Hi folks, got a small language issue you can probably solve very easily.
I’ve studied my Chinese on the mainland, and realise that there are 5 different words to mean the Chinese language, that I know of. Which one is most commonly used in Taiwan?
Zhongwen
Hanyu
Zhonguohua
Guoyu
Putonghua
Taiwanhua (?)
Also, what word do the Taiwanese use to refer to the mainland?
Cheers, Diablo.
Zhongwen
ZhongGuo
Definitely zhongwen. 中文
I also agree with zhongguo 中國 for China, but I have often heard it referred to as da4 lu4. 大陸
The Taiwanese language is Taiyu 台語
Used in a general sense, as in all Chinese languages as one family, or in terms of written Chinese.
[quote]Hanyu[/quote]Uncommon
[quote]Zhonguohua[/quote]Never heard it, unsurprisingly considering the connotations it would carry here.
[quote]Guoyu[/quote]By far the most common for the spoken language.
[quote]Putonghua[/quote]Only when specifically referring to mainland Mandarin. Say it here and you’ll likely get at least a funny look.
[quote]Taiwanhua (?)[/quote]Taiyu for Taiwanese, the local branch of the Minnan dialect.
Usually dalu, sometimes zhongguo dalu, and sometimes - usually, from what I’ve heard, when trying to make a point - zhongguo.
Excellent breakdown Tetsuo.
I believe it is very helpful to the original poster. :bravo:
Just out of interest, I got told off by a taxi driver once for saying my ‘guoyu’ was very bad. He said I should have said ‘hanyu’. Any idea if this is a political issue or something? I thought maybe because he didn’t want Taiwan to be the same ‘guo’ as China, but I didn’t get that far 
Maybe that’s what they expect xBCs to call it?
When I studied in the mainland, I was told that “zhongwen” referred to the written language, and “hanyu” or “putonghua” was the spoken language. Here, “zhongwen” refers to everything.
I have also heard the same, that ZhongWen is written etc. I’ve also been told that GuoYu really is only used here in Taiwan to refer to Mandarin Chinese spoken in Taiwan. Otherwise, over in DaLu it’s PuTongHua.
And LittleBuddhaTW, I’ve been meaning to ask you, did Zhao Zhou really say “no!” to that question? I thought he said “Mu” or “Mo” (I can’t remember which) which could actually be taken for a negation of the question, and not necessarily a negative response. Those wily buddhists…
Yes, you’re correct 
[quote=“FearsomeOrange”]I have also heard the same, that ZhongWen is written etc. I’ve also been told that GuoYu really is only used here in Taiwan to refer to Mandarin Chinese spoken in Taiwan. Otherwise, over in DaLu it’s PuTongHua.
[/quote]
I might be wrong but I think some HK may use guo yu also, at least formerly.
my understanding is the same Guo Yu is spoken and Zhong Wen is written (although I’ve heard it and used it for spoken)
As I have it Zhong wen is what is referred to the written language, but I have never gotten into trouble for calling spoken Mandarin Zhong wen either.
I know that China is definitely referred to as Zhong Guo.
Used in a general sense, as in all Chinese languages as one family, or in terms of written Chinese.[/quote]
It’s also used to refer to whatever the local standard dialect is. For example, in Hong Kong and Guangzhou if you say “Jungmahn” (Cantonese version of “Zhongwen”) you are talking about Cantonese rather than Mandarin. I’ve even heard native Cantonese speakers say “he doesn’t speak Jungmahn” referring to a native Mandarin speaker who can’t speak Cantonese.
In Taiwan, though, this usually means Standard Mandarin. Min-nan (Taiwanese) and Hakka are not normally understood to be “Zhongwen”
As noted later, the second character of Zhongwen refers specifically to literature, so it technically should mean written Chinese but is normally not used that way.
Yes, uncommon in Taiwan. In the mainland it now typically means standard Mandarin, but technically it refers to all language of the Han people (meaning ethnic Chinese) which contrasts with Zhongguohua.
But again, as Tetsuo said, it’s not common here.
It means all the languages of China. This extends to the non-Han languages of the minority races of China such as Uighur, Uzbek, Zhuang, etc. The equivalent here would be “Taiwanhua” except that there’s no point in making such a word.
Zhongguohua would only be used in a technical sense, so it is very infrequently used.
Right, this is specifically referring to Taiwan standard Mandarin. If you specify “Taiwan guoyu” it will usually mean Mandarin spoken with a Taiwanese accent.
Yep.
[quote][quote]Taiwanhua (?)[/quote]Taiyu for Taiwanese, the local branch of the Minnan dialect.[/quote] Yep. Again, that doesn’t mean Mandarin. And as I pointed out earlier, Taiwanhua would be the equal of Zhongguohua, but there isn’t any use for it so the term doesn’t really exist. (Or does it and I just never heard it?)
Usually dalu, sometimes zhongguo dalu, and sometimes - usually, from what I’ve heard, when trying to make a point - zhongguo.[/quote]
Yep.
[quote=“sername1”][quote=“FearsomeOrange”]I have also heard the same, that ZhongWen is written etc. I’ve also been told that GuoYu really is only used here in Taiwan to refer to Mandarin Chinese spoken in Taiwan. Otherwise, over in DaLu it’s PuTongHua.
[/quote]
I might be wrong but I think some HK may use guo yu also, at least formerly.
my understanding is the same Guo Yu is spoken and Zhong Wen is written (although I’ve heard it and used it for spoken)[/quote]
Most people in Hong Kong call Cantonese “Jungmahn”. If they say Gwokyuh (‘guoyu’) they mean Mandarin, but it has a connotation of being from Taiwan. They’ll also use poutungwah to mean Mandarin, but then they’re definitely referring to mainland China. (gwokyuh is just shorter to say 
). However, when speaking Mandarin they will tend to use Taiwanese speech conventions as that is the predominant usage in southern China.
I think the Cantonese gokyu (if you’ll pardon my HKese dropping the w) may spring from the entertainment circle. With HK singers in the past generally producing two albums nigh on simultaneously, one in Cantonese for HK and one in Mandarin for Taiwan, the Mandarin versions were naturally labelled as gokyuban, since that’s how they’d have to be referred to in Taiwan. From there I think it just seeped into common usage to mean Mandarin in the Taiwanese sense, while, like you said, poutongwa means the mainland equivalent. The change was to calling it putonghua probably also slowed down by virtue of the fact that most of the immigration into HK would’ve been prior to the language being renamed putonghua, and while it was still guoyu.
Oh, and I agree, in Cantonese jungman (ie zhongwen) does tend to mean “the Chinese we speak here,” which is to say Cantonese, but lei sik gongdongwa ma? (ni hui guangdonghua ma?) was also fairly common a few years back if they were specifically asking if you can speak the language rather than if you actually know it. Can’t speak for the present point in time though.
[quote=“Tetsuo”]I think the Cantonese gokyu (if you’ll pardon my HKese dropping the w) may spring from the entertainment circle. With HK singers in the past generally producing two albums nigh on simultaneously, one in Cantonese for HK and one in Mandarin for Taiwan, the Mandarin versions were naturally labelled as gokyuban, since that’s how they’d have to be referred to in Taiwan. From there I think it just seeped into common usage to mean Mandarin in the Taiwanese sense, while, like you said, poutongwa means the mainland equivalent. The change was to calling it putonghua probably also slowed down by virtue of the fact that most of the immigration into HK would’ve been prior to the language being renamed putonghua, and while it was still guoyu.
Oh, and I agree, in Cantonese jungman (ie zhongwen) does tend to mean “the Chinese we speak here,” which is to say Cantonese, but lei sik gongdongwa ma? (ni hui guangdonghua ma?) was also fairly common a few years back if they were specifically asking if you can speak the language rather than if you actually know it. Can’t speak for the present point in time though.[/quote]
I’m a demi-purist for Cantonese, I keep the w’s in gw and kw, don’t omit the ng initial, and still reflect the high falling tone in when romanizing. But I do convert n initials to l initials 
I totally agree. Of course, they assume Cantonese to the point where they don’t even mention a language at all: 你識唔識講? (do you speak?) And they would use 中文 (Chinese) and 廣東話 (Cantonese) interchangeably. Might say something about Hong Kong’s level of self-importance…
thanks a lot guys, that seems to just about clear it up.
I disagree with most of the previous posters.
In my experience ‘guoyu’ is used to refer to Chinese (language) a lot more than ‘zhongwen’.
Also ‘dalu’ is used to refer to China in the vast majoity of cases (in fact ‘zhonguo’ is very rarely used.
Brian
I hear “Guoyu” a lot, but I’ve still heard “Zhongwen” more.
Doesn’t it depend a lot on context? If you’re contrasting it to English/French/… then you’re more likely to hear zhongwen, but if you’re talking about Mandarin vs. Taiwanese vs. Hakka then you’re more likely to hear guoyu.
As for daasgrrl’s question about it being political … well ‘guoyu’ means the ‘national language’, so if you think the other dialects should also be made official languages of Taiwan, you could prefer to use another term. A bit of an extreme point of view though (heh, a taxi driver with an extreme view - who’d have thought!)