Chinese Language Modern Standard Mandarin MSm Written vs. Spoken a Pinyin romanization(phonetic transcription Writing: ideographic rather than phonetic script a Spoken language and dialects a7 major topolects (regional dialects 1 Nothern topolect and 6 in the South Written language and the elite culture, literatiChinese Language  Modern Standard Mandarin (MSM)  Written vs. Spoken  Pinyin romanization (phonetic transcription)  Writing: ideographic rather than phonetic script  Spoken language and dialects  7 major topolects (regional dialects) 1 Nothern topolect and 6 in the South  Written language and the elite culture, literati