Cantonese, also known as Yue Yu or Guangdong Hua, is a tonal language spoken by 50-80 million people worldwide. It is mainly spoken in southeast China, Hong Kong, Macau, and neighboring countries. Cantonese is different from Mandarin in terms of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. It is considered difficult to learn for non-Asians due to its tonal nature and character-based writing system. Cantonese has many loanwords from English and other languages due to southeast China’s long trading history. The language has developed since the Qin Dynasty and has gone through various changes throughout history.
Cantonese is a language spoken throughout southeast China and some neighboring countries. It is also often referred to as Yue Yu or Guangdong Hua. Between 50 and 80 million people speak this language worldwide, especially in Southeast Asia, Australia and Canada. Due to the historical interaction of its usage areas with English speakers, these two languages have many borrowings from each other.
Areas of use
This language is mainly spoken in southeast China, especially in Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong province. Although Mandarin is the official language in China, Cantonese is one of two official languages in Hong Kong and one of four in Macau. Outside of China, it has significant population bases in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Many people in Canada and Australia also speak it, as these are popular areas for students and expats from Hong Kong and Macau.
Characteristics
Cantonese is a tonal language, with between 6 and 9 tones, depending on how they are classified. Word order is important to meaning and is usually changed based on context. Words are commonly modified with temporal words, words indicating amounts and sounds, or words for negation. Just like English, Cantonese can be written both formally and informally. The formal version is a little closer to Mandarin, but colloquial speech is very different. It is used for personal writing, poetry, journals, diaries, literature, singing and film.
Compared to Mandarin
Most Mandarin speakers cannot understand spoken Cantonese. While Cantonese speakers can usually read the simplified characters used to write Mandarin because they are based on the traditional characters used to write Cantonese, the reverse does not always apply. While both are tonal languages, Mandarin has only four tones. The vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation of the two languages are also quite different, particularly in terms of colloquial speech.
This language is thought to be one of the most difficult for non-Asians to learn, due to its tonal nature, character-based writing system, and grammar that is very different from many non-Asian languages. It takes on average around 2,200 hours for native English speakers to become proficient, although of course the amount of time varies according to personal ability and the intensity of a course. Those who already speak Mandarin, Japanese or Korean can often pick it up in a shorter amount of time.
loanwords
This language also has many loanwords from English and other languages, due to southeast China’s long trading history. Common loan words include:
ba si — bus
si do bei lei — strawberry
ling mon — limone
bi bi — small
so fu le – blown
ka la oh ke – karaoke
sat kiu — safety
mau si — mouse del computer
Several Cantonese words have also been co-opted for use in other languages, including:
dim sum
won tons
ketchup
cheongsam
wok
tifone
History
Since the Qin Dynasty, the area where Cantonese is now spoken was settled by Han Chinese. The Chinese language due to their influence began to assimilate and supplant the local languages. During the Sui Dynasty, the influx of Han Chinese increased immensely and the language gained even more traction. At the same time, it began to show differences from the Chinese spoken in central China. During the Tang Dynasty it became more similar to Central Chinese again, but soon after, in the Song Dynasty, it split further. It continued to develop throughout the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, until the modern version emerged.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
