The official Chinese designation for the major branches of Chinese is "fāngyán" (, literally "regional speech"), whereas the more closely related varieties within these are called "dìdiǎn fāngyán" (/ "local speech"). Conventional English-language usage in Chinese linguistics is to use "dialect" for the speech of a particular place (regardless of status) and "dialect group" for a regional grouping such as Mandarin or Wu. Because varieties from different groups are not mutually intelligible, some scholars prefer to describe Wu and others as separate languages. Jerry Norman called this practice misleading, pointing out that Wu, which itself contains many mutually unintelligible varieties, could not be properly called a single language under the same criterion, and that the same is true for each of the other groups.