Varieties of Mandarin are used in the Western Regions, the Southwest, Huguang, Inner Mongolia, Central Plains and the Northeast,[19] by around three-quarters of the Sinitic-speaking population.

Varieties of Mandarin can be defined by their universally lost -m final, low number of tones, and smaller inventory of classifiers, among other features.

[9] Loss of checked tone is an often cited criterion for Mandarin languages, though lects such as Yangzhounese and Taiyuannese show otherwise.

[26][27] Characteristically Jilu Mandarin features include merging the dark checked into the dark level tone, the light checked into light level or departing based on the manner of articulation of the initial, and vowel breaking in tong rime series' (通攝) checked-tone words, among other features.

Jiaoliao Mandarin is spoken in the Jiaodong and Liaodong Peninsulae, which includes the cities of Dalian and Qingdao, as well as several prefectures along the China-Korea border.

[29] Based on, for example, the pronunciation of the palatalized jiàn initial (見母),[19] Jiaoliao Mandarin can be divided into Qingzhou, Denglian and Gaihuan areas.

[9] 笨pəŋ꜄ →薄pəʔ꜇愣ləŋ꜄笨 {} 薄 愣pəŋ꜄ → pəʔ꜇ ləŋ꜄'stupid'滾꜂kʊŋ →骨kuəʔ꜆攏꜂lʊŋ滾 {} 骨 攏꜂kʊŋ → kuəʔ꜆ ꜂lʊŋ'to roll'As per the Language Atlas by Li, Jin is divided into Dabao, Zhanghu, Wutai, Lüliang, Bingzhou, Shangdang, Hanxin, and Zhiyan branches.

[25] Southwestern Mandarin tends to be split into Chuanqian, Xishu, Chuanxi, Yunnan, Huguang and Guiliu branches.

[25] The Huai of Nanjing has likely served as a national prestige during the Ming and Qing periods,[37] though not all linguists support this viewpoint.

[38] The Language Atlas divides Huai into Tongtai, Huangxiao, and Hongchao areas, with the latter further split into Ninglu and Huaiyang.

Tongtai, being geographically located furthest west, has the most significant Wu influence, such as in its distribution of historical voiced plosive series.

[19][39][40] Yue Chinese is spoken by around 84 million people,[10] in western Guangdong, eastern Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau and parts of Hainan, as well as overseas communities such as Kuala Lumpur and Vancouver.

The status of Pinghua is uncertain, and some believe its two groups, Northern and Southern, should be listed under Yue,[41] though some reject this standpoint.

[19] Yue is generally split into Cantonese (which itself contains Yuehai, Xiangshan, and Guanbao), Siyi, Gaoyang, Qinlian, Wuhua, Goulou (which includes Luoguang), Yongxun and the two Pinghua branches.

[41] Hakka Chinese is a direct result of several migration waves from Northern China to the South,[42] and is spoken in eastern Guangdong, parts of Taiwan, western Fujian, Hong Kong, southern Jiangxi, as well as scattered points in the rest of Guangdong, Hunan, Guangxi and Hainan, along with overseas communities such as in West Kalimantan and Bangka Belitung Islands in Indonesia, by an estimated total of 44 million people.

[10] Due to significant amounts of migration, many people in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong are also able of speaking Min varieties.

This, interestingly, has led to many languages, such as Occitan, Inuktitut, Latin, Māori and Telugu, loaning the Sinitic word for 'tea' (茶) with a plosive.

Wu varieties generally have a fricative initial in their negators, a three-way plosive distinction, as well as a checked coda preserved as a glottal stop, except for Oujiang lects, where it has become vowel length, and Xuanzhou.

[25] Wu Chinese varieties generally have a massive number of vowels, which rivals even North Germanic languages.

[40][47] Huizhou Chinese is spoken in western Hangzhou, southern Anhui and parts of Jingdezhen, by around 5 million people.

[54] Hui can be divided into Jishe, Xiuyi, Qiwu, Jingzhan and Yanzhou branches, with Tunxinese and Jixinese being representatives.

Gan Chinese is spoken in northern and central Jiangxi, parts of Hebei and Anhui and eastern Hunan, by 22 million people,[19][10] sometimes believed to be related to Hakka.

[9] The Language Atlas sees Gan divided into Changdu, Yiliu, Jicha, Fuguang, Yingyi, Datong, Dongsui, Huaiyue, and Leizi branches.

[56] Xiang Chinese is spoken in central and western Hunan and nearby parts of Guangxi and Guizhou by an estimated 37 million people.

[19] One way of dividing Xiang varieties sees five distinct families, namely Changyi, Hengzhou, Louzhao, Chenxu, and Yongzhou.

[19] However, linguists such as Richard VanNess Simmons and Zhou Zhenhe have observed that these two varieties possess more qualifying features of Mandarin languages.

Examples include 靚; 'pretty' in Yue,[72] 𠊎; 'I', 'me' in Hakka,[46] 即; 'this' in Hokkien,[73] 覅; 'to not want' in Wu,[48] 莫; 'do not' in Xiang, and 嘎; 'ill-tempered' in Mandarin.

[48][49] Take for instance, this simplified analysis of Suzhounese tone sandhi:[78] Disregarding phonology, grammar is the feature of Sinitic languages which differ the most.

Notice the double verb marking seen in lects such as Beijingese, in these sentences meaning "today I go to Guangzhou":[82] 今 天Jīntiāntoday我wǒ1sg到dàoarrive廣 州GuǎngzhōuGuangzhou去qùgo (pinyin) {今 天} 我 到 {廣 州} 去{Jīntiān} wǒ dào {Guǎngzhōu} qùtoday 1sg arrive Guangzhou go今 阿cin1-a1today我ngeu41sg廣 州kuaon3-cieu1Guangzhou去chi5go (Wugniu) {今 阿} 我 {廣 州} 去{cin1-a1} ngeu4 {kuaon3-cieu1} chi5today 1sg Guangzhou goSinitic languages tend to vary greatly in how they mark indirect objects.

Cantonese 嗰; go² (distal) and Shanghainese 搿; geq (proximal) are both etymologically from 個, for instance.