Sinitic languages

<p>The Sinitic languages (<a href="/facts/Simplified_Chinese_characters/UcAD6xXs">simplified Chinese</a>: 汉语族; <a href="/facts/Traditional_Chinese_characters/bBFLkuz7">traditional Chinese</a>: 漢語族; <a href="/facts/Pinyin/pUwjfMXg">pinyin</a>: <i>Hànyǔ zú</i>), often synonymous with the Chinese languages, are a <a href="/facts/Language_group/IpJv9o5S">group</a> of East Asian <a href="/facts/Analytic_language/yv6h21yU">analytic languages</a> that constitute a major branch of the <a href="/facts/Sino-Tibetan_language_family/kfdM7pTx">Sino-Tibetan language family</a>. It is frequently proposed that there is a primary split between the Sinitic languages and the rest of the family (the <a href="/facts/Tibeto-Burman_languages/H7kY9J5E">Tibeto-Burman languages</a>). This view is rejected by some researchers but has found phylogenetic support among others. The <a href="/facts/Macro-Bai_languages/8tFLPqaS">Macro-Bai languages</a>, whose classification is difficult, may be an offshoot of <a href="/facts/Old_Chinese/913bNFLp">Old Chinese</a> and thus Sinitic; otherwise, Sinitic is defined only by the many <a href="/facts/Varieties_of_Chinese/MNGv4yrP">varieties of Chinese</a> unified by a shared historical background, and usage of the term "Sinitic" may reflect the linguistic view that <a href="/facts/Chinese_language/771ruUY1">Chinese</a> constitutes a family of distinct languages, rather than variants of a single language.
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Sinitic languages open-in-new

Sinitic languages