【阅读理解】Aspects of the Chinese Language 1 Chinese, a branch of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages(汉藏语系), consists of hundreds of local language varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. It is estimated that more than one billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language.History2 Old Chinese is the oldest attested stage of Chinese, and is the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. It was used from the pre-Qin days to the Jin Dynasty. The first Chinese written records appeared over 3,000 years ago, the earliest examples of which are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones in the late Shang Dynasty. Bronze inscriptions became plentiful during the following Zhou Dynasty. The latter part of the Zhou Dynasty saw a flowering of literature, including classical works such as The ects, The Works of Mencius and The Spring and Autumn Annals. These works served as models for classical Chinese.3MiddleChineseisthelanguageusedduringtheNorthernandSouthernDynastiesandtheSui,TangandSongdynasties.Itcanbedividedintoanearlyperiod,markedbytherhymebook,Qieyun(《切韵》),andalateperiod,signifiedbytherhymetables（韵图）---aguidetotheQieyunsystem.MiddleChineseisthetraditionalstartingpointforeffortstorecoverthesoundsofearlyformsofChinese.4AfterthefalloftheNorthernSongDynasty,andduringthereignoftheJinandYuandynastiesinnorthernChina,acommonspeech(nowcalledOldMandarin)developed.OfficialsoftheMingandQingdynastiescarriedouttheadministrationoftheempireusinga"languageofofficials"basedonMandarinvarieties.FormosttimeoftheMingandQingdynasties,thislanguagewasbasedondialectsspokenintheNanjingarea,thoughnotidenticaltoanysingledialect.By1909,thedyingQingDynastyhadestablishedtheBeijingdialectasthe“nationallanguage.”5ThePeople’sRepublicofChinacontinuedwiththepromotionofacommonnationallanguage,andin1956,thestandardlanguageofChinawasofficiallydefined.PutonghuaisthestandardformofModernChinesewiththeBeijingphonologicalsystemasitsnormofpronunciation,andnortherndialectsasitsdialectbase,anditlookstoexemplarymodernworksinvernacularliterarylanguageforitsgrammaticalnorms.Putonghuaisnowusedineducation,themediaandformalsituationsinChina.ChineseisoneofthesixofficiallanguagesoftheUnitedNations.Pronunciation7Chinesecharactersdonotreliablyindicatetheirpronunciation.ItisthereforeusefultotransliterateChineseintotheLatinalphabetforthosewhocannotreadChinesecharacters.Thepinyinsystemwasdevelopedinthe1950sbymanylinguistsbasedonearlierformsofRomanizationofChinese.ItwaspublishedbytheChinesegovernmentin1958andhasbeenrevisedseveraltimes.TheInternationalOrganizationforStandardization(ISO)（国际标准化组织）adoptedpinyinasaninternationalstandardin1982,followedbytheUnitedNationsin1986.8Inpinyin,initialsandfinalsformthefundamentalelements.EveryMandarinsyllablecanbespelledwithoneinitialfollowedbyonefinal,orinsomecaseswithonefinalonly,exceptforthespecialsyllableerorwhenatrailing-risconsideredpartofasyllable.Thesystemincludesfourdiacriticsdenotingtones.PinyinwithouttonemarksisusedtospellChinesenamesandwordsinlanguageswrittenwiththeLatinalphabet,andalsoincertaincomputerinputmethodstoenterChinesecharacters.Classification9Chinesevarieties,ordialects,areconventionallyclassifiedintosevendialectgroups:●Mandarin:AgroupofrelatedvarietiesofChinesespokenacrossmostofnorthernandsouthwesternChina,basedontheBeijingdialect.●Wu:VarietiesspokeninShanghai,mostofZhejiangandthesouthernpartsofJiangsuandAnhui,withtheSuzhoudialectbeingusuallytakenasrepresentative.TheShanghaidialectfeaturesseveralatypicalinnovations.●Gan:VarietiesspokeninJiangxiandneighbouringareas,withtheNanchangdialectbeingtakenasrepresentative●Xiang:VarietiesspokeninHunan,dividedintotheNewXiangvarietiesrepresentedbytheChangshadialectandOldXiangvarietiesrepresentedbytheShuangfengdialect●Min:ThemostdiversevarietiesspokeninFujian,Guangdong,Hainan,Taiwan,aswellaspartsofSoutheastAsiaandotherpartsoftheworld,withHokkienbeingthemostwidelyspoken.●Hakka:VarietiesspokenbytheHakka,agroupofHanChineselivinginthehillsofnortheasternGuangdong,southwesternFujian,Taiwan,andmanyotherpartsofsouthernChina,aswellaspartsofSoutheastAsia,withtheMeizhoudialectbeingtheprestigeform.●Yue:VarietiesspokeninGuangdong,Guangxi,HongKongandMa,aswellaspartsofSoutheastAsiaandmanyotherpartsoftheworld,withtherepresentativevarietybeingCantonese.