How many mother tongues do the Chinese speak? Since Feb. 21 was proclaimed by UNESCO as the Intenational Mother Language Day, it is befitting to introduce the 80+ dialects and spoken languages now used by the 1.3 billion Chinese population across this vast land (and 30.66 million Chinese expats too!).

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Roughly speaking, Chinese spoken languages are used by 56 ethnic groups spanning four main linguistic families, namely Sino-Tibetan (Mandarin, Southern, Tibetan, Kam-Thai, Miao-Yao), Indo-European (Tajik, Russian), Austro-Asiatic (Mon-Khmer) and Altai (Kazahkh, Uygur, Kirghiz, Mongolian, Manchu-Tungus, Korean). And for the Han people who constitute over 90% of the overall Chinese population, there are seven main Chinese dialects which can be totally distinctive and indecipherable to each other. The seven dialects are: Mandarin/putonghua/northern 普通话/官话/北方方言 spoken as the official language based on dialects of Beijing, Wu 吴语 spoken in the eastern regions such as Shanghai，Cantonese 粵语/广东话 spoken in the south including Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, Hakka 闽方言/客家话 spoken in Fujian and Taiwan, Xiang 湘方言 used in Hunan and Gan 赣方言 used in Jiangxi in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Linguistic diversity of China has given rise to a variety of regional jokes, rich repertoire of local folklore, literature, theater and movies. Not only are the Chinese fond of “looking for town fellows” with similar dialects which immediately bring them close to each other, there are also many academic studies on the “cultural/personality differences” among different dialect regions. If you are able to understand the cultural connotations and nuances between different Chinese dialects, you’d deserve the name of a real “China buff” （中国通）. But of course, if you have picked up the tone of a too local Chinese dialect too readily, it may give your Chinese friends great amusement just as if you hear a Chinese speak Texan English too well.

References:
A very useful map of Chinese dialects made before 1998, from >San Diego State University.
The Chinese Pear Stories, a project recording different dialects by Professor Wallace Chafe of the University of California.
Wiki on Chinese dialects.