Mandarin is the most spoken language in China, and the whole world as a matter of fact, with almost one billion native speakers globally… that’s about 14% of the world’s population! However, there’s more to the Mandarin language than meets the eye with its historical, cultural roots and unique linguistic quirks that make it one of a kind. Here are 5 interesting facts about the Mandarin language that you wouldn’t have know before :

Did you know that Mandarin…

…is comprised of around 50,000 characters.

As English native speakers, we have it easy with our 26-letter alphabet! The Mandarin language doesn’t follow an alphabet, instead using characters that symbolize a syllable of spoken Chinese. Each character includes parts that represent abstract notions, physical objects, or a specific intonation. Although there are reportedly up to 50,000 characters in total, everyday Mandarin typically only involves a set of some 2,500 characters, so if you learn the essentials you will get by just fine!

…used to be written vertically.

Dating back to the Shang Dynasty from 1200–1050 BC, the Chinese language used to be written in vertical columns going from right to left. However, this all changed in the 1950s, when the People’s Republic of China decided to ‘Westernize’ Mandarin so that it is written left to right, horizontally.

…is the only remaining modern pictographic language.

Reminiscent of hieroglyphics from ancient Egypt, Mandarin is the only remaining modern pictographic language. The language was developed using drawings of the items they were meant to describe, and some of these characters are still used today. Common examples include 山 (shan), which is the Mandarin word for ‘mountain’ and the three points are meant to resemble three peaks of a mountain ridge. Other examples, such as 大 (dà) meaning ‘big’ and 心 (xīn) meaning ‘heart’, are also quite recognisable for any learners.

…uses five different tones.

Perhaps the hardest challenge when learning Mandarin is familiarising yourself with the five tones. Mandarin is a tonal language, where the meaning of words can change drastically based on the tone you use when pronouncing them. For example, the syllable ‘ma‘ can have multiple different meanings depending on the tone. You certainly don’t want to accidentally call your mother (妈 mā) a horse (马 mǎ) and visa versa.

…doesn’t have plurals.

Nouns don’t have a singular and plural form in Mandarin. Instead, you define a plural using a specific number, measure words (also known as ‘classifiers’) such as 对 (duì = a couple of), 群 (qún = a group of people/animals) or even 杯 (bēi = a cup of) as well as adding 们 (men) to a word. You’ll be pleased to hear that it’s a lot less complicated than it appears.

Feel inspired to learn Mandarin? We have online & face-to-face Mandarin classes starting in a few weeks! Find out more here.