Editing Han Chinese (section)

=== Language ===
{{Main|Chinese language}}
{{See also|Standard Chinese}}

Han Chinese speak various forms of the Chinese language that are descended from a common early language;<ref name="Cohen" /> one of the names of the language groups is ''Hanyu'' ({{lang-zh|s={{linktext|汉语}}|t={{linktext|漢語}}|links=no}}), literally the "Han language". Similarly, [[Chinese characters]], used to write the language, are called ''Hanzi'' ({{lang-zh|s={{linktext|汉字}}|t={{linktext|漢字}}|links=no}}) or "Han characters".

In the Qing era, more than two-thirds of the Han Chinese population used a variant of [[Mandarin Chinese]] as their native tongue.<ref name="Cohen">{{cite book|title=Kinship, Contract, Community, And State: Anthropological Perspectives on China|first=Myron L.|last=Cohen|date=2005 |section=Late Imperial China and Its Legacies|pages=41–45, 50|publisher=Stanford University Press, 2005|isbn=978-1-5036-2498-6}}</ref> However, there was a larger variety of languages in certain areas of Southeast China, "in an arc extending roughly from [[Shanghai]] through [[Guangdong]] and into [[Guangxi]]."<ref name="Cohen" /> Since the Qin dynasty, which standardized the various forms of writing that existed in China, a standard [[Classical Chinese|literary Chinese]] had emerged with vocabulary and grammar that was significantly different from the various [[Varieties of Chinese|forms of spoken Chinese]]. A simplified and elaborated version of this written standard was used in business contracts, notes for [[Chinese opera]], ritual texts for [[Chinese folk religion]] and other daily documents for educated people.<ref name="Cohen" />

During the early 20th century, [[written vernacular Chinese]] based on Mandarin dialects, which had been developing for several centuries, was standardized and adopted to replace literary Chinese. While written vernacular forms of other varieties of Chinese exist, such as [[written Cantonese]], written Chinese based on Mandarin is widely understood by speakers of all varieties and has taken up the dominant position among written forms, formerly occupied by literary Chinese. Thus, although residents of different regions would not necessarily understand each other's speech, they generally share a common written language, Standard Written Chinese and Literary Chinese.{{Citation needed|date = December 2015}}

From the 1950s, [[Simplified Chinese characters]] were adopted in China and later in Singapore and Malaysia, while Chinese communities in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and overseas countries continue to use [[Traditional Chinese characters]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Minahan |first1=James B. |title=Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia |date=2014 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara |page=93 |isbn=9781610690188 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oZCOAwAAQBAJ&dq=Hong+Kong,+Macau,+Taiwan+and+overseas+countries+continue+to+use+Traditional+Chinese+characters&pg=PA93 |access-date=10 Nov 2021 |archive-date=6 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230506103018/https://books.google.com/books?id=oZCOAwAAQBAJ&dq=Hong+Kong,+Macau,+Taiwan+and+overseas+countries+continue+to+use+Traditional+Chinese+characters&pg=PA93 |url-status=live }}</ref> Although significant differences exist between the two character sets, they are largely [[mutually intelligible]].