Mandarin is the official language in China ，and one of official languages in Singapore.The word 'mandarin' is from portuguess word 'mandar'which means conducting and managment.At the same time ,it is the name of one kind orange .:) I knew it just now .haha ;)))

普通话Pŭtōnghuà (Mandarin) Mandarin is the main language of government, the media and education in China and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages in Singapore. There are approximately 870 million Mandarin speakers. Mandarin is known as pŭtōnghuà (common language) or bĕijīnghuà (Beijing language) in China, guóyŭ (national language) in Taiwan, and huáyŭ (Chinese language) in Singapore and Malaysia. Today Mandarin is the main language of government, the media and education in China and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages in Singapore. There are approximately 870 million Mandarin speakers. Just over 53% of the population of China or 690 million people are able to speak Mandarin, according to the Xinhua news agency. In China's cities, about 66% speak Mandarin, while only 45% speak it in the countryside. Around 70% of people between the ages of 15 and 29 speak the language, while only 30% of those over 60 can speak it. There ares at least a further 25 million or so Mandarin speakers elsewhere, especially in Taiwan (20 million) and Singapore (1.5 million), and also in Malaysia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Brunei, Thailand, the Philippines, Russia, the USA, Vietnam, Laos, UK and Mauritius. Written Chinese is based on spoken Mandarin and is known as hànyŭ or zhōngwén. Speakers of other varieties of Chinese have to learn the grammar and vocabulary of Mandarin in order to read and write in Chinese. Other links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_(linguistics) http://baike.baidu.com/view/1004702.htm

It is the language spoken in the mianland China as well as Chinese people overseas. As far as I know, it has nothing to do with fruit. :)

вроде как мандаринки по-английски - tangerine ;))

You forgot one more definition. A mandarin is an official of the old China. Now in English, it means any official who behaves like a tyrant with absolute power. As the fruit, it is usually suffixed with the word, "orange". Mandarin, the official language of China is so called because it was the Court language of Imperial China. All court officials spoke this Chinese dialect. Hence, the name.