In short, it depends. When I say “Chinese” or “Mandarin Chinese”, I’m referring to the modern, standardized form of Mandarin Chinese; the same one that’s used in the United Nations.
The full term is:
| trad. | 現代標準漢語 |
| simp. | 现代标准汉语 |
| pinyin | xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ |
| literally | modern (现代) standard (标准) Han speech (汉语) |
…but this isn’t what you would call it in everyday conversation.
Chinese speakers in mainland China call it 普通話 / 普通话 = Pǔtōnghuà = common speech.
Chinese speakers in Taiwan call it 國語 / 国语 = Guóyǔ = national language.
Chinese speakers in Malaysia call it 華語 / 华语 = Huáyǔ = Hua (Chinese) language.
But the most general term for spoken Chinese is 漢語 / 汉语 = Hànyǔ = Han speech. This word can refer to written Chinese depending on context, or imply 普通話 / 普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà) in contrast to a minority dialect.
The largest of the Chinese dialect groups is called 官話 / 官话 = Guānhuà = official speech. In English we call it “Mandarin”, which comes from the Portuguese mandarim and ultimately from the Sanksrit mantrī, meaning “language of the officials”. It’s spoken across most of northern and southwestern China.
Terms for Chinese writing
- Chinese text in general is 中文 = Zhōngwén. This is where the ISO letter codes for the language
zhandzhocome from. - Traditional Chinese characters are called 正體字 / 正体字 = Zhèngtǐzì
- Simplified Chinese characters are called 簡化字 / 简化字 = Jiǎnhuàzì