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United Nations Department of Public Information, NY
898,000,000 (2020)
Official Language: China, Singapore
Official Status: Macao
Home Speakers: Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam.
It is also an important immigrant language, especially in North America.
Chinese is the official language of over 1,31 billion people and, as a mother tongue, it is the most spoken language in the world. With regard to its classification, it is considered an isolated language, though it is the most important one within the Sino-Tibetan superfamily. Chinese is the language of the Han people, the majority ethnic group of China. Modern Standard Chinese is known as "Putonghua" (General Language) in mainland China, and as "Guoyu" (National Language) in Taiwan (Mandarin in English). Like most related languages it is monosyllabic, has very little inflection, and is tonal, assigning to words a distinctive relative pitch or pitch contour. Spoken Chinese comprises many regional varieties. Although they employ a common written form, many are mutually unintelligible. The dialect spoken in Beijing constitutes standard Mandarin, which forms the basis both of the modern written vernacular and of the official spoken language. Main varieties include Wu, Min, Cantonese, and Hakka. As a script, Chinese is derived from picture writing. It is written with thousands of distinctive characters called ideographs which have no relation to the sound of a word. In a large dictionary there are 40-50,000 characters, while the telegraphic code book contains nearly 10,000. The earliest Chinese characters were pictographs, such as a crescent for the moon, or a circle with a dot in the center to represent the sun. Gradually these gave way to non-pictorial ideographs which, in addition to standing for tangible objects, also represented abstract concepts. The majority of Chinese characters, however, consist of two elements: a "signific", which indicates the meaning of a word, and a "phonetic", which indicates the sound. Despite their staggering complexity, the Chinese characters do have the advantage of making written communication possible between people speaking mutually unintelligible dialects and languages. A given word may be quite different in Mandarin and Cantonese, but it would be written identically in the two dialects. Since the Chinese characters are also used in Japanese, each language, when written, is partially intelligible to a speaker of the other, despite the fact that the two spoken languages are totally dissimilar. Numerous attempts have been made over the years to simplify the Chinese system of writing. In the English-speaking world, since 1892, Chinese words have usually been transliterated according to a phonetic spelling system propounded by British scholars Sir Thomas Wade and Herbert Giles. Since 1958 a phonetic romanization known as "Pinyin" (spelling) has had official standing in the People's Republic of China.
联合国大会一九四八年十二月十日第217A(III)号决议通过并颁布
1948年12月10日,联合国大会通过并颁布《世界人权宣言》。这一具有历史意义的《宣言》颁布后,大会要求所有会员国广为宣传,并且“不分国家或领土的政治地位,主要在各级学校和其他教育机构加以传播、展示、阅读和阐述。”《宣言》全文如下:
鉴于对人类家庭所有成员的固有尊严及其平等的和不移的权利的承认,乃是世界自由、正义与和平的基础,
鉴于对人权的无视和侮蔑已发展为野蛮暴行,这些暴行玷污了人类的良心,而一个人人享有言论和信仰自由并免予恐惧和匮乏的世界的来临,已被宣布为普通人民的最高愿望,
鉴于为使人类不致迫不得已铤而走险对暴政和压迫进行反叛,有必要使人权受法治的保护,
鉴于有必要促进各国间友好关系的发展,
鉴于各联合国国家的人民已在联合国宪章中重申他们对基本人权、人格尊严和价值以及男女平等权利的信念,并决心促成较大自由中的社会进步和生活水平的改善,
鉴于各会员国业已誓愿同联合国合作以促进对人权和基本自由的普遍尊重和遵行,
鉴于对这些权利和自由的普遍了解对于这个誓愿的充分实现具有很大的重要性,
因此现在,大会,发布这一世界人权宣言,作为所有人民和所有国家努力实现的共同标准,以期每一个人和社会机构经常铭念本宣言,努力通过教诲和教育促进对权利和自由的尊重,并通过国家的和国际的渐进措施,使这些权利和自由在各会员国本身人民及在其管辖下领土的人民中得到普遍和有效的承认和遵行;
人人生而自由,在尊严和权利上一律平等。他们赋有理性和良心,并应以兄弟关系的精神相对待。
人人有资格享有本宣言所载的一切权利和自由,不分种族、肤色、性别、语言、宗教、政治或其他见解、国籍或社会出身、财产、出生或其他身分等任何区别。
并且不得因一人所属的国家或领土的政治的、行政的或者国际的地位之不同而有所区别,无论该领土是独立领土、托管领土、非自治领土或者处于其他任何主权受限制的情况之下。
人人有权享有生命、自由和人身安全。
任何人不得使为奴隶或奴役;一切形式的奴隶制度和奴隶买卖,均应予以禁止。
任何人不得加以酷刑,或施以残忍的、不人道的或侮辱性的待遇或刑罚。
人人在任何地方有权被承认在法律前的人格。
法律之前人人平等,并有权享受法律的平等保护,不受任何歧视。人人有权享受平等保护,以免受违反本宣言的任何歧视行为以及煽动这种歧视的任何行为之害。
任何人当宪法或法律所赋予他的基本权利遭受侵害时,有权由合格的国家法庭对这种侵害行为作有效的补救。
任何人不得加以任意逮捕、拘禁或放逐。
人人完全平等地有权由一个独立而无偏倚的法庭进行公正的和公开的审讯,以确定他的权利和义务并判定对他提出的任何刑事指控。
任何人的私生活、家庭、住宅和通信不得任意干涉,他的荣誉和名誉不得加以攻击。人人有权享受法律保护,以免受这种干涉或攻击。
人人有思想、良心和宗教自由的权利;此项权利包括改变他的宗教或信仰的自由,以及单独或集体、公开或秘密地以教义、实践、礼拜和戒律表示他的宗教或信仰的自由。
人人有权享有主张和发表意见的自由;此项权利包括持有主张而不受干涉的自由,和通过任何媒介和不论国界寻求、接受和传递消息和思想的自由。
每个人,作为社会的一员,有权享受社会保障,并有权享受他的个人尊严和人格的自由发展所必需的经济、社会和文化方面各种权利的实现,这种实现是通过国家努力和国际合作并依照各国的组织和资源情况。
人人有享有休息和闲暇的权利,包括工作时间有合理限制和定期给薪休假的权利。
人人有权要求一种社会的和国际的秩序,在这种秩序中,本宣言所载的权利和自由能获得充分实现。
本宣言的任何条文,不得解释为默许任何国家、集团或个人有权进行任何旨在破坏本宣言所载的任何权利和自由的活动或行为。
Your donation protects the essentials we all rely on.