The Origin of Mandarin

The Chinese national language emerged in the ancient Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties at the latest. At that time, the national ****same language was called "YaYan", which was mainly popular in the Yellow River basin, and the language of China's first collection of poems, "The Book of Poetry", was YaYan. In the Han Dynasty, the national ****same language was called "Tongyin". During the Tang and Song dynasties, people paid great attention to the use of "correct pronunciation" (the pronunciation promulgated by the state) in writing articles and poems. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Chinese language was called "official language". During the Republican period, the Chinese national language was called the "national language". After the founding of New China, it is called "Putonghua".

Mandarin is based on the Beijing dialect, the Northern dialect, and the modern vernacular writings. Its status as the ****same language of our Han nation is historically formed. On the one hand, Beijing dialect, as a representative of the northern dialects, has been spreading all over the country as the common language of the government for hundreds of years and has developed into the "official language"; on the other hand, after the "vernacular language movement", writers consciously wrote in Mandarin, and a large number of exemplary works as the norms of the written language of the Mandarin language have emerged. On the other hand, after the "vernacular language movement", writers consciously wrote in Putonghua, and a large number of exemplary works emerged as the standard of written Putonghua. The "National Language Movement" also strengthened the representativeness of Beijing dialect in terms of spoken language, and prompted the Beijing dialect to become the standard pronunciation of the whole nation***same language. The special political, economic and cultural status of the northern dialect area and its demographic advantages have established the status of Putonghua as a common language of the Han Chinese people.