There are a number of varieties of the Chinese language. The most common of these is Mandarin Chinese and the word baby is pronounced as "baobei" in this version of Chinese. 'Bao' means precious and 'bei' means shell. The formal way to say baby is "ying-er".
Other varieties of the Chinese language include the Wu, Yue, Min, Xiang, Hakka and Gan dialects. All these different variations are used in different regions. The symbols used to write the Chinese language are also different, dependent on the region of China. There are approximately 1.3 billion speakers of the various forms of Chinese.
Cantonese, another version of the language is one of the official languages of Hong Kong, together with English. Baby is pronounced "bi-bi" in Cantonese with the emphasis being on the second bi. The formal way to say baby in Cantonese is "sou-ha". There are 90 million speakers of Wu, 70 million speakers of Yue and 50 million speakers of Min. The least spoken form of Chinese is Gan, with only 31 million speakers, whilst Xiang and Hakka have 35 million speakers each.
Mandarin Chinese is also the official language in Macau, Taiwan and Singapore. In Singapore it is classed as the official language, but not the national language. The national languages are English and Malay. The writing system in China can be simplified using a system commonly known as Pinyin, although this is just one of the systems. Other systems are Zhuyin Fuhao and Xiao'erjing.
Mandarin is classed in the western world as the standard form of the language whilst the other variations are classed as dialects. Chinese is classed as one of the six official languages of the United Nations; the others are Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
Other varieties of the Chinese language include the Wu, Yue, Min, Xiang, Hakka and Gan dialects. All these different variations are used in different regions. The symbols used to write the Chinese language are also different, dependent on the region of China. There are approximately 1.3 billion speakers of the various forms of Chinese.
Cantonese, another version of the language is one of the official languages of Hong Kong, together with English. Baby is pronounced "bi-bi" in Cantonese with the emphasis being on the second bi. The formal way to say baby in Cantonese is "sou-ha". There are 90 million speakers of Wu, 70 million speakers of Yue and 50 million speakers of Min. The least spoken form of Chinese is Gan, with only 31 million speakers, whilst Xiang and Hakka have 35 million speakers each.
Mandarin Chinese is also the official language in Macau, Taiwan and Singapore. In Singapore it is classed as the official language, but not the national language. The national languages are English and Malay. The writing system in China can be simplified using a system commonly known as Pinyin, although this is just one of the systems. Other systems are Zhuyin Fuhao and Xiao'erjing.
Mandarin is classed in the western world as the standard form of the language whilst the other variations are classed as dialects. Chinese is classed as one of the six official languages of the United Nations; the others are Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
