Sinitic languages
group of East Asian analytic languages and a major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sinitic languages, also called the "Chinese languages", are a branch of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken mainly in China. Some think there is a split between Sinitic languages and the rest of the family (Tibeto-Burman languages), but many researchers now do not agree with this.[1] Because of this, the Sinitic languages are simply Sino-Tibetan languages that are seen as varieties of Chinese. Many think Chinese is one language with many dialects, when it may be a group of different languages.[a]
| Sinitic | |
|---|---|
| Chinese | |
| Ethnicity: | Sinitic peoples |
| Geographic distribution: | China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan |
| Linguistic classification: | Sino-Tibetan
|
| Subdivisions: |
Macro-Bai ?
|
| ISO 639-5: | zhx |
Notes
- See, for example, Enfield (2003:69) and Hannas (1997). The Chinese terms often translated as 'language' and 'dialect' aren't always correct. These are 語言 yǔyán, meaning to macrolanguage or language cluster, that is used for Chinese itself; 方言 fāngyáng, which separates mutually unintelligible languages within a yǔyán; and 土語 tǔyǔ or 土話 tǔhuà, which is closer to the word 'dialect'.[2]
References
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