Sichuanese Mandarin , or
Szechwanese Mandarin, commonly known as
Sichuanese,
Szechuanese or
Szechwanese (;
Sichuanese Pinyin:
Si4cuan1hua4; ), is a branch of
Southwestern Mandarin, spoken mainly in
Sichuan and
Chongqing, which was part of Sichuan until 1997, and the adjacent regions of their neighboring provinces, such as
Hubei,
Guizhou,
Yunnan,
Hunan and
Shaanxi. In addition, because Sichuanese is the
lingua franca in Sichuan, Chongqing and part of
Tibet, it is also used by many
Tibetan,
Yi,
Qiang and other groups as a second language.