The Languages of China

The Languages of China is a 1987 book by American linguist S. Robert Ramsey. Ramsey surveys the linguistic landscape of the People's Republic of China. The work is divided into two parts of roughly equal length: the first demystifies the Chinese language, including its standardization, regional dialects, historical development, and writing system, while the second describes the minority languages spoken within China's borders, including Turkic, Mongolian, Tungus, Tai, Tibeto-Burman, Miao-Yao, and Mon-Khmer language families. Written for both general readers and specialists, the book adopts a sociolinguistic approach that places linguistic phenomena within their historical, political, and cultural contexts. It was among the first general treatments of Chinese linguistics to give substantial attention to non-Han languages, devoting nearly half its content to minority languages. The book's six maps received an 1985 Outstanding Achievement award from the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, and the work has been widely adopted as an introductory text in university courses on Chinese linguistics and East Asian studies.