Is the dialect of Beijingers Mandarin?

The definition of "Putonghua" has been unclear for decades before liberation, and there are also different views. After the founding of New China, during the "National Character Reform Conference" and the "Academic Conference on Standardization of Modern Chinese" held in June 1955, the Chinese homonym was officially named "Putonghua", and at the same time, its definition was determined, that is, "taking Beijing dialect as the standard pronunciation and northern dialect as the basic dialect". 1955101On October 26th, People's Daily published an editorial entitled "Struggle for Chinese Character Reform, Popularization of Putonghua and Standardization of Chinese", which mentioned: "China people have a common language, that is, Putonghua with northern dialect as the basic dialect and Beijing accent as the standard pronunciation." 1956 On February 6th, the State Council issued an instruction on the promotion of Putonghua, adding the definition of Putonghua as "taking Beijing dialect as the standard pronunciation, northern dialect as the basic dialect, and typical modern vernacular as the grammatical norm". This definition clarifies the standard of Putonghua from three aspects: pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, which makes the definition of Putonghua more scientific and thorough. Among them, the word "Putonghua" means "universal" and "accessible".

Mandarin is a homonym of modern Chinese, with Beijing dialect as the standard pronunciation, northern dialect as the basic dialect, and typical modern vernacular as the grammatical norm. This was decided at 1955 National Conference on Character Reform and Academic Conference on Standardization of Modern Chinese. This definition essentially puts forward the standards of Putonghua from three aspects: pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, so how to understand these standards?

"Taking Beijing dialect as the standard pronunciation" means taking the phonetic system of Beijing dialect as the standard, and not copying all the pronunciations of Beijing dialect. Putonghua is not equal to Beijing dialect. There are many local accents in Beijing dialect. For example, old Beijingers regard the conjunction "he (hé)" as "hàn", "butterfly (húdié)" as "húdiěr" and "tell (gàosu)" as "gàosong". These local accents are difficult for people in other dialect areas to accept. In addition, there are different pronunciations in Beijing dialect, such as the word "aggression", some people pronounce "q τ nLü è" and others pronounce "Q τ NLü è"; Some people pronounce the word "nearby" as "fǔ j ? n", while others pronounce it as "fǔ j ? n", which also brings a lot of trouble to the popularization of Putonghua. Since 1956, the pronunciation of Beijing dialect has been revised many times, and the standard pronunciation of Putonghua has been formulated. Therefore, at present, the phonetic standard of Putonghua should be based on the Pronunciation Table of Putonghua with Different Pronunciation published by 1985 and Modern Chinese Dictionary published in 2005.

As far as vocabulary standards are concerned, "dialect based on northern dialect" in Putonghua is based on the common sayings in the vast northern dialect areas, and at the same time, it is necessary to absorb the vocabulary it needs from other dialects. There are also many dialects in northern dialect words. For example, Beijingers describe "evening" as "being late for a long time", "cursing" as "whispering" and "being stingy" as "being stingy". In many northern areas, corn is called "corn", soap is called "pancreas" and steamed bread is called "steamed bun". Therefore, we can't treat all the words in the northern dialect as words in Mandarin, so we should have a choice. Some dialect words in non-northern dialect areas have special meaning and expressive power, and there are no corresponding synonyms in northern dialect, so these words can be absorbed into Putonghua vocabulary. For example, words such as "fuck", "garbage", "embarrassment" and "gimmick" often appear in written language and have already joined the ranks of Putonghua vocabulary. The words chosen in Putonghua are generally popular and have been used in writing for a long time. In recent years, the State Language Committee is organizing manpower to compile a Dictionary of Modern Chinese Standardization, which will further standardize the vocabulary of Putonghua.

The grammatical standard of Putonghua is "taking typical modern vernacular works as grammatical norms", which includes four meanings: "model" means excluding atypical modern vernacular works as grammatical norms; "Vernacular" means excluding classical Chinese; "Modern vernacular Chinese" means rejecting the early vernacular Chinese before the May 4th Movement. "Work" refers to the written form of Putonghua, which is based on spoken language, but it is not equal to ordinary spoken language, but a processed and refined language.

The origin of putonghua

Since ancient times, there have been dialects and homophones in Chinese. According to historical records, during the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius said that * * * was the same as Yayan. Yayan is based on Luoyang Yayan. Confucius had more than 3,000 apprentices from all over the world. There were dialects in ancient times, and students everywhere spoke their own dialects. How can Confucius make students from all over the world understand his lectures? Because there was a homonym called elegance at that time, Confucius used elegance in his lectures, so there was no obstacle to communication.

In the Han Dynasty, * * * homonyms developed further, and were called lingua franca at that time. It is an ancient situation that people who speak different dialects in different places can communicate in a common language.

After the Five Chaos in Jin Dynasty and Guan Yi's southward crossing, the elegance of the Central Plains moved southward, and Mandarin, as the official language of China, gradually divided into two branches. Elegant speech in Luoyang is the standard pronunciation in the north, while elegant speech in Jiankang is the standard pronunciation in the south. Luoyang Yayan belongs to Zhongyuan dialect, and Jiankang Yayan belongs to Wu dialect. In the mainstream, the southern health elegant words are orthodox. The Sui Dynasty unified Chang 'an, the capital of China, and compiled Qieyun. The phonology is dominated by Jinling Elegant Tone, which refers to the comprehensive system of Luoyang Elegant Tone, because the Southern Dynasty was an orthodox regime. At the end of Sui Dynasty, Yangzhou became the most prosperous area in China. Therefore, Yangzhou Wuyin once became the representative of southern elegance, but it did not get the status of Mandarin.

Down to the Tang and Song Dynasties, even in the north, the differences between spoken and written languages have obviously increased. Some spoken languages at that time have been adopted by the magnificent Tang poetry. Since the Tang Dynasty, Jiangnan has become the most economically developed area in China, so Suzhou Wuyin in the south of the Yangtze River has also become the lingua franca for both refined and popular tastes in the south. As the political center is in Chang 'an, Chang 'an dialect belongs to the Central Plains dialect. Therefore, Chang 'an Yayan is also the standard sound of northern Yayan. In the Song Dynasty, Chinese became more colloquial. Genre, compiled by the disciple of the famous great thinker Zhu, basically retains the original appearance of Professor Zhu in Song Dynasty and the spoken language used in conversation. This proves that even a scholar with high cultural accomplishment like him, although still writing in ancient Chinese, can't speak like the northern people six or seven hundred years ago or even teach Confucian classics on weekdays, but as a "scholar", he can still speak Luoyang dialect. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Lin 'an was established as its capital. Therefore, elegant speech in Lin 'an has become a standard pronunciation. Lin 'an Yayan belongs to Wu dialect, but Lin 'an Yayan has many traces of Zhongyuan dialect, and even today's Hangzhou dialect has traces of Zhongyuan dialect.

The capital of Yuan Dynasty was Dadu, so Dadu dialect was also a lingua franca. Since the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty were Mongols and were not familiar with Han culture, the lingua franca of Chinese inherited the southern elegance of the Song Dynasty.

In the Ming Dynasty, due to the war and other turmoil, Nanjing dialect changed from Wu dialect (southern elegant speech) to Jianghuai mandarin. Nanjing dialect was orthodox in Ming Dynasty, and it was also the representative of Southern Mandarin. Later, when I moved to Beijing, Beijing dialect gained a certain popularity. Beijing dialect in Ming Dynasty was merged with Nanjing dialect of Nanjing immigrants who moved to Beijing on the basis of the old Beiping dialect in Yuan Dynasty, and was influenced by Manchu in Qing Dynasty. Suzhou dialect is the main representative of Wuyin in Jiangnan. Wuyin inherited the status of Southern Yayan and became one of the popular languages in China with its strong local economic strength. Wang Shixing said in Guang Zhi Yi: "Be good at advancing and retreating correctly at sea. If the Sioux think it is elegant, it will be elegant all around, and the vulgar will follow suit. " At the peak of Wuyin, all the literati were proud of saying Su Bai. Compared with the official "Mandarin", Suzhou vernacular was equivalent to the folk "Mandarin" at that time. At that time, Yue Opera, Kunqu Opera and Pingtan all used Su Bai as the standard sound, and even Peking Opera used Su Bai at the beginning.

In the early Qing Dynasty, Nanjing Mandarin was still the orthodox language. During the reign of Yongzheng (1728), Andrew Pavilion was established, which established the official status of Beijing Mandarin. By the end of 19, that is, the end of the Qing Dynasty, the situation in China had undergone great changes, influenced by western academic thoughts, especially the Japanese. Before and after the Meiji Restoration, Japan vigorously promoted Japanese homophony, and the Japanese called Japanese national homophony Mandarin. The word Mandarin was originally the name of a book in ancient China, and the Japanese regarded Mandarin as a national homophonic name. /kloc-At the end of 0/9, great changes have taken place in China's cultural life, and the word Mandarin has spread. Due to the war of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Jiangnan economy began to decline, and the five tones began to lose their status as standard tones. In this way, Beijing vernacular began to become the only standard sound. In the early years of the Republic of China, Beijing Mandarin was designated as the national language.

After the Revolution of 1911, in order to develop China's economy and culture, Putonghua was also popularized in China. The word Mandarin was recognized by the government at that time in the Republic of China and became the official title of national homophones. 1920 Less than two years after the implementation of Putonghua, a big debate called "Beijing Debate" broke out at that time. The cause of the problem lies in the standard pronunciation of Putonghua. Because in the upsurge of promoting Putonghua, teachers in Beijing and teachers of Guoyin often quarrel. Their national languages sound very different, and the pronunciation of many words is not uniform, which brings difficulties to both teachers and learners. So someone (Zhang Shiyi of Nanjing Normal University) published an article, arguing that "phonetic symbols and national pronunciation should be fundamentally reformed" and that "the definition of standard language that conforms to academic principles should be announced by the Ministry of Education first, and the characters of Beijing natives with at least secondary education should be used as the standard of national common language". This idea has been supported by many people, especially in the south, which has aroused strong repercussions. They even held many meetings to respond, and even passed a resolution: "We don't recognize the national voice, and advocate using Beijing voice as the standard voice", "Please ask the Ministry of Education to solicit opinions from all sides and use Beijing voice as the standard voice". Later, in 19 13, the old national voice of "giving priority to Beijing dialect and giving consideration to the north and south" was revised into a new national voice of "taking Beijing dialect as the standard". 1932, The Glossary of Common National Phonetics compiled according to New National Phonetics was published by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China. In the preface of the Glossary, it further explains the meaning that Guoyin takes Beijing pronunciation as the standard, that is, the so-called standard pronunciation of modern Beiping pronunciation refers to the modern Beiping phonology, and not every word should respect its local accent.

The word "Putonghua" in the modern sense was first put forward by Zhu in 1906. Later, Qu Qiubai and others also put forward the word "Putonghua" and argued with Mao Dun about the actual meaning of Putonghua. Since the May 4th Movement, the status of Beijing phonetics has been established and consolidated in the vernacular movement, catchword movement and Putonghua movement.

After the founding of New China, at the "National Language Reform Conference" held in 1955, Zhang Xiruo explained in the theme report of the conference:

Since ancient times, there have been several versions of the same language of the Han nationality, including elegant language, common language, official language and national language of the Republic of China. The names are different, but the contents are basically the same. 1949, People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded, and China embarked on a brand-new stage. In order to develop the culture and education of new China, we should also popularize national languages and overcome the obstacles caused by dialect differences. In the 1950s, we wanted to promote national languages. There are several different names in history. What should we call them?

We are a unified multi-ethnic country, and all ethnic languages are equal. However, the national language in the Republic of China was actually a homonym of the Han nationality, not a homonym of other ethnic minorities. In order to highlight that we are a big multi-ethnic family and to highlight the equality of languages of all ethnic groups, after in-depth research, we decided not to use the name Putonghua. If it is called Putonghua, I am afraid it will be misunderstood as putting Chinese people above other ethnic groups in China.

After research, I finally decided to call it Mandarin.

1On February 6th, 956, the State Council issued the Instruction on Popularizing Putonghua, which supplemented and improved the meaning of Putonghua, and formally determined that Putonghua "takes Beijing dialect as the standard pronunciation, northern dialect as the basic dialect, and typical modern vernacular as the grammatical norm". The word "Putonghua" has been widely used and has a clear connotation.

The grammar of Putonghua is based on the modern vernacular masterpieces of Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Bing Xin and Ye Shengtao, and it must also be a "general use case" in these modern vernacular works.

At present, Mandarin is based on Modern Chinese Standard Dictionary.

Mandarin is the spoken form of modern Chinese. China has a vast territory and a large population, and there have been differences in dialects since ancient times. The existence of dialect brings inconvenience and estrangement to communication. In order to overcome the barriers caused by dialects, there must be homonyms that communicate with various dialects.

The Mandarin we speak today has a clear connotation and a scientific definition, with Beijing accent as the standard pronunciation, northern dialect as the basic dialect and typical modern vernacular as the grammatical norm. This is clearly stipulated in the Instruction on Promoting Putonghua issued by the State Council in February, 1956. From 1956 to now, the meaning of Putonghua is just like what I just introduced. After listening to my introduction, it is not difficult to understand that the so-called Putonghua is modern Chinese. Obviously, when we enter the information network era, it is of great significance to vigorously promote Putonghua for the development of our country.