Written Languages of Minority Peoples

There are twenty-one minority peoples that have their own written languages，but only a small number of them are in active use.The most heavily used are:Tibetan，Mongolian，Uighur，Kazak，Korean and Dai.Others used include Yi，Zhuang，Yao，Booyei，Kyrgyz，and Uzbek.In the 1950s，the government helped more than twenty peoples to revise or invent their written languages.However，many of them have not shown specialinterest in using the scripts.On the contrary，many of them prefer to use the Chinese character.

Chinese Language Families

The languages in China fall into five language families:Han-Tibetan，Altaic，Austro-Asiatic，Malyo-Polynesian and Indo-European.The first one is the biggest，with three major branches and dozens of languages.The three branches are:Zhuang-Dong，Tibeto-Burman and Miao-Yao.The second largest family is Altaic with two major branches:Turkic and Mongol-Tungus.This family of languages is dispersed across the north of China.The big ones are:Mongolian，Uighur，Kazak，Kyrgyz，Uzbek，Manchu and Korean.

There are just three languages in the Austro-Asiatic family.They are Wa，Blang and Deang.A1l of them are on the southwestern border.The Malyo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the natives on the Taiwan 1sland.The Indo-European is the smallest family with only tow languages:Russian and Tajik.

hancheng

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