Chinese
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It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. (Discuss) Proposed since February 2013. |
- See also: China and Mandarin language
Chinese means from or about the country of China, especially a person from China or one of the languages of China.
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Chinese Writing [change]
Chinese Writing does not use letters. It has 50,000 different characters, each made of different lines, called strokes. It is writing system dated back over 5,000 years. There are many Chinese dialects (20 or more way of speaking), they are written in similiar characters or follow their dialect's pronunciation.
Each line of Chinese is written starting at the top of the page working down. The lines are written working from the right to the left of the page. However, some countries, like Singapore and Taiwan, writes Chinese the same way as writing English.
There are two types of Chinese writing, Traditional and Simplified.
In People's Republic of China, most people do not write Traditional Chinese. The government enforces a simpler way of writing, known as Simplified Chinese, The popular way to use a computer keyboard to type Chinese is called Pinyin. The government of Taiwan enforces Traditional Chinese, The popular way to use a computer keyboard to type Traditional Chinese is called Bopomofo.
Chinese writing can be written as a type of art, called calligraphy, which means making art from writing. Most calligraphy is written in Traditional Chinese, some calligraphy is written in Simplified Chinese. This art is over 1,000 years old and many people today still practice it.
ISO 639 codes [change]
The following lists the different ISO 639-1 language codes for the different Chinese-related languages:
| Language | Language code | Language depends on... |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese (Traditional) | zh-hant | None |
| Chinese (Simplified) | zh-hans | Chinese (Traditional) |
| Chinese (Taiwan) | zh-tw | Chinese (Traditional) |
| Chinese (China) | zh-cn | Chinese (Simplified) |
| Chinese (Hong Kong) | zh-hk | Chinese (Traditional) |
| Chinese (Macau) | zh-mo | Chinese (Traditional) |
| Chinese (Singapore) | zh-sg | Chinese (Simplified) |
| Chinese (Malaysia) | zh-my | Chinese (Simplified) |
Overseas Chinese [change]
Overseas Chinese are a group of people who are Chinese but are not living in or under the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu) and the People's Republic of China (Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau). About 78% of the overseas Chinese live in Asia.
Other websites [change]
- Learning Chinese Online - General Introduction - A page of links to web pages about the Chinese language
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