Malaysian Chinese language

Malaysian Mandarin (simplified Chinese: 马来西亚华语; traditional Chinese: 馬來西亞華語; pinyin: Mǎláixīyà Huáyǔ) is a variety of Mandarin Chinese (官話) spoken in Malaysia by ethnic Chinese in Malaysia. Malaysian Chinese tend to perceive the Mandarin Chinese is a variation of Standard Mandarin (Putonghua); however, it is a Mandarin dialect in its own right. Its closest linguistic cousin is not Standard Mandarin, rather it is Singaporean Mandarin, the variety widely used in films like , Namewee's Nasi Lemak 2.0 and movies created by Singaporean movie director Jack Neo.

Malaysian Mandarin speakers seldom translate local terms or names to Mandarin when they speak. They would prefer to verbally use Malay place name in its original Malay pronunciation, for instance, even though the street name "Jalan Bukit Kepong" is written as "惹兰武吉甲洞" (rělán wǔjí jiǎdòng) in local Chinese printed media, the local Chinese almost never use "rělán wǔjí jiǎdòng" in daily conversations. There are exceptions of course, for example Taiping, since this name is derived from the Chinese language, when people mention this place when they speaking local Mandarin, they always use its Mandarin pronunciation, "Tàipíng", instead of using its Malay pronunciation, which is closer to "Taipeng". Another examples is when a place's Chinese translation varied vastly with its native Malay name, for example: for Teluk Intan, Seremban and Kota Kinabalu, they are preferably referred respectively as "Ānsùn" (安順) (which refers to "Teluk Anson", Teluk Intan's former colonial name), "Fúróng" (芙蓉) and "Yàbì" (亞庇).

In comparison with Chinese, Taiwanese or even Singaporean Mandarin, Malaysian Mandarin is clearly distinguished by its relatively tonally 'flat' sound as well as its extensive use of glottal stops and "Rusheng" (入声). This results in a distinct "clipped" sound compared to other forms of Mandarin.