Preface

China, the most populous country in the world, is also a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country. There are 56 recognised nationalities (ethnic groups) among its population of over one billion. The Han nationality makes up 94 percent of the total population, while the other 55 ethnic groups are usually referred to in China as minority nationalities. Among the latter, the Zhuang, Hui, Uygur, Yi, Miao, Manchu, Tibetan, Mongolian, Tujia, Buyei, Korean, Dong, Yao, Bai, and Hani number over a million people each, here listed in decending order according to the size of population. In historical times, the people of the various nationalities intermingled, and they tend to live in mixed or homogeneous communities. The Han nationality generally live in all parts of the country, but mainly congregate in the Yellow River, Yangtze River, and Pearl River basins and the Songhua-Liaohe Plain of the Northeast. The minority nationalities, though smaller in number, now inhabit about 60 percent of the country’s total area, namely the border regions in the Northwest, Southwest and Northeast. The distribution of nationalities in China is such that while different nationalities congregate in large areas, members of each nationality tend to live in a homogeneous community.

The Han nationality use the Chinese language, which is commonly spoken in all parts of the country as well as in distinct communities outside China. Of the 55 minority nationalities, the Hui and Manchu use the same Chinese language while each of the other 53 has its own spoken language. The numerous languages spoken in China represent many of the major language families of the world. They include, e.g., Chinese and Tibetan of the Sino-Tibetan family, Uygur, Mongolian and Xibe of the Altaic family; Tajik and Russian of the Indo-European family; De’ang (Benglong) and Va of the Austroasiatic family, as well as Austronesian languages spoken in Taiwan.

The dialects of the Chinese language also present a very complex situation. Natives of Shanghai, Fuzhou and Guangzhou can hardly understand each other unless they learn either the Mandarin-based Putonghua (The Common Language), or the dialect of the other interlocutor. Meanwhile, among the Chinese dialect groups, Mandarin displays a considerably high degree of intelligibility among its varieties. Speakers of various dialects subsumed under Mandarin, such as those from Harbin in Heilongjiang, Urumqi (Urumchi) in sur Xinjiang, Kunming in Yunnan, or Nanjing in Jiangsu, can communicate readily among themselves, each group in their own regional dialect, with little need for modification to accommodate the listeners.

It can be seen, therefore, that the overall language situation in China is very complex, especially in terms of the details of the distribution and classification of languages and dialects, and the social and historical forces which contributed to linguistic convergence and divergence as well as to the development of bilingualism within China. A detailed account is beyond the scope of this preface.

The Language Atlas of China constitutes the first attempt to produce a comprehensive presentation of the distribution and classification of the Chinese dialects, and the Minority languages and dialects spoken in China, on a number of multi coloured large maps, with appropriate texts. The materials included in it are based on extensive fieldwork and detailed studies made in recent decades and especially in the past few years, by scholars and institutions in China, as well as by scholars based outside China, and on publications concerned with the relevant languages and dialects. The results presented here consist very largely of new information which until now has not been available outside and even within China.

The idea for this Atlas was conceived through direct contact and discussions among scholars who now serve on the two steering committees. It represents the results of five years of close co-operation between scholars in China and Australia on the basis of the agreement between the two academies signed on June 15, 1983. Its publication has benefited from the valuable experience gained from the production of the Language Atlas of the Pacific Area, also produced through international collaboration involving the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Japan Academy, as well as the Research School of Pacific Studies of the Australian National University. Work on the current project is divided between the Chinese side and the Australian side in the following way: the Chinese side has been mainly responsible for matters within China and has shouldered the major part of the practical work such as language survey and research, the production of sketch maps and Chinese texts, and proofreading and finalisation of the Atlas. On the other hand, the Australian side has been mainly responsible for matters outside China, such as the compilation of a map on the distribution of Chinese dialects outside China, supply of scholarly information from abroad, arranging for cartographic work, rendering Chinese texts into English including the finalisation of the English texts, arranging for printing, publication and distribution of the Atlas, and obtaining finance.

The publication of the Atlas also takes place in the year of the Australian Bicentennial, for which the Chinese scholars would like to take the opportunity to extend their greetings to their Australian colleagues, who gratefully acknowledge them.

Physical details as well as information on international boundaries in the Atlas are based on the Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Ditu (1980 ed.). On completion, it will contain 36 multi-coloured maps, and accompanying texts giving comprehensive linguistic, demographic, bibliographical and other relevant information, as well as useful indexes.

There is an English and a Chinese edition of the Atlas. Each edition appears in two parts, of which this is the first. Several general maps are grouped under Section A. Maps concerned with Chinese dialects are grouped under Section B, while maps of the other languages and related dialects of the national minorities are grouped under Section C. The 16 maps contained in Part I are drawn from all three sections. They are chosen for Part I because they are representative of the work already completed.

Some of the maps in the Atlas cover the comprehensive distribution of specific languages in given geographical areas, while others are devoted to the geographical distribution of specific language groups. Innovative cartographic techniques have been used to present widely scattered but related languages on large-scale map sections, and to show overlapping languages in given areas. This language atlas concentrates on showing the distribution of languages rather than being a specialised linguistic atlas of interest only to linguistic specialists. It provides easily understandable, detailed graphic information which until now has been lacking for the complete language situation in China. It is intended to be of use to a wide variety of governmental, administrative and other agencies and individuals with practical interest in China and in its languages, both within China itself and outside China.

The Atlas should be of use, at the same time, to the interested laymen as well as to specialists, including those interested in sinology, Chinese studies, linguistics, ethnology, anthropology, archaeology, human geography, demography, historical geography, economics, sociology, journalism and many other fields of interests which are directly or indirectly connected with human beings, their lives and their histories.

In recent years, active interest in China has grown very significantly in many parts of the world. It is hoped that this Atlas could contribute to satisfying such interests in so far as they pertain to the highly complex language situation in China.