The Sounds of Mandarin : Columbia University Press : 9780231209038 : 0231209037 : 11 Jul 2023 : "How did people in China learn to speak a common language? Out of a dizzying array of regional and local vernaculars, many of them mutually unintelligible, how was the idea of a spoken standard forged? How and when did that idea become reality? The Sounds of Mandarin answers these questions by viewing the history of linguistic change from the ground up. Exploring how nation-building in the PRC era became entwined with linguistic standardization, Janet Y. Chen reveals a project of linguistic engineering riven with conflicts, as speech became a site of contestation and quotidian negotiation. By locating experiences of language learning in historical and local contexts, this study explains why nationalism is a necessary but ultimately insufficient lens for understanding China's national language. It also explains why, even today, the project of standard speech remains contested and incomplete i