spoken in Taiwan exists on a spectrum, from the most formal, standardized variety to the least formal, with the heaviest influence of non-Mandarin Chinese languages, primarily Minnanyu. On one end of the spectrum, there is Standard Guoyu (), the official national language of the Republic of China (Taiwan). This variety is taught as the standard in the education system and is employed in official communications and most news media. The core of this standard variety is described in the Ministry of Education Mandarin Chinese Dictionary. Very few people speak purely standard Guoyu, however. Mandarin as colloquially spoken in Taiwan can be broadly called "Taiwan Guoyu" (). Taiwan Guoyu diverges in varying degrees from Standard Guoyu, with some speakers being closer to Standard Guoyu than others. These divergences are often the result of Taiwan Guoyu incorporating influences from other languages used in Taiwan, primarily Minnanyu, but also Japanese. Taiwan Guoyu is also mutually intelligible with Putonghua, but when compared with Standard Guoyu, Taiwan Guoyu exhibits greater differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. This article uses Taiwan Guoyu to refer to the colloquial varieties of Mandarin in Taiwan, Standard Guoyu for the prescribed standard form, Putonghua to refer to Standard mainland Chinese Mandarin, and simply Guoyu or Taiwanese Mandarin when a distinction is unnecessary. Terms and definition Chinese is not a single language, but a group of languages in the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan family, which includes varieties such as Mandarin, Cantonese, and Hakka. They share a common ancestry and script, Chinese characters, and among Chinese speakers they are popularly considered dialects ( fāngyán) of the same, overarching language. These dialects are often extremely divergent in the spoken form, however, and not mutually intelligible. Accordingly, Western linguists tend to treat them as separate languages rather than dialects of the same language, likening their relationship to that of English and Dutch, for example (both being West Germanic languages). Mandarin Chinese is a grouping of Chinese languages that includes at least eight subgroups, often also called dialects. In English, "Mandarin" can refer to any of these Mandarin dialects, which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. However, the term is most commonly used to refer to Standard Chinese, the prestige dialect. Standard Chinese in mainland China is called Putonghua () and in the Republic of China (Taiwan) Guoyu (). Both of these, as Mandarin languages, are based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin and are