Question

Chinese, unlike many other languages, has a large family of dialects and written forms. Spoken Chinese is specially complex with more than five recognized dialect groups, even the written language with two recognized characters.

The written forms of Chinese include a traditional system of characters and a simplified one. The simplified version of characters came into use in 1949.

Traditional Chinese characters are still widely used throughout Asia and among Chinese people around the world, while the simplified characters are only found in the People’s Republic of China.

It is usually accepted that there are five major dialect groups within the Chinese language group. These are Mandarin, Wu, Min, Cantonese and Hakka.

Mandarin is the official language on the Chinese mainland and Chinese Taiwan. It  is also one of the four official languages of Singapore.

Wu is spoken around the lower Yangtze River and its tributaies(支流). Shanghai is a well-known dialect of Wu.

Min is commonly spoken by people in Taiwan, Fujian and Hainan. Cantonese is mainly spoken in the province of Guangdong. Cantonese is also spoken in many parts of the Chinese Diaspra(移居地), particularly Hong Kong and overseas Chinese settlements in the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia. Hakka is the least well-known dialect group inside China compared to the above four. Most of the Hakka dialect group is scattered(散居) throughout southeastern China in Guangxi Province. Historically, the Hakka people were northerners who moved south over several hundred years. Their name Hakka means “guest” indicaing their immigrant(移民) status in the southern areas to which they moved.

Title	Chinese Language
Theme	Chinese differs from many other languages in that it has many written forms and dialects.
Two (1)______ forms	Traditional characters		Still in wide (2)_______ throughout Asia and among Chinese all over the world.
	Simplified characters		●Used after the People’s Republic of China was (3)_______. ●Commonly used on the mainland.
Five Major Chinese dialect Groups	Mandarin	The official language of the PRC, known as Putonghua in mainland China.
	Wu	●Spoken around the (4)_______Yangtze River and its tributaries. ●One famous dialect is Shanghaiese.
	Min	Commonly spoken by people in Taiwan, Fujian and Hainan.
	Cantonese	●Mainly spoken in Guangdong and Hong Kong. ●The language of Guangzhou is also known as Canton..
	Hakka	●Compared to the four above, it is the (5)_______well-known. ●Spoken in Guangxi and it means “guest”.

Answer 1

written   use    founded    lower     least