Gwóngdūng wá written in traditional Chinese (left) and simplified Chinese (right) characters
Native to
China, Hong Kong, Macau, and overseas communities
Region
Guangdong, eastern Guangxi
Language family
Sino-Tibetan
Sinitic
Chinese
Yue
Yuehai
Cantonese
Early forms
Proto-Sino-Tibetan
Old Chinese
Eastern Han Chinese
Middle Chinese
Dialects
Xiguan
Hong Kong
Writing system
Written Cantonese
Cantonese Braille
Written Chinese
Official status
Official language in
Hong Kong
Macau
Language codes
ISO 639-3
yue (superset for all Yue dialects)
Glottolog
cant1236
Linguasphere
79-AAA-ma
Parts of China where Cantonese is spoken.
This article is part of the series on the
Cantonese language
Yue Chinese
Grammar
Measure words
Pronouns
Orthography
Transcription
Fanchit
Braille
Bopomofo
Pinyin
Yale
Jyutping
Phonology
Nasal-stop alternation
Changed tone
IPA
v
t
e
Cantonese (traditional Chinese: 廣東話; simplified Chinese: 广东话; Jyutping: gwong2 dung1 waa2; Cantonese Yale: Gwóngdùng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. It is the traditional prestige variety of the Yue Chinese group, which has over 82.4 million native speakers.[1] While the term Cantonese specifically refers to the prestige variety, it is often used to refer to the entire Yue subgroup of Chinese, including related but partially mutually intelligible varieties like Taishanese.
Cantonese is viewed as a vital and inseparable part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swaths of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as in overseas communities. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the 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. Cantonese is also widely spoken among Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia (most notably in Vietnam and Malaysia, as well as in Singapore and Cambodia to a lesser extent), the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Although Cantonese shares much vocabulary with Mandarin and other varieties of Chinese, these Sinitic languages are not mutually intelligible, largely because of phonological differences, but also due to the differences in grammar and vocabulary. Sentence structure, in particular the verb placement, sometimes differs between the two varieties. A notable difference between Cantonese and Mandarin is how the spoken word is written; both can be recorded verbatim, but very few Cantonese speakers are knowledgeable in the full Cantonese written vocabulary, so a non-verbatim formalized written form is adopted, which is more akin to the written Standard Mandarin.[2][3] However, it is only non-verbatim with respect to vernacular Cantonese as 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.[4] This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar but are pronounced differently. Conversely, written (vernacular) Cantonese is mostly used in informal settings like social media and comic books.[2][3]
^Cantonese at Ethnologue (23rd ed., 2020)
^ abMatthews & Yip (1994), p. 5.
^ abSnow, Donald B. (2004). Cantonese as Written Language: The Growth of a Written Chinese Vernacular. Hong Kong University Press. p. 48. ISBN 9789622097094. Archived from the original on 2016-04-24. Retrieved 2015-11-09.
^Lee, Kwai; Leung, Wai (2012). "The status of Cantonese in the education policy of Hong Kong". Multilingual Education. 2: 2. doi:10.1186/2191-5059-2-2. hdl:10397/98877.
Cantonese (traditional Chinese: 廣東話; simplified Chinese: 广东话; Jyutping: gwong2 dung1 waa2; Cantonese Yale: Gwóngdùng wá) is a language within the Chinese...
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Cantonese culture, or Lingnan culture, refers to the regional Chinese culture of the region of Lingnan: twin provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, the names...
Cantonese or Guangdong cuisine, also known as Yue cuisine (Chinese: 廣東菜 or 粵菜), is the cuisine of Guangdong province of China, particularly the provincial...
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delimiters. Standard Cantonese pronunciation is that of Guangzhou, also known as Canton, capital of Guangdong Province. Hong Kong Cantonese is related to Guangzhou...
Yue (Cantonese pronunciation: [jyːt̚˨]) is a branch of the Sinitic languages primarily spoken in Southern China, particularly in the provinces of Guangdong...
The Cantonese people (廣府人; 广府人; gwong fu jan; Gwóngfú Yàhn) or Yue people (粵人; 粤人; jyut jan; Yuht Yàhn), are a Han Chinese subgroup originating from or...
Hong Kong Cantonese is a dialect of the Cantonese language of the Sino-Tibetan family. Although Hongkongers refer to the language as "Cantonese" (廣東話),...
Written Cantonese is the most complete written form of a Chinese language after that for Mandarin Chinese and Classical Chinese. Written Chinese was the...
Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme, also known as Jyutping, is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed in 1993 by the Linguistic...
Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera, originating in southern China's Guangdong Province. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi...
Cantonese slang is a type of slang used in areas where the Cantonese language is spoken. It is commonly spoken in Guangdong, Guangxi, Macao and Hong Kong...
transcription delimiters. Cantonese Pinyin (Chinese: 常用字廣州話讀音表:拼音方案, also known as 教院式拼音方案) is a romanization system for Cantonese developed by the Rev. Yu...
words relating to Cantonese pronouns, see the Cantonese pronouns category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Pronouns in Cantonese are less numerous...
Cantonese is an analytic language in which the arrangement of words in a sentence is important to its meaning. A basic sentence is in the form of SVO...
auspicious or lucky (吉利, pinyin: jílì; Cantonese Yale: gātleih) or inauspicious or unlucky (不吉, pinyin: bùjí; Cantonese Yale: bātgāt) based on the Chinese...
A Cantonese restaurant is a type of Chinese restaurant that originated in Southern China. This style of restaurant has rapidly become common in Hong Kong...
Malaysian Cantonese (Chinese: 馬來西亞廣東話; Jyutping: Maa5loi4sai1aa3 Gwong2dung1waa2; Cantonese Yale: Máhlòihsāia Gwóngdūngwá) is a local variety of Cantonese spoken...
The Cantonese Wikipedia (Chinese: 粵文維基百科; Jyutping: jyut6 man4 wai4 gei1 baak3 fo1; Cantonese Yale: Yuhtmàhn Wàihgēi Baakfō) is the Cantonese-language...
Cantonese music may refer to: The music of Cantonese-speaking peoples, especially: Music of Guangdong Music of Hong Kong Music of Macau Cantonese language...
Gweilo or gwailou (Chinese: 鬼佬; Cantonese Yale: gwáilóu, pronounced [kʷɐ̌i lǒu] ) is a common Cantonese slang term for Westerners. In the absence of modifiers...
Cantonese nationalism, sometimes known also as the Cantonia Independence Movement, refers to the advocacy and movement for the establishment of an independent...
Southern Min), Wu (74 million, e.g. Shanghainese), and Yue (68 million, e.g. Cantonese). These branches are unintelligible to each other, and many of their subgroups...
Cantonese poetry (Cantonese Jyutping: Jyut6 si1; Traditional Chinese: 粵詩) is poetry performed and composed primarily by Cantonese people. Most of this...
Starting in the 1980s, proper Cantonese pronunciation has been much promoted in Hong Kong, with the scholar Richard Ho (何文匯) as its iconic campaigner...
Cantopop (a contraction of "Cantonese pop music") is a genre of pop music written in standard Chinese and sung in Cantonese. Cantopop is also used to refer...
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