Chinese languages

lewisa asked "What's the difference between the mandarin language and the chinese one? Is it a dialect or simply a complete language with it's vocabulary and a special grammar?" A short answer is: Mandarin Chinese is a subset of Chinese which forms the basis of the standard and official la...

In English, the term "Chinese" can be used broadly (referring to all the varieties of speech and written language that share the same heritage of classical Chinese, and which are now quite divergent) or narrowly (to refer the the dominant and official variety of speech and the style of wri...