Geographic
distribution China Subdivisions Chinese
Macro-Bai ? | Linguistic classification Sino-Tibetan
Sinitic ISO 639-5 zhx | |
Glottolog sini1245 (Chinese)
macr1275 (Macro-Bai) |
The Sinitic languages, often synonymous with the group of Chinese varieties, are a family of Sino-Tibetan languages. They have frequently been postulated to constitute a primary branch, but this is rejected by an increasing number of researchers. The Bai languages and possible relatives, whose classification is difficult, may also be Sinitic; otherwise Sinitic is equivalent to Chinese, and the term may be used to indicate that the varieties of Chinese are distinct languages rather than dialects of a single language.
References
Sinitic languages Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA