Sinitic
Geographic distribution:	China
Genetic classification:	Sino-Tibetan  Sinitic
Subdivisions:	Chinese Bai (disputed)[1]
ISO 639-5:	zhx

The Sinitic languages,^[2] often synonymous with the Chinese languages, are a language family frequently postulated as one of two primary branches of Sino-Tibetan.^[3][4] The Bai language may be Sinitic (classification is difficult);^[5] otherwise Sinitic is equivalent to the Chinese languages, and often used in opposition to "Chinese dialects" to convey the idea that these are distinct languages rather than dialects of a single language.^[6][7]

[edit] Languages

Assuming Bai is Sinitic, it diverged at approximately the time of Old Chinese, perhaps before. By the time of Middle Chinese, the Min (ie.Hokkien group) languages had also split off.^[8] Languages traceable to Middle Chinese include Mandarin, Wu, Hakka, and Yue (ie.Cantonese). As more comparative work is done, additional "dialects" are found to be mutually unintelligible with their parent language; the latest to be separated out as languages were Huizhou, Jin, Pinghua, and Qiongwen, though the remaining Wu and Yue varieties are not all mutually intelligible, or have very limited intelligibility. Some varieties remain unclassified within Chinese.

Sinitic   Old Chinese   Min  Minbei languages Mindong Minzhong Puxian Minnan languages  Middle Chinese  Guan languages Wu languages Gan languages Xiang Yue languages ? Bai language

? Bai (Not all varieties mutually intelligible.) Chinese Min Min Bei (Northern Min) Shaojiang (often included in Min Bei) Min Dong (East Min; incl. Fuzhou) Min Zhong (Central Min) Puxian Min Min Nan (Southern Min) Hokkien (incl. Amoy and Taiwanese) Teochew (limited intelligibility with Hokkien) Leizhou Hainanese (Qiongwen) daughters of Middle Chinese Guan Jin is often considered a separate language Mandarin Chinese Dungan is spoken by the Hui Chinese ethnicity in Central Asia, and has a distinct literature not renderable in Chinese characters Wu (incl. Shanghainese) Wenzhounese (often included in Wu, but not mutually intelligible) Huizhou (sometimes classified as Gan) Gan Hakka Xiang Yue (Cantonese) Cantonese proper (Yuehai) Taishanese is not mutually intelligible with Cantonese proper Pinghua is often considered a separate language Unclassified Chinese Excluding those exclusive to ethnic minorities, the principal unclassified varieties of Chinese are: Tuhua (incl. Shaozhou Tuhua) Danzhouhua Linghua

[edit] Notes

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