Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese Icon
Department: 
East Asian Languages and Literature
Number of Users Worldwide: 
960 million
Offerings: 
Levels 100-600, Flagship Program, SLAT, Minor, BA, Master’s, PhD
The Chinese language is the oldest written language in the world with at least six thousand years of history. Chinese character inscriptions have been found in turtle shells dating back to the Shang dynasty (1766-1123 BC) proving the written language has existed for more than 3,000 years. The Chinese written language uses single distinctive symbols, or characters, to represent each word of the vocabulary.
Region Affiliations: