The origin of Chinese Mandarin?

The term "Putonghua" appeared in the late Qing Dynasty. In 1909, the Qing government stipulated that the official language of Beijing was "Guoyu". During the Republic of China, the pronunciation of Mandarin was formulated many times. After the founding of New China in 1955, the national common language was stipulated as Putonghua. The predecessor of Mandarin is Mandarin in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and earlier it was called Yayan.

Evolution: In 1909, the Qing government named Beijing Mandarin as Guoyu; during the Republic of China, standards were formulated many times. In 1923, the fifth meeting of the Preparatory Conference for the Unification of Mandarin decided to base the vernacular grammar and Beijing dialect pronunciation on modern northern Chinese Mandarin. Develop a voice.

As one of the working languages ??of the United Nations, Mandarin has become an important bridge for cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries and the first choice language for foreigners to learn Chinese. As of 2015, 70% of China's population has the ability to use Mandarin, and about 400 million people are limited to one-way communication that only understands it.

Extended information:

Putonghua promotion process

China has a vast territory and many dialects. Because there are certain communication barriers between different dialects, which is not conducive to economic and cultural communication in various places, there is a phenomenon of "regional cultural islands". These "regional cultural islands" retain the essence of advanced culture and folk wisdom in different regions.

However, due to language barriers, it is impossible to communicate well and complement each other. Therefore, there is a need for a unique synonym to eliminate the "regional cultural island" and glue together all the wisdom in China's vast land.

However, promoting a language is a long process and should not be rushed. The coordination between the development of local languages ??and the promotion of Mandarin must be properly handled. The goal of promoting Mandarin is not to eliminate local languages, but to eliminate communication barriers. However, the elimination of dialects has indeed occurred during the promotion.

So when promoting, you must grasp the intensity and understand the truth that going too far is not enough. Because language diversity has always been one of the precious cultural accumulations of Chinese civilization, just like biodiversity in the biosphere, the world can be colorful because of diversity, and the biosphere can maintain balance because of diversity.

Baidu Encyclopedia—Mandarin