It’s commonly referred to as Mandarin; it is written in ideograms. It is divided into two large language groups: northern (e.g. Beijing dialect) and southern (e.g. Cantonese dialect). The northern and southern dialects are quite different from each other. The standard Chinese language used for media and communication in the PRC is based on the Beijing dialect, while Hong Kong residents speak the Cantonese dialect. Cantonese Chinese is the lingua franca of the Chinese diaspora worldwide. The language can be written in simplified characters used mainly in the PRC and Singapore, or in traditional ones commonly used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Chinese language features quite a simplified grammar, no inflection, no declension, no singular or plural and no masculine or feminine gender, and very few exceptions. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers.
