Languages of China

The Languages of China are the languages that are spoken by China's 56 recognized ethnic groups. The languages of China are collectively known as Zhongyu (simplified Chinese: 中语; traditional Chinese: 中語; pinyin: Zhōngyǔ), and their study is considered a distinct academic discipline in China. Zhongyu span eight primary language families, are diverse morphologically and phonetically, and may be mutually unintelligible with each other. The languages most studied and supported by the state include Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur and Zhuang. China has 292 living languages and 1 extinct language (Jurchen) according to Ethnologue.

Standard Chinese (known in China as Putonghua) is the official national spoken language for the mainland. Several other autonomous regions have additional official languages. Language laws of China do not apply to either Hong Kong or Macau and hence have different official languages (Cantonese) than the mainland. For example, Tibetan has official status within the Tibet Autonomous Region and Mongolian has official status within Inner Mongolia.

There are large economic, social, and practical incentives to be functional in Putonghua, a standardised form of the Mandarin group of dialects which is based in Beijing and spoken with varying degrees of dialectical influences across the northern and southwestern China. Putonghua serves as a lingua franca within the Mandarin-speaking region, and to a lesser extent across the various other language groups in mainland China.