Yue ( Cantonese pronunciation: [jyːt̚˨] ) is a branch of the Sinitic languages primarily spoken in Southern China , particularly in the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi (collectively known as Liangguang ).
108-691: The term Cantonese is often used to refer to the whole branch, but linguists prefer to reserve the name Cantonese for the variety used in Guangzhou (Canton), Wuzhou (Ngchow), Hong Kong and Macau , which is the prestige dialect of the group. Taishanese , from the coastal area of Jiangmen (Kongmoon) located southwest of Guangzhou, was the language of most of the 19th-century emigrants from Guangdong to Southeast Asia and North America. Most later migrants have been speakers of Cantonese. Yue varieties are not mutually intelligible with other varieties of Chinese , and they are not mutually intelligible within
216-589: A linguistic discrimination that has also contributed to social conflicts between the two sides, with a growing number of Chinese Americans (including American-born Chinese ) of Cantonese background defending the historic Chinese-American culture against the impacts of increasing Mandarin-speaking new arrivals. In Northern California , especially the San Francisco Bay Area , the California Cantonese have historically dominated in
324-657: A Chinese community. The majority of Cantonese-speakers in Canada live in the Greater Toronto Area and Metro Vancouver . There are sufficient Cantonese-speakers in Canada that there exist locally produced Cantonese TV and radio programming, such as Fairchild TV . As in the United States, the Chinese Canadian community traces its roots to early immigrants from Guangdong during the latter half of
432-547: A distinct classical literature was developed in Cantonese, with Middle Chinese texts sounding more similar to modern Cantonese than other present-day Chinese varieties, including Mandarin. As Guangzhou became China's key commercial center for foreign trade and exchange in the 1700s, Cantonese became the variety of Chinese interacting most with the Western world. Much of the sources for this period of early Cantonese, such as
540-574: A fourth tone category, the entering tone 入 ; rù , because the stops were distributed in the same way as the corresponding final nasals. While northern and central varieties have lost some of the Middle Chinese final consonants, they are retained by most southern Chinese varieties, though sometimes affected by sound shifts. They are most faithfully preserved in Yue dialects. Final stops have disappeared entirely in most Mandarin dialects, including
648-479: A lesser extent) and the Western world, such as California . Despite the considerable overlap in vocabulary between Cantonese and Mandarin, as well as other varieties of Chinese , these Sinitic languages are not mutually intelligible. This is due to a combination of factors, including phonological differences and variations in grammar and vocabulary. Notably, there are instances where the sentence structure, particularly with regard to verb placement, differs between
756-582: A more important status by the natives than ever before as a common identity of the local people. This has led to initiatives to revive the language such as its introduction into school curricula and locally produced programs on broadcast media. Cantonese has historically served as a lingua franca among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, who speak a variety of other forms of Chinese including Hokkien , Teochew , and Hakka . Additionally, Cantonese media and popular culture such as cinema of Hong Kong
864-514: A qualifier followed by a qualified element, Yue dialects may use the reverse order. For example, the Standard Chinese, and widely used Cantonese word for "guest" is 客人 ; kèrén ; 'guest-person', but the same morphemes may be reversed in Cantonese [jɐn ha:k] versus Taishanese [ŋin hak] , and Tengxian [jən hɪk] . This has been hypothesized to be the influence of Tai languages , in which modifiers normally follow nouns. But it
972-551: A relatively minor presence compared to other Southeast Asian nations, being the fourth most spoken Chinese variety after Hokkien, Hakka and Teochew. Despite the majority of Chinese Filipinos are Fujianese , there are also sizeable Cantonese population in the Philippines, with many of them mainly came from Taishan , Guangdong . Many of the Cantonese people and their descendants live in Baguio and its province Benguet , where
1080-579: A segregation of communities based on linguistic cleavage. In particular, some Chinese Americans (including American-born Chinese ) of Cantonese background emphasise their non-mainland origins (e.g. Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, etc.) to assert their identity in the face of new waves of immigration. Dong Jiang The Dong River is the eastern tributary of the Pearl River in Guangdong province, southern China . The other two main tributaries of
1188-421: A separate Hong Kong identity. A similar identity issue exists in the United States, where conflicts have arisen among Chinese-speakers due to a large recent influx of Mandarin-speakers. While older Taiwanese immigrants have learned Cantonese to foster integration within the traditional Chinese American populations, more recent arrivals from the mainland continue to use Mandarin exclusively. This has contributed to
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#17327655619141296-807: A series of voiced initials, but voicing has been lost in Yue and most other modern Chinese varieties apart from Wu and Old Xiang . In the Guangfu, Siyi and Gao–Yang subgroups, these initials have yielded aspirated consonants in the level and rising tones, and unaspirated consonants in the departing and entering tones. These initials are uniformly unaspirated in Gou–Lou varieties and uniformly aspirated in Wu–Hua. In many Yue varieties, including Cantonese, Middle Chinese /kʰ/ has become [h] or [f] in most words; in Taishanese, /tʰ/ has also changed to [h] , for example, in
1404-588: A significant proportion of the entertainment industry in China migrated to Hong Kong in the early decades of the 20th century, the Hong Kong-based entertainment industry underwent a transformation to suit overseas as well as domestic audiences. With the bifurcation of the film industry into Cantonese and Mandarin, the use of the Xiguan accent of Guangzhou as a conservative prestige accent of standard Cantonese
1512-573: A whole. To avoid confusion, academic texts may refer to the larger branch as "Yue", following the pinyin system based on Standard Chinese , and either restrict "Cantonese" to the Guangzhou variety, or avoid the term altogether, distinguishing Yue from its Guangzhou dialect. People from Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Cantonese immigrants abroad, generally refer to their language as 廣東話 ; Gwóngdūngwá ; 'Guangdong speech' [kʷɔ̌ːŋ tʊ́ŋ wǎː] . In Guangdong and Guangxi, people also use
1620-465: Is a variety displaying features of both Cantonese and Hakka, spoken by 3,000–5,500 people in Dapeng, Shenzhen. The Guangzhou (Canton) dialect of Yuehai , usually called "Cantonese", is the prestige dialect of Guangdong province and social standard of Yue. It is the most widely spoken dialect of Yue and is an official language of Hong Kong and of Macau, alongside English and Portuguese respectively. It
1728-535: Is also available in the nation and Cantonese is prevalent in locally produced Chinese television. Cantonese spoken in Malaysia and Singapore often exhibits influences from Malay and other Chinese varieties spoken in the country, like Hokkien and Teochew. The Singapore government uses Mandarin as the official Chinese variety and has a Speak Mandarin Campaign (SMC) seeking to actively promote using Mandarin at
1836-447: Is also the medium of instruction in schools. The place of local Cantonese language and culture remains contentious. In 2010, a controversial proposal to switch some programming on Guangzhou local television from Cantonese to Mandarin was abandoned following widespread backlash accompanied by public protests . Yue languages are spoken in the southern provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, an area long dominated culturally and economically by
1944-966: Is also the most widespread Sinitic language in Guangxi , spoken by slightly more than a half of its Han population. The other half is almost equally divided between the Southwestern Mandarin , Hakka, and Pinghua ; there is also a considerable Xiang -speaking population and a small Hokkien -speaking minority. Yue Chinese is spoken by 35% of the total population of Guangxi, being one of the two largest languages in that province, along with Zhuang . In China, as of 2004, 60% of all Yue speakers lived in Guangdong, 28.3% lived in Guangxi, and 11.6% lived in Hong Kong. In Yuan Jiahua 's 1962 dialect manual, Yue dialects were divided into five groups: In
2052-533: Is also widely spoken as well in the town of Sekinchan in the district of Sabak Bernam located in the northern part of Selangor state and also in the state of Perak , especially in the state capital city of Ipoh and its surrounding towns of Gopeng , Batu Gajah , and Kampar of the Kinta Valley region plus the towns of Tapah and Bidor in the southern part of the Perak state, and also widely spoken in
2160-463: Is an official language alongside Portuguese . As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in everyday life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is mutually intelligible with the Cantonese spoken in the mainland city of Guangzhou , although there exist some minor differences in accent, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Cantonese first developed around
2268-628: Is becoming increasingly concentrated in Brooklyn's Sunset Park, also known as Little Fuzhou , which is causing the city's growing Cantonese and Fuzhou enclaves to become increasingly distanced and isolated from both each other and other Chinese enclaves in Queens. Flushing's Chinatown , which is now the largest Chinatown in the city, and Elmhurst's smaller Chinatown in Queens are very diverse, with large numbers of Mandarin speakers from different regions of China and Taiwan. The Chinatowns of Queens comprise
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#17327655619142376-582: Is growing, with a number of educational institutes offering Cantonese as an elective language course. Cantonese is widely used as the inter-communal language among Chinese Cambodians , especially in Phnom Penh and other urban areas. While Teochew speakers form the majority of the Chinese population in Cambodia , Cantonese is often used as a vernacular in commerce and with other Chinese variant groups in
2484-820: Is imported from the Dong River. Its discharge totals roughly 807.5 cubic meters per second (28,520 cu ft/s). A dinosaur egg fossil dated back to the Late Cretaceous was discovered by primary school student named Zhang Yangzhe while playing near the Dong River in 2019 in July. The boy's mother, Li Xiaofang, later contacted the Heyuan Dinosaur Museum members, and under their excavation guidance more than 10 dinosaur egg fossils each about 9 centimeters in diameter and dating back to 66 million years were revealed. This article related to
2592-457: Is largely a countermeasure against Hong Kong's influence, as the autonomous territory has the right to freedom of the press and speech and its Cantonese-language media have a substantial exposure and following in Guangdong. Nevertheless, the place of local Cantonese language and culture remains contentious, as with other non-Mandarin Chinese languages. A 2010 proposal to switch some programming on Guangzhou television from Cantonese to Mandarin
2700-579: Is largely influential in the local Chinese media and is used in commerce by Chinese Malaysians. Due to the popularity of Hong Kong popular culture , especially through drama series and popular music, Cantonese is widely understood by the Chinese in all parts of Malaysia, even though a large proportion of the Chinese Malaysian population is non-Cantonese. Television networks in Malaysia regularly broadcast Hong Kong television programmes in their original Cantonese audio and soundtrack. Cantonese radio
2808-407: Is mostly used in informal settings like social media and comic books. In English, the term "Cantonese" can be ambiguous. "Cantonese" as used to refer to the language native to the city of Canton, which is the traditional English name of Guangzhou , was popularized by An English and Cantonese Pocket Dictionary (1859), a bestseller by the missionary John Chalmers . Before 1859, this variant
2916-484: Is notable that the Standard Chinese word for 'married woman' ( 人妻 ) also follows the same structure. Gender markers for nouns are also suffixed, as in other southern varieties. Some Yue dialects, including Cantonese, can use the same word 邊個 ; bīn-go ; 'which one', for both 'who' and 'which'. Other dialects, including Taishanese, use 誰 ; sŭe (cf. Mandarin 誰 ; shéi ) for 'who', and words meaning 'which one' for 'which'. Cantonese Cantonese
3024-446: Is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong and Guangxi, people also call it "provincial capital speech" ( 省城話 ; 省城话 ; Saang2 seng4 waa2 ; Sáangsèhng wá ) or "plain speech" ( 白話 ; 白话 ; Baak6 waa2 ; Baahkwá ). In academic linguistic circles, it is also referred to as "Canton prefecture speech" ( 廣府話 ; 广府话 ; Gwong2 fu2 waa2 ; Gwóngfú wá ). In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities,
3132-406: Is only non-verbatim with respect to vernacular Cantonese, it is possible to read Standard Chinese text verbatim in formal Cantonese, often with only slight changes in lexicon that are optional depending on the reader's choice of register. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may appear similar but are pronounced differently. Conversely, written (vernacular) Cantonese
3240-463: Is popular throughout the region. In Vietnam , Cantonese is the dominant language of the main ethnic Chinese community, usually referred to as Hoa , which numbers about one million people and constitutes one of the largest minority groups in the country. Over half of the ethnic Chinese population in Vietnam speaks Cantonese as a native language and the variety also serves as a lingua franca between
3348-433: Is reflected in historical Mandarin romanizations, such as "Peking" for Beijing, "Kiangsi" for Jiangxi , and "Tientsin" for Tianjin . Some Yue speakers, such as many Hong Kong Cantonese speakers born after World War II, merge /n/ with /l/ , but Taishanese and most other Yue varieties preserve the distinction. Younger Cantonese speakers also tend not to distinguish between /ŋ/ and the zero initial, though this distinction
Yue Chinese - Misplaced Pages Continue
3456-444: Is retained in most Yue dialects. Yue varieties retain the initial /m/ in words where Late Middle Chinese shows a shift to a labiodental consonant, realized in most Northern varieties of Chinese as [w] . Nasals can be independent syllables in Yue words, e.g. Cantonese 五 ; ńgh ; 'five', and 唔 ; m̀h ; 'not', although Middle Chinese did not have syllables of this type. In most Yue varieties (except for Tengxian ),
3564-483: Is spoken by ethnic Chinese in Portugal who originate from Macau , the most established Chinese community in the nation with a presence dating back to the 16th century and Portuguese colonialism . Since the late-20th century, however, Mandarin- and Wu-speaking migrants from mainland China have outnumbered those from Macau, although Cantonese is still retained among mainstream Chinese community associations. Cantonese
3672-604: Is the lingua franca of not only Guangdong, but also many overseas Cantonese emigrants, though in many areas abroad it is numerically second to the Taishanese dialect of Yue. By law, Standard Chinese , based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin, is taught nearly universally as a supplement to local languages such as Cantonese. In Guangzhou, much of the distinctively Yue vocabulary have been replaced with Cantonese pronunciations of corresponding Standard Chinese terms. Cantonese
3780-647: Is the lingua franca of the Chinese province of Guangdong (being the majority language of the Pearl River Delta ) and neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. It is also the dominant and co-official language of Hong Kong and Macau . Furthermore, Cantonese is widely spoken among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia (most notably in Vietnam and Malaysia , as well as in Singapore and Cambodia to
3888-477: Is the de facto official language of Hong Kong (along with English) and Macau (along with Portuguese), though legally the official language is just "Chinese". It is the oral language of instruction in Chinese schools in Hong Kong and Macau, and is used extensively in Cantonese-speaking households. Cantonese-language media (Hong Kong films, television serials, and Cantopop ), which exist in isolation from
3996-555: Is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese , a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family . It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton ) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta . Cantonese is regarded as an integral and inextricable component of the cultural identity of its native speakers across a vast expanse of southeastern China , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in overseas communities . In mainland China , Cantonese
4104-460: Is the translation to Hanyu Pinyin of certain terms which originated from southern Chinese varieties. For instance, dim sum is often known as diǎn xīn in Singapore's English-language media, though this is largely a matter of style, and most Singaporeans will still refer to it as dim sum when speaking English. Nevertheless, since the government restriction on media in non-Mandarin varieties
4212-505: The Language Atlas of China , some varieties spoken in western Guangxi formerly classified as Yue are placed in a separate Pinghua group. The remaining Yue dialects are divided into seven groups. Three groups are found in the watershed of the Pearl River : The remaining four groups are found in coastal areas: Anne Yue-Hashimoto has proposed an alternative classification based on a wider sampling of features: The Dapeng dialect
4320-595: The Hong Kong Basic Law . The Chinese language has many different varieties , of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and tribunals. It is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation also exists in neighboring Macau , where Chinese
4428-858: The Hundred Yue (or Baiyue ). Large-scale Han Chinese migration to the area began after the Qin conquest of the region in 214 BC. Successive waves of immigration followed at times of upheaval in Northern and Central China, such as the collapse of the Han , Tang and Song dynasties. The most popular route was via the Xiang River , which the Qin had connected to the Li River by the Lingqu Canal , and then into
Yue Chinese - Misplaced Pages Continue
4536-714: The Pearl River are the Xi River and the Bei River . The headwater is located in Mount Sanbai ( 三百山 ) in Anyuan County , Jiangxi . The Dong River is a major source of water for megacities in Pearl River Delta, including Hong Kong , Shenzhen , and Guangzhou . The Hong Kong Government has purchased Dong River water from Guangdong since 1965. Over 70 percent of domestic water in Hong Kong
4644-503: The Sacramento River Delta (see Locke, California ). It is a Yuehai variety much like Guangzhou Cantonese but has "flatter" tones. Chinese is the second most widely spoken non-English language in the United States when both Cantonese and Mandarin are combined, behind Spanish. Many institutes of higher education have traditionally had Chinese programs based on Cantonese, with some continuing to offer these programs despite
4752-616: The Tai languages formerly spoken widely in the area and still spoken by people such as the Zhuang and Dong . The port city of Guangzhou lies in the middle of Pearl River Delta , with access to the interior via the Xi, Bei, and Dong rivers, which all converge at the delta. It has been the economic centre of the Lingnan region since Qin times, when it was an important shipbuilding centre. By 660, it
4860-639: The emergent Chinese American enclaves in eastern Los Angeles County and other areas of the metropolitan region. Cantonese is the most common Chinese variety spoken among Chinese Canadians . According to the Canada 2016 census , there were 565,275 Canadian residents who reported Cantonese as their native language. Among the self-reported Cantonese speakers, 44% were born in Hong Kong, 27% were born in Guangdong Province in China, and 18% were Canadian-born. Cantonese-speakers can be found in every city with
4968-802: The 18th century rime dictionary Fenyun Cuoyao ( 分韻撮要 ; Fēnyùn Cuòyào ; Fan1 wan5 Cyut3 jiu3 ) and the 1828 Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect by the missionary Robert Morrison , were written in Guangzhou during this period of prosperity. After the First Opium War , centuries of maritime prohibitions ( 海禁 ; hǎijìn ; hoi2 gam3 ) ended. Large numbers of Cantonese people from the Pearl River Delta, especially merchants, subsequently migrated by boat to other parts of Guangdong and Guangxi. These migrants established enclaves of Cantonese in areas that primarily spoke other forms of Yue or even non-Sinitic languages such as Zhuang , for example in
5076-546: The 19th century. Later Chinese immigrants came from Hong Kong in two waves, first in the late 1960s to mid 1970s, and again in the 1980s to late 1990s on fears arising from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and impending handover to the People's Republic of China. Chinese-speaking immigrants from conflict zones in Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam, arrived as well, beginning in the mid-1970s and were also largely Cantonese-speaking. The overwhelming majority of Chinese speakers in
5184-782: The 2010 proposal put forth by Guangzhou Television , which called for an increase in Mandarin broadcasts at the expense of Cantonese programmes. This, however, resulted in protests in Guangzhou, which ultimately dissuaded the authorities from pursuing the proposal. Furthermore, there are reports of students being punished for speaking other Chinese languages at school, which has led to a reluctance among younger children to communicate in their native languages, including Cantonese. Such actions have further provoked Cantonese speakers to cherish their linguistic identity in contrast to migrants who have generally arrived from poorer areas of China and largely speak Mandarin or other Chinese languages. Due to
5292-488: The Australian Bureau of Statistics listed 336,410 and 263,673 speakers of Mandarin and Cantonese, respectively. By 2016, those numbers became 596,711 and 280,943. Spoken Chinese exhibits a multitude of regional and local varieties, many of which are mutually unintelligible . The majority of these varieties are not widely spoken outside of their native regions, although they may be encountered in other parts of
5400-471: The Beijing dialect, have a third sibilant series, formed through a merger of palatalized alveolar sibilants and velars, but this is a recent innovation, which has not affected Yue and other Chinese varieties. For example, 晶 , 精 , 經 and 京 are all pronounced as jīng in Mandarin, but in Cantonese the first pair is pronounced jīng , while the second pair is pronounced gīng . The earlier pronunciation
5508-568: The Beijing-based standard, with the syllables distributed across the other tones. For example, the characters 裔 , 屹 , 藝 , 憶 , 譯 , 懿 , 肄 , 翳 , 邑 , and 佚 are all pronounced yì in Mandarin, but they are all distinct in Yue: in Cantonese, yeuih , ngaht , ngaih , yīk , yihk , yi , yih , ai , yāp , and yaht , respectively. Similarly, in Mandarin dialects the Middle Chinese final /m/ has merged with /n/ , but
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#17327655619145616-514: The Cantonese authorities in the early In the 20th century, proponents of the regional uniqueness of their local language and the commercial importance of the region argued that Cantonese should be preserved. In contrast to other non-Mandarin Chinese varieties, Cantonese persists in a few state television and radio broadcasts today. Nevertheless, there have been recent efforts to reduce the use of Cantonese in China . The most notable of these has been
5724-477: The Cantonese made up the majority of the city's and province's Chinese Filipino residents, with some of them have residences in Metro Manila. They speak Cantonese and its dialects such as Taishanese at home or in their circles, though they also learned Hokkien —a community lingua franca and trade language among Chinese Filipinos—to interact with the majority of Chinese Filipinos for business purposes, even to
5832-631: The Chinatowns of San Francisco and Oakland , as well as the surrounding suburbs and metropolitan area, although since the late 2000s a concentration of Mandarin speakers has formed in Silicon Valley . In contrast, Southern California hosts a much larger Mandarin-speaking population, with Cantonese found in more historical Chinese communities such as that of Chinatown, Los Angeles , and older Chinese ethnoburbs such as San Gabriel , Rosemead , and Temple City . Mandarin predominates in much of
5940-552: The Chinese-run schools, colleges and universities currently employs Mandarin as the subject and medium of instruction for teaching Standard Chinese class subjects, often nearly replacing Hokkien and Cantonese, due to the mainland Chinese and Taiwanese influence in the country since the late 20th century. This also made Cantonese, Hokkien and other Chinese variants endangered languages in the country. However, there are efforts to preserve Cantonese Chinese culture and language in
6048-458: The Philippines by volunteers within the Cantonese community to teach it to younger fellow Cantonese. Over a period of 150 years (from 1850 to the 2000s), Guangdong has been the place-of-origin for most Chinese emigrants to Western nations; one coastal county, Taishan (or Tóisàn, where the Sìyì or sei yap variety of Yue is spoken), alone may be the origin of the vast majority of Chinese immigrants to
6156-591: The Tang dynasty collapsed, much of the area became part of the state of Southern Han , one of the longest-lived states of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms , between 917 and 971. Large waves of Chinese migration throughout succeeding Chinese dynasties assimilated huge numbers of Yue aborigines, with the result that today's Southern Han Chinese Yue-speaking population is descended from both groups. The colloquial layers of Yue varieties contain elements influenced by
6264-754: The Thai Chinese commercial sector, it serves as a common language alongside Teochew or Thai. Chinese-language schools in Thailand have also traditionally been conducted in Cantonese. Furthermore, Cantonese serves as the lingua franca with other Chinese communities in the region. In Indonesia , Cantonese is locally known as Konghu and is one of the variants spoken by the Chinese Indonesian community, with speakers largely concentrated in certain major cities like Jakarta , Medan , Surabaya , Makassar , Semarang , Manado and Batam . However, it has
6372-576: The U.S. before 1965. As a result, Yue languages such as Cantonese and the closely related variety of Taishanese have been the major Chinese varieties traditionally spoken in the United States. In 2009, 458,840 Americans spoke Cantonese at home according to an American Community Survey. The Zhongshan variant of Cantonese, which originated from the western Pearl River Delta, is spoken by many Chinese immigrants in Hawaii, and some in San Francisco and
6480-457: The United Kingdom use Cantonese, with about 300,000 British people claiming it as their first language. This is largely due to the presence of British Hong Kongers and the fact that many British Chinese also have origins in the former British colonies in Southeast Asia of Singapore and Malaysia. Among the Chinese community in France , Cantonese is spoken by immigrants who fled the former French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) following
6588-399: The Yue family either. They are among the most conservative varieties with regard to the final consonants and tonal categories of Middle Chinese , but have lost several distinctions in the initial consonants and medial glides that other Chinese varieties have retained. "Cantonese" is prototypically used in English to refer to the variety of Yue in Guangzhou, but it is also to refer to Yue as
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#17327655619146696-457: The city by hilly terrain. One of these coastal languages, Taishanese, is the most common Yue variety among overseas communities. Yue varieties are not totally mutually intelligible with one another. Yue Chinese is the most widely spoken local language in Guangdong . Its native speakers constitute around a half (47%) of its population. The other half is equally divided between Hakka and Min Chinese , mostly Teochew , but also Leizhounese . Yue
6804-434: The city of Guangzhou at the delta of the Pearl River . Cantonese, also spoken in Hong Kong and Macau, is the prestige variety of Yue. The influence of Guangzhou has spread westward along the Pearl River system, so that, for example, the speech of the city of Wuzhou some 190 km (120 mi) upstream in Guangxi is much more similar to that of Guangzhou than dialects of coastal districts that are closer but separated from
6912-467: The conflicts and communist takeovers in the region during the 1970s. While a slight majority of ethnic Chinese from Indochina speak Teochew at home, knowledge of Cantonese is prevalent due to its historic prestige status in the region and is used for commercial and community purposes between the different Chinese variety groups. As in the United States, there is a divide between Cantonese-speakers and those speaking other mainland Chinese varieties. Cantonese
7020-507: The different Chinese dialect groups. Many speakers reflect their exposure to Vietnamese with a Vietnamese accent or a tendency to code-switch between Cantonese and Vietnamese. In Malaysia , Cantonese is widely spoken among the Malaysian Chinese community in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding areas in the Klang Valley ( Petaling Jaya , Ampang , Putrajaya , Cheras , Selayang , Sungai Buloh , Puchong , Shah Alam , Kajang , Bangi , and Subang Jaya ). The language
7128-443: The distinction is maintained in southern varieties of Chinese such as Hakka , Min and Yue. For example, Cantonese has 譚 ; taahm and 壇 ; tàahn versus Mandarin tán , 鹽 ; yìhm and 言 ; yìhn versus Mandarin yán , 添 ; tìm and 天 ; tìn versus Mandarin tiān , and 含 ; hàhm and 寒 ; hòhn versus Mandarin hán . Middle Chinese is described in contemporary dictionaries as having four tones , where
7236-405: The early 1900s. Cantonese remained a dominant and influential language in southeastern China until the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and its promotion of Standard Mandarin Chinese as the sole official language of the nation throughout the last half of the 20th century, although its influence still remains strong within the region. While the Chinese government encourages
7344-409: The eastern Sabahan town of Sandakan as well as the towns of Kuantan , Raub , Bentong , Temerloh , Pekan , Jerantut as well as Cameron Highlands in Pahang state, and they are also found in other areas like Sarikei , Sarawak, and Mersing , Johor. Although Hokkien is the most natively spoken variety of Chinese and Mandarin is the medium of education at Chinese-language schools , Cantonese
7452-416: The ethnic Chinese population of the two territories largely originated from the 19th and 20th century immigration from Guangzhou and surrounding areas, making Cantonese the predominant Chinese language in the territories. On the mainland, Cantonese continued to serve as the lingua franca of Guangdong and Guangxi even after Mandarin was made the official language of the government by the Qing dynasty in
7560-535: The expense of other Chinese varieties. A little over 15% of Chinese households in Singapore speak Cantonese. Despite the government actively promoting SMC, the Cantonese-speaking Chinese community has been relatively successful in preserving its language from Mandarin compared with other dialect groups. Notably, all nationally produced non-Mandarin Chinese TV and radio programs were stopped after 1979. The prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew , then, also stopped giving speeches in Hokkien to prevent giving conflicting signals to
7668-409: The fourth category, the entering tone, consists of syllables with final stops. Many modern Chinese varieties contain traces of a split of each of these four tones into two registers, an upper or yīn register from voiceless initials and a lower or yáng register from voiced initials. Most Mandarin dialects retain the register distinction only in the level tone, yielding the first and second tones of
7776-476: The language is referred to as "Guangdong speech" or "Canton Province Speech" ( 廣東話 ; 广东话 ; Gwong2 dung1 waa2 ; Gwóngdùng wá ) or simply as "Chinese" ( 中文 ; Zung1 man2 ; Jùngmán ). During the Southern Song period, Guangzhou became the cultural center of the region. Cantonese emerged as the prestige variety of Yue Chinese when the port city of Guangzhou on the Pearl River Delta became
7884-582: The largest port in China, with a trade network stretching as far as Arabia. Specifically, the mutually intelligible speech of the Sam Yap ( 三邑 ; Sānyì ; Sam1 jap1 ), the Three Counties of Guangzhou, namely the historical counties of Panyu ( 番禺 ), Nanhai ( 南海 ), and Shunde ( 顺德 ), came to be heralded as the standard. Cantonese was also used in the popular Yuè'ōu , Mùyú and Nányīn folksong genres, as well as Cantonese opera . Additionally,
7992-478: The linguistic history of Hong Kong and Macau , and the use of Cantonese in many established overseas Chinese communities, the use of Cantonese is quite widespread compared to the presence of its speakers residing in China. Cantonese is the predominant Chinese variety spoken in Hong Kong and Macau. In these areas, public discourse takes place almost exclusively in Cantonese, making it the only variety of Chinese other than Mandarin to be used as an official language in
8100-537: The most common Yue variety in these areas. It is only partially understood by speakers of Cantonese. Yue varieties are among the most conservative of Chinese varieties regarding the final consonants and tonal categories of Middle Chinese , so that the rhymes of Tang poetry are clearer in Yue dialects than elsewhere. However they have lost several distinctions in the initial consonants and medial vowels that other Chinese varieties have retained. In addition to aspirated and unaspirated voiceless initials, Middle Chinese had
8208-547: The nation. Chinese-language schools in Cambodia are conducted in both Cantonese and Mandarin, but schools may be conducted exclusively in one Chinese variant or the other. While Thailand is home to the largest overseas Chinese community in the world, the vast majority of ethnic Chinese in the country speak Thai exclusively. Among Chinese-speaking Thai households, Cantonese is the fourth most-spoken Chinese variety after Teochew , Hakka and Hainanese . Nevertheless, within
8316-522: The native name of the dialect, "Hoisan". In Siyi and eastern Gao–Yang, Middle Chinese /s/ has become a voiceless lateral fricative [ɬ] . Most Yue varieties have merged the Middle Chinese retroflex sibilants with the alveolar sibilants, in contrast with Mandarin dialects , which have generally maintained the distinction. For example, the words 將 ; jiāng and 張 ; zhāng are distinguished in Mandarin, but in modern Cantonese they are both pronounced as jēung . Many Mandarin varieties, including
8424-487: The official variety of Chinese in Hong Kong and Macau, both during and after the colonial period, under the policy of ' biliteracy and trilingualism ' ( Chinese : 兩文三語 ; pinyin : liǎngwén sānyǔ ; Jyutping : loeng3 man4 saam1 jyu5 ). Government and law still function predominantly in Cantonese in these jurisdictions, and officials speak Cantonese even at the most formal occasions. The official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in
8532-423: The other regions of China, local identity, and the non-Mandarin speaking Cantonese diaspora in Hong Kong and abroad give the language a unique identity. Colloquial Hong Kong Cantonese often incorporates English words due to historical British influences. Most wuxia films from Canton are filmed originally in Cantonese and then dubbed or subtitled in Mandarin, English, or both. When the Chinese government removed
8640-496: The people. Hong Kong (Cantonese) and Taiwanese dramas are unavailable in their untranslated form on free-to-air television, though drama series in non-Chinese languages are available in their original languages. Cantonese drama series on terrestrial TV channels are instead dubbed in Mandarin and broadcast without the original Cantonese audio and soundtrack. However, originals may be available through other sources like cable television and online videos. Furthermore, an offshoot of SMC
8748-617: The point of assimilating into their Fujianese neighbors, as well as Spanish , English and Philippine languages such as Tagalog / Filipino , Cebuano and Ilocano . Like the Fujianese, newer generations of Chinese Filipinos of Cantonese descent barely speak Cantonese or Hokkien as their second or third languages or none at all due to assimilation into the local Filipino population over the years, making Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages such as Cebuano and Ilocano as their first languages and English as second. Additionally, most of
8856-474: The population of Hong Kong and Macau arrived from Guangzhou and surrounding areas after they were ceded to Britain and Portugal , respectively. The influx of such migrants into Hong Kong established Cantonese as the main language of the city, supplanting local Yue Chinese varieties, which were closer to the dialects of neighboring Shenzhen and Dongguan , as well as the Hakka and Southern Min varieties of
8964-492: The port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China. Due to the city's long standing role as an important cultural center, Cantonese emerged as the prestige dialect of the Yue varieties of Chinese in the Southern Song dynasty and its usage spread around most of what is now the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi . Despite the cession of Hong Kong to Britain in 1842 and Macau to Portugal in 1887,
9072-787: The primary Chinese variety spoken. Socioeconomic statuses are also a factor. For example, in New York City, Cantonese still predominates in the city's older, traditional western portion of Chinatown in Manhattan and in Brooklyn's small new Chinatowns in Bensonhurst and Homecrest . The newly emerged Little Fuzhou eastern portion of Manhattan's Chinatown and Brooklyn's main large Chinatown in and around Sunset Park are mostly populated by Fuzhounese speakers , who often speak Mandarin as well. The Cantonese and Fuzhounese enclaves in New York City are more working class. However, due to
9180-436: The primary cultural center for New York City's Chinese population and are more middle class. While a number of more-established Taiwanese immigrants have learned Cantonese to foster relations with the traditional Cantonese-speaking Chinese American population, more recent arrivals and the larger number of mainland Chinese immigrants have largely continued to use Mandarin as the exclusive variety of Chinese. This has led to
9288-508: The prohibition on emigration in the mid-19th century, many people from rural areas in the coastal regions of Fujian and Guangdong emigrated to Southeast Asia and North America. Until the late 20th century, the vast majority of Chinese immigrants to North America came from the Siyi ('four counties') to the southwest of Guangzhou. The speech of this region, particularly the Taishan dialect, is thus
9396-410: The provenance of the prestige accent of Cantonese: that of the district of Xiguan ( 西关 ; 西關 ; Xīguān ; Sai1 Gwaan1 ) in the west of Guangzhou. It is known for its distinctive use of an apical vowel ( /ɿ/ , or in more conventional IPA : /ź̩~ɯ~ɨ/ ) in some cases where modern Cantonese would use a /i/ final. Throughout the 19th century and continuing into the 1900s, the ancestors of most of
9504-564: The rapid gentrification of Manhattan's Chinatown and with NYC's Cantonese and Fuzhou populations now increasingly shifting to other Chinese enclaves in the Outer Boroughs of NYC , such as Brooklyn and Queens , but mainly in Brooklyn's newer Chinatowns, the Cantonese speaking population in NYC is now increasingly concentrated in Bensonhurst's Little Hong Kong/Guangdong and Homecrest's Little Hong Kong/Guangdong . The Fuzhou population of NYC
9612-481: The region. With subsequent waves of migration into Hong Kong, even as late as the 1950s, the proportion of Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong had not yet surpassed 50%; nonetheless, this figure has risen to above 90% since the 1970s. On the other hand, the indigenous variety of Yue Chinese in Macau had been close to that of Zhongshan , and this has had an effect on the tonal phonology of the Cantonese spoken in Macau. As
9720-514: The rest of mainland China and Taiwan and most often speak Standard Mandarin (Putonghua) as their native language, although some may also speak their native local variety, such as Shanghainese , Hokkien , Fuzhounese , Hakka , etc. As a result, Mandarin is becoming more common among the Chinese American community. The increase of Mandarin-speaking communities has resulted in the rise of separate neighborhoods or enclaves segregated by
9828-432: The rise of Mandarin. The most popular romanization for learning Cantonese in the United States is Yale romanization . The majority of Chinese emigrants have traditionally originated from Guangdong and Guangxi, as well as Hong Kong and Macau (beginning in the latter half of the 20th century and before the handover ) and Southeast Asia, with Cantonese as their native language. However, more recent immigrants are arriving from
9936-700: The rounded medial /w/ has merged with the following vowel to form a monophthong , except after velar initials. In most analyses velars followed by /w/ are treated as labio-velars . Most Yue varieties have retained the Middle Chinese palatal medial, but in Cantonese it has also been lost to monophthongization, yielding a variety of vowels. Middle Chinese syllables could end with glides /j/ or /w/ , nasals /m/ , /n/ or /ŋ/ , or stops /p/ , /t/ or /k/ . Syllables with vocalic or nasal endings could occur with one of three tonal contours, called 平 ; 'level', 上 ; 'rising', or 去 ; 'departing'. Syllables with final stops were traditionally treated as
10044-577: The standard language (corresponding to the first and fourth tones in Cantonese), but have merged several of the other categories. Most Yue dialects have retained all eight categories, with a further split of the upper entering tone conditioned by vowel length, as also found in neighbouring Tai dialects. A few dialects spoken in Guangxi, such as the Bobai dialect , have also split the lower entering tone. While most Chinese varieties form compounds consisting of
10152-532: The terms 粵語 ; Yuhtyúh ; 'Yue language' [jỳt jy̬ː] and 白話 ; baahkwá (plain/colloquial speech) [pàːk wǎː] ; for example, the expression 南寧白話 ; Nàahmnìhng baahkwá means 'Nanning colloquial speech'. The area of China south of the Nanling Mountains , known as the Lingnan (roughly modern Guangxi and Guangdong), was originally home to peoples known to the Chinese as
10260-470: The territory was ceded to Britain in 1842. As a result, Hong Kong Cantonese , the most widely spoken language in Hong Kong and Macau, is an offshoot of the Guangzhou dialect. The popularity of Cantonese-language media, Cantopop and the Cinema of Hong Kong has since led to substantial exposure of Cantonese to China and the rest of Asia. On the mainland, the national policy is to promote Standard Chinese, which
10368-402: The two varieties. A noteworthy distinction between Cantonese and Mandarin is the manner in which the spoken word is written. Both languages can be recorded verbatim, yet a paucity of Cantonese speakers possess comprehensive knowledge of the written vocabulary. Consequently, a non-verbatim formalised written form is adopted, which bears resemblance to the written Standard Mandarin . However, it
10476-456: The use of Standard Mandarin rather than local varieties of Chinese in broadcasts, Cantonese enjoys a relatively higher standing than other Chinese languages, with its own media and usage in public transportation in Guangdong province. Furthermore, it is also a medium of instruction in select academic curricula, including some university elective courses and Chinese as a foreign language programs. The permitted usage of Cantonese in mainland China
10584-689: The valley of the Xi Jiang . A secondary route followed the Gan River and then the Bei Jiang into eastern Guangdong. Yue-speakers were later joined by Hakka speakers following the North River route, and Min speakers arriving by sea. After the fall of Qin, the Lingnan area was part of the independent state of Nanyue for about a century, before being incorporated into the Han empire in 111 BC. After
10692-561: The way the Yong–Xun Yue dialect of Nanning emerged. Many Cantonese migrants sailed overseas, bringing the Cantonese language with the overseas Chinese to Southeast Asia, North and South America, and Western Europe. Such enclaves of Cantonese are found in Chinatowns across many of these major cities outside China. During the late 19th century, the pedagogical work Cantonese made easy , written by James Dyer Ball in 1883, articulated
10800-450: The world. Additionally, numerous varieties possess both literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters for newer standard reading sounds. Since a 1909 decree of the Qing dynasty , the government of China has promoted Mandarin for use in education, the media, and official communications. However, the proclamation of Mandarin as the official national language was not fully accepted by
10908-464: The world. Because of their dominance in Chinese diaspora overseas, standard Cantonese and its dialect Taishanese are among the most common Chinese languages that one may encounter in the West. Increasingly since the 1997 handover , Cantonese has been used as a symbol of local identity in Hong Kong, largely through the development of democracy in the territory and desinicization practices to emphasise
11016-470: Was abandoned following massive public protests, the largest since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 . As a major economic center of China, there have been concerns that the use of Cantonese in Guangzhou is diminishing in favour of Mandarin, both through the continual influx of Mandarin-speaking migrants from impoverished areas and strict government policies. As a result, Cantonese is being given
11124-584: Was also a small amount of vernacular literature, written with Chinese characters extended with a number of non-traditional characters for Cantonese words. Guangzhou became the centre of rapidly expanding foreign trade after the maritime ban was lifted, with the British East India Company establishing a chamber of commerce in the city in 1715. The ancestors of most of the Han Chinese population of Hong Kong came from Guangzhou after
11232-437: Was maintained in mass media, with films from the 1930s making prominent use of it. However, during this time many phonological changes can be detected, indicating the change from Early Cantonese to Modern Cantonese. In mainland China, Standard Mandarin has been heavily promoted as the medium of instruction in schools and as the official language, especially after the communist takeover in 1949. Meanwhile, Cantonese has remained
11340-599: Was often referred to in English as "the Canton dialect". However, "Cantonese" may also refer to the primary branch of Chinese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang ; this broader usage may be specified as " Yue speech " ( 粵語 ; 粤语 ; Jyut6 jyu5 ; Yuhtyúh ). In this article, "Cantonese" is used for Cantonese proper. Historically, speakers called this variety "Canton speech" ( 廣州話 ; 广州话 ; Gwong2 zau1 waa2 ; Gwóngjàu wá ), although this term
11448-496: Was relaxed in the mid-1990s and 2000s, presence of Cantonese in Singapore has grown substantially. Forms of popular culture from Hong Kong, like television series , cinema and pop music have become popular in Singaporean society, and non-dubbed original versions of the media became widely available. Consequently, the number of non-Cantonese Chinese Singaporeans being able to understand or speak Cantonese to some varying extent
11556-529: Was the dominant Chinese language of the Chinese Australian community from the time the first ethnic Chinese settlers arrived in the 1850s until the mid-2000s, when a heavy increase in immigration from Mandarin-speakers largely from mainland China led to Mandarin surpassing Cantonese as the dominant Chinese dialect spoken. Cantonese is the third most-spoken language in Australia. In the 2011 census,
11664-435: Was the largest port in China, part of a trade network stretching as far as Arabia. During the Southern Song , it also became the cultural centre of the region. Like many other Chinese varieties it developed a distinct literary layer associated with the local tradition of reading the classics. The Guangzhou dialect (Cantonese) was used in the popular Yuèōu , Mùyú and Nányīn folksong genres, as well as Cantonese opera . There
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