- languages spoken in China, Tibet, Myanmar
- “Chinese” is the Sinitic branch of the family
- Standard Chinese, commonly called Mandarin, is the official language of mainland China. In China, Malaysia, Singapore, and the UN, it’s typically written with the Simplified Chinese characters, but Traditional Chinese characters are more common in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, and overseas Chinese communities.
- the seven dialect groups can be organized into Northern (Mandarin), Central (Wu, Gan, and Xiang), and Southern (Hakka, Yue, Min) supergroups.
- Myanmar’s official language is Burmese.
- Classic Tibetan is a major literary language, noted for its use in Buddhist literature.