Note: Cantonese, which is called Cantonese and Guangfu dialect in Guangdong and vernacular in Guangxi, is a kind of tonal language and belongs to Sino-Tibetan Chinese dialect? . It is the mother tongue of Guangfu people in Guangdong and Cantonese people in Guangxi. Widely used in central and western Guangdong, southeastern Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macao and some countries or regions in South China and Southeast Asia, as well as overseas Chinese communities.

There are some sayings about the origin of Cantonese, such as the elegant words of the Central Plains in the north and the Chu language of Chu State. From the Han Dynasty to the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Han nationality in the Central Plains moved to Lingnan continuously, which promoted the development and stereotypes of Cantonese. Cantonese has not changed much since Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties? .

Cantonese is one of the southern dialects that retain many components of medieval sounds. The most prominent feature is that it completely retains the common entering tones of medieval sounds, and the initial consonants, vowels and tones are highly consistent with the Standard Rhyme Book of Ancient Chinese.

Chen Li, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, believes that the tone of Guangzhou dialect is consistent with the rhyme book Qieyun in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, because "people from the Central Plains have moved to Guangzhou for more than a thousand years, and now it is the voice of the Central Plains in the Sui and Tang Dynasties." Nan huaijin, a master of Chinese studies, believes that Cantonese is the national language of the Tang Dynasty.

Cantonese is mainly distributed in the central and western Guangdong Province, southeastern Guangxi, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region, Hainan Province and overseas Chinese communities in Australia, Singapore, North America, Southeast Asia and other countries. There are many people who use Cantonese all over the world, including about 67 million people in Guangdong Province.