Putonghua

Putonghua (普通話 / 普通话), also known as Mandarin, is the official language of the People's Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau), Republic of China (Taiwan), and Singapore. The Imaginary Lands of Nicholas follows the designation by the PRC in referring to the language as Putonghua, while it is known as "Guoyu" (國語) in ROC, and "Huayu" (華語) in Singapore. Putonghua is a variant of the Chinese language, though the most frequently spoken Chinese language variant in the Imaginary Lands of Nicholas is Cantonese.

In the Imaginary Lands of Nicholas, an estimated 2 - 3% of the population speaks the language natively, with up to 15 - 20% has some knowledge in the language. It comes behind Cantonese, English, French, and Japanese as the fifth most-spoken language in the kingdom, and there has been a rapid increase of speakers due to recent immigration from Mainland China, as well as foreign speakers learning the language due to an increase of business trading with China. Research from the Renmin University of Xiehe (Traditional Chinese: 協和人民大學; Simplified Chinese: 协和人民大学), as from the current trend, Putonghua may take over Japanese as the fourth most-spoken language in as early as 2018, while possibly overtaking French to become the third most spoken language in the next century if current trends persists.

The standard writing script for the language is Simplified Chinese, which differs from Traditional Chinese, one of the two official writing scripts of the kingdom.

Status
Putonghua is not an official language of the Imaginary Lands of Nicholas, though it is an official regional language in Xiehe Autonomous Region, the autonomous country with the highest concentration of Putonghua speaker. The communist-oriented autonomous country has separated from Concord County effective 1 October 2012, and prior to that, Putonghua was a co-official language with French in Concord County. Putonghua has since been abolished in Concord County after the separation.

Roughly 65% of the Xiehe population natively speaks the language natively, with a diaspora of speakers kingdom-wide, most of which in Concord County, at 6% of the local population, followed by Gravenhurst Region at 5%.

The use of Putonghua and the promotion of the language is regulated by the language department of Xiehe Autonomous Region, being the only subdivision in the kingdom where Putonghua is the official language. The agency under the government is named the Renmin Wenzi Yuyan Gongzuo Committee (Traditional Chinese: 人民文字語言工作委員會; Simplified Chinese: 人民文字语言工作委员会), and is advised by a similar organization in Mainland China.

Places with a significant Putonghua speakers

 * Xiehe Autonomous Region (65% of population, official language)
 * Direct-controlled Municipality of Jiefang (解放直轄市; the hub of the language, over 75% of the population)
 * Prefecture of Yanbian (延邊縣)
 * City of Shekou (蛇口市)
 * Subdistrict of Hengqin (橫琴街道)
 * Subdistrict of Gongmen (拱門街道)
 * City of Fuling (福嶺市)
 * Subdistrict of Yantian (鹽田街道)
 * Subdistrict of Futian (福田街道)
 * Township of Yuanhu (源湖鄉)
 * Township of Qiyi (起義鄉, formerly Village du Soulave)


 * Concord County (formerly an official language, no longer official)
 * Town of Domaine-de-la-Fortune
 * Town of Domaine-du-Sel
 * Township of Piano-Horizontale
 * Township of Clôture