Cantonese linguistics - Written Cantonese

Cantonese (Traditional Chinese: 粵語; Simplified Chinese: 粤语, Cantonese: Yuet6yue5; Mandarin pinyin: Yueyu, lit. "Yụet (Guangdong) language") is one of the major dialect groups or languages of the Chinese language or language family. It is mainly spoken in the south-eastern part of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, by the Chinese minorities in Southeast Asia and by many overseas Chinese of Cantonese origin worldwide. The name is derived from Canton, a former romanized Western name for Guangzhou, the ...

Including:

• Cantonese linguistics - Dialects of Cantonese
• Cantonese linguistics - Phonology
• Cantonese linguistics - Cantonese versus Mandarin
• Cantonese linguistics - Written Cantonese

Read more here: » Cantonese linguistics: Encyclopedia - Cantonese linguistics

Standard written Chinese is, in essence, written Standard Mandarin. People who speak another Chinese language (or dialect), when reading aloud, usually use their language's sound values for the characters. However, this written language sounds stilted and unnatural. Unusual for a regional (i.e., non-Mandarin) Chinese language, Cantonese has a written form, including many unique characters that are not found in standard written Chinese. Readers who do not know Cantonese often find written Cantonese odd, and even unintelligible in parts. Howev ...

See also:

Cantonese linguistics, Cantonese linguistics - Dialects of Cantonese, Cantonese linguistics - Phonology, Cantonese linguistics - Cantonese versus Mandarin, Cantonese linguistics - Written Cantonese

Read more here: » Cantonese linguistics: Encyclopedia II - Cantonese linguistics - Written Cantonese

In some ways, Cantonese is a more conservative language than Mandarin. This can be seen, for example, by comparing the words for "I/me" (我) and "hunger" (餓). They are written using very similar characters, but in Mandarin their pronunciation is quite different ("wǒ" vs. "è"), whereas in Cantonese they are pronounced identically except for their tones (ngo5 vs ngo6 respectively). Since the characters hint at a similar pronunciation, it can be assumed that their ancient pronunciation was indeed similar, but in Mandarin the two syllables ...

See also:

Cantonese linguistics, Cantonese linguistics - Dialects of Cantonese, Cantonese linguistics - Phonology, Cantonese linguistics - Cantonese versus Mandarin, Cantonese linguistics - Written Cantonese

Read more here: » Cantonese linguistics: Encyclopedia II - Cantonese linguistics - Cantonese versus Mandarin

There are at least four major dialect groups of Cantonese: Yuehai, which includes the dialect spoken in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau as well as the dialects of Zhongshan, and Dongguan; Sìyì (四邑, sei yap), exemplified by Taishan dialect, which used to be ubiquitous in American Chinatowns before 1970; Gaoyang, as spoken in Yangjiang; and Guinan 桂南(Nanning dialect) spoken widely in Guangxi. Ho ...

See also:

Cantonese linguistics, Cantonese linguistics - Dialects of Cantonese, Cantonese linguistics - Phonology, Cantonese linguistics - Cantonese versus Mandarin, Cantonese linguistics - Written Cantonese

Read more here: » Cantonese linguistics: Encyclopedia II - Cantonese linguistics - Dialects of Cantonese