The Library Offers Research Guide to the Languages of China

Around 16% of the world’s population speak some form of Chinese as a first language. Mandarin is the primary language of about 960 million people; 400 million more speak languages that spring from the same root as Mandarin but aren’t mutually intelligible, similar to the ways in which romance languages differ from each other. Then there are other indigenous languages in China unrelated to classical Chinese.

Now the Library is offering Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics to help scholars and students better understand the history and development of the most widely spoken language in the world. If you’re studying a Chinese language, you need this resource.

More than 500 article and thousands of entries include information on

  • lexicon, syntax, and sound structure of the Sinitic and non-Sinitic languages of China
  • history of languages in China and their situation today
  • history of Chinese linguistics, indigenous and Western traditions
  • sociolinguistics, language contact, and language variation
  • psycho- and neurolinguistic studies of Chinese, including first language acquisition
  • Chinese in the diaspora
  • Chinese loanwords in other languages

One article seeks to explain the relationship between the brain and Chinese language processing.

The Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics offers a systematic and comprehensive overview of the languages of China and the different ways in which they are and have been studied. It provides authoritative treatment of all important aspects of the languages spoken in China, today and in the past, from many different angles, as well as the different linguistic traditions they have been investigated in.

Please check the Library’s list of new online resources. It’s updated daily!

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