What is the origin of Cantonese? How is the distinction between Mandarin and Cantonese formed?

Cantonese preserved the earliest "Mandarin" in China.

To discuss the origin of Cantonese, we must first find out where Cantonese comes from. Some people think that Cantonese originated from the "Baiyue" language in the south of Zhan Chaoling, which is incorrect. Cantonese does retain some elements of the ancient Baiyue language in Lingnan, but its main source is the elegant language in the ancient Central Plains.

Yayan is based on the primitive Chinese used by the Chinese tribal alliance headed by the Yellow Emperor. In the Zhou Dynasty, it developed into the national language of the Central Plains, which can be said to be the earliest "Mandarin" in China. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the dialects of various vassal States were different, and elegant words were used in official exchanges, scholars' lectures and sacrificial activities. Confucius once said: "Confucius speaks politely, and poetry and calligraphy are polite." The Qin dynasty conquered the land of Baiyue and recruited fugitives from the former six countries, as well as their husbands and wives, to be "squatters" in Lingnan. These settlers "come from all corners of the country", so they must communicate with each other in elegant language. However, because the settlers settled in the fields alone, their language was only transmitted from village to village, but not throughout Lingnan. Until South Vietnam was established in Zhao Tuo, Baiyue indigenous costumes and customs were adopted, and Baiyue indigenous language was spoken. It can be seen that Yayan has not been spread in Lingnan, but there are several "Yayan Island" with small area. The spread of elegant ci in Lingnan began after the Western Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up a "toe-toe secretariat" to supervise the county. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, he withdrew his toe secretariat and set up a state of communication. Toe Secretariat and Jiaozhou are both Han regimes, so official communication must be polite. Most of the time, the Department of Cross-toe Secretariat and the State House were located in Guangxin (now Fengkai and Wuzhou), and Guangxin was the first to use Yayan. Guangxin was also the early commercial center of Lingnan. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent envoys from Xuwen and Hepu to open up the Maritime Silk Road and bought back overseas treasures such as pearls, glazed pottery and stones with silk and porcelain. , and through the Nanliujiang-Beiliujiang and Jianjiang-Nanjiang trade channels, it is imported into Guangxin, and then exported to the Central Plains through Hejiang-Xiaoshui. Elegant words introduced from the Central Plains gradually spread in this area through commercial activities.

Guangxin was also the early cultural center of Lingnan. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, a large number of scholars took this as a position to carry out cultural activities, set up museums and teach students. Among them, the most prominent scholars are Chen Yuan and Shi Xie. Known as "Linghai Confucianism", Chen Yuan returned to Guangxin to run a school in his later years and became one of the pioneers of Lingnan culture. Shangxie served as the magistrate of Jiaotoe County for more than 40 years and was once the "Governor of Seven Counties". Many scholars in the Central Plains have come to attach themselves to his name, and they take traveling, crossing toes and giving lectures as their profession. What these literati used to spread China culture in the Central Plains was, of course, the elegant words with Chinese characters as the recording symbols. While learning China culture and Chinese characters, the aborigines also learned elegant characters. The languages of these aborigines are very different. They can't communicate with each other and have no written language. Therefore, in addition to using elegance in communication with Han people, tribes also use elegance in communication. In this way, elegance has become the homophonic of various indigenous tribes, just as elegance was used in the communication of various vassal States in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, forming a bilingual system, using one's own mother tongue in one's own tribe and elegance in foreign communication. At the same time, some factors in ancient Baiyue language were also absorbed by the language of Han immigrants, thus gradually forming a dialect of Chinese-Cantonese.

At the beginning of the formation of Cantonese, there was no obvious difference between Cantonese and Central Plains Chinese. After the Jin Dynasty, there was the "Five Chaos in China", followed by the partition of the north and the south for more than 200 years. The nomadic people in the north entered the Central Plains, which had a great influence on the culture and language there. Since the Zhou Dynasty, they have gradually disappeared as the same language as the people. Here it is. During this period, the Lingnan region maintained a relatively stable situation, and Cantonese, which evolved from elegant words in the Central Plains, did not change as much as Central Plains Chinese, and maintained its original phonology. As Professor Li Rulong said; "The differentiation of initial consonants of medieval affricates, the confluence of nasal vowels, the weakening and shedding of initial consonants of affricates, and the three tones of voiced sounds and entering tones are common in many dialects, but they are all rejected by Cantonese." Therefore, Yayan has disappeared in today's north and central plains, but many of its factors have remained in today's Cantonese.

The stop sound in Fengchuan dialect: a living fossil of early Cantonese

Cantonese retains a large number of factors that occupy the elegance of generations, which can be confirmed by the comparison between Cantonese and Qieyun. Qieyun is China's earliest phonological work. The book was written in the early years of Sui Dynasty, which recorded the phonology of scholars in the Southern Dynasty, that is, the phonology in the late period of Yayan. Comparing the phonology of Qieyun with the seven dialects of Chinese today, we can see that Cantonese is the most complete phonology. Take the ancient milk students as an example. Influenced by nomadic languages, northern Chinese dialects are generally out of rhyme. So people in this field don't know what lactation is all about now. Although other Chinese dialects retain some entering tones, they are not complete. Cantonese abandons the tone sandhi rule of "Rushan Tone", so it retains the whole set of Rushan Tone in ancient times, which corresponds neatly to nasal rhyme.

In the areas where Cantonese was formed, the factors of the phonology of quaint words were more clearly preserved. There is a group of voiced initials in the phonology of Qieyun, which has disappeared in most Chinese dialects and in Cantonese today. However, this set of voiced cold initials is completely preserved in closed Cantonese. What's more noteworthy is that when Cantonese is opened, not only the words Bing, Ding and Qun which are pronounced as voiced consonants in Qieyun are still pronounced as voiced consonants, but also some words Bang, Duan and Jian which are pronounced as voiced consonants in Qieyun. As we know, "voiced and unvoiced" is a law of the evolution of Chinese initials. According to this law, the more developed the initial consonants of voiced consonants are, the longer their age will be. The voiced stop of Fengkai Cantonese is more developed than the cut rhyme, which shows that it preserved the rhyme earlier than the cut rhyme, that is, the rhyme of elegant words in Han Dynasty. Therefore, it is a rare living fossil of quaint words, and it is also a living fossil of early Cantonese, and it is a witness to the formation of ancient Cantonese.

On the center of early Cantonese from the perspective of "distribution along the Yangtze River"

Because Guangxin is located at the confluence of Guikang, Hejiang and Xijiang, it can reach Panyu eastward along the river, Jiaotou westward along the river, and Yulin and Hepu southward through tributaries such as Beiliujiang and Nanjiang. It is a transportation hub in the waterway era. After the formation of Cantonese in this area, it spread to the east, west and south with the help of rivers, forming a pattern of "distribution along Ting". Specifically divided into six river basins:

1. Xijiang River-The Pearl River Basin extends from Guangxin along the Xijiang River to Panyu (Guangzhou), including Wuzhou in Guangxi and Zhaoqing, Foshan, Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Dongguan and Shenzhen in Guangdong, as well as two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao. During the Three Kingdoms period, the Soochow regime moved Jiaozhou's state administration from Guangxin to Panyu, the former capital of South Vietnam. Panyu is an oriental port and has been working for many years. The land and water transportation in the Pearl River Delta around Panyu is very convenient, and the conditions for developing agriculture and commodity economy are unique. Therefore, Panyu has gradually become the political, economic and cultural center of Lingnan area, and from Guangxin to Panyu has become the main area of Cantonese people. Cantonese in this area is usually called "Guangfu dialect".

2. The Jiang Xun-Yujiang River Basin runs from Guangxin to Xijiang, Jiang Xun and Yujiang and ends in Jiaozhi County, including Nanning, Chongzuo, Guigang and most of its counties in Guangxi. Jiaozhi County is also a place where Han immigrants settled earlier, so Cantonese was introduced to this area very early. Cantonese sub-dialects in this area are close to Guangfu dialect and can talk to each other.

3. The Beiliujiang-Nanhanyan River Basin goes up from Guangxin via Nanliujiang to Hepu County, including cities and counties such as Yulin, Beihai, Qinzhou and Fangchenggang in Guangxi. After the opening of the Maritime Silk Road, Hepu, located at the mouth of Nanliu River, became one of the earliest ports of departure, and this' Belt' became the main trade route of Lingnan in the early days. With the development of commercial trade, Cantonese has gradually become popular. Cantonese in this area retains a lot of ancient Chinese phonology, but there is no obvious difference between Cantonese and Guangfu dialect on the whole, and it can basically talk.

4. Nanjiang-Jianjiang River Basin runs from Guangxin to Nanjiang, and crosses Yunkai Mountain Range to Jianjiang River Basin, including Yunfu, Maoming, Zhanjiang and most counties (cities) in Guangdong. This passage leads all the way to Xuwen, the earliest starting port of the Maritime Silk Road at the southern tip of Leizhou Peninsula, so it is also a major trade route. Jianjiang Valley belongs to Gaoliang County. During Nanliang and Sui Dynasties, the local slang leader, Mrs. Xian, made friends with the Taishou, and implemented the policy of reconciliation between Chinese and slang, which gradually integrated the Han immigrant culture and Baiyue indigenous culture, and Cantonese introduced from Guangxin gradually passed through this area. Cantonese in this area has absorbed some factors of local indigenous languages, but generally speaking, the pronunciation is not much different from that of Guangfu dialect, and it can basically talk.

The above four sub-dialect areas all started from Guangxin and were formed through waterway expansion, and their phonology maintained a great degree of consistency. The situation in the following two sub-dialect areas is different.

5. Yang Mo River Basin includes Yangjiang City and its subordinate Yangdong, Yangxi and Yangchun. Its Cantonese sub-dialect is usually called "Yang Liang Dialect", and its vowel system is similar to that of Jianjiang Valley. Some people divide them into a "block" (Levin block). In fact, there are obvious differences in the combination of phonology and intonation between the two sub-dialects, so it is difficult to talk to each other.

6. The Tanjiang River Basin includes Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province and its affiliated Xinhui, Taishan, Kaiping and Enping. These four cities (districts) were called "Siyi" in history, and their Cantonese dialect was also called "Siyi dialect". Overflowing dialect is also popular in Heshan and Doumen District of Zhuhai. Siyi area is not far from Guangzhou, but Siyi dialect is the most different sub-dialect from Guangzhou dialect in Cantonese system, because Tanjiang and Xijiang are not separated by water. This fact strongly proves that the center of early Cantonese was not in Guangzhou, but in Guangxin.

The development of Lingnan culture must protect Cantonese.

1999165438+1October, the general conference of UNESCO announced that from the afternoon of 2000, February 2 1 day will be the International Mother Language Day every year. The report "Map of World Endangered Languages" published by the organization points out: "Language is the most powerful tool to preserve and develop the tangible and intangible heritage of mankind. Various campaigns to promote the spread of mother tongue not only contribute to language diversity and multilingual education, but also help to enhance the understanding of languages and cultural traditions around the world, thus promoting the unity of people around the world on the basis of understanding, tolerance and dialogue. "

It can be seen that mother tongue protection, like cultural heritage protection, has become a common concern of all countries in the world.

Language is not only a tool for human communication, but also a comprehensive reflection of the unique spirit of people in a nation or region in terms of thinking mode, production mode, lifestyle, customs, religious beliefs and so on. It is the crystallization of the traditional culture of this nation or this region. Guangdong local traditional culture is usually divided into three parts: Guangfu culture, Hakka culture and Chaoshan culture. In fact, it is based on the three major Chinese dialects in China. Cantonese is not only the mother tongue of people in Guangfu area, but also the most important dialect in Lingnan area. It not only contains the traditional culture of Guangfu area, but also preserves a large number of traditional cultures that have disappeared in the Central Plains. Without Cantonese, many cultural varieties in Lingnan would cease to exist. Therefore, in the process of building a cultural province and developing Lingnan culture, we must re-recognize the value of Cantonese and strengthen the protection of Cantonese. As the birthplace of Cantonese, Fengkai should do something in this respect.

In recent years, many scholars have called for the establishment of a national language museum, but it has never been realized. As the birthplace of Lingnan culture and Cantonese, Fengkai can take the lead in establishing a Cantonese pavilion in the pavilion, collecting and accumulating Cantonese materials in the local and surrounding areas, especially those unique phonetic phenomena, such as the voiced sound mentioned above. Preserving these rare "living fossils" of early Cantonese can not only serve as a witness that Cantonese was formed in ancient Guangxin, but also be valuable materials for studying Lingnan culture and ancient Chinese language and culture.