Article published In:
Chinese Language and DiscourseVol. 7:1 (2016) ► pp.136–149
Language and dialect in China
In the study of language learning, researchers sometimes ask how languages in contact are related. They compare the linguistic features of the languages, how the mental grammars of each language sub-system are represented, put to use in performance, and how they interact. Within a linguistic family, languages can be closely related or distantly related, an interesting factor, for example, in understanding bilingualism and second language development. Dialects, on the other hand, are considered to be variants of the same language. While there is no way to always draw a sharp line between the categories of language and dialect, it is necessary to distinguish between the two kinds of language variation by the application of uniform criteria. The distinction between dialect and language is important for designing bilingual instructional programs, both for students who already speak two languages and for beginning second language learners.
Keywords: language contact, dialect, Chinese, biliteracy, minority languages, language policy
References
Chang, Y.-T., and J. Lu
2014 “Language Stereotypes in Contemporary Taiwan: Evidence form an Experimental Study.” Journal of East Asian Studies 141: 211–248. 
Chen, S.-C
2010 “Multilingualism in Taiwan.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2051: 79–104.
Cheung, K.-H., and R.S. Bauer
2002 “The Representation of Cantonese with Chinese Characters.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics, Monograph Series Number 18.
Dong, H
2014 A History of the Chinese Language. London: Routledge.
Dupré, J.-F
2014 “The Mother Tongues as Second Languages: Nationalism, Democracy and Multilingual Education in Taiwan.” Current Issues in Language Planning 151: 393–408.
Francis, N
2012 Bilingual Competence and Bilingual Proficiency in Child Development. Cambridge: MIT Press.
2013 Bilingual Development and Literacy Learning: East Asian and International Perspectives. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press.
He, Y., Q. Wang, and R. Anderson
2005 “Chinese Children’s Use of Subcharacter Information about Pronunciation.” Journal of Educational Psychology 971: 572–579.
Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI)
2008 Catálogo de las Lenguas Indígenas Nacionales: Variantes Lingüísticas de México con sus Autodenominaciones y Referencias Geostadísticas. México DF: INALI.
Labov, W
2014 “The Role of African Americans in Philadelphia Sound Change.” Language Variation and Change 261: 1–19.
Leung, Y
2005 “Biliterate and Trilingual: Actions in Response to the Economic Restructuring of Hong Kong.” Bulletin Suisse de Linguistique Appliquée 821:167–179.
Li, D.C.S
2006 “Chinese as a Lingua Franca in Greater China.” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 261:146–176.
2009 “Towards “Biliteracy and Trilingualism” in Hong Kong (SAR): Problems, Dilemmas and Stakeholders’ Views.” AILA Review 221: 72–84.
Li, Y., S. Liu, and G. Zuckermann
2014 “The Impact of Language Policy on the Development of Bilingual Education for Minorities in China.” Higher Education of Social Science 71: 51–56.
Liu, R.-Y
2012 “Language Policy and Group Identification in Taiwan.” Mind
, Brain and Education 61: 108–116.
Ma, R
2007 “Bilingual Education for China’s Ethnic Minorities.” Chinese Education and Society 401: 2–25.
Mair, V
1991 “What is a Chinese “Dialect/Topolect”? Reflections on some Key Sino-English Linguistic Terms.” Sino-Platonic Papers 291: 1–31.
2002 “Review of The Representation of Cantonese with Chinese Characters by Cheung Kwan-Hin and Robert Bauer.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics 321: 157–167.
Matthews, S., and V. Yip
2011 Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge.
2014 “Bilingual and Multilingual Acquisition of Chinese.” In The Handbook of Chinese Linguistics, ed. by C.-T.J. Huang,Y.-H.A. Li, and A. Simpson , 495–510. Hoboken: Wiley.
Perfetti, C., and Y. Liu
2005 “Orthography to Phonology and Meaning: Comparisons across and within Systems.” Reading and Writing 181: 193–210.
Poon, A.Y.-K
2010 “Language Use, and Language Policy and Planning in Hong Kong.” Current Issues in Language Planning 111: 1–66.
Scott, M., and H.-K Tiun
2007 “Mandarin-only to Mandarin-plus: Taiwan.” Language Policy 61: 53–72.
Sun, Y.-H
2011 “Problems and Strategies Relevant to the Rights of Linguistic Minorities in China.” US-China Foreign Language 91: 98–102.
Tam, A.C.F
2011 “Does the Switch of Medium of Instruction Facilitate the Language Learning of Students? A Case Study of Hong Kong from Teachers’ Perspective.” Language and Education 25: 399–417.
Tang, C., and V. van Heuven
2015 “Predicting Mutual Intelligibility of Chinese Dialects from Multiple Objective Linguistic Distance Measures.” Linguistics 531: 285–312.
Tse, S.-K., J.W.-I. Lam, E.K.-Y. Loh, and R.Y.-H Lam
2007 “The Influence of the Language that Hong Kong Primary School Students Habitually Speak at Home on their Chinese Reading Ability in School.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 281: 400–417.
Wan, M., and S. Zhang
2007 “Research and Practice of Tibetan-Chinese Bilingual Education.” In Bilingual Education in China: Practices, Policies and Concepts, ed. by A. Feng, 127–144. Clevedon: Multillingual Matters.
Wang, L., and A. Kirkpatrick
2013 “Trilingual Education in Hong Kong Primary Schools: A Case Study.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 161: 100–116.
Wu, H.-Y
2012 Applying Official Language Plus from the Perspective of Linguistic Human Rights and Multiculturalism in Taiwan. Doctoral dissertation, University of Washington.
Xu, Y
2014 “Review of Bilingual Development and Literacy Learning: East Asian and International Perspectives.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition 261: 163–164.
Yeung, P.-S., C.S.-H. Ho, D.W.-O. Chan, and K.K.-H Chung
2013 “Contribution of Oral Language Skills, Linguistic Skills, and Transcription Skills to Chinese Written Composition among Fourth-grade Students.” Discourse Processes 501: 498–529.
Yue, A.O
2015 “The Yue Language.” In The Oxford handbook of Chinese linguistics, ed. by W.S.-Y. Wang and C. Sun, 173–188. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cited by
Cited by 13 other publications
Chen, Lin & Danping Wang
2023. Chinese Heritage Language Maintenance in the Context of Superdiversity. Researching and Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language 4:1 ► pp. 97 ff. 
Coluzzi, Paolo, Jinke Du & Wai Sheng Woo
2023. Are Cantonese (Yue) and Hokkien (Southern Min) contested languages? Language planning and language attitudes in China and Malaysia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development ► pp. 1 ff.
Goh, Hannah L., Fei Ting Woon, Scott R. Moisik & Suzy J. Styles
2023. Contrastive Alveolar/Retroflex Phonemes in Singapore Mandarin Bilinguals: Comprehension Rates for Articulations in Different Accents, and Acoustic Analysis of Productions. Language and Speech
Hsu, Hsiu-Ling
2021. Cognitive control in older Minnan-Mandarin and Hakka-Mandarin bidialectal adults: Advantages in Stroop-type tasks. Lingua 253 ► pp. 103041 ff.
Li, Dang
2018. Chinese-dialect film and its translation: A case study ofThe World(2004). Journal of Chinese Cinemas 12:3 ► pp. 267 ff.
Li, Tianxin, Xigang Ke, Jin Li & Chaohai Shen
2023. Public attitudes towards dialects: Evidence from 31 Chinese provinces. PLOS ONE 18:10 ► pp. e0292852 ff.
Li, Tianxin, Jin Li & Xigang Ke
2023. Exploring the relationship between mental health and dialect use among Chinese older adults: a moderated mediation estimation. Frontiers in Psychology 14
Lin, Mei-Hsiang, Chiu-Yen Wu & Hsiu-Chin Hsu
2019. Exploring the experiences of cultural competence among clinical nurses in Taiwan. Applied Nursing Research 45 ► pp. 6 ff.
Song, Chen & Leqin Chen
2023. Effects of dialect connectedness between chairperson and CEO on corporate innovation in China. Global Finance Journal 57 ► pp. 100836 ff.
Tam, Hugo Wing-Yu & Samuel C. S. Tsang
2023. Towards a reconceptualisation of the Cantonese lexicon in contemporary Hong Kong: classificatory possibilities and their implications for the local Chinese-as-an-additional-language curriculum. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 26:4 ► pp. 428 ff.
Wu, Weiping & Mengting Chen
2021. Linguistic legitimacy and social justice. International Journal of Multilingualism 18:3 ► pp. 515 ff.
Xie, Zhilong & Qianyun Zhong
2024. Bilingualism but not bidialectalism influences cognitive control among young adult Chinese–English bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism 28:3 ► pp. 591 ff.
Zhang, Huiyu, Yayu Shi & Haitao Liu
2023. Evolving means of formal language policy on Putonghua and minority languages on the Chinese mainland (1986–2021). International Journal of Multilingualism ► pp. 1 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.