At present, the global population speaking Cantonese is about 70 million. This figure ranks third among the language-using population in China (the first is Mandarin, about 800 million; Followed by Wu language, about 80 million), ranking sixteenth in the world. Although the population is less than that of Putonghua, which is the representative of Putonghua, Cantonese is widely used in overseas Chinese communities, which supports a bright and powerful Cantonese culture centered on Hong Kong culture and makes Cantonese have great influence and vitality. It can be said that Cantonese is one of the main languages with great vitality in the world at present.
Cantonese accent is a recognized standard accent in Cantonese. However, with the influx of a large number of migrants in recent years, the migrants in some cities in Guangdong are far more than the local population, followed by a large increase in Putonghua users (mainly migrants), which constantly occupies the use space of Cantonese, and the Guangdong provincial government has not paid enough attention to Cantonese and local culture, so the central city of Cantonese culture has actually gradually moved from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. In addition, after 1949, the chances of interaction between Cantonese in Guangzhou and Putonghua increased, while Cantonese in Hong Kong was less influenced by Putonghua, and more vocabulary and habits before 1949 were retained, which was closer to the original language. This makes Cantonese in Hong Kong another recognized standard. But overall, the difference between Hong Kong Cantonese and Guangzhou Cantonese is still very small.
The main features of Cantonese
[Editor] A large number of elements of ancient Chinese have been preserved.
This is manifested in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and so on. Phonologically, Cantonese retains many archaic sounds. For example, for the two words "I" and "Hungry" in Cantonese, the nasal initials are ng- (retaining the original sound of the Middle Ages). In terms of tone, Cantonese completely retains the tone pattern of the middle ancient tones, namely, flat tone, rising tone, falling tone and entering tone, and also derives a middle entering tone from the yin entering tone, which is the most complete language to retain the entering tone of ancient Chinese. Cantonese contains six vowels-P, -t, -k, -n, -m and -ng, and there is no tongue curl, tongue curl and light tone in the northern dialect (these characteristics of the northern dialect were developed after the Middle Ages, and Cantonese did not follow these changes). In terms of vocabulary, Cantonese retains more ancient words with quaint wording. In the northern dialect, these ancient words have been abandoned or rarely used. For example, in Cantonese, "sticky" means "stork" and "police officer" means "police officer". Many words in Cantonese, including modal particles, can be found directly in China ancient books. Grammatically, the postposition of modifiers, the addition of "a" before a person's name to indicate intimacy, and the inversion of "rooster" into "rooster" are all remnants of ancient Chinese characteristics.
[Editor] Keep more of the bottom ingredients of ancient South Vietnam.
Han people who moved south to Lingnan in ancient times lived with "Nanyue people" for a long time, and their languages, cultures, customs and other aspects unconsciously infiltrated each other. Cantonese has elements of both ancient Chinese and ancient South Vietnam, which is the result of the mutual integration of the two ethnic groups. Modern Cantonese still contains many elements of ancient "South Vietnam", mainly in vocabulary. For example, in Cantonese, "what" means "this", "well" means "no", "shrimp" means "bullying" and "bian" means "where". This is the legacy of the bottom word of Ancient Vietnamese. The bottom of ancient Vietnamese is very important in Cantonese. If it is removed, Cantonese will be seriously "disabled" and cannot normally realize the language function of expression and communication.
[Editor] Absorbed more foreign words.
Cantonese loanwords mainly come from English. Hong Kong Cantonese absorbs many foreign words, which strongly influences Cantonese. Many of these loanwords are not absorbed in Mandarin, such as "store" and "shop" in Mandarin. Some have absorbed Mandarin, but their translations are different. For example, "salad" in Mandarin is translated into "salad" in Cantonese. Since1980s, with the development of Hong Kong people and Cantonese people going northward, many Cantonese loanwords, such as "bus" and "tips", have gradually entered Putonghua. Sometimes, these words are even combined with the original Mandarin to form new words. For example, "taxi" is a new word transformed from "taxi" (not called "taxi" in Hong Kong, but called "taking a taxi" or "stopping a car"). English words are often used directly in Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong. For example, "file" is usually replaced by "fai-lo" and "feel" is replaced by "feel". The policeman or teacher is called "sir" (the policewoman is called "madam" and the teacher is called "miss"), and overtime is called "open". Frequently used English words are often converted into Cantonese loanwords. This kind of English vocabulary is also used more and more in Guangdong Cantonese.
[Editor] There are a lot of unique words.
In the development of Cantonese, there are many unique words, some of which are still in use today, which has become another feature of Cantonese. More than 50% of the words in everyday language are different from those in Mandarin. In the field of science and technology, the difference is relatively low, less than 10%.
Examples of vocabulary comparison between Cantonese and Chinese: Cantonese standard Chinese Cantonese standard Chinese Cantonese standard Chinese Cantonese standard Chinese Cantonese standard Chinese Cantonese standard Chinese Cantonese standard Chinese Cantonese standard Chinese Cantonese standard.
A midnight snack is better than a toast. Many ghosts plan labor remuneration and wages.
Willing to boil water, kerosene, flowers, bottles, vases, 10 thousand safes, mental disorders, mental disorders
I'm glad I'm young and promising. I'm going to the refrigerator, salty, wet, lewd and dirty.
Guest, guest, old Dou's father, Trenton, deliberately inflated his brother's son of a bitch, helpless.
Find some crispy shrimp. Baby is proud and cute. Explain why they fell into sin and suffered.
Being straight is simply asking yourself to be satisfied at will. Luo pomelo's ass is buried with peace and harmony. Follow.
Anyway, the drawers of cabinets, barrels and drawers are so colorful. Fortunately, the monkeys think about it and think about it.
Households waste wallets, cockroaches grow radishes and get frostbite.
Be careful of the old boss's familiar soapy face.
The suitcase is calm and easy, even if it is disrespectful, go for a ride.
A candle burns a prairie fire, and a clever tongue is like a spring to save the mirror, but people can't understand it. Don't you rent a landlady?
Second, I don't want to thank you for your sharp interests. Big trouble.
Close your eyes, worry, draw scales, criticize, chat, hinge, scissors, fans, supporters
Electric switch button, wheel, wheel, steering wheel, silly.
Joan froze, cried, cried and got angry, breathing to the frog.
Dragging naughty mark. Trademarks are shaky, confusing and confusing.
Unique sentence patterns and grammar
There are many inversions of modifiers and many special sentence patterns in Cantonese grammar.
[Editor] The pronunciation system is complicated.
Cantonese has a rather complicated tone system, which is quite different from Mandarin (Mandarin dialect). In Cantonese, the entering tone of ancient Chinese is quite well preserved, and it is also divided into middle entering from yin entering and yang entering. Standard Cantonese has nine tones, namely, flat tone, rising tone, rising tone, falling tone, disyllabic, disyllabic, disyllabic, disyllabic, disyllabic, disyllabic and disyllabic. For the pronunciation and spelling of Cantonese, please refer to the Romanization Scheme of Cantonese (Cantonese Pinyin or Romanization).
[Editor] The writing system of Cantonese
Modern Cantonese generally adopts the writing system of modern Chinese vernacular, which emerged in the early 20th century, in formal occasions, and its grammar and vocabulary are the same as those of written Mandarin.
In addition, there is a widely circulated Cantonese writing system, whose vocabulary, grammar and sentence patterns are consistent with those of spoken Cantonese, and a large number of Cantonese words are used (about 5,000 Cantonese words are included in the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set), such as "Bo", "Xu", "Yi" and "Yue". In the latest version of the supplementary character set, some so-called "dirty words" are further included. This practice is questioned because swearing is a common taboo in society, although it is often used by the lower classes in daily conversations. But when it comes to academic level, "swearing" is not universally recognized. On the other hand, the Hong Kong government said that adding "dirty words" is convenient for the police to use when taking confessions. No matter who is right or wrong, with this supplementary character set, almost all the unique pronunciations of Cantonese can be written.
[Editor] Cantonese
Cantonese contains several dialects. Cantonese is now generally divided into the following dialects:
Guangdong dialect movies
Guangzhou dialect (also known as Guangfu dialect, guangzhou fu was established in Guangzhou in the late Qing Dynasty).
Nanfanshun dialect
Dongguan dialect
(Modern) Hong Kong Dialect
Siyi dialect
Movies in Levin dialect
Rock slices in southern Guangxi
Wu Chuanhua
Jijiahua
[Editor] Guangdong Dialect Film
[Editor] Cantonese
Guangzhou dialect is a typical representative of Cantonese. However, Cantonese itself is constantly changing and developing. The words used in Guangzhou dialect before 1949 are more quaint than those used later, and are less influenced by northern dialects. The characteristic of Guangzhou dialect is that "four" and "death" are pronounced with [sz] instead of [sei].
[Editor] Nanfanshun dialect
Guangzhou itself is composed of Panyu and a part of the South China Sea, so Guangzhou dialect can actually be regarded as a special case of Nanfanshun dialect. The dialects of Guangzhou, Panyu and Nanhai are similar, but the pronunciation of many words in Shunde is different from other places, such as: "concave" is not pronounced [l? P] and read [n? p]； Eating is not eating, but eating.
[Editor] Zhongshan Dialect
Shiqi Dialect is mainly popular in Zhongshan City and Shi Qi, Guangdong Province. It is similar to Guangzhou Dialect, but different. Compared with Guangzhou dialect, the names or generic terms of some things have their own uniqueness. Shiqi people in Zhongshan can understand and speak standard Guangzhou dialect, but Guangzhou people or Hong Kong people may not be able to speak and understand Shiqi dialect accurately. For example, in Guangzhou dialect, "sleep" (meaning sleep) is called "sleep" in Shiqi dialect, and "training" is also used when speaking Shiqi dialect; Guangzhou dialect is "Touxian" (meaning just now), Shiqi dialect is called "Gengsi", and it is also used when it comes to Shiqi dialect. In addition, there are some differences in accent between Shiqi dialect and Guangzhou dialect.
[Editor] Hong Kong dialect
Before 1949, Hong Kong dialect had a strong Hakka accent because natives and Hakkas lived together. Among them, Jintian dialect is representative.
After 1949, due to the influx of immigrants from other places, especially from Indonesia and Fujian, and the influence of English, Hong Kong dialect has more lazy sounds than other Cantonese dialects. Today, lazy sounds seem to have become the characteristics of Cantonese in Hong Kong, among which the disappearance of nasal sounds (that is, n/l is difficult to distinguish) and W- awkward sounds are the most obvious. The new generation of young people generally read "you" [nei] and "I" [ngo] as [lei] and [o]. Misread "Guo" as "[gok]" and "Guo" as "[goh]". This common lazy voice even affected the development of so-called "Hong Kong English". For example, "[nain]" in English, which means the number 9, is often read as [laai] in Cantonese; Quota? ] Do more ['kot? ]。 But on the whole, Hong Kong dialect is still very close to Guangzhou dialect.
English is more popular in Hong Kong. In the past, Hong Kong usually came into contact with foreign new things before the mainland. In the past, the lower classes who didn't know English spelled everyday English words in Cantonese, so English loanwords in Cantonese are very common in Hong Kong. For example, the floor coiler is called foreman, the brake is called brake, the bearing is called bearing, the strawberry is called strawberry, and so on. Many old people still refer to stamps as stamps and insurance as insurance. These authentic expressions may confuse foreign users in China.
[Editor] Dongguan Dialect
[Editor] Luoguang Dialect Film
Sihui, Luoding, Guangning, Huaiji, Fengkai, Deqing, Yunan, Yangshan and Lianshan.
[Editor] Sisi Lee Dialect Film
Siyi dialect refers to the dialects of Xinhui, Enping, Kaiping and Taishan, among which Taishan dialect is the representative. Half of Zhuhai people speak Cantonese (especially in Doumen area), while other areas use Xiangshan Cantonese. Siyi dialect is far from Guangzhou dialect.
[Editor] Levin Dialect Film
Levin dialect refers to the dialects around Yangjiang and Leizhou Peninsula.
[Editor in Charge] Guinan Film
Mainly distributed in southeastern Guangxi. Take the county in northeast Guangxi to Nanning and Pingxiang in south Guangxi as the dividing line. Cantonese is mainly spoken in the southeast of Guangxi, accounting for almost one-third of the total area of Guangxi; Mandarin is mainly spoken in the northwest of the line. Cantonese in Guangxi is similar to Cantonese in Guangzhou, and everyone can understand it. However, in the early days, some Cantonese residents moved to ethnic minority areas, absorbed ethnic minority language elements, and formed dialects that were quite different from Guangzhou dialect, such as Goulou Cantonese. It mainly includes Yongxun Cantonese, Wuzhou Cantonese, Goulou Cantonese and Qinlian Cantonese. The classification is as follows:
[Editor] Yongxun Cantonese (Nanning Dialect)
Close to Wuzhou Cantonese. Mainly popular in towns with convenient transportation on both sides of Yongzhou and Zhou Xun, such as Nanning, Yongning, Chongzuo, Ningming, Hengxian, pingnan county and parts of Liuzhou. Take Nanning as the representative point.
[Editor] Wuzhou Cantonese (Wuzhou Dialect)
Very close to Guangzhou dialect. They are mainly distributed in Wuzhou City, Daan, Danzhu and Wulin in Pingnan County, Jintian Town in Guiping County and Cangwu County, and Hexian County and its vicinity. The internal differences are very small. Represented by Wuzhou dialect, the phonetic system has 2 1 initials and 46 finals.
[Editor] Goulou Cantonese (Yulin Dialect)
Mainly distributed in Yulin and Wuzhou (except Pingnan County and Guiping County) 13 counties and cities. The phonology is complex, with 10 tones. There are rare voiced initials B and D in other dialects of Cantonese. The endings of many words are lost, such as "two" pronounced as [lar]. And the vocabulary is also very distinctive. It is very different from Guangzhou dialect, so it is difficult for both of them to communicate. 525252525
[Editor] Qinlian Cantonese (Qinlian Dialect)
It is basically the same as Yongxun Cantonese, with little internal difference. Mainly distributed in Qinzhou City, Hepu County (formerly known as Lianzhou), Pubei County, Fangcheng County, Lingshan and Beihai City.
[Editor] Wuchuan Dialect
Distributed in Wuchuan City and Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province.
[Editor] Ji Jiahua
Qijia dialect, also known as Huashui dialect, is widely used in boathouse and Guangdong and Guangxi regions.
[Editor] On the Relationship between Cantonese, Cantonese and Cantonese
The English word Canton appeared in17th century BC, which was a transliteration of Cantonese and then referred to Guangdong. Panyu (now Guangzhou) was ruled by Guangdong at that time. Westerners call Panyu Canton, and the English word Canton means "Cantonese". Later, the Qing government banned foreigners from going deep into Guangdong for trade and missionary work, and only allowed them to live in Panyu. Gradually Canton became only Panyu, while Canton specifically refers to "Cantonese". However, now people generally understand Cantonese as Cantonese, that is, Cantonese. In fact, Guangdong has other languages besides mainstream Cantonese.
[editor] comment
Note 1: linguists generally believe that if there is no direct communication between two texts, then the two texts belong to two different languages; If there are big or small differences between them, but they can talk directly, they belong to two different dialects of the same language. According to this classification standard, Cantonese and Mandarin are completely inseparable and should be classified as two different languages. However, it is generally believed that due to some political factors, most linguists in China classify Cantonese as a dialect of Chinese. On the other hand, we have to admit that if we strictly follow the traditional standards, there will be many more languages in China. Generally speaking, with the standardization of Cantonese, it is more and more likely to be truly independent as a language.