WHY CHINESE IS CONSIDERED THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LANGUAGE?

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The languages that are spoken all over China can be divided into two groups: Southern and Northern. Out of these two groups, Mandarin and Cantonese are widely known as China’s most well-known languages; it’s also widely believed that these languages have been among China’s four major dialects for about five centuries. 

Due to their long history, these dialects are said to have a very standard pronunciation and an extensive vocabulary – which make them aesthetically pleasing to many native speakers, even non-Chinese!  

That’s why many non-Chinese people look to learn Chinese. 

The Chinese language has some of the most beautifully written characters and poetry in the world. It’s been called the most graceful, rhythmical, artistic and romantic of all languages—which may explain why it’s considered one of the most beautiful languages in the world. And there are many reasons why its poetry can be so powerful and eloquent, even more than those of other languages. 

What made Chinese one of the soulful languages in the world? 

Let’s look at five beautiful aspects to see why it’s considered the most beautiful language in the world.

Phonetic System:

The structure of a character enables it to be pronounced. The graphic units in a character provide a hint about its pronunciation, though one unit does not necessarily equate to one sound. In Chinese, unlike in English, words are usually made up of many characters; each character conveys only one syllable and thus helps create rhythmic and balanced sounds in speech. 

Moreover, there are no silent letters in Chinese so every sound can be heard. While some alphabets have more than 30 letters (such as German), Chinese has approximately 400 commonly used characters that form thousands of different words, making it a very efficient writing system. 

With such an efficient writing system, you can learn how to write Chinese easily. It’s also worth noting that while spelling may not seem important when learning how to speak a new language, mastering spelling helps with reading comprehension—and that’s where you get most of your new vocabulary from!

Orthography:

Mandarin Chinese does not have a writing system of its own. There are several logograms, but these are used as phonetic guides and do not represent entire syllables or words. Instead, it uses one simple script, called simplified Chinese characters which have no grammatical rules regarding syllable structure or sound change. It simply captures meaning in each character with a logical consistency across all modern dialects of spoken Mandarin. It’s helpful to know that Chinese actually means any one of several major languages: Mandarin (official), Wu (Shanghainese), Min Nan/Taiwanese/Hokkien, Yue (Cantonese), and Xiang.

Grammar:

A Language’s Beauty Comes from its Grammar: Using grammar to talk about a language’s beauty can seem arbitrary at first. 

How does one measure beauty, and where does it come from? The answer lies in linguistics. All languages are made up of rules that tell us how to order words into sentences, how to make plurals out of nouns, and how verbs change their form depending on what they mean and what they do in a sentence. But we don’t usually think of these rules as being beautiful, we just accept them as inherent features of our native tongue. 

However, there are some grammatical systems that take language to a whole new level of complexity—and thus, beauty. One such system is known as ergativity. It comes from languages like Basque and Georgian, which place different kinds of markers on subjects (the people or things doing something) depending on whether they’re performing an action or receiving an action. 

In English, both actions require subject markers—we use I for both I eat and I am eaten. However, in Georgian you would say nax-it-i da, with nax meaning, eat and -it indicating a subject performing an action; whereas da means is eaten with no subject marker indicating who or what receives it.

Vocabulary:

While some might assume that French or Spanish is a more attractive option, with all its rolling rs and slurred lls, Mandarin has emerged as one of China’s greatest assets. It has been touted as a gateway to communication among cultures, thanks to its relatively simple grammar structure and pronunciation system. 

And it’s not just English speakers who benefit from learning Chinese: English learners can gain an advantage when communicating with native speakers by becoming familiar with another language and culture. 

Language also provides an avenue for cultural exchange, which opens up new possibilities for business. But beyond professional pursuits, Mandarin is revered for its aesthetic qualities as well.

Wrapping Up…

I am sure you are likely to learn Chinese after going through this blog. You can approach any Chinese tutor. Otherwise, you can opt for online Chinese learning by opting for any online platform.

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