Written vernacular Chinese

Written vernacular Chinese
Written vernacular Chinese
Traditional Chinese	白話文
Simplified Chinese	白话文
Hanyu Pinyin	báihuàwén
Literal meaning	plain speech writing
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	báihuàwén
Bopomofo	ㄅㄞˊㄏㄨㄚˋㄨㄣˊ
Wade–Giles	pai2-hua4 wen2
Wu
Romanization	bah入 gho去 ven
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	baahk wá màn
Jyutping	baak6 waa2/6 man4
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ	pe̍h-oē bûn

Written vernacular Chinese, also known as baihua, comprises forms of written Chinese based on the vernacular varieties of the language spoken throughout China. It is contrasted with Literary Chinese, which was the predominant written form of the language in imperial China until the early 20th century.^[1]

A style based on vernacular Mandarin Chinese was used in novels by Ming and Qing dynasty authors, and was later refined by intellectuals associated with the May Fourth Movement. This form corresponds to spoken Standard Chinese, but is the standard form of writing used by speakers of all varieties of Chinese throughout mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore. It is commonly called Standard Written Chinese or Modern Written Chinese to distinguish it from spoken vernaculars and other written vernaculars, like written Cantonese and written Hokkien.

^ "The centuries-old three-way opposition between classical written Chinese, vernacular written Chinese, and vernacular spoken Chinese represents an instance of diglossia." (Jacob Mey, Concise encyclopedia of pragmatics, Elsevier, 1998:221. ISBN 978-0-08-042992-2.)

[1] "The centuries-old three-way opposition between classical written Chinese, vernacular written Chinese, and vernacular spoken Chinese represents an instance of diglossia." (Jacob Mey, Concise encyclopedia of pragmatics, Elsevier, 1998:221. ISBN 978-0-08-042992-2.)

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