The Evolution of Beijing Dialect

In ancient times, people generally spoke dialects, but also Mandarin, which was called Mandarin, meaning that officials spoke Beijing dialect.

Is Mandarin a Beijing dialect?

Author: Pizzano

(This article is for discussion only. The purpose of posting this post is not to deny Putonghua or oppose popularization, but to explore linguistic facts. We can't change history, but we must respect the facts and forget that the meaning of songs is disrespect for history.

[confused]

People who have been to Beijing or heard of Beijing dialect have this understanding: Beijing dialect is different from Mandarin. People who speak Mandarin well may not understand Beijing dialect, and even radio announcers who speak Mandarin in Beijing sometimes don't understand the local Beijing dialect. This is the language reality of Mandarin and Beijing dialect. This fact shows that Mandarin is very different from the real Beijing dialect. However, it is clearly written in various books that Putonghua is scripted in Beijing dialect, which has caused great confusion to Chinese people: Is Putonghua really Beijing dialect? What is the relationship between Mandarin and Beijing dialect?

In order to find out the relationship between Beijing dialect and Putonghua, many people try to find the answer through various channels. I hope to find out the most basic language problems in this national life and have a clear concept of Putonghua and Beijing dialect. Is Mandarin actually a Beijing dialect? History will tell us the answer, because Mandarin didn't come into being out of thin air, it evolved from the original language step by step, just like all other languages in the world.

[Definition of Putonghua]

According to the accepted definition of Putonghua, Putonghua takes Beijing dialect as the standard pronunciation, northern dialect as the basic dialect and modern vernacular as the standard grammatical language.

However, is this definition really so absolutely correct?

For this definition, we can verify its scientific accuracy through a simple disproof. If this definition is correct, then the reverse should be correct, that is to say, according to the definition of Putonghua, it must be Putonghua with a pure Beijing accent, a pure northern dialect vocabulary and a standard modern vernacular grammar.

But in fact, this is not the case. It is still not Putonghua that is spoken according to the strict standards in the definition of Putonghua! In other words, with a pure Beijing accent, with a pure northern dialect vocabulary and standard modern vernacular grammar, it is still not Mandarin! Even a native of Beijing, what he says in the standard grammar of modern Chinese vernacular is not equal to Mandarin. This can be verified by anyone, and this is the fact. This clearly shows that the definition of Putonghua is not rigorous enough.

So, what exactly is Mandarin? This problem deserves our reflection. This is a puzzle to China people by the definition of Putonghua. With such confusion, it is necessary to re-examine what Mandarin is.

[Relationship between Immigration and Language]

So, how can we know exactly what Mandarin is?

The emergence, development and survival of any language in the world are inseparable from a certain social group, which we call language family for the time being. Crowd is the decisive factor of language, and even artificial languages such as Esperanto and Nvshu cannot escape the decisive role of social groups. Without people, language would not be produced and would not survive. Learning and thinking about a language must also start from the perspective of immigrants, so as to find the root of the language and truly understand the essence of a language.

Just like all other languages, Putonghua cannot escape its own history of formation and development, which must be integrated with the immigration history of Putonghua-speaking groups.

[Comparative analysis of differences in language relations]

As a linguist, you can abstract 10,000 features of Qian Qian from a certain language, explain them layer by layer, and find out many and various "relationships" between the two languages, even two almost unrelated languages like Chinese and English, and you can also find out many and many "homophones". However, the social roots of language are undeniable. History is history, history has no shame, only the fact of existence.

A Mr Jie Ga (Hercules) once wrote:

"If you have 100 numbered balls, randomly put them into five numbered boxes with 20 balls in each box. Not once. Play it again. How many balls of the same number are put into the same number box twice? At this rate,100 *1/5 *1/5 * 5 equals 20. What does this have to do with your theory? Wait a minute, listen to me slowly. There are about tens of thousands of words commonly used by human beings, so let's take 50 thousand. Regardless of tone, there are about 400 syllables in modern northern dialect, but there are many in English. It is said that there are tens of thousands of possible combinations. At first glance, the possibility of coincidence between the two should be very small, but there is no need to haggle over every ounce. In many cases, you don't consider rhyming. It's not your fault. It is true that initials are relatively stable in language changes, so there are only twenty or thirty combinations that can be considered. There are thousands of words with similar meanings and pronunciations. It's not over yet, and the initials are not static. There are examples of mutual transformation between Chinese and Indo-European languages, such as g-k-k', b-p-p', d-th-t-t', and there are many things I can't understand. Great, there are only a few B, D, G, L, X and S left in the box. Moreover, both English and ancient Chinese have consonants, which is equivalent to playing the ball twice. Finally, let's use our imagination to participate in a kind of collateral meeting. Haha, the same origin is tens of thousands. A netizen said that 2000 have been found, which is too few. Why don't you look through the Chinese-English, Hande and Chinese dictionaries and use your head more? Will be more convincing. "

Although he only compares Chinese, Indian and European cognates here, on the whole, synonymous homonyms have the probability of appearing in any language, and this probability is still very large. I think Mr. Jie Ge's problem should be taken seriously. This question can't be answered, and the homologous comparison between any languages is meaningless. In the past, scholars' analysis of what is Putonghua or the relationship between Putonghua and Beijing dialect almost always tends to compare the similar features of the two languages, but this analysis method is obviously very fallacious, which can be clearly proved by Mr. Heracles' example, which shows that when comparing the relationship between Putonghua and Beijing dialect, it is important to follow the ideas of the linguists, not the phonetic and linguistic features between them.

Mandarin is a natural language, which is naturally produced by a group of people (Mandarin speakers) in the long-term language practice. Language and the speaker are integrated, and understanding the speaker will naturally lead to understanding the language, which is the minimum logic. However, phonetic features are indirect in any case and have no direct proof significance. Besides, it's hard to say that phonetic features are different from such things. China's mother is a "horse", and English mothers are also called "horses". Is English a dialect separated from Chinese? Just because a certain language uses a certain phonetic system does not mean that Putonghua is Beijing dialect. If it is so simple, we can't classify sub-dialects.

The characteristic of my discussion is to start with people rather than analyze from pronunciation, which is quite different from the nonsense that Mandarin was influenced by Manchu before.

[Textual research on the history of common folk words]

From the perspective of phonetic textual research, the standard Putonghua with phonetic records can be traced back to Aisin Giorro Puyi in the late Qing Dynasty and the documentary of the trial by the Far East military court, among which there are doubts that Puyi speaks standard Putonghua instead of old Beijing dialect. Then, the time when Putonghua was designed should be before Puyi's life.

From the textual research of records, the following information can also prove that Putonghua was designed before the end of the Qing Dynasty:

The history of Putonghua that can be verified;

The word "Mandarin" was put forward in the late Qing Dynasty. Wu Rulun is considered to be the first scholar to mention the name Putonghua.

1909 (Xuantongyuan Year), Jiang Qian, a member of the Senior Advisory Committee, formally proposed to name Mandarin as "Mandarin".

In the same year, the Qing Dynasty established the "Mandarin Editorial Committee";

19 10, Jiang Qian once again put forward the view that "Putonghua and consonants should be combined to achieve a unified effect" in "Notes on Putonghua Education in Interrogation for Several Years".

19 1 1 year, the Ministry of Education held the "Central Education Conference" and adopted the Measures for the Unification of Putonghua.

After the founding of the Republic of China, 19 13 held the "Phonetic Unification Conference" in Beijing in February, and 1965438 edited and published the National Phonetic Dictionary in September.

Due to the contradiction between the phonetic standard of Guoyin Dictionary and that of Beijing, the "Beijing Debate" broke out in 1920.

Zhang Shiyi, director of the English Department of Nanjing Normal University, published the article "Unification of National Languages" on 1920, arguing that phonetic symbols and national sounds should be fundamentally reformed, national sounds should not be recognized, and Beijing sounds should be taken as the standard of national sounds, which has been echoed by many people. The National Education Federation and the primary schools affiliated to the Jiangsu Teachers' Federation successively made resolutions to take Beijing pronunciation as the standard pronunciation and began to promote it in schools. 1965438+April 2 1, in 2009, Beiyang = = established the Preparatory Committee for Unified Mandarin, and 1928 National = = changed it to the Preparatory Committee for Unified Mandarin. 1932 in may, the Ministry of education officially announced and published the "common vocabulary of Chinese pronunciation", which provided a model for establishing the standard of putonghua.

In People's Republic of China (PRC) period, after 1955, the word "Mandarin" was used instead of "Mandarin".

The word "Putonghua" was used by some linguists in the late Qing Dynasty and was first put forward by Zhu in 1906. Later, li jinxi, Qu Qiubai and Lu Xun discussed "Putonghua" in succession.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), in order to show respect for minority languages and avoid possible misunderstanding caused by the name "Putonghua", the National Character Reform Conference and the Academic Conference on Standardization of Modern Chinese held in June 1955 decided to name the standardized modern Chinese as "Putonghua" and determined the definition and standard of Putonghua. Among them, the word "ordinary" means "universal" and "* * *". At the "National Conference on Chinese Character Reform" held in 1955, Zhang Xiruo said: "People in China have used the same language for a long time, and now it is called Putonghua, which needs to be further standardized and determined. What is this kind of Han homophonic which has actually gradually formed? This is Putonghua with northern dialect as the basic dialect and Beijing accent as the standard pronunciation. For simplicity, the native language can also be called Mandarin. " 1982 the constitution of People's Republic of China (PRC) clearly stipulates: "the state promotes putonghua which is commonly used throughout the country."

These textual researches show that Putonghua appeared in the late Qing Dynasty or earlier. However, at that time, the theoretical level of phonology and the development level of vernacular Chinese in China were not consistent with the definition of Putonghua. According to the theoretical level at that time, how to design the language defined by Putonghua? Assuming that Mandarin is designed, there must be someone or a group specially designed it. However, there has never been a statement about who designed Putonghua. The fact that Putonghua is a natural language, not an artificial language, has been recognized all over the world. As a natural language speaker, all the evidence points to Manchu rulers.

[Basic idea]

Why is Mandarin a "Manchu-speaking China" and not a "Manchu-influenced China"? The main points are as follows:

1, China people's Putonghua, Republic of China's Putonghua and Manchu's Putonghua are one language, with the same accent, but not different languages.

2. The purest accent of Manchu "Mandarin" is Manchu, the ruler group in China, and Manchu is the orthodox speaker of Manchu "Mandarin";

3. Manchu is the main language of Manchu before entering the customs, and Manchu is the mother tongue of Manchu. The replacement of Manchu mother tongue shows that Manchu's "national language" is Chinese that Manchu can learn to speak.

In fact, to demonstrate what language Mandarin is, the most important thing is to judge the people who speak Mandarin, not the phonetic features of Mandarin.

[Beijing dialect 400 years ago: Xiajiang Mandarin]

Beijing has experienced many dynasty changes since its establishment. How many changes have taken place in Beijing dialect since ancient times? How to change it? No one has really verified this question until now. Historically, Matteo Ricci, a missionary from Italy, recorded a large number of Beijing dialects in the late Ming Dynasty in Roman Pinyin more than 400 years ago, and these records are still preserved today. It can be clearly seen from Li's records that Beijing dialect at that time was a language with a large number of entering tones and no warping sounds such as zh, ch and sh. This shows that Beijing dialect at that time was neither Beijing dialect nor Mandarin now, because neither Beijing dialect nor Mandarin has these characteristics. At the same time, it also shows that the history of Beijing dialect and Putonghua is no more than 400 years. Beijing dialect 400 years ago was the official language of the Ming Dynasty (textual research for Xiajiang Mandarin? )。 Matteo Ricci's records also completely denied the lie that Confucian saints disappeared before the Ming Dynasty.

[Beijing has a second language: Manchu]

After the Manchus entered Beijing, for political purposes such as community security, the Manchus drove away all the Han people within 10 miles around the Forbidden City, and the outside of the Forbidden City 10 miles was called the inner city and the outer city of Beijing. As a result, there are two communities in Beijing: Manchu community and Han community, which are very distinct in class, language and living area, and Beijing has two languages: Ming Dynasty Mandarin and Manchu. Any language is integrated with the crowd. At that time, the regional differences between the two languages in Beijing were Manchu in the inner city and Mandarin in the outer city.

[Manchu-Manchu distinction]

Our analysis of language and its expressive objects is based on a basic linguistic theorem: language is consistent with social practice. It is social practice that determines language, not language that determines social practice. That is to say, if a language has a saying, it must have the kind of life practice expressed by this saying. For example, there is a word "coconut" in Manchu, and there must be a fruit "coconut" in the life practice of Manchu people.

Before the rule of China, Manchu was a nomadic mountaineer in the north, and their living environment was completely different from that of the Central Plains. Manchu was formed in such an environment, with a short history. Moreover, the life history of Manchu people has never experienced the social practice of advanced science, technology and art like China for thousands of years. This determines that Manchu does not have the ability to express life practice and China culture in China. Because Manchu is the language of northern nationalities, the primitive life of Manchu grassland jungle and the short history and culture of Manchu limit the maturity level of Manchu. It can be said that Manchu is a relatively primitive language, and its pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar are very primitive and immature. Even in Beijing, it is difficult for Manchu to meet the daily needs of Manchu people who have just gained the sovereignty of China. Many things in Beijing, such as animals and plants, buildings and daily necessities, are unheard of by Manchu people, so it is difficult to describe and communicate these things in Manchu. This is the case between Manchu and Han, and it is impossible for Manchu and Han to express clearly what they encounter in their daily lives. As for the use of advanced languages such as architectural engineering language, artistic language, medicine and other scientific and technological terms, it is even more difficult to express them. The situation at that time was that Manchu faced a crisis of being unable to communicate in Beijing. Facing the Chinese language with thousands of years' history, Manchu seized the political power of China, but its language was not competent for the mission of ruling China. However, as the ruler of China, Manchu had to face the political reality of using language. From the expression of daily life to the political needs of ruling China, Manchu people urgently need a language that can express their life around them well. It's too late for the Manchu reform. Manchu has no choice but to learn and imitate Chinese. Therefore, it is the only choice to apply the language (including vocabulary and pronunciation) of the Han people in Beijing, so a third Beijing dialect-the poor Chinese spoken by Manchu (call this language Manchu for the time being) appears.

On "Foreign Dialect"

Learn and imitate other dialects for people who speak different Chinese dialects. For example, when Cantonese people speak Mandarin, others will recognize it as "Cantonese Mandarin" instead of standard Mandarin. Similarly, when northerners speak Cantonese, others will recognize "Old Cantonese". Many northerners have lived in Guangzhou for thirty or forty years and can speak fluent "Guangzhou dialect". He can clearly understand what others say, and so can others.

For people who speak different languages to learn and imitate other languages, such as Mongolians, Xinjiang people and Tibetans who speak Mandarin, others can still tell at once that they are not Han people.

Foreign friends learn Chinese. I haven't met a foreign friend who doesn't understand at all like a China person. Dashan from Canada is one of the best learners. However, the Chinese he speaks is still not as kind as a real China person. Even if he only listens to a short recording and can't see himself, he can say it. This is because he speaks "foreign Mandarin". We can imagine what "Chinglish" that China said would look like in the eyes of the British.

The subordinate dialect of Qinjiang in Fujian is Chinese, not Manchu. To be precise, it is "Manchu" and "military dialect" is actually an immature local dialect. A group of people who speak different languages came to the local people. Due to the need of local communication and practice, the local language has become the only common language. Therefore, foreigners have learned the local language, and "foreign local dialect" is an inevitable learning process. However, the army and the construction corps are a huge crowd, and their community structure, lifestyle and cultural customs all have their own characteristics. When their "foreign dialect" evolved to meet the needs of local life practice, especially the needs of language communication, this "foreign dialect" lost its strong motivation to continue to move closer to the dialect, so this "foreign dialect" was fixed.

Not only that, but more importantly, it depends on whether Beijing has retained a fixed population, whether this population has maintained its own living community, its own living characteristics, its own cultural customs, and more importantly, whether this group of people have the will to retain their own characteristics, how strong this will is, and how strong it is to defend this will. We must firmly believe that it is social practice that determines language, not language that determines the needs of social practice. Twenty or thirty thousand people can form a "military dialect", which shows that it can form a new language without a big community.

[Formation of the Third Beijing Dialect-Inner City Beijing Dialect (Putonghua)]

A small tree in Beijing and a tool in the kitchen can't be expressed in Manchu! Because the ancestors of Manchu people had never seen such plants and tools, this was the harsh language reality that Manchu people who ruled China at that time met. To continue to speak Manchu, there is no second possibility except to directly use the vocabulary of the Han language outside Beijing and imitate their pronunciation! As the Japanese Imperial Army said in Chinese, "Yours, the Eighth Route Army, work?" Similarly, the Manchu people in the inner city of Beijing also began their difficult course of imitating Chinese.

However, compared with Chinese, Manchu has its inherent disability. First of all, all the entering tones were suddenly lost, which is the most fundamental historical reason for the increase of Chinese homophones. Learning Chinese pronunciation in Manchu is neither fish nor fowl. It can be said that this is the worst pronunciation of Chinese. However, history is so cruel, and this kind of broken Han in Manchu is much luckier than the Japanese imperial army! With the increase of population, this poor Chinese, which made the Han people laugh at that time, became the "* * * cognate language" of the ruling class in the Qing Dynasty-this was the early Mandarin (temporarily using English as a title to call this language Mandarin).

[The development of inner-city Beijing dialect-stepping out of inner-city Beijing to form "Mandarin"]

With the formation of poor Chinese "Putonghua" in the inner city of Beijing, a fixed group of Putonghua speakers has formed in the inner city of Beijing. This crowd was the highest ruling group in China at that time-the Eight Banners nobles. "Mandarin" became the official language of the Qing rulers-"Manchu Mandarin".

It is difficult to study history, but we should believe that social practice determines language.

Some Han Chinese may have brought China people from the mainland to the customs. Before Manchu entered the customs, Han people and Manchu people should have communication and language interaction, which is very clean. "Manchu will learn Chinese for a period of time before entering the customs. Nurhachi is very proficient in Chinese, which makes sense.

But this should not cause the qualitative change of Manchu, let alone change the mainstream position of Manchu in Manchu, because the survival of language is determined by the needs of social activities of the crowd. Before the Manchu entered the customs, there was no fundamental change in Manchu social activities. Speaking Chinese by Manchu is only a political need or a need for economic and cultural exchanges between Manchu and Han, and there is no urgent social need for Manchu to completely change their mother tongue. This is not a change in the basic lifestyle of Manchu. Only after entering the customs did Manchu completely change their social activities, and most Manchu people had to communicate with Han Chinese. It is this qualitative change of social activities that has produced the mainstream position of Manchu in Manchu people. Therefore, there must be a Manchu after the Manchu entered the customs.

The exact time remains to be verified. The pronunciation in Kangxi Dictionary is still different from today's Mandarin, but it is closer to today's Mandarin than other Chinese dialects. The appearance of Kangxi Dictionary marks the maturity of Putonghua as an independent dialect. All these indicate that Putonghua was formed during the period from Manchu words to the completion of Kangxi Dictionary.

The greatest historical function of Kangxi Dictionary is to eliminate more than 80,000 Chinese characters. Although today's Microsoft has largely restored hundreds of thousands of Chinese fonts, most people in China don't know how to use these Chinese characters. The appearance of Kangxi Dictionary also marks the beginning of the decline of Chinese and China culture.

Judging from the formation history of Manchu Mandarin, Manchu Mandarin is mainly influenced by Manchu, which is an immature and imperfect Chinese phonetic system, but its influence on vocabulary and grammar is very limited. In essence, Mandarin Manchu should belong to Chinese rather than a dialect of Manchu, but it is the worst Chinese dialect.

[The development of inner-city Beijing dialect-taking root and forming "national language"]

After the formation of "Manchu Mandarin", with the extension of the Manchu regime in the region, the Eight Banners nobles who spoke "Manchu Mandarin" moved from the inner city of Beijing to all corners of China, so the accent of the first officers in various places became the local standard accent. And in the local upper class society to the civilian society constantly infiltration and expansion, and finally make "Manchu" become the "national language" of China.

Geographically speaking, northern China is the main area of Manchu activities, and it is also the area with the highest degree of Manchu. However, some areas in the south, such as Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, are less influenced by "the mountain is high and the emperor is far away", which is the fundamental reason why reading Tang poetry and Song poetry in southern languages is more rhyming and more intimate than Mandarin, and it is also the fundamental reason why there are no famous poets in China in Qing Dynasty.

It should be noted that Mandarin directly infiltrated into China from the inner city of Beijing, bypassing the outer city of Beijing, and formed Manchu "Mandarin". Therefore, the outer-city dialect in Beijing is not the real "national language"-Putonghua. Although the "outer-city Beijing dialect" is constantly evolving under the influence of the "inner-city Beijing dialect", just like the inner-city aristocrats and the ordinary people in Beijing are incompatible. The so-called "Beijing dialect" has always been "outer-city dialect" and "inner-city dialect", and the "Beijing dialect" referred to in various places actually refers to "inner-city dialect" (that is, Putonghua), not the "Beijing dialect" referred to by Han people in other cities. The "Beijing dialect" spoken by Han people in other cities is actually a small language that has no influence on other dialects in China.

(The influence of Putonghua on Chinese)

[The development of inner-city Beijing dialect-the establishment of Chinese as a representative language]

After more than 200 years of Manchu dynasty's rule in China, Sun Yat-sen's regime's vote on the status of "national language" and the stipulation of "national representative language" in People's Republic of China (PRC) Constitution, the status of Mandarin-Chinese representative language has been unbreakable.

(Dynasty alternation and the inheritance of Putonghua)

[The disappearance of Beijing inner city dialect and Beijing dialect]

Historically speaking, Mandarin is not Beijing dialect, but just Beijing inner city dialect. With the disintegration of the Manchu Dynasty, the aristocratic groups in the inner city of Beijing disappeared in Beijing, so the real mother of Mandarin no longer exists in Beijing. /kloc-More than 0/00 years ago, Putonghua was a Beijing dialect, which may be half right, but today it is all wet, because the concept of "Beijing dialect" has changed, and it is not the original "Beijing dialect".

[Mandarin]

Mandarin is Manchu, but Manchu is different from Mandarin. Mandarin is just a kind of Manchu. Manchu is a big language, and "Mandarin" in the city is a sub-dialect of Mandarin. Manchu language formed after it entered China is not a simple accent. Because Manchu is distributed all over the country, there are many Manchu people in China. This is because language is the product of social life practice. But the "Putonghua" in these places is centered on Beijing Putonghua, which also determines the language based on social life practice. Due to the different influences of local dialects on Chinese in different parts of the city and the differences of dialects themselves, the differences between Chinese and Putonghua in different parts of the city are not necessarily smaller than those between traditional Chinese dialects and Putonghua. Therefore, there is no basis for using Chinese from all over the city as a natural speaker of Putonghua.

Bottom line: There is no one in the world who can speak Mandarin naturally!

[Puzzlement about the definition of Putonghua]

There are two languages in the world: natural language and artificial language.

[concept]

Artificial language is a language designed by a person or a group under the guidance of strict linguistic theory;

Natural language is a language naturally formed by people in a certain area in the process of social practice.

[example]

Artificial languages: such as Esperanto;

Natural language: Most languages in the world are natural languages.

[Contrast]

1, artificial language has theory before language, and natural language has language before theory;

2. The premise of artificial language is that it must have its designer, and the premise of natural language is that it must have its speaker.

3. Generally, language is defined as follows:

The definition of artificial language is the following format:

A language designed by XX (the name of a person) with XX as the standard pronunciation, XX dialect as the basic dialect and XX characters as the standard grammar;

The definition of natural language is: a language based on the dialects spoken by people in XX area.

Almost all languages in the world are natural languages, and Esperanto is an artificial language.

[confused]

According to the above definition of Putonghua, Putonghua should belong to "artificial language", so this "artificial language" of Putonghua should have its designer and design time. So, who designed Mandarin? When was it designed?

[artificial language? ]

Mandarin is not a Beijing dialect now, nor is it an artificial language. Because 100 years ago, China did not have the academic ability to create an "artificial language" like Putonghua, and in practice, no individual or any linguist group was the real father of Putonghua. Before modern linguists in China tried to create Mandarin, the national language of China, Manchu rulers, such as Daoguang and Cixi, could speak standard and fluent Mandarin, and the real ancestor of Mandarin was Manchu.

[Definition of Putonghua]

In fact, Mandarin is a natural language rather than an artificial language, which is almost uncontroversial all over the world. However, at present, the definition of Putonghua still uses artificial language, and this academic arrogance is suspected of intentionally misleading Chinese people! This shows that even if we don't talk about what Putonghua is, the definition of Putonghua is incorrect, and Putonghua must be redefined.

[If Mandarin is a natural language]

The textual research of any natural language is inseparable from the people who speak it, and the textual research of the history of natural language is also inseparable from the migration history of people. Today, Mandarin has become the common language of the whole country. However, Mandarin is not a language without history.

Who was the first person to speak Mandarin? Where do ordinary people come from?

Throughout the dialects recorded in China, none of them are Mandarin, but Mandarin actually exists in the official language. If we move the historical time forward a little, we can find that both Puyi and the imperial relatives and national relatives of the Qing Dynasty spoke standard Mandarin (there is no difference in phonetic system), which shows that among the Chinese dialect speakers in the country, only the imperial relatives and national relatives of the Qing Dynasty are ordinary speakers who can be verified. The only credible explanation is that Putonghua is the language spoken by royalty and relatives in the Qing Dynasty, which is the only historical clue that can be verified. Of course, they must be the people who formed Mandarin.

But the problem is that before the Manchu entered the customs 400 years ago, none of the relatives and relatives could speak Chinese. Why do the relatives of royalty and Manchu speak a language different from any Chinese dialect? This is the secret of history!

[Mandarin and Beijing dialect]

Understand the history of Putonghua, the concept of Putonghua will be clear, and other concepts such as Manchu, Mandarin, Putonghua, Beijing dialect, Putonghua, Chinese and dialects will not be confused. Historically, Mandarin has never been the present Beijing dialect. It has its own history. Now, although Beijing dialect is adjacent to Putonghua, it has always been influenced by Putonghua and moved closer to Putonghua, but it has never really merged with Putonghua, and people who speak these two languages have always lived in two completely different societies, so it is different.