What's in a name?

[stelingo]

There are several names for Chinese (language) in China, the most common being putonghua, hanyu and hanguohua I believe. Are there any particular rules when to use each one?

How do overseas Chinese refer to Mandarin Chinese? For example if I wanted to ask the waiter in my local Chinese restaurant if he spoke Mandarin would I use one of the above terms or a different term altogether?

Please use pinyin in your replies as my knowledge of Hanzi is still limited. Thanks.

[skylee]

There are several names for Chinese (language) in China, the most common being putonghua, hanyu and hanguohua I believe.

I think "hanguohua" means Korean.

How do overseas Chinese refer to Mandarin Chinese? For example if I wanted to ask the waiter in my local Chinese restaurant if he spoke Mandarin would I use one of the above terms or a different term altogether?

The term "putonghua" is widely understood. People from Taiwan use the term "guoyu" (national language), but I believe that both "putonghua" and "guoyu" are fine.

[Lu]

Mainland says Putonghua, Taiwan says Guoyu.

Other terms:

Zhongwen (mostly refers to the script I think, but also often used as in Ni de ~ shuode hen hao)

Hanyu

Huayu (I really like this word, but it's rarely used)

Zhongguohua (I've mostly heard this used by foreigners who got it from their textbook, it is a correct term though)

As Skylee says, Hanguohua is the hua of Hanguo = South Korea.

[Hofmann]

Mandarin is 官話, 北方話, or 北方方言.

Standard Mandarin is 普通話, 國語, or 華語 (Singapore and Malaysia).

Vernacular Chinese is 白話文 or 語體文.

In non-scholarly contexts, Standard Mandarin can also be called 漢語, 現代漢語, 現代標準漢語, 中文, 中國話, and possibly other names.

One frequently hears people say "說中文," even though one cannot technically 說 a 文. Kind of like "The sign says..." while signs can't really talk.

[stelingo]

Thanks for the reply Hofmann but would you mind writing the words in pinyin?

[Hofmann]

Link

[stelingo]

Thanks Hofmann. Useful link.

[yan420honggg]

I think "zhongwen" is better outside China.

Can you speak Chinese?

你会讲中文吗?

ni hui jiang ZhongWen ma?

[calibre2001]

How do overseas Chinese refer to Mandarin Chinese? For example if I wanted to ask the waiter in my local Chinese restaurant if he spoke Mandarin would I use one of the above terms or a different term altogether?

Try 華語

I think "zhongwen" is better outside China.

Can you speak Chinese?

你会讲中文吗?

ni hui jiang ZhongWen ma?

Not necessary. In HK when they say 中文, they sort of mean cantonese. In other words 中文 has a very broad scope rather than just meaning mandarin chinese.

[in_lab]

So, when people are speaking Cantonese, do they ask if you can speak 中文? In Taiwanese, people always ask if you can speak 國語 or 台語, not 中文. It's one of the few phrases I understand.

[calibre2001]

It depends on the context. If you're in HK, then from what I've seen using 中文 colloquially refers to cantonese since its the lingua franca there. They would use 普通話/國語 for mandarin. If they were out of HK with plenty of mandarin speakers, then I think they would use 廣東話/廣府話/粵語/白話 etc to mean cantonese.

I've seen in Taiwan shows where 中文 means mandarin. But when 台語 comes into the picture, then differentiation using 國語 and 台語 comes into the picture. So it depends on the context and the dominant language I guess.

[in_lab]

To be specific about the context, I'm curious about what is the first question a Cantonese speaker, speaking in Cantonese, asks a foreigner to know whether they can communicate. I would guess that saying 你會講廣東話嗎? would be the most common, but I wonder if people would ask 你會講中文嗎? where 中文 implies Cantonese.

[Hofmann]

Well, if they were speaking Cantonese, they wouldn't say "你會講廣東話嗎?" More like "你識不識講..." But anyway, common names for Standard Cantonese are 廣東話 and 廣州話. 中文 is commonly used also, although technically incorrect. If it isn't Standard Cantonese, then some other name might be used, like 臺山話.

[in_lab]

Well, if they were speaking Cantonese, they wouldn't say "你會講廣東話嗎?" More like "你識不識講..."

I had a feeling 會 wasn't right. I studied Cantonese for a few months, but I've forgotten most of it.