Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world, but it is primarily spoken in China and Taiwan. Mandarin is part of the Sino-Tibetan language family. According to the eLinguistics.net analysis using specific software modules to assess linguistic relationships, the five languages most similar to Mandarin are Jin, Xiang, Gan, Cantonese, and Wu.
- Jin Chinese 晋语 (72.6)
Although Mandarin is widespread in Shanxi, Jin Chinese is spoken in in some parts of the province. Many words in Jin are either the same or very similar to their Mandarin counterparts. So it is easy for Mandarin speakers to understand basic Jin vocabulary. In fact, there is some debate to whether Jin Chinese is just a dialect of Mandarin. - Xiang Chinese 湘语 (66.7)
Xiang is commonly spoken in Hunan province. There is a considerable overlap in vocabulary between Xiang and Mandarin, which aids mutual intelligibility to some extent. Xiang shares many phonological features with Mandarin, though it has preserved more ancient phonetic characteristics. - Gan Chinese 赣语 (63.3)
Gan is spoken in Jiangxi province and parts of neighboring provinces. There is significant lexical similarity, with many Gan words being identical or very similar to their Mandarin equivalents. Gan’s grammatical structure is closely aligned with Mandarin, especially in terms of sentence construction and the use of function words. - Cantonese 粤语 (58.5)
Cantonese is primarily spoken in Guangdong province, Hong Kong, and Macau. While Cantonese has a more complex tone system (with six to nine tones compared to Mandarin’s four), some phonetic elements are shared. Despite significant differences, there is a substantial amount of shared or similar vocabulary. - Wu Chinese 吴语 (57.2)
Wu is spoken in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, as well as in Shanghai. Many Wu words are either the same or very similar to their Mandarin counterparts, facilitating a degree of mutual intelligibility. However, the area that once spoke Wu Chinese is now mostly Mandarin speaking.
(to be considered for the list, the language must be spoken by at least one million people)