Sinitic languages
Branch of Sino-Tibetan languages / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Sinitic languages[lower-alpha 1] (simplified Chinese: 汉语族; traditional Chinese: 漢語族; pinyin: Hànyǔ zú), often synonymous with the Chinese languages, are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute a major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is a primary split between the Sinitic languages and the rest of the family (the Tibeto-Burman languages). This view is rejected by a number of researchers[4] but has found phylogenetic support among others.[5][6] The Macro-Bai languages, whose classification is difficult, may be an offshoot of Old Chinese and thus Sinitic;[7] otherwise Sinitic is defined only by the many varieties of Chinese unified by a shared historical background, and usage of the term "Sinitic" may reflect the linguistic view that Chinese constitutes a family of distinct languages, rather than variants of a single language.[lower-alpha 2]
Sinitic | |
---|---|
Chinese | |
Ethnicity | Sinitic peoples |
Geographic distribution | China, Taiwan, Singapore, Christmas Island, Chinese diaspora communities, Ferghana Valley (Uzbekistan) and Chu Valley (Kyrgyzstan) (Dungans), Russian Far East (Tazs) |
Linguistic classification | Sino-Tibetan
|
Proto-language | Proto-Sinitic |
Subdivisions | |
ISO 639-5 | zhx |
Glottolog | sini1245 (Sinitic) macr1275 (Macro-Bai) |
Map of Sinitic languages in China |