I've noticed this for quite a long time, but have never seen anyone explicitly pointing this out (neither native Chinese speakers nor people learning Chinese), so I think it's very interesting to post it here:
"Mandarin" is the translation of 官话, which literally means "the language for officials," since in ancient China it's 官话 which was spoken in the royal court/household. But eventually 官话 developed two meanings, and "Mandarin" can refer to either of them
- 官话方言, which is one of the seven or eight major varieties (also called "dialects") of Chinese. It is mainly spoken in northern China, so it is also called 北方话, but 北方话 is a bit inaccurate (since some people in the south also speak 官话方言). This is the variety of Chinese spoken in the royal court of the 明 and 清 dynasties, and people generalized this term to refer to a language spoken by some 0.9 billion people.
- 普通话 or 国语, which is the standardization of Chinese promoted by the PRC and ROC governments. It is a semi-artificial language based on the 北京 dialect of 官话, and it fits the original meaning of 官话: a language variety/dialect promoted by the authorization.
So is Sichuanese (四川话) "Mandarin"? It depends on what you mean by "Mandarin": Sichuanese is a variety/dialect of 官话方言, but not mutually intelligible with 普通话 at all. If you are learning Sichuanese, then it's kind of confusing whether you are learning Mandarin!
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