What does it really mean to “speak Chinese”? Many equate Chinese with Standard Mandarin, an assumption that conceals the vast complexity of the Sinitic language family. In A Handbook of Sinitic Languages, Dialects, and Non-standard Mandarin, Professor Cornelius Kubler, in collaboration with the late Clement Chu Sing Lau, confronts this misconception by offering a richly textured exploration of both widely spoken non-standard Mandarin varieties and the major Sinitic language families, including Wu, Xiang, Gan, Hakka, Yue, and Min. Featuring comparative analyses of sixty-six everyday expressions and annotated transcriptions of speech samples from ten different languages, the book is uniquely enriched by over an hour of native-speaker audio recordings from across China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Professor Kubler’s insights are grounded in decades of linguistic fieldwork and pedagogical innovation, making this resource indispensable for learners and educators alike. In the interview that follows, he shares the inspiration behind the book and offers practical, field-tested advice for navigating the true linguistic diversity of the Chinese-speaking world.

1. What inspired you to create such a comprehensive and audio-rich resource on Sinitic languages and non-standard Mandarin?

Over 50 years ago, when I first set foot in Taiwan and Hong Kong as an undergraduate Chinese major, I found that most people could understand my Mandarin, deficient as it was, but I often encountered great difficulties in understanding their speech. The reason, as I gradually came to understand, was that in my U.S. Chinese language classroom, I had been “pampered” by the clear, standard speech of my Beijing instructors and was not used to hearing Mandarin as actually spoken by people from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sichuan and many other areas of the Chinese speech area who often have a distinct local accent that is in many cases quite different from the standard language of Beijing. Once I became a teacher of Chinese, I quickly discovered that many of my students faced similar challenges, so I decided to create learning materials to help American students of Chinese practice listening comprehension of commonly encountered varieties of Mandarin. Furthermore, there was then, and continues to be, a lot of confusion about the meaning of words like “Chinese,” “language,” and “dialect,” so I also wanted to try to clear that up and introduce the major non-Mandarin Sinitic languages to readers, so they might have a better idea of what they’re like.

2. Many readers assume that “Mandarin” is monolithic—how does your book challenge that assumption, especially through your treatment of non-standard Mandarin varieties?

Right. One of the main points of the book, which is rarely mentioned in Chinese language textbooks, is that there are two basically different kinds of non-standard Mandarin, each of which includes literally hundreds of different speech forms that may differ substantially from standard Mandarin in pronunciation, grammar, and/or vocabulary. The first kind of non-standard Mandarin is the Mandarin spoken as native language by people from parts of China other than Beijing and environs, for example, Shandong Mandarin, Sichuan Mandarin, Shenyang Mandarin, and so forth. The second kind of non-standard Mandarin is that spoken by people who speak a non-Mandarin Sinitic language as their native language and who have learned Mandarin as a second language, which they speak under the influence of their native language, for example, Shanghai Mandarin, Hong Kong or Guangzhou Mandarin, and Taiwan Mandarin. 

3. Your book includes detailed comparative analyses using 66 common expressions and audio samples from speakers of 10 different Sinitic languages. How did you choose these expressions? And what can readers learn from hearing these languages rather than just reading about them?

Yes, 66 common expressions are given for each of 10 different Sinitic languages. There were two criteria for choosing these expressions: first, they had to be representative of typical differences from Mandarin in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary; and, second, they had to have practical value for students, teachers, or researchers who wanted to learn a little of the language. I went to a fair amount of trouble making three separate trips to Asia to record these speech forms on location, since it is so important to not only read the transcriptions of these expressions in the book but also to actually hear them spoken by native speakers. By hearing those languages spoken rather than merely reading about them, one is immediately struck by the huge amount of variation in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and even in the characters used to write them.

4. In what ways do sociopolitical, cultural, or historical factors influence how different Sinitic languages and dialects are valued, preserved, or marginalized today?
Well, this is a fascinating and important aspect of the different Sinitic languages and dialects that is discussed extensively in the book. An important theme in Chinese history has been unity and the desire to prevent “chaos under heaven,” especially as Western colonialists began encroaching upon China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This spurred the desire on the part of the government and intellectuals for a national language and caused the ascendancy of Beijing Mandarin, which gradually marginalized the other kinds of Mandarin and, especially, the non-Mandarin Sinitic languages. However, more recently, there has been an interesting dynamic in certain places such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Shanghai between the promotion of Mandarin, on the one hand, and efforts to preserve and enrich the local languages, on the other.

 5. What advice would you offer students, teachers, or self-learners who want to go beyond Standard Mandarin and engage with other Sinitic languages?

Many people don’t realize that non-Mandarin Sinitic languages like Cantonese, Shanghainese, and Southern Min or Taiwanese are all major languages in their own right — not mere “dialects” of Chinese — that rank among the 50 most widely spoken languages of the world and are very much worth learning. Even though this book does not purport to be a textbook for non-Mandarin Sinitic languages, it does offer practical advice for learning them, including that it’s desirable to reach the intermediate level in Mandarin before beginning the study of a second Sinitic language. But the good news is that by the time you’ve attained the intermediate level in Mandarin, you’ll already have made about 30% of the investment needed to learn a second Sinitic language! 

About the Authors:
Cornelius C. Kubler is the Stanfield Professor of Asian Studies at Williams College, where he teaches courses in Sinitic languages and linguistics.

Clement Chu Sing Lau† was Associate Dean of Libraries and Director of Zach S. Henderson Library at Georgia Southern University.

Photo: Cornelius Kubler and Clement Lau†. Courtesy of Cornelius Kubler.

Two audio files are included with this book. The Chrome browser is recommended for the best experience in listening to and downloading these audio files.

Audio file 1: Overview (Chapter 2; total length 45:44)
0:39 Beijing Mandarin
6:11 Shanghai Wu
9:54 Changsha Xiang
13:49 Yichun Gan
17:38 Meizhou Hakka
22:32 Miaoli Hakka
27:49 Hong Kong Cantonese
31:33 Chaozhou Southern Min
36:08 Taipei Southern Min
40:46 Fuzhou Eastern Min

Click here for audio file 1.

Audio file 2: Non-standard Mandarin (Chapter 10; total length 37:22)
0:46 Northern Mandarin: Huang Hua (Hebei)
2:54 Northern Mandarin: Chen Chu (Shandong)
5:15 Northern Mandarin: Anonymous (Shandong)
6:44 Southwestern Mandarin: Deng Xiaoping (Sichuan)
8:37 Wu-influenced Mandarin: Chiang Ching-kuo (Zhejiang)
10:20 Wu-influenced Mandarin: Yu Kuo-hwa (Zhejiang)
11:23 Wu-influenced Mandarin: Anonymous (Shanghai)
12:43 Southern Min-influenced Mandarin: Ch’en Te-hsiung (Taiwan)
16:12 Southern Min-influenced Mandarin: Chou Shu-yen (Taiwan)
17:26 Cantonese-influenced Mandarin: Mr. Lu (Guangdong)
26:39 Cantonese-influenced Mandarin: You Zhihong (Hong Kong)
35:02 Speech samples in five Sinitic languages

Click here for audio file 2.

Learn more about this book https://www.cambriapress.com/SiniticHandbook. Available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook. Available for course adoption. Discounts available for bulk purchase.

See also books in the Cambria Sinophone World Series and the Cambria Sinophone Translation Series Books.