What are dialects?
A dialect is a variation of a particular language (for instance, British English versus American English). Chinese has numerous dialects. Because of China’s long history, these have diverged greatly, to the point that they are mutually unintelligible (speakers of one dialect can’t understand speakers of another dialect). For this reason, Chinese dialects are sometimes considered separate languages, but common history and a common writing system (Chinese characters) have had a strong unifying influence. The main dialect spoken in mainland China is Mandarin (sometimes called Putonghua). There are more people on Earth who speak Mandarin than speakers of English. Cantonese is widely spoken in Hong Kong and in many overseas Chinese communities. Taiwanese (sometimes called Hoklo) is spoken in Taiwan, in addition to Mandarin.
