Differences between national standards of Chinese

The Chinese language enjoys the status as official language in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Taiwan. However, the language shows a high degree of regional variation among these territories.

Written standards

There are currently two writing systems for the Chinese language, namely the traditional Chinese characters and the simplified Chinese characters.

Before 1949, the traditional Chinese characters were the writing system used by the entire Chinese-speaking world. The simplified Chinese characters were prescribed by the authority in mainland China in the 1950s and were promoted in mainland China since then.

Nowadays, the traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and most overseas Chinese communities, while the simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore.

Jurisdiction	Writing system	Standardization
China	simplified Chinese characters	List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese
Hong Kong	traditional Chinese characters	List of Forms of Frequently Used Characters
Macau	traditional Chinese characters	none
Malaysia	simplified Chinese characters	character set promulgated by the Malaysian Ministry of Education
Singapore	simplified Chinese characters	character set promulgated by the Singaporean Ministry of Education
Taiwan	traditional Chinese characters	Standard Form of National Characters

Spoken standards

In mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore, the standard spoken form is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese.

In Hong Kong and Macau, the standard spoken form is based on the dialect of Cantonese Chinese that originated from the city of Canton (also known as Guangzhou) in mainland China.

These two spoken forms are mutually unintelligible.

Vocabulary differences

In many cases, Chinese speakers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan use different words to convey the same meaning. This difference is analogous to that between lift in British English and elevator in American English.

This section seeks to illustrate the differences in vocabularies by some selected examples. Note that the Malaysian vocabulary is pretty much identical to the Singaporean vocabulary.

Meaning	China		Hong Kong		Macau		Singapore		Taiwan
	Traditional	Simplified	Traditional	Simplified	Traditional	Simplified	Traditional	Simplified	Traditional	Simplified
bus	公交車／大巴	公交车／大巴	巴士	巴士	巴士	巴士	巴士	巴士	公車	公车
taxi	出租車	出租车	的士	的士	的士	的士	德士	德士	計程車	计程车
police	公安	公安	差人／警察	差人／警察	差人／治安警／司警	差人／治安警／司警	警察	警察	警察	警察
town square	廣場	广场	廣場	广场	前地	前地	廣場	广场	廣場	广场
laser	激光	激光	鐳射	镭射	鐳射	镭射	激光	激光	雷射	雷射
rapid transit	軌道交通／地鐵	轨道交通／地铁	地鐵	地铁	地鐵	地铁	地鐵	地铁	捷運	捷运
light rail	輕軌	轻轨	輕鐵	轻铁	輕軌	轻轨	輕軌	轻轨	輕鐵	轻铁
instant noodles	方便麵	方便面	即食麵	即食面	即食麵	即食面	快熟麵	快熟面	速食麵	速食面
Standard Chinese	普通話	普通话	普通話／國語	普通话／国语	普通話	普通话	華語	华语	國語	国语
potato	土豆	土豆	薯仔	薯仔	薯仔	薯仔	馬鈴薯	马铃薯	馬鈴薯	马铃薯
pineapple	菠蘿	菠萝	菠蘿	菠萝	菠蘿	菠萝	黃梨	黄梨	鳳梨	凤梨
lorry	卡車	卡车	貨櫃車	货柜车	貨櫃車	货柜车	羅里	罗里	貨車	货车
tights/pantyhose[1]	連褲襪	连裤袜	襪褲	袜裤	襪褲	袜裤	褲襪	裤袜	褲襪	裤袜
lunch box/bento[1]	盒飯	盒饭	飯盒	饭盒	飯盒	饭盒	盒飯	盒饭	便當	便当
butter	黃油	黃油	牛油	牛油	牛油	牛油	奶油	奶油	奶油	奶油

See also

• Regional variants of the Chinese language
  • Hong Kong Cantonese
  • Malaysian Mandarin
  • Singaporean Mandarin
  • Taiwanese Mandarin

• Regional differences in the English language
  • American and British English differences
  • British and Malaysian English differences

• Regional differences in the Dutch language
  • Belgian Dutch, Surinamese Dutch

• Regional differences in the French language
  • Swiss French >> Differences between Swiss French and standard French

• Regional differences in the Korean language
  • North-South differences in the Korean language

• Regional differences in the Portuguese language
  • Portuguese dialects >> Differences

References

1. ^ ^{a b} 港人光大倒裝 詞彙自成一格

External links

• 兩岸語言詞彙整理之我見　曾榮汾