How Mandarin Conquered China: the 100+ year battle for language unity

[@ABChinese]

Hey guys! Hope you liked this video and don’t forget to share with your friends! I will have NO ADS on this video for the first 24 hours it’s out 😊 Edit: I made a mistake at 11:45. The 尖音 and 团音 are labeled backwards I also have a ton of extra info in notes but I ran out of space in the description so here's a Google Doc! docs.google.com/document/d/150R2rbbDEHjXYNU9wszmeXWckjiQl44YMf_XL_4xqes/edit?usp=sharing

[@allabouttaishan3703]

What part of Henan are you from ? You look southern chinese. I know xi’an dialect is similar to Cantonese. Henan dialect has some similarities with cantomese too ie 屙尿 (o niu) meaning to urinate, 我 pronounced both as Ngo (some dialects say wo), etx Xi’an Cantonese Mandarin 字 西安 廣東話 普通話 自家ZiGa/ZiG’er Zi Ga Zi Jia 褲 Fu/F’er Fu Ku 苦 Fu Fu Ku 窟 Fu Fat/Fut Ku 衫 San Sam shang yi 鞋 Hai Hai Xie 蟹 Hai Hai Xie 閒 Han Han Xian 咸 Han Ham Xian 下 Ha Ha Xia 吓 Ha Ha Xia 蝦 Ha Ha Xia

[@tdbbe]

Hk macau Taiwan are parts of China

[@MrMatFuchs]

Amazing work! Thanks for the video

[@kingbolo4579]

Your comment says it was posted 22 hours ago, not 24, but I'm getting that idiot Sean Seah shilling me his options course. Anyway no real complaints, you have to eat, and if I spend 2 seconds skipping his nonsense it's a small price to pay.

[@edwardfowble9429]

Your viewers are smart enough to ad block just keep it classy. Do I have your word as a Scottish lord you won’t lower yourself to telling us directly about Raid Shadow Legends!?

[@Dawsoncws]

I’m a Hakka descendent living in Malaysia. I must say Malaysia is a very blessed nation as we are allowed to embrace our own cultures and language. However, with the earlier dominance of US which focus more on English and later China which now emphasizes on Mandarin, the dialects are slowly fading to only spoken by at best the Gen Y. Many minority dialects in Malaysia is losing its speakers. The only few remaining that is still widely spoken here is Hokkien and Cantonese. I like the proverb “I rather sell my ancestor’s land than not forgetting my ancestor’s language” So I’ll continue to speak Hakka to preserve this dialect in Malaysia!

[@sbuujsb]

我是福建客家人，在我老家确实很多人都不回讲客家话了，但是能听得懂。只不过我觉得挺正常的，因为现在不论是哪里，会说方言的都越来越少了，毕竟大环境还是普通话讲的多。

[@gabor6259]

*than forgetting. Without the "not".

[@everythingiseconomics9742]

​@@gabor6259 The dude hates his ancestors so much he wants to forget their language and sell their land

[@deathdrone6988]

I'm one of the rare ones that knows hokkien but not mandarin (GenZ)😅

[@keymot1491]

Everyone in Malaysia should speak Malay

[@FefeHpg]

One misconception though is that Beijing dialect = modern Mandarin completely. If you've ever heard old native Beijingers talk, there are still a lot of differences, especially in accent and vocab

[@luckyloonies4378]

The modern Mandarin is not the BeiJing dialect. It is the regional dialect of the city of ShiJiaZhuang/石家庄市. This can be very clear once people have started talking to the people from the city of BeiJing and compare the dialect of BeiJing against the dialect spoken by the people from the city of ShiJiaZhuang/石家庄市.

[@darcylauren1934]

@@luckyloonies4378 "The current definition dates back to the 1956 decree by the State Council which declares that Putonghua is based on the Beijing dialect. " So you disagree with the State Council in 1956... the CCP?

[@luckyloonies4378]

@@darcylauren1934 Go and speak to anyone from the city of BeiJing and compare their dialect to anyone from the city of ShiJiaZhuang. Before you make any stupid comment.

[@luckyloonies4378]

@@darcylauren1934 If you can speak Mandarin. Then you will know and recognise which region was Mandarin originated from, by speaking to the Chinese people from different parts of the PRC. It is simply not from BeiJing. yujiu yu is correct.

[@luckyloonies4378]

@@yujiuyu8817 你在这件事上是正确的。You are correct on this matter.

[@shen8888]

Cantonese still used in Vietnam, Saigon and Hanoi. So our languages still exist. So i hope Hongkong, Macau, or any Cantonese speaker in the world, please keep the languages alive, any languages like Teochew, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainansese, Shanghainese, Toishanese,...

[@AustrianPainter14]

Would be against breaking up China into a bunch of ethno states if it helped preserve the languages?

[@tr1bes]

I speak Vietnamese, Teochew and Cantonese. Teochew will be forgotten. Hardly anyone speak this language.

[@learnteochewpenanghokkien]

@@AustrianPainter14if they wanna separate, let it be. Who wanna live under the rules of CCP ?

[@1.4billion65]

​@@learnteochewpenanghokkien Who wanna live under CCP? The answer is EVERYONE!

[@Aresydatch]

Ho Chi Minh city*

[@穆宇穹]

Parts of my family are from Fuzhou (Hokchew). Actually, I sometimes feel sad that I can't speak fluent Eastern Min Chinese, i.e., Fuzhounese, and my listening is not good enough so I can only understand maybe 50% native vocabularies. My parents and relatives in Fuzhou spoke Mandarin to me when I was child, but they spoke Fuzhounese to each other. Now I am around 30 years old and just started learning Fuzhounese by myself for few years. The sad thing is the deep and complex thinking in my mind can only be in Mandarin now. Now the number of fluent native speaker may be less than 10 million, and I still notice that my relatives in Fuzhou tend to speak Mandarin to their children tho they chat to each other fluently in Fuzhounese. It seems that the children can't speak Fuzhounese and can only understand basic Fuzhounese. My relatives migrated to Australia told me that maybe they are the last generation who can speak Fuzhounese. How sad that is!

[@南岛仔滚去太平洋]

确实，挺可惜的。不过语言这东西是一个很自然的进化过程。

[@youarebeingtrolled6954]

You know whats even sadder chinese bananas who only speak english in the west😂

[@MrInkblots]

Chinese really know how to erase their unique languages out of existence as fast as humanly possible.

[@zhu_zi4533]

​@@MrInkblots What really breaks up dialects is the widespread population movement, television broadcasting and the Internet. Although school learning is reliable, it does not go deep into life. When you are surrounded by people from all over the country&world, dialects become useless, and Mandarin becomes very useful.

[@LW78321]

My parents were born in Fujian and moved to Australia. They decided to not speak to my siblings and I in our home dialect as they thought it would be too hard for us to learn the dialect in addition to Mandarin and English. My parents and relatives speak to one another in our home dialect, so I can understand some of what they are saying, but I find it very hard to speak it. How are you learning it yourself?

[@Reazzurro90]

This is a similar situation of what happened in Italy. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Latin in Italy evolved into the various regional tongues that developed throughout the peninsula. While Latin was considered "proper speech" (since most people assumed they just spoke a version of Latin), a movement gradually grew for a unified vernacular. Very long story short, this culminated in what is called "Standard Italian" which was slowly adopted by all the city-states while the bulk of the population continued to speak the regional tongues. Now of course with modernization Italian is dominant, but there are now pushes to have more appreciation for the "dialects."

[@kunderemp]

Thanks! I'm Indonesian from Javanese ethnic. In mid-90s, when I was interested to Romance of Three Kingdom due to the popular strategy computer games, I struggled with the names spelling. The game used Pinyin. The newest book I read in bookstore used Wade Gilles spelling. However, the book in my family collection had the names in Hokkien. So I have to pair each names from Hokkien to Mandarin. Until the late of 90s, the Wuxia drama in Indonesian TV used Hokkien names. The series were dubbed from Cantonese to Indonesian. However, in 2000s, the Indonesian dubbed wuxia series started to use Mandarin names. Even today, among Indonesia fans of Wuxia genre, we still debate which one we prefer, the Hokkien names or the Mandarin names.

[@ABChinese]

Thank you~ and yeah even today there are many words with different romanizations and you have to choose between them

[@Joseph-ax999]

Sounds like a good mental exercise.

[@sportingusa]

I am in Singapore. My youngest 3 year old boy speaks five languages and dialect fluently. He dreams in Shanghainess and Bahasa. Speaks English, Mandarin and Japanese. It is effortless for him to learn at such a young age. He speaks to the Maid in Bahasa, the grandparents in Shanghainess, Mandarin with the mother, English with me and he attends a japanese nursery. Hence it is possible as long as the right opportunities and environment are provided.

[@victorjackson150]

Not sure how this relates, but that's great. I grew up with German with my father and his parents, English with my mother and her parents, French as school, Spanish with my classmates on the playground and Mandarin to the maid and driver. So, yes, it was out of necessity. When you are living in such tiny and isolated areas of the world, that will happen.

[@flatfish72]

Malaysia/Singapore always amaze me for their ability to speak so many languages. My kids can only understand really basic Mandarin.

[@mihovillmisha9885]

You only speak english and the rest is pure imagination

[@tatleongchan3689]

@@sportingusa Shanghaiese? Most Singaporeans that claim they are Shanghaiese are actually Ningbo or Wenzhou. 侬会得讲浪黒闲话？ 讲来听听

[@parttimethinker7611]

I too spoke many languages and dialects…however, I later realize that the many languages skill weren’t adequate for college level of understanding. Especially, compared with elite students, I couldn’t compete with them. Those languages skill helped me the most when I studied Buddha’s teachings, in English, Chinese, Pali and Vietnamese. I was able to understand, or discern what the Buddha’s precise meaning of some of his teachings. Had I studied the teachings with just one language, I’d have no chance of reaching enlightenment. 😊

[@lenaxchannel6329]

Omg , thank you so much for your hard work. I’ve been waiting for this video for so long

[@Alan-megan]

Grate information. As a westernised Chinese. Proud of my heritage. Overseas Chinese should learn more about their history n heritage….

[@gerard7817]

Very informative. I'm English, lived in HK and speak Cantonese. I watch HK dramas and listen to Cantopop to maintain it. A Chinese guy from Shanghai told me that Cantonese actually was closer to ancient Chinese than Mandarin, I didn't believe it, believing that Mandarin was the original Chinese and the Southern dialects had a lot of Aboriginal influence. Nice to know the truth. I learned Mandarin before traveling in China 10 yrs ago and find it a beautiful language although not being Chinese it's difficult for me to maintain both dialects so being that I live in San Francisco my Cantonese is fluent and my Mandarin has become rudimentary

[@ylg-gw2kx]

厉害

[@lapprentice]

Hi there, I'm a Vietnamese native here. From the linguistics stand, Cantonese and Vietnamese are closer to ancient Chinese than Mandarin. Many researchers say that Vietnamese pronunciation sounds similar to ancient Chinese that were spoken during the Tang & Song dynasty. The Mandarin dialect was not native to Chinese. It was rather "forced" on Chinese people and made an official spoken court language by the Qing dynasty whose rulers were Manchurian/XiongNu ethic, they were not typical Han Chinese. And when Chinese Revolutionary began, the Han Chinese revolutionists found that by making Mandarin official was the best way for them to communicate and spread ideas about Communists, hence it stuck that way until today. A similar thing did happen to the Vietnamese writing language. Vietnamese Latin-based alphabet was not the Vietnamese writing system until about 100+ years ago. There was so much push back from the Vietnamese conservatives as it was seen as "foreign" to the Vietnamese culture. However the Vietnamese revolutionists found out that Latin based writing was much easier to learn and easier for them to communicate and spread the revolutionary ideology, hence, it was pushed in and made an official National Writing Script for Vietnamese language.

[@saxxie-dev]

@@lapprentice Tones and finals are preserved nicely by vietnamese and Cantonese, Vietnamese also does a decent job of preserving the medial sounds in the middle of the words. This means that poems rhyme rather similarly to how they used to - but it's certainly not the only factor. While all sinitic/influenced languages are gramatically way off, cantonese is probably the farthest outlier and has entirely switched word order in a number of spots (presumably because of the aforementioned aboriginal Yue/Viet influence). Lastly - for the initials, Vietnamese is insanely far off the traditional pronunciations, because they were always loanwords. Cantonese is equally bad as southern mandarin languages, and worse than northern ones. The only languages which are even slightly close to their classical pronunciations of initial sounds are Wu (Shanghainese) and some dialects of Xiang (Mao's language)

[@davidli6931]

It's both: yes, Cantonese preserved many ancient Chinese features, but also has many quirks that are simply unrelated to ancient Chinese but the ancient Yue.

[@simonl4657]

Cantonese preserved some features of ancient Chinese but it's not anymore closer to ancient Chinese than mandarin. Both gone their own evolutionary path.

[@erichuanp]

I notice that more modernized the city is, people pay less attention on local dialect. I came from a poor little town in China and worked in Shenzhen. People in my hometown don't speak Mandarin unless the teacher is monitoring us. We speak Gan in daily life and even teachers tells dialect jokes more than Mandarin jokes. I can say that 95% of my friends can speak both Gan and Mandarin. However, when I started work at Canton and Shenzhen, people always tell me their Cantonese is dying. I really can't understand because like I said people speaking two languages is really common in my hometown.

[@kitayisiyiniwinaw]

Could you explain a bit more what you mean when saying they "pay less attention"? I do not speak any Chinese languages and I haven't had the chance to visit yet, but here in Canada I speak a minority language called Cree, so I would love to hear more about how these situations are handled in other parts of the world.

[@erichuanp]

@@kitayisiyiniwinaw Well I think it depends on the percentage of outsiders in this town or city. The outsiders in my small hometown(1.8m ppl, which is normal in China) is not over 10%. Usually you talk with a random stranger, you should speak local dialect first instead of Mandarin, or ppl get confused. This is how people pay MORE attention on the local dialect. For Shenzhen, a big city, you don't speak its local dialects(Cantonese and Hakka), especially this city was only a small village in 1979, 75% of ppl are outsiders. You speak Cantonese or Hakka there, most people would never understand you. This is how people pay LESS attention on the local dialect. I think using general languages would be an unstoppable trend, unless you don't talk with people from other places. Just like you and me, we speak English, the general language of the world. It's sad, tho.

[@kitayisiyiniwinaw]

@@erichuanp I see, thanks! Here is definitely different because our language was made illegal to speak for multiple generations, so practically everyone is born speaking English and only around 25% of our ethnic group even speak the language. 1.8 million as small is wild to me, we only have 6 cities with 1 million plus, and our language here has less than 100k speakers. Keeping local languages is hard (especially at our size) but it's worth it, linguistic diversity is declining right now but we can definitely reverse that trend, although it would be a massive amount of work it is possible (I want to end this with saying thanks in Gan but I can't find it online, whoops)

[@erichuanp]

@@kitayisiyiniwinaw Lol, nvm. It's shia shia (similar to Mandarin xie xie). I hope there will be more people speak the cree. ekosi. :)

[@laifamily7804]

because larger cities have alot of immigrants from all over china and they don't learn the local language and speak mandarin instead. That's how the local dialects in larger cities die out

[@lukey6544]

I am proud of you being an ABC who can make such in depth video about Mandarin Chinese. Very informative video and way to go.

[@Manchuria-Restoration3.1]

If the Chinese want to destroy Manchuria, they must first destroy the history of Manchuria. Therefore, they deliberately interpreted Mongolia, Xianbei, Jurchen and Japanese as completely different races, and then belittle the Manchuria Mandarin to Putonghua. Mandarin is preceded by the word " Chinese " to shake off his identity as a " Southerner " and pass himself off as a " Han Chinese ". As a result, Manchuria Mandarin became the " Chinese " of the southerners. As soon as the Republic of China was founded in Nanjing in 1912, it was necessary to abolish Putonghua. Because the southerners could not take the Latin phonetic notation for the Baiyue Language, since it could not be abolished, they changed the definition of " Han people ". Abandon their original " Southerner " identity, disguised as " Han ", the real Han people defined as Tatar, I can not change the Mandarin, Add the word " Chinese " in front of Mandarin and pretend to be your own language. Anyway, counterfeiting and fraud are what southern Chinese are good at.

[@burbex]

My 86 year old female neighbor in the Shanghai countryside doesn’t speak a single word of Putonghua. I’m English and I speak better Chinese than her. I’m trying to learn her dialect a bit to communicate.

[@azazelssprachen]

That's amazing, I'd love to have the opportunity to learn Shanghainese. When I was there everyone just seemed to use Mandarin.

[@plantyplant]

​@@azazelssprachen since shanghai's The City of Trade TM most people there aren't locals and thus don't know shanghainese. i think shanghainese broadcasts were only added to the public bus system less than 10 years ago. when i grew up there it only had mandarin and english (english at home quality) but a few years ago i noticed the buses started speaking shanghainese

[@PeterLiuIsBeast]

Similarly my grandfather was the son of land owners near Changzhou, Jiansu born in 1921. His Mandarin accent was horrendous as he was essentially trying to morph his Wu dialect into Mandarin. So instead of saying Beijing, he would keep calling it something like buhjin which was his Mandarin-ized version of his local dialect.

[@wuconrad]

Shanghainese has a closer tonal (pitch) system to Japanese than Mandarin as the former has greater influence to the proper ancient ChIna, unlike modern Mandarin was closer to the northern tribes.

[@danielzhang1916]

her generation wasn't taught Mandarin, you would have to find someone much younger for that, you can tell which generation learned Mandarin in school and which ones didn't by their accents

[@DustinLaGriza]

It doesn't have to be an either/or situation. The government should promote both Putonghua and the local dialects--it's good for the brain too!

[@ABChinese]

Love it. That's the nuance we need

[@xw3132]

That's good in theory, but not happening in real life. Because Madarin Chinese already gained the dominance in PRC China (or Taiwan in this matter), it is naturally replacing other Chinese languages/dialects. Without government interaction, the local dialects would just die on their own at this point (except Cantonese because of Hong Kong influence). Contrary to your good wish, young people are not all that interested in picking up their own locally spoken dialects because there are just not much incentives. What they're really up for is to move away from their small town, speak perfect Mandarin and make a living in one of the Chinese big cities.

[@ishankashyap3350]

@@ABChinese In India, many states follow the "three language policy": schools compulsorily teach three languages, the language of the region, along with Hindi and English. I am from Assam where Assamese is the lingua franca, and because of the policy, I am fluent in all the three languages. Even after this, many regional languages are facing issues, particularly in the so-called Hindi belt (6 out of 28 states) where their languages like Bhojpuri, Awadhi etc. are falsely counted as dialects of Hindi and there are issues in some southern states where the policy is not followed. But I guess, the situation is still better than in China, a lot of other languages are taught in school, have TV programmes, own movie industries, music industries and books. Non-Hindi movies and songs have global reach as well. The stereotypical Indian music that many foreigners think of (with turbans and all) is mostly Punjabi language music, not Hindi. Nobel prize winning Tagore wrote in the Bengali language. The song Natu Natu that won in the Oscars last year is a Telugu language song. Grammy winning AR Rehman's works are mostly in the Tamil language. And so on.

[@FefeHpg]

dialects used to be non-existent in mainstream media, but a lot of movies and tv shows include dialects now! seems like some improvement

[@ruil7922]

This is easier said than done. The reality is when you're trying to improve literacy in the masses in one single generation, you need them to focus. I grew up in Singapore - my dad's family only spoke chinese dialect. he had to learn english and putonghua in school. try as the government did, few in his generation ended up truly proficient in both. I understand the necessity of picking putonghua. They probably also promoted it for national unity.

[@simondefonseca1121]

A hundred years ago, Mandarin did exist, however, as a group of local dialects, not only in the region around the imperial capital, but also spread across a vast territory in the northern, central, and southwestern parts of the Han-dominated region of the Qing Empire. And it has also functioned as a lingua franca among the Confucianist-bureaucrat class of the country since several centuries ago 0:22

[@sirati9770]

mandarin is considered a language family. standard chinese indeed did not exist

[@APDM_Analysis]

@@sirati9770mandarin means “official speech” designated by Ming and Qing government, it’s China’s imperial “standard Chinese”. And to the other people. Mandarin is not 滿大人，滿大人 is a comic book character established by Marvel in 1964. 滿大人 is the Chinese translation of the comic book character. In the comic, 滿大人 was a Chinese martial artist and government official. I love how he lectured me on language using the lore of an American comic book, truly hilarious.

[@danielzhang1916]

yes, Mandarin was based on the dialects of the North Plain, it wasn't the official court language until later, the wording is a bit misleading, making people think that it "didn't exist" before then

[@szesze-bw8fz]

​@@APDM_Analysis No, Mandarin means "滿大人” it's a massive deviation from the original "Han court language" from the Ming Dynasty. That's why Qing government had to standardise the pronunciation into the KangXi Dictionary. Cantonese actually preserved most of the "original Han language" in terms of not just pronunciations and tones, but also phrases.

[@Michael-fp9zb]

​@@szesze-bw8fz经典远古谣言，mandarin词根自查

[@wellplayed3938]

Thanks for your work and have a cup of coffee 🎉

[@ABChinese]

Thank you for the gift! I appreciate it

[@halian.vilela]

Fantastic video! Congratulations! And thank you a lot for such a complete sources/references section, this is a very interesting topic that surely deserves a deeper dive. 谢谢！

[@ABChinese]

Thanks for watching!

[@Travelwithmiracle1]

Coming from a very culturally diverse country Nigeria 🇳🇬 I can understand the stress of learning new language in order to understand each , I also understand the concern of people who don’t want to lose their ancestral languages, I can’t imagine someone forcing me to change Igbo language to another Nigerian language. But at the end of the day, there has to be a language which is the mean language of a country which is diverse, like general language which the whole country can understand and communicate with . China has one of the best history in the world, I honestly applaud Chinese leaders for how they managed the country and that large number of people with different language, culture and ethnicity. The world should learn human management from China 🇨🇳

[@sskiyer]

Brilliant! You have managed to bring out many aspects of the richness of the Chinese civilisation in your discussion of the variety of languages that exist in China (which seldom gets mentioned due to political correctness reasons even by many Chinese themselves). I sincerely hope that the rich diversity of China does not get erased, but continues to thrive and enrich the rich culture of the land. "I'd rather sell my ancestor's land, than forget my ancestor's language." That one is a gem, and as you said will be applicable everywhere in the world. Appreciate your creating this video and sharing it. While I had inferred many points you mentioned in disconnected readings in the past, you have put it all together in a wonderful manner. Thank you from India.

[@apeironbohemicus4283]

I remember I read the brief history of Mandarin Chinese in a book before and I totally like this very informative and understanable summary of this very interesting topic. Thank you very much for your effort.

[@reesenga9535]

This is very well researched and excellently delivered. Thank you for your service in clarifying the history and motivations of the national language in an unbiased way. As a Cantonese speaker, I learned so much from this video.

[@paradoxicalocus3761]

Only posted 4 hours ago, less than 1000 views, I wasn’t already subscribed, but the algorithm is doing its job!

[@ABChinese]

I don't blame you if you're not subscribed... I upload every other blue moon it seems like 🤣

[@paradoxicalocus3761]

@@ABChinese oh I am now!

[@victorjackson150]

Thank you for this video. Well done! I really enjoy travel throughout China and hearing the various dialects and accents across the country.

[@dottieshields5918]

Your video presentations are so well researched, organized and informative. Thank you!

[@laviebanale]

Great explanation on the history of Mandarin or common language. I still remember while walking through the language school at my university, a professor was giving a lecture on the history of Mandarin. Even though I wasn’t in his class, he offered me to sit in his lecture. It was one of the most interesting lectures. You should do a video on other Chinese dialects or languages. A+ explanation!

[@jopeteus]

You ALWAYS make quality content!!

[@aaronphilip8785]

Thank you! Great video. Interesting and informative. Your passion is evident and you've got nice charisma.

[@riser7795]

Putonghua as a working language, to be taught in school, used at work etc Dialect to be passed down in the family, used for informal communication That way you can preserve both

[@熊唯嘉]

And yet the family itself is being dismantled by the relentless lifestyle demanded in a “modern China”...

[@stariyczedun]

It doesn't work like that - this way the dialects will die. There is no precedent in the world where an "informal" language \ dialect didn't get replaced by the formal language in 3 generations.

[@nihalu.7886]

@@stariyczedunArabic is an exception but otherwise yeah you have a point

[@stariyczedun]

@@nihalu.7886 good point, though standard Arabic is rather "weak" for a standard language.

[@timurermolenko2013]

Yeah no aint gonna work bro

[@believeinpeace]

Thanks!

[@ABChinese]

Thank you for the support!

[@genace]

Wow, super informative as always. This must have taken a lot of time and research. I too hope all the local languages/dialects will be preserved. Nice to see you back on KZbin!!

[@ABChinese]

Yes, this video took over 200 hours to make 😂 It's crazy how much time to takes to add all the details: It probably took me only 15 hours to get 90% of the info in this video, and then another 30 hours to get the details right, fact check, proper graphics/historical footage etc.

[@genace]

⁠@@ABChineseWhoa, that’s impressive!! Great to see this video getting so many views considering all the work you put in!

[@wuhaninstituteofvirology5226]

​@@ABChineseJust a small correction: The KMT didn't leave the simplification of characters to oppose the CCP, but the KMT held a voting about it and the majority voted against it.

[@kankankankankankankan]

I really like your videos man! they're always super helpful, keep up the good work❤

[@AntJWarren]

What an excellent video. I love the detail and your enthusiasm, which made it very interesting. Looking forward to more videos. Boiler Up!

[@kookies4later921]

This was freaking cool as hell good job :)

[@banban8481]

Indonesia, the fourth most popular country with 700 languages, can be united with one language Bahasa Indonesia, it is a feat that needs a documentary on itself. And average Indonesian can speak 4-7 languages.

[@paulfaust1496]

Chinese instructor in the States here. Thank you so much for making this excellent introductory video! You really covered all the bases and avoided the misconceptions that are so depressingly common. I will definitely refer it to my students.

[@simpleman3663]

Thanks for the video, I’m currently studying Mandarin and it’s very interesting to learn some of its history

[@Joseph-ax999]

This was also a major concern during the French revolution. French was to be the dominant language through out the country. In the north west many spoke Breton, a Celtic language. In the south west Basque was spoken. While this may seem harsh it's understandable. To this day this is still a problem in many European countries.

[@jyy9624]

This is a sad perspective - Bretons and Basques did not align with outsiders against France. They wanted respect for diversity

[@travissutherland8502]

Wow this was really good. Very nuanced, super interesting. Thank you!

[@GeoScorpion]

WOW! Fantastic video! There aren't many YT videos where I have to watch several times with a notebook AND add vocabulary content to my Traverse Flashcards, but this is one of them. Thank you!

[@banbangu]

Great video, I was glued to the screen❤

[@lucyl.a.4288]

Thank you so much for your video, it’s very good. I am an American learning about China and the more I learn the more I love it ❤

[@tvl6347]

My family in southern China are speaking three dialects. Hakka, Mandarin and Cantonese. The national language putonghua is useful to communicate with every different ethnics groups. When I have travelled around China, many people are still using their ethnic language.

[@EdwinBB-h2n]

3 different languages** Dialect is a French word used to demonize regional Chinese languages

[@frankchen4229]

@@EdwinBB-h2n Perfect reflection of what happened / is happening in France too

[@punditgi]

Superb video, excellent channel, and awesome presenter. Hung hao! 🎉😊

[@Namoari941]

China is successfully adopted a common language for its people, nowadays over 90% of its people can communicate in mandarin (Putonghua) and use almost in all government offices and military throughout the country, too bad that India can not do it, India failed to enforce Hindi ,even try English but also failed because most of its rural people dont like English or bitter about the colonial past.

[@Robin-u5n]

It's different. In China, we have a profound history of sharing the same written language, and all these Chinese languages(the socalled dialects) share the same origin. Despite the fact that there are non-Chinese languages, they cover a small proportion of the territory. But in India, the difference between languages are huge. For example, Dravidian languages, which are totally different from Indo-European languages like Hindu, cover the vast south India.

[@serafimheifetz3018]

This finally sorted things out for me. Thank you!

[@nareknarek9943]

6:39 : This is a mistake since uyghur is a turkic language, it in no way related to Sino-Thibetan languages

[@ABChinese]

I probably shouldn't have used that picture... it was supposed to just be an illustration and not represent the actual ethnicity/language. That's why their text bubbles are random symbols.

[@jclong83]

本部雖然到底值得等這麼久，但我還是覺得等了太久了。讚

[@yuanjing2621]

The biggest difference between Chinese local languages ​​and different languages ​​is that most of the words in various Chinese local languages ​​are written in the same way, so even if you can't understand each other through speaking, you can still communicate through writing; this is impossible to achieve in two truly different languages.

[@Taytanchik]

I maybe wrong, but aren't the Chinese "dialects" usually spoken rather than written? Many words are actually quite different like 日头 for 太阳 or 个 instead of 的 in Hakka. Many of these could be guessed anyway, just saying it's not always the same root word/character with just a different pronunciation. Also this character "hack" to connect the different Chinese dialects/languages only works because they don't carry any phonetic value at all, only meaning, while in alphabetic languages the script usually slowly adapts to pronunciation changes. If Romanic languages used characters instead of Latin script, they would still be different languages. No matter if they all used 人 instead of homme, uomo, hombre - but it would be (even) easier to bridge the gap between them.

[@yuanjing2621]

@@Taytanchik Yes, Chinese dialects are usually spoken, rarely written, and there are indeed cases where the roots/characters are different when written. However, the differences in the roots/characters written are easily understood by most people, and this does not affect the communication between the two parties. To give an inappropriate example, it is like British written English and American spoken English. The latter obviously omits some words and is not completely grammatical, but it can also be understood by most people (it just feels a bit weird); in reality, the different roots/characters of Chinese dialects are more like different nouns for the same object.

[@MezzieGraciela]

I beg to differ. Written Cantonese would not be comprehensible to a non- Cantonese speaker, as an example.

[@yuanjing2621]

@@MezzieGraciela My negligence (I didn't know much about this before), I confirmed the current situation here by asking friends in Cantonese-speaking areas and searching online official documents; Cantonese is generally used for spoken language in daily communication, while formal written writing (including official documents, published books, contract documents, etc.) is still written in vernacular Chinese; but in informal scenes such as social media and small restaurants posting special offers, Cantonese speakers will use Chinese characters with similar pronunciations to express the content in spoken word order and phrases, and this kind of writing will make it difficult for non-Cantonese speakers to understand

[@AModerateChinese]

一群中国人怎么拿英语说话呢

[@ollieanntan4478]

What a riveting video. Wow. Thank you for making this!

[@empiricsnake5379]

Really nice video, very factual without omitting anything or being biased towards any side. Good work!

[@JustSay_Yes]

Wow Andrew! What a lesson in linguistics and Chinese history. Very well done video.

[@ABChinese]

Thanks Michael!

[@SuperAltamish23]

Your method of telling historical stories are quite positively exceptional. I'm quite amazed by how you organized the story and presented it. Well done 👍🏼✅

[@ABChinese]

Thanks for noticing haha, I spent a long time on the script

[@SuperAltamish23]

@@ABChinese you structured it quite well. I've seen a lot of KZbinrs who try to tell historical stories but they tend to make it convoluted and jumbled. Keep up the good work sir.

[@galelichter2619]

An excellent presentation. It's obvious that you have spent time researching this topic. Thank you for presenting the material so clearly and in an interesting way. 太棒了！

[@chad9015]

A small error in the captions at 4:37; 音 instead of 因. Hope this helps!

[@ABChinese]

Thank you! It does help- you wouldn’t believe how many mistakes I go through before the final upload

[@levin36]

Great video , I didn't expect to learn the history of my own language from a foreigner...

[@soundrat]

I’m half Hakka on my mother’s side but have enough trouble trying to be more fluent in Mandarin since it was spoken at home and being raised in New York, it makes it harder to learn both, much that I wanted to and nearly all my friends with Hakka heritage can’t speak Hakka fluently either. I do respect the Hakka ways and wish I was younger and had time to learn since my mom told me it wasn’t that hard but she didn’t live long enough to make time to teach me. At least I can further explore my Hakka heritage more as I find it very fascinating.

[@Irene-guedes1979]

🎉🎉Thanks for the history lessons. I really learn too much from your videos. They are a good incentive for learn more mandarim (that I love). Don't stop, please 🎉😊 谢谢

[@HippiePajon]

You know a LOT about Chinese. Only one professor I had knew things like this

[@MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou]

Fantastic overview. This video has major 'masterpiece' vibes. In my opinion, this is a significant component of modern linguistic history that everyone-at the very least every Chinese speaker-should know.

[@rawcopper604]

Let's go the legend returns

[@ABChinese]

Awww you’re too kind

[@rawcopper604]

@@ABChinese No, I'm being honest. Your production quality and clear passion for the subject matter continues to amaze me; the only thing I dislike about your channel is the absolutely non-existent upload schedule. I'm actually the guy that DM'd you on reddit but then forgot the question (I'm still trying to remember). You're one of the channels that inspired me to start learning Mandarin in the first place- I'm comfortably HSK5/ doing 6 rn and am going to China in the summer to study. Thanks for your work which continues to inspire me

[@ABChinese]

@@rawcopper604 Well let me know whenever you remember your question 🤣 THANK YOU and good luck this summer!

[@fbkintanar]

Very informative. Thanks for another high quality video.

[@kennywong4239]

There is a key part missing in the video. In the ancient times, even before Qing dynasty, the government do sent officials to teach the local, especially the children the language of the court. This is to ensure some might be good enough to go for the Imperial selection (selection by recommendation, then replaced by exams). The pronunciation taught by the officials are known as Li Du 吏读. Hence, that was why in some Southern dialects like Cantonese, they have 2 forms of a term. For example, the term we is 我们 Wo Men in Mandarin. Cantonese has the native term Ngo Dey, but also Ngo Moon, which is a transliteration of Wo Men. The same also in Vietnam, Korea and Japan, where they have 2 terms for certain words. The other terms are usually taught by the official. Hence, the key reason why the northern dialect was widespread is because of that. That was also the reason why the argument was never for any southern dialect to be the National language, because of this key ground work that made everyone confirmed that the Beijing dialect is the only dialect that the National Language will be based on.

[@CannibaLouiST]

Incorrect. National school was not a thing in the past. Even in Ching Dynasty, there were more than several varieties of accents in the government Mandarin itself, as no regulation was ever made. Most southerners tended to learn the southern variety of Mandarin - the Nanking or the Yunnan varieties and more. Ching government tried to implement Peking accent in Fukien once, but it failed.

[@kennywong4239]

@@CannibaLouiST As early as the Qin dynasty, there was a decree that said, anyone wants to learn about the law, would be taught by the local officials. Hence, the local officials acted as some form of teacher to the local. Usually, the local are prohibited to be official in their hometown, hence these officials would teach the Ya Yan or Guan Hua, because unlikely they can communicate with the locals using dialects. There was never about implementing any accent, but more in standardising the words usage. Notice that the Cantonese version of Wo men is Ngo Moon, which is already very close to Mandarin. By the way, in some opera like Fujian opera, the lyrics are in Chinese, which is incompatible with many of the dialect words. Here, the Li Du comes into play and you will find many similar pronunciation as Mandarin, albeit with a twang or sort.

[@CannibaLouiST]

​@@kennywong4239 the standarization had nothing to do with everyday word usage. chin only tried on written script styles, not spoken word phrases. officials could care less about how the general population speak. what you quoted was actually meant to tell the general population to learn from the government if they wanna learn the law. do not mistake chin bureaucracy as the exact same system as the later dynastys. also the cantonese/mandarin example you mentioned didnt exist until late in the middle ages

[@thomasantn]

Manchu’s native language is totally different from Mandarin which was widely used by northern Han people.

[@Robin-u5n]

You are mixing up pronunciation and expression/word choice. Ngo Dey vs Ngo Moon is not a pronunciation thing, but a word choce thing

[@HanChinesemuslim]

I'm from Anji county in Zhejiang province,it's called dialect island,there are more than 12 different dialects here,we speak 3 dialects in my family,but we don't need to switch dialect,we speak our own dialect to each other.I speak Anjihua,my Mom speaks Henanhua,my Dad speaks Shaoxinghua,all of us can speak manadrin.

[@swan9506]

a jump from 53% to 81% fluency in puntonghua in a mere 22 years is astounding

[@md3492]

This is one of the best clip on Mandarin I have watched

[@baboon500]

I live in the US. My family and all our relatives speak Taishanese and standard Cantonese. Only a couple of us can speak Mandarin.

[@gerard7817]

I live in San Francisco and most people in Chinatown speak taishanese but Cantonese is the lingua franca.

[@jjjjj89998]

Great video. I learnt so much!

[@jansoltes971]

Wow, this video is a must for every Mandarin learner! So well put together! 👍🙏

[@bojongkia123]

Thanks a lot for sharing this! Language is one of my favourite subjects and learning to speak another nation’s language is also one of my interests. In Malaysia I have learned to be able to speak English, Malay, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hainanese and a bit of Hakka, Teochew, Thai and Tamil. 😊😊

[@sealgaming2396]

Finally you posted and also first comment

[@hotonghophan6969]

Wonderful and informative video!!! Thank you so much!

[@yours_sincerely48]

I am a Taishanese in Malaysia, I am not embracing Beijing language. After all my ancestors came from Taishan Guandong. The very least I will speak Cantonese proudly in Malaysia. We are not Brijingers in Malaysia. 😅😅😅😅

[@falconfire29]

Whoa i had no idea Mandarin was so new. Great video!

[@kky-jd3xj]

Another challenge with preserving local dialects is that many people travel across the country to work, study, and marry in regions completely different from their own. If a native Min speaker from the South moves to Beijing to study and work, then marry someone from Beijing, what language would they use in their everyday life? Probably Putonghua Mandarin. And when they have children, what language should the child learn? Min, the local Beijing dialect, or both? Most likely the parents will just speak to the kids in Putonghua, and they grow up only speaking the standard language. That's how local languages die out in just a few generation, even without government intervention.

[@DavidLee-cw6ci]

It's quite simple actually, the kid will speak the local dialect of where he grows up. If the kids in school are Sichuanese they're going to chat in Sichuanese outside of the classroom, because that's what they're speaking at home.

[@anpleidhceeireannach9498]

Depends where they live,though.

[@BBai-e6z]

This video solved so many questions I had on the Chinese language (s). I thank you

[@chris-lk4ml]

I'm German and speaking the old "dialect" of low german/limburgian, it sounds like the limburgian language in the netherlands. In 1800 the prussians introduced high german in schools and even if they not tried to elemenate the local dialects, they became destinct within 200 years. If I speak my own native language - its my secm 1st is high german - people even if my home town did not understand me. Very intressting video. Thanks.

[@gerard7817]

I have a German friend who speaks English to Austrians because she can't understand their German. Surprised me

[@daniel22_22]

Beautiful video. Congrats!

[@evapaparisteidou9040]

Excellent presentation!!! 多谢！

[@jjb2655]

Great video thank you so much!

[@ErniJuliaKok]

Thank you for creating this beautiful presentation with rich information and historical background. You have done a wonderful job. 👍👍

[@iron_axe_chinese]

解釋得非常好！已讚！

[@rictusjas1014]

终于更新啦🎉

[@Alaxion]

Fantastic video, keep up the good work!

[@deanfunk8448]

Thanks so much for your work. It is very helpful in my own study of Putonghua. 很多谢

[@danielzhang1916]

actually, you can just say 多谢, it already means many thanks, instead of adding 很

[@troy5094]

If you want to express "very" eg "thank you very much", you can use 非常感谢

[@szhou008]

There are so many dialects in southern China. I can't understand any of them, it is same for them too. It is a blessing that most people can communicate with each other in Mandarin now.

[@TalaySeedam]

With the changes in legal codecs in the Republic of China, the term 國語 "national language" now refers to any of the languages widely used in Taiwan - Taiwanese Mandarin, Taiwanese Southern Min, Taiwanese Hakka and all Formosan languages used by the indigenous population. Taiwanese Mandarin is now referred to as 臺灣華語 (Taiwan Huayu).

[@peekaboopeekaboo1165]

Taiwan Huayu = Mainland immigrants So-called "Formosan languages" = All languages spoken on Taiwan province Taiwanese S.Min & Hakka = settlers and immigrants from Mainland

[@Dordord]

华语😂 就是见不得那个“中”字 台湾还有【中国科技大学】嘞，自欺欺人活得太别扭啦，都是为了自己手里那点权力

[@ChiefMadokawando]

Great job! Very informative.

[@haoxiangwu6735]

The challenge for Chinese dialects is that most of them don't have a standard pronounciation (except for Cantonese, thanks to HK). The accent can easily be different if you visit a town just 10km away, even if they speak the same dialect. A standard pronounciation essentially becomes the "Mandarin of the dialect".

[@diemannschaftweltmeister8197]

别逗，香港的“粤语正音”现在早就被年轻人的懒音和英语词混用给摧毁了。粤语正音依然在广州城，跟香港没关系

[@DD-vb7ej]

Even in HongKong, standard Cantonese is Guangfuhua, means the dialect of Canton(Guangzhou). It is based on the center position lasted for thousands of years which the Canton City hold.

[@gerard7817]

In Cantonese the stand pronunciation is Gwongjau

[@everythingtorah]

Thanks for this interesting video! I can understand why preserving local dialects is impossible to some or many, but I think unifying the nation should be the priority. Balancing the two would be ideal, but if one had to chose between high proficiency betwen thier local dialect and putonghua, the latter makes more logical sense. Im glad to see most of China is now fluent in the national language. Keep uo the great work!

[@Jellybean-gz4cj]

A common language is critical for development across the country and common prosperity. Regional dialects can be spoken among friends and family. It is not being erased. But some people may choose to anchor to the common language of Mandarin in personal matters in addition to use in school, business, and government.

[@paaabl0.]

Great video! Good pace and a lot of interesting information. Thank you for sharing. I like the timeline beginning in ancient China. One can compare it, for example, to the development of civilization in Europe throughout the time. Paradoxically modern Italian was introduced in early XXc, based on Florentian dialect, yet so many different European languages share many features of ancient Latin language.

[@karthikshetty2206]

This is where I like India. People here will never let one language dominate

[@YunLuoShanZe]

That is why India is developing so slowly.

[@gerard7817]

They've also kept Hinduism and not torn down their beautiful architecture. The communists destroyed a lot of China's ancient culture

[@karthikshetty2206]

@@YunLuoShanZe better to grow slowly and steadily than to grow fast to loose all your culture and identity.

[@Thindorama]

Language is a means to an end. Having the same language is much better than not.

[@karthikshetty2206]

@@Thindorama for that to loose out all other languages is not what I want

[@cherylparkin8094]

Interesting! Good job, thanks

[@uggali]

NZ Māori proverb: “Tōku reo, tōku ohooho, tōku reo, tōku māpihi maurea, tōku reo, tōku whakakai marihi” ~ My language, my reason for waking up, my language, my object of affection, my language, my precious ornament

[@danielzhang1916]

we have a similar concept, if you don't speak the language, you're not part of the culture

[@jayshen84]

One interesting phenomena that I see is that the mandarin spoken in different regions of China and especially in overseas Chinese communities are also evolving. Many mandarin speakers have integrated their dialects or local languages vocabulary into their own mandarin vernacular. Many mainland Chinese coming to southeast Asia get confused by our form of mandarin that uses southeast asian vocabularies spoken through similar sounding mandarin words.

[@KensalgreenRL]

I was teaching in Guangzhou and Zhuhai for 5 years. Every year, less and less kids knew Cantonese. It was slowly being eradicated.

[@ehclee]

Not eradicated, just less frequently spoken in public due to mass migration of people.

[@Neyobe]

Amazing! Subscribed

[@sovennfiy855]

it makes me somehow so sad chinese languages are dying. I love learning those, they are purely beautiful and unique, Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, Wu varieties.. but it is so hard to find a native speaker of those languages nowadays, even Cantonese is gradually having less space in Canton itself to be spoken. my classmate from Shenzhen can't even speak it, while this city seems to be just near Hong Kong. and a classmate from Zhangzhou, she says only her grandparents are able to speak Hokkien :

[@blmwcd4621]

How can people speak Cantonese when CCP changes the education system in those native speaking regions. Most of the westerners don’t even know anything else other then mando

[@thomasantn]

We northers like it. Most of the time northerners conquer the south.

[@sovennfiy855]

@@thomasantn you are a language maniac

[@thomasantn]

@@sovennfiy855 Nah, just spell out the fact. Check out Chinese's history especially the last 1,000 years. Dynasty on the south was almost always conquered by the north. Like during the Ming dynasty originally choose Nanjing (in south) as its capital then its 2nd empire got overthrown by his uncle prince who stationed in Beijing (north). Even for the latest one, China's civil war, the winner PRC choose Beijing as its capital while the defeated ROC had chosen Nanjing as its capital. Now thinking about it. It might not be just a Chinese thing. Could be a general rule. Didn't Union North defeated Confederate South? Also the Franks and Northmen overran the Roman's😅

[@sovennfiy855]

@@thomasantn and the northern vietnam defeating southern

[@nekawah]

I am born in Shanghai and my parents come from Zhejiang and Shandong. I speak mandarin and can understand pretty much all northern dialects, but I have trouble speaking with my grandparents from Zhejiang. For over a century China had been seeking unity among its diverse land and people, and through the creation of the standard language the Chinese state was forged. Now as China became much more developed and modernized than what it had been just a few decades ago, I believe it is time to properly recognize the various cultures these dialects/languages represent. 多元一体. In varietate concordia.