When people talk about Chinese languages, they often call them "dialects." On the other hand, when discussing European languages like French, German, and Italian, these are recognized as separate languages. But categorizing Chinese languages as "dialects" is misleading and doesn’t make sense.
The Chinese language family is diverse. This family includes Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Hokkien, and many other languages. Their differences can be as distant as the differences between English and German. For example, a person who speaks Mandarin will not automatically understand Cantonese, just like an English speaker cannot understand German. This shows that these are separate languages, not just "dialects" of one language.
So why are they called "dialects"? Part of the reason is political and historical. The Chinese government promotes Mandarin as the national language to unify the country. Calling the other Chinese languages "dialects" gives the impression that they are all minor variations of Mandarin. But this is not true; they have unique grammar, vocabulary, and sounds, like separate languages.
On the other hand, in Europe, countries are divided into nations, and each nation promotes its language. That’s why French, Spanish, and Italian are seen as individual languages, even though they belong to the same language family (the Romance languages) and are often more similar to each other than some Chinese languages are to each other.
The truth is that using terms like "language" and "dialect" is often about politics, not linguistics. From a linguistic point of view, Chinese languages like Cantonese or Hokkien deserve the same recognition as European languages like French or German. The idea of "dialects" is often used to downplay the cultural and linguistic diversities within China.
In short, calling Chinese languages "dialects" and European languages "languages" is inaccurate. It’s a way to group languages based on political and historical reasons, not linguistic ones. Recognizing this helps us appreciate the rich diversity of all languages equally.
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