how to say Mandarin

[lanzhoumian]

so is there any other way of saying Mandarin in Chinese then 普通话？　中文，汉语etc. all refer to all Chinese dialects, including Cantonese etc., correct?

[fanglu]

国语 is used in Taiwan.

[rezaf]

I've also heard 华文 a lot and I have never heard anyone using 中文 and 汉语 for referring to dialects.

[xianhua]

中国话

[Kenny同志]

国语 is also used in Mainland China and I love it to be so called.

[skylee]

官話. Taka a look at this thread -> 官話

[Hugh]

all refer to all Chinese dialects, including Cantonese etc., correct?

普通话 is specifically Mandarin. 汉语 is a group of Chinese languages. 中文 is 'Chinese', but tends to suggest the written language more than the spoken. They're not interchangeable terms. That's my understanding of it anyway.

[rezaf]

汉语 is a group of Chinese languages.

You can say 漢語方言 to refer to dialects but have you ever heard anyone using 漢語 for dialects? At least in the textbooks used for foreigners 漢語 always refers to 普通話. As wikipedia also says hanyu alone refers to 标准汉语 which is 普通话:My link

中文 is 'Chinese', but tends to suggest the written language more than the spoken.

So do you mean that it's wrong to say "你會說中文嗎？“

[amandagmu]

First time I heard the term 国语 was in Chinatown New York, so it must also be popular among the 华侨 in some areas.

[anonymoose]

I think people say 华语 in Singapore.

[sleepy eyes]

Linguistically speaking, Mandarin is not strictly interchangeable with Putonghua. Sichuanese is a dialect of Mandarin, for instance. Putonghua can be considered another, I guess.

Which reminds me, when locals here (who speak Sichuanese) refer to language, they say Zhongwen, never another term. I hear that particularly from people with poor educational backgrounds. They seem to intentionally want to blur the distinction as to save face. And some (few) get offended when they cannot get what you say in standard chinese. Go figure.

[skylee]

I think 中文 is ok, but IMO it covers more than just Putonghua.

And not everyone is a linguist. And it doesn't sound very nice to single out people with poor educational background.

[sleepy eyes]

Not everyone is a doctor either, which doesn't make an incorrect prognosis more valid.

I'm not sure if this is a matter of "sounding nice", a farcical preoccupation that does not bother me in the least if the matter is rational discourse and nothing else. This is data that is analyzed in sociolinguistics, which is the case in point. And it also adds to the comprehension of one the terms discussed. Singling out a group of anything does not imply anything about it other then its existence as a group. Prejudice here is in the eyes of the beholder. Coming from where I come from, it's hardly an implication I can take seriously.

[Hugh]

You can say 漢語方言 to refer to dialects but have you ever heard anyone using 漢語 for dialects?

Well according to Wikipedia:

Chinese or the Sinitic language(s) (汉语/漢語 Hànyǔ; 华语/華語 Huáyǔ; 中文 Zhōngwén) is a language family consisting of languages which are mostly mutually unintelligible to varying degrees.

So maybe that wants editing. It seems like 汉语 at least ought to refer to different Chinese languages, i.e. languages of Han people, which are pretty varied.

So do you mean that it's wrong to say "你會說中文嗎？“

No, of course that's correct. Just most dictionaries tend to mention writing in their definition of 中文 (and 英文, 德文 etc.).

[Jive Turkey]

The OP and others might enjoy reading this oldy but goody written by Robert Sanders for Sino-Platonic Papers"

http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp004_mandarin_chinese.pdf

Sino-Platonic Papers has published plenty of other interesting papers, too.

[DullM]

In Hong kong, some people say 煲冬瓜, mocking the hong kong accent of mandarin.

[BrandeX]

I say "Gwok Yue".