* Southwestern (sometimes "Upper Yangtse")
* Jianghuai (or "Lower Yangtze", sometimes "Huai", "Southern" or "Southeastern")as well as other lects, which do not neatly fall into these categories, such as Mandarin Junhua varieties.

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