3. The History of Mandarin (Chinese Language)

This part is the sub topic of Theoretical Framework in Chapter II Theoretical Approach and Framework of the research entitled "A Comparative study between Mandarin and English phonological System".

Since ancient history, the Chinese language has always consisted of a wide variety of dialects. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán, or "elegant speech". It is a little bit different from daily dialects. Besides, text during the Han Dynasty refers to tōngyǔ, or "common language". However, all of these standard dialects were probably unknown outside the educated elite; even among the elites, pronunciations may have been very different, as the unifying factor of all Chinese dialects was a written standard, not a spoken one.

The Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1912) began to use the term guānhuà or "official speech". It refers to the speech used at the courts. The term "Mandarin" comes directly from the Portuguese. The word mandarin was first used to name the Chinese bureaucratic officials (i.e., the mandarins), because the Portuguese, under the misapprehension that the Sanskrit word (mentri) that was used throughout Asia to denote "an official" which had some connection with the Portuguese word mandar (to order somebody to do something), and having observed that these officials all "issued orders", chose to call them mandarins. Because of this case, the Portuguese immediately started to use the special language that these officials spoke amongst themselves as "Guanhua" "the language of the mandarins", "the mandarin language" or, simply, "Mandarin". It is a fact that Guanhua was, to a certain extent, an artificial language based upon a set of conventions. It is precisely what makes it such an appropriate term for Modern Standard Chinese (i.e., Northern Chinese family of languages for grammar and meaning, and the specific pronunciation of Beijing for its utterance).

It seems that during the early part of this period, Beijing dialect became increased. In the 17th century, the Empire had set up an Academy as an effort to make pronunciation conform to the Beijing standard. But these attempts just had little success. At 19th century, it is difficult for the emperor to understand some of his own ministers in court, who did not always try to follow any standard pronunciation. Nevertheless, by 1909, fall of Qing Dynasty had established the Beijing dialect as guóyǔ, or the "national language".

After the Republic of China was established in 1912, there was more success in promoting a common national language. A Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation was convened with delegates from the entire country. At first there was an attempt to introduce a standard pronunciation with elements from regional dialects. But this was deemed too difficult to promote, and in 1924 this attempt was abandoned and the Beijing dialect became the major source of standard national pronunciation, due to the status of that dialect as a prestigious dialect since the Qing Dynasty. Elements from other dialects continue to exist in the standard language, but as exceptions rather than the rule.

In 1949, the Republic of China People continued the effort. In 1955, guóyǔ was renamed pǔtōnghuà or "common speech. After the handovers of Hong Kong, the term pǔtōnghuà is used in Special Administrative Regions of the People Republic of China, and the pinyin system is widely used.

In both mainland China and Taiwan, the use of Standard Mandarin is the main language used in the educational system. As a result, Standard Mandarin is spoken fluently by most people in Mainland China and in Taiwan. However in Hong Kong, due to historical and linguistic reasons, the language of education and both formal and informal speech remains the local Standard Cantonese but standard Mandarin is becoming increase.

The advent of the 20th century has seen many profound changes in Standard Mandarin. Many polite and humble words which were in use in imperial China have almost entirely disappeared in daily modern-day’s conversation. Standard Mandarin, such as jiàn (my humble) and guì (your honorable).