What is the origin of Putonghua?

The word "Putonghua" appeared in the late Qing Dynasty. The Qing court defined Beijing Mandarin as "Mandarin" in 1909, and the pronunciation of Mandarin was formulated many times during the Republic of China. After the founding of New China, it was stipulated in 1955 that the national common language was Putonghua. The predecessor of Mandarin is Mandarin in Ming and Qing Dynasties, before which it was called Yayan.

Evolution: 1909, the Qing government named Beijing Mandarin as the national language; During the Republic of China, standards were formulated many times. 1923 the fifth meeting of the preparatory Committee for the unification of putonghua decided to formulate pronunciations based on the grammar of modern north China mandarin and Beijing dialect.

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 for foreigners to learn Chinese. By 20 15, 70% of the population in China has the ability to use Putonghua, and about 400 million people are limited to one-way communication.

Extended data:

Putonghua promotion process

China has a vast territory and many dialects. Because there are some obstacles in the communication between different dialects, it is not conducive to the economic and cultural exchanges between different regions, and the phenomenon of "regional cultural islands" has emerged, retaining the essence of advanced culture and folk wisdom in different regions.

However, due to the language barrier, we can't communicate and complement each other well, so we need a kind of * * * homonym to eliminate the "island of regional culture" and bind all the wisdom in China's vast land.

However, the promotion of a language is a long process, so don't rush it. It is necessary to handle the harmonious relationship between the development of local languages and the promotion of Putonghua. The goal of popularizing Putonghua is not to eliminate local languages, but to eliminate communication barriers, but the phenomenon of eliminating dialects does appear in the promotion.

Therefore, when promoting, we should grasp the strength and understand the truth that too much is too late. Because linguistic 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 also be balanced because of diversity.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Mandarin