sennacherib wrote:汉语: Firstly, it is a less colloquial word than 中文. Secondly, I think it can not well represent the ethnic minorities in China who also speak Mandarin.
Quite the opposite. 汉语 implies that it's the language of the Han ethnicity, and acknowledges that the ethnic minorities of China speak other languages. It's also true that the minorities are Han-ized nowadays. Or are you implying that the minorities should all switch to Chinese language and forget about their native languages?
普通话: It is usually used when compared with other Chinese dialects or correct someone's pronunciation if they speak with a strong dialectal accent.
This is a perfect explanation.
This reminds me that the 普通话水平测试 is translated as "Proficient test of Spoken Mandarin". Many foreigners confuse it with HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Ceshi "Chinese language proficiency test").
They are two completely different things. The latter tests the foreigners' level of Chinese.
The former is aimed at native Chinese speakers, to test how "
standard / free of regional accent" their pronunciation of Standard Mandarin is. High score means close to the standard accent. Low score means a strong regional accent. Maybe a better translation would be "Proficient test of Standard Mandarin"?
I would add that 普通话 also implies standard vocabulary and standard grammar.
When a Zhejianger says 馒头 for meat-filled steamed bun (instead 包子) or 讲不来 instead of 不会讲, for me that's non-standard 普通话.
国语: It is not such a frequently used word in mainland China. Maybe more frequent in HK, Macau, Taiwan? Not sure.
国语 was the standard term in China during the Republic of China (pre-communist, 中华民国) and is still the term used in Taiwan.
国语 is also used by the Chinese people when they travel. When Chinese tourists meet other Chinese people, they often say 会讲国语吗?
I think when abroad, the feeling that Mandarin is "our national language" is stronger.
华语: The similar case as 国语.
I already said that 华语 is used in Malaysia and Singapore, because they consider themselves 中国人 (Chinese from China) but 华人 (ethnic Chinese people).
华语 is also used in music, to refer to Chinese songs. I think it feels like a more neutral term for Chinese songs, no matter if the songs are from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia or Singapore.
In more official contexts, 华文 is used generally when referring to the Chinese language used abroad, such as 华文媒体 (Chinese language media), 华文报纸 (Chinese language newspaper); or by organisations that aim at teaching Chinese language globally, such as 华文教育基金会.
Although in other contexts it's more common to refer to the teaching of Chinese to foreigners as 对外汉语教学.
中国话: Very rare to hear people say it.
Really?
“全世界都在说中国话,孔夫子的话越来越国际化”
In my neck of woods it's common to say 中国话 and 外国话.
I think 中国话 has a more explicit reference to China and to Chinese people, such as when implying one is a Chinese person who speaks 中国话, or when talking about a foreigner who learned 中国话, the "language of China".
中国语: Never heard of it.
I've seen it... in Japanese.
When talking about foreign languages, we usually say XXX+语 instead of XXX+文. For example, 德语, 法语, 俄语, etc. 德文, 法文, 俄文 are also comprehensible but not often used in mainland China. Perhaps people in HK, Taiwan prefer to use 文.
No. When talking about the written languages you use 文. If you choose your language in your iPhone they are all -文. And Chinese is 中文.
In Southern Zhejiang dialects we do say 文 more commonly, like Fujian (the basis of Taiwanese dialect and Taiwanese Mandarin) and Guangdong.
英语 and 英文 are rqually common in our dialect.
While we call Japanese 日本话... probably because the writing looks like Chinese?
Serafín wrote:What would you say is the register of 官话? Is it basically jargon from linguistics to refer to Mandarin?
You were right in your previous post.
官话 aka 北方话 refers to one of the 10 (or 7) Sinitic languages (or Chinese dialect groups) of China: 官话、吴、闽、客家、粤、湘、赣 plus the newly classified 晋、徽、平话。
官话 is further divided into 东北官话、北京官话、冀鲁官话、胶辽官话、中原官话、兰银官话、江淮官话、西南官话, or in non-linguistic term: 东北话、北京话、河北话、山东话、青岛话、大连话、甘肃话、苏北话、四川话、湖北话, etc. etc.
It always refers to the dialect
group, never to
Standard Mandarin.
Standard Mandarin is instead named 现代标准汉语.
These academic words are never used in daily life outside linguists, so that could be why Pangu and sennacherib are not aware of. In real life we name dialects geographically, according to provinces, cities or villages.
Standard Mandarin is 普通话 in Mainland China, 国语 in Taiwan, 华语 in Malaysia and Singapore.