China

Wakhi

also: Wakhi Pamir

A Pamir Iranian language spoken across the Wakhan Corridor where Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and China meet. One of the most archaic Iranian languages, retaining features of Old Iranian lost everywhere else.

Beijing Mandarin

also: Pekingese, Standard Mandarin (basis)

The Beijing-area variety of Mandarin and the phonological basis of Standard Chinese (Pǔtōnghuà). Distinguished by heavy erhua and clipped syllable-final endings.

Northeastern Mandarin

also: Dōngběi Huà

The Mandarin of China's three Northeastern provinces around Shenyang and Harbin. Close to standard Mandarin but with a distinctive intonation and rich slang.

Sichuanese Mandarin

also: Sìchuānhuà

A Southwestern Mandarin variety spoken across Sichuan and Chongqing. Notably divergent in tones and vocabulary, often partially unintelligible to standard speakers.

Yunnan Mandarin

also: Yúnnánhuà

The Southwestern Mandarin of Yunnan province. Carries strong contact influence from neighbouring Tibeto-Burman and Tai-Kadai languages.

Guangzhou Cantonese

also: Canton Cantonese, Guǎngzhōuhuà

The Cantonese of Guangzhou and the broader Pearl River Delta. The historical prestige Cantonese; closely related to Hong Kong Cantonese but with distinct vocabulary.

Taishanese

also: Toisanese, Hoisan-wa

A divergent Yue Chinese variety from the Sze Yup region of Guangdong. Once the dominant variety in early Chinese-American communities, especially in San Francisco and New York.

Inner Mongolian

also: Chakhar Mongolian, Southern Mongolian

The Mongolian of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, centred on Hohhot. Closely related to Khalkha but written in the traditional vertical Mongolian script and with strong Mandarin contact features.

Buryat

also: Buryat-Mongolian, Buryad

A northern Mongolic language spoken across the Buryat Republic in Russia, northern Mongolia, and parts of north-eastern China. Traditional Buddhist literary language of the Trans-Baikal region.

Oirat

also: Western Mongolian, Dörbed

A western Mongolic language spoken across western Mongolia (Khovd, Bayan-Ölgii) and parts of Xinjiang in China. Sister to Kalmyk, with a separate writing tradition based on the Clear Script (Todo Bichig).

Daur

also: Dagur

A divergent Mongolic language spoken in Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia in north-eastern China. Geographically isolated from the rest of the family and shaped by long contact with Manchu and Mandarin.

Uyghur

also: Uyghurche

A Karluk Turkic language of Xinjiang in north-western China. Closely related to Uzbek; written in a Perso-Arabic-based script and the medium of a long literary tradition along the Silk Road.

Manchu

A Tungusic language and the historical court language of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). Now critically endangered, with only a handful of native speakers in Heilongjiang.

Evenki

A Tungusic language of indigenous reindeer-herding communities across central and eastern Siberia and northern China. The most geographically dispersed Tungusic language.

Nanai

also: Goldi

A Tungusic language of the lower Amur basin, spoken in Russia's Khabarovsk Krai and adjacent China. Around a thousand speakers, all elderly.

Hmong

also: Miao

A cluster of Hmong-Mien languages spoken across the highlands of southern China, northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Carried abroad through the post-Vietnam-War Hmong diaspora to the United States, France, and Australia.

Mien

also: Yao

A cluster of Hmong-Mien languages spoken by the Yao peoples across southern China and adjacent Southeast Asia. Sister branch to Hmong, with around 800,000 speakers across the diaspora.

Wu (Shanghainese)

also: Shanghai Wu, Shanghainese

The largest Wu Chinese variety, spoken across Shanghai and the lower Yangtze. The second-largest Sinitic language by speakers after Mandarin, distinct enough that it is mutually unintelligible with Mandarin.

Min Nan (Hokkien)

also: Hokkien, Taiwanese

The largest Min Chinese variety, spoken in Fujian and Taiwan and across the Hokkien-speaking diaspora of Southeast Asia. The basis of Taiwanese Hokkien and a major contributor to Singaporean Hokkien.

Hakka

also: Kèjiā huà

A Sinitic language spoken across pockets of southern China and Taiwan by the Hakka diaspora communities. Around 35 million speakers, with major communities in Guangdong, Fujian, and Taiwan.

Standard Tibetan

also: Lhasa Tibetan, Bhö-skad

The Lhasa-based standard of Tibetan, used across the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, parts of Sichuan, Qinghai, and the Tibetan diaspora. Tibetan Buddhism's primary liturgical language for centuries.