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The Chinese Language(s)

Everything Everywhere Daily

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What Is Mandarin?

This episode is not intended to be an introduction to speaking Chinese or a lesson in pronunciation, vocabulary, or grammar. Mandarin was the dialect of Chinese spoken by the bureaucratic ruling Mandarin class in China and most importantly, it's the dialect spoken in and around Beijing. An estimated 66% of all Chinese language speakers speak Mandarin. The dominance of Mandarin was a political choice that successive governments set in the 20th century.

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