Mandarin’s status as China’s standard language has been further enhanced as nearly 53 percent of the 1.3 billion Chinese in the country can communicate with others via Mandarin, said a national survey released here Sunday.

That’s just about half, which is a long way from what has been the standard line: that just about everyone in China — barring a few old folk living in isolation on the tops of mountains — can speak Mandarin. I’m glad Beijing is finally allowing a bit more honesty about this, though of course the much more limited claim is still being touted as an advancement (“further enhanced”).

The survey shows there are huge gaps in the number of Mandarin-speaking people if different resident localities, age groups, and educational background are taken into account.

Two thirds of the citizens in China’s cities and towns speak Mandarin, 21 percent higher than that in the rural areas.

The proportion of Mandarin-speakers decreases as the age group rises, with more than two thirds of people aged between 15 and 29 and less than one third of those aged between 60 and 69 can speak the standard language.

The spread of education also helped to break down linguistic barriers, the survey said.

Only ten percent of the Chinese who have never gone to school speak Mandarin, while the proportion rockets to nearly 87 percent as for those with at least two-year college education.

This is strange. One would think that native speakers of Mandarin — even decades ago — would comprise more than 10 percent of the population. Was education really so much better in the north?

Mandarin, known in China as “putonghua” or “common tongue”, has been promoted as the standard pronunciation of Chinese language for more than fifty years.

More of the usual nonsense, stemming from the notion that the written form is the “real” language.

I can’t help but think of Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau getting a puzzled look in response to his request for a “rhoom.”

The survey also shows 86 percent of the population can speak regional Chinese dialects, and nearly 5 percent use the languages of China’s 55 ethnic minority groups to communicate.

Use of dialects is most common in China’s families, while in offices, people tend to communicate in Mandarin more frequently, said Tong Lequan, official with the Institute of Applied Linguistics, when referring to the survey.

Half of the respondents attributed lack of opportunity to speakas the most tricky problem when learning Mandarin, while 43 percent said getting rid of their regional accents is the most difficult.

The standard line of calling everything a “dialect” makes it really hard to tell just what is being talked about here: language, a real dialect, or a regional accent within a dialect.

Note that with Pinyin, there are fewer pronunciation problems because Pinyin, unlike characters, makes the standard pronunciation clear.

Launched in the autumn of 1998, the survey is sponsored by the State Language Commission of China, and was the first national survey on language use since the founding of the New China in 1949,said Yang Guang, director with the language usage administration bureau under China’s Ministry of Education.

The survey covered more than 160,000 households and 470,000 people in China’s 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

Here’s a different version of the same story:

中国语言文字使用调查 能用普通话人口比例53％
http://www.sina.com.cn 2004年12月26日17:20 中国广播网

　　中广网北京12月26日消息（记者李仁主）教育部和国家语言文字工作委员会今天发布的“中国语言文字使用情况调查”结果显示：目前我国能用普通话进行交际的人口比例约为53％，能用汉语方言进行交际的人口比例约为86％，能用少数民族语言进行交际的人口比例约为5％。能用普通话进行交际的人口比例在城乡之间存在一定差距。城镇的普通话比例约为66％，高出乡村21个百分点。这一结果体现了我国50多年推广普通话的巨大成就。

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　　据了解：中国语言文字使用情况调查项目经国务院批准于1998年启动，1999—2000年各地语委相继展开调查，至2001年地方调查基本结束。在“五普”人口普查数据的基础上，中国语言文字使用情况调查办公室对数据进行汇总处理。

　　调查发现，在15-69周岁人群中，年龄越低，能用普通话交际的比例越高；受教育程度越高，能用普通话交际的比例也越高。60-69岁年龄段人群能用普通话交际的比例约为31％，而15-29岁年龄段的比例高达70％。另外，在我国不同性别能用普通话交际的比例比较相近，女性稍低于男性。“普通话与方言并存分用”、“在公务场合使用普通话”是我国目前语言使用的主要格局。普通话作为通用语言场合越正式，使用比例越高。在家庭中最常使用普通话的比例约为18％，而在单位最常使用普通话的比例约为42％。

　　调查还显示：全国95％以上的人平时书写时使用规范字，会汉语拼音的人口比例达到了 68％。“中国语言文字使用情况调查”范围涉及除港澳台外的全国31个省、区、市以及新疆生产建设兵团，调查样本量达16万多户，47万多人。如此大规模的语言调查在我国还是第一次，调查结果将对国家语言文字工作部门和其他相关部门具有重要参考价值。