Chaini (汉语/漢語; Hànyǔ ar 中文; Zhōngwén) a gruup a rilietid bot ina nof kies myuuchali aninteligibl languij varayati, we faam wah branch a di Sino-Tibetan languij fambili. Chaini spiik bai di Han majariti ah nof ada etnik gruup ina Chaina. Nieli 1.2 bilian piipl (rong 16% a di wol papilieshan) spiik soh faam a Chaini az deh fos languij.

Di praimeri branchdem a Chaini languij ina iistan Chaina ah Taiwan (Wurm, Li, Baumann, Lee, 1987)

Di varayati a Chaini yuujali diskraib bai nietiv spiika az dayalek a wah singgl Chaini languij, bot lingguis nuot se deh daivoers az wah languij fambili.[1] Lingguis ina Chaina noftaim yuuz wah famiulieshan inchajuus bai Fu Maoji ina di Insaiklopidia a Chaina: 汉语在语言系属分类中相当于一个语族的地位。 ("Ina languij klasifikieshan, Chaini stietos ikuivalent tu wah languij fambili.")[2]

  1. Various examples include:
    • David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 312. "The mutual unintelligibility of the varieties is the main ground for referring to them as separate languages."
    • Charles N. Li, Sandra A. Thompson. Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar (1989), p. 2. "The Chinese language family is genetically classified as an independent branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family."
    • Jerry Norman, Chinese Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 1. "... the modern Chinese dialects are really more like a family of languages ..."
    • John DeFrancis, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy (University of Hawaii Press, 1984), p. 56. "To call Chinese a single language composed of dialects with varying degrees of difference is to mislead by minimizing disparities that according to Chao are as great as those between English and Dutch. To call Chinese a family of languages is to suggest extralinguistic differences that in fact do not exist and to overlook the unique linguistic situation that exists in China."
  2. Victor H. Mair, What Is a Chinese "Dialect/Topolect"? Reflections on Some Key Sino-English Linguistic terms (Sino-Platonic Papers, Vol. 29, 1991) pp. 10, 21