* Evolution, not sudden creation: Languages evolve over time, gradually changing through borrowing, sound shifts, and other factors. There's no clear "birth" moment.
* Multiple dialects: Chinese is actually a group of related languages, often called "dialects" though they can be quite different.
* Ancient evidence: The earliest written evidence we have for Chinese is from the Shang Dynasty, around the 16th to 11th centuries BCE. But even then, the language was already well-developed, suggesting it had been around for a while.
Here's what we can say with more certainty:
* Ancient Roots: The Chinese language likely has roots in ancient Proto-Sino-Tibetan, a language that existed thousands of years ago.
* Shared origins: Chinese is part of the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, which also includes Tibetan and Burmese.
* Long history of development: The Chinese language has a long and complex history, with documented changes over millennia.
In summary: While we can't pinpoint an exact date for the "birth" of the Chinese language, it's a language with ancient roots, has been evolving for thousands of years, and continues to change today.