pǔtōnghuà

pǔtōnghuà (pǔ·tōng·huà common; universal · {through(out) → [common]} · speech → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in China)] 普通话 普通話) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

This is the expression commonly used in mainland China to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin.

Unfortunately, politics sometimes raises its ugly head in language matters, and so it is worth noting that in some situations, there may be political implications of using “pǔtōnghuà (pǔ·tōng·huà common; universal · {through(out) → [common]} · speech → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in China)] 普通话 普通話)” or one of the other ways to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin in Mandarin. For more information, see these posts on the excellent Language Log blog:

• The ethnopolitics of National Language in China
• "National Language" in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

Other Mandarin expressions commonly used to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin will be future Mandarin Expressions of the Week. Posts about these different Mandarin expressions used to refer to (Modern Standard) Mandarin will be viewable using the link for this blog’s Mandarin tag.