The Role of Putonghua

Putonghua is the modern Han ****same language, which is the common language of all nationalities in the country. It is based on the Beijing dialect, the Northern dialect, and the modern vernacular writings as the grammatical norms.

The term "Putonghua" appeared as early as the end of the Qing Dynasty, when the scholar Wu Rulun went on a study trip to Japan in 1902 and was advised by the Japanese that China should implement national language education to unify the language. In 1904, when Qiu Jin, a modern female revolutionary, was studying in Japan, she organized a "speech association" with Japanese students and drew up a brief, in which the word "Putonghua" appeared. In 1906, Zhu Wenxiong, a scholar who studied the phonetic characters, categorized the Chinese language into "Guowen" (Mandarin), "Putonghua", and "Kanyu" (common language) in his book Jiangsu New Alphabet. "He not only proposed the name "Putonghua", but also clearly defined "Putonghua" as "the language commonly spoken in all provinces". The language of all provinces." In the 1930s, Qu Qiubai proposed in his article "The War Beyond the Ghost Gate" that "the task of the literary revolution should not be limited to the creation of new poems, novels and dramas, but should be the establishment of a modern Putonghua literary accent for China." "The new Chinese text in modern Mandarin should be that which is customarily used in all parts of China***, the modern 'human language', multi-syllabic, with endings ......"

The definition of "Putonghua" has been unclear and subject to disagreement in the decades before liberation. The definition of "Mandarin" has been unclear for decades before liberation, and there have been different views. During the "National Conference on Text Reform" and the "Academic Conference on the Standardization of the Modern Chinese Language" held in October 955, the official name of the Chinese national ****same language was formally designated as "Mandarin", and at the same time, the official name of the Chinese national ****same language was determined to be "Mandarin", and at the same time, the official name of the Chinese national ****same language was formally designated as "Mandarin". "On October 26, 1955, the People's Daily published an editorial entitled "Efforts to Promote the Reform of Chinese Characters, the Promotion of Putonghua, and the Standardization of the Chinese Language", which stated: "The ****same language of the Han nationality is Mandarin, with Northern Chinese as the basic dialect and Beijing speech as the standard tone." On February 6, 1956, the State Council issued a directive on the promotion of Putonghua, adding the definition of Putonghua as "using Beijing dialect as the standard pronunciation, Northern dialect as the basic dialect, and exemplary modern vernacular writings as the grammatical norms." This definition specifies the standard of Putonghua from three aspects: phonetics, vocabulary and grammar, making the definition of Putonghua more scientific and thorough. The word "Putonghua" means "universal" and "****common".

Putonghua is a modern Chinese national ****same language "with Beijing phonetics as the standard sound, with the northern dialect as the basic dialect, and with the exemplary modern vernacular writings as the grammatical norms", which was determined at the 1955 National Script Reform Conference and the Academic Conference on the Normative Problems of the Modern Chinese Language. This definition essentially puts forward the standards of Putonghua in terms of phonetics, vocabulary and grammar, so how are these standards to be understood?

The phrase "taking the Beijing pronunciation as the standard pronunciation" means taking the Beijing dialect's phonetic system as the standard, not copying all the readings of the Beijing dialect, and Putonghua is not equal to Beijing dialect. There are many native sounds in Beijing dialect, for example, the old Beijingers pronounced the conjunction "hé" as "hàn", and "húdié" as "húdié". "húdiěr", and "gàosong" for "gàosu", which are difficult to be accepted by people from other dialect areas. In addition, there are also different pronunciations in Beijing dialect, for example, some people pronounce the word "aggression" as "qīn lüè", while others pronounce it as "qǐn lüè"; The word "neighborhood" is pronounced as "fùjìn" by some and "fǔjìn" by others, which also brought a lot of trouble to the promotion of Putonghua. Since 1956, the state has reviewed the pronunciation of the characters in Beijing dialect many times and formulated the standard pronunciation of Putonghua. Therefore, the phonetic standard of Putonghua should currently be regulated by the "Review Table of Putonghua Heterophones" published in 1985 and the 1996 edition of the "Modern Chinese Dictionary".

As far as vocabulary standards are concerned, the fact that Putonghua is "based on the northern dialect" means that it is based on what is commonly spoken in the northern dialect area, and also draws on words from other dialects as needed. There are also many dialects of the northern regions in Mandarin, for example, Beijingers say "evening" as "late morning", "rebuke" as "bared", "rebuke" as "bared", "rebuke" as "bared", "rebuke" as "bared", "rebuke" as "bared", "rebuke" as "bared", and "rebuke" as "bared". ", the "miserly" as "stingy"; many areas in the north will be "corn" called "sticks ", will be "soap" called "pancreas", will be "steamed bread" called "steamed buns ". Therefore, you cannot use all the words of the northern dialect as the vocabulary of Putonghua. Some non-Beijing dialect words have special meanings and expressive power, and there are no corresponding synonyms in Beijin, so such words can be absorbed into the Mandarin vocabulary. For example, the words "搞", "垃圾", "尴尬", "gimmick" and so on are already frequent in the written language and have long been added to the Mandarin vocabulary. They have long since been added to the Mandarin vocabulary. The vocabulary chosen for Putonghua is generally more popular and has been used in writing for a long time. In recent years, the State Language Commission has been organizing manpower to prepare a "Standard Dictionary of Modern Chinese," which will further standardize Mandarin vocabulary.

The origin of Putonghua

The grammatical standard of Putonghua is "to take the exemplary modern vernacular writings as the grammatical norms", which has four meanings: "exemplary" means to exclude non-exemplary modern vernacular writings as the grammatical norms; "vernacular" means to exclude non-exemplary modern vernacular writings as the grammatical norms. This criterion has four meanings: "exemplary" means excluding non-exemplary modern vernacular writings as grammatical norms; "vernacular writings" means excluding literary writings; "modern vernacular writings" means excluding early vernacular writings before the May 4 era; and "writings" refers to the written form of the Putonghua language which It is based on the spoken language, but is not equal to the general spoken language, but is a processed and refined language.

The predecessor of Putonghua was the official language of the officials in the north in ancient times, because Beijing had been the capital of many dynasties, and the official language was closer to the Beijing dialect, and today the Nanjing dialect is not like the other southern regions of Jiangsu Province, but also because Nanjing had been the capital of many dynasties, and it is a little bit close to the official language.

The term "Putonghua" was first proposed by Zhu Wenxiong in 1906, and later Qu Qiubai and others also put forward the term "Putonghua" and argued with Mao Dun about the actual meaning of Putonghua. The Beijing dialect has been established and consolidated through the vernacular language movement, the popular language movement and the national language movement since the May Fourth Movement.

After the founding of New China, at the 1955 National Conference on Word Reform, Zhang Xi Ruo explained in his keynote report that the Han Chinese language had long existed, but now it was called Putonghua, and needed to be further standardized and defined. "What is this Han national ****similar language that has in fact gradually formed? It is Mandarin, with Northern Chinese as the basic dialect and Beijing speech as the standardized sound." "For the sake of simplicity, this national ****same language can also just be called Putonghua."

On February 6, 1956, the State Council issued the "Instructions on the Promotion of Putonghua", which added and improved the meaning of Putonghua, officially determining that Putonghua "takes Beijing phonetics as the standard sound, Northern Chinese as the basic dialect, and exemplary modern vernacular writings as the grammatical norms. The term "Putonghua" began to be widely used with a clear connotation.

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