Sanming dialect || 三明話
|-
|   ? Shaxian dialect || 沙縣話
|-
|-bgcolor="E6E6FA"
|Pu Xian || 莆仙話
|-
|  ? Putian dialect || 莆田話
|-
|   ? Xianyou dialect || 仙遊話
|-
|-bgcolor="E6E6FA"
|Qiong Wen || 瓊文片
|-
|   ? || 海南話
|-
|-bgcolor="E6E6FA"
|Leizhou || 雷語
|-
|   ? Leizhou dialect || 雷州話
|-
|   ? Zhanjiang dialect || 湛江話
|-
|}

Wu - 吴语/吳語

Xiang - 湘语/湘語

Yue - 粵語/粤语

Unclassified