A master who can speak Cantonese! Please say the tone of Cantonese.

Guangzhou people

catalogue

Controversy on the Status of Cantonese

general situation

Formation and origin

Differences between Hong Kong Cantonese and Orthodox Cantonese

The early Cantonese center was not in Guangzhou, but in Guangxin.

Cantonese development timetable

Domestic traffic areas in China

pay attention to

vocabulary

The writing system of Cantonese

Cantonese literature

Cantonese influence

vocabulary

The writing system of Cantonese

Cantonese literature

Cantonese influence

Linguistic taxonomy definition

Cantonese, commonly known as Cantonese, is called vernacular by locals and canton by English.

Editing this Cantonese Identity Debate

Linguists generally believe that if two texts can't talk directly, they can be defined as two different languages; If there are big or small differences between them, but they can talk directly, they can be defined as 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. But it is generally believed that this is not the only criterion for language classification. For example, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are listed as three different languages, although they can talk. Moreover, Cantonese has a high degree of unity with other Chinese dialects in writing and using nationalities, which is also very different from western languages.

Edit this paragraph overview

Total number of users

Distribution map

66 million ~ 65.438+0.2 billion (the picture on the right shows the general distribution of Cantonese in the dark green part)

language family

Sino-Tibetan family of languages

China Language Group

Cantonese (Cantonese)

Language code

ISO 639- 1: zh

ISO/DIS 639-3: yue

Traffic area

China: Mainly used in most parts of Guangdong, southeast Guangxi, Hongkong, Macau and other places.

Canada: After English and French, it is the third largest local language.

America: It is the third largest native language after English and Spanish.

Australia: After English, it is the second largest local language.

Southeast Asia: Cantonese is widely used in Southeast Asia and has a great influence in Malaysia.

Standard language and official status

Cantonese has a universally accepted standard language, namely Cantonese. Cantonese enjoys the official language status in Hong Kong and Macao.

Edit the format and source of this paragraph.

Regarding the origin of Cantonese, we must first find out where Cantonese comes from. It comes from the ancient language of China, that is, Ya Yan. Nowadays, Cantonese has a wide influence, and many TV dramas have added many humorous plots in Cantonese, such as Legend of Wulin.

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."

Edit the difference between this paragraph of Hong Kong Cantonese and orthodox Cantonese.

In Hong Kong Cantonese, there are often lazy voices. For example, the consonants in front of some words are not pronounced, such as the word "for" and the word "I" pronounced as /ai/,/or/. It seems that Hong Kong people can't pronounce N sounds, and all the N sounds are changed into L sounds, such as "blue", "south", "male" and "female" and "aluminum". The written language of Hong Kong people is generally written in Cantonese, so newspapers in Hong Kong are generally incomprehensible to non-Cantonese people. For example, newspapers in Hong Kong are called "fans" in mainland China, and they will be written as "wild shit". However, with the return of Hong Kong, more and more serious newspapers and magazines are written in China's official Mandarin. (right) Hong Kong posters written in Cantonese. People who don't know Cantonese can't guess the meaning of these Cantonese words.

The center of editing this early Cantonese is not in Guangzhou, but in Guangxin.

Cantonese is distributed along the Yangtze River. It takes the middle reaches of Xijiang River as the center, and expands outward in four channels: east, west and south. The first passage is the Xijiang River-the Pearl River, that is, along the Xijiang River eastward to Panyu (Guangzhou). Including Wuzhou in Guangxi and Zhaoqing, Foshan, Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Dongguan and Shenzhen in Guangdong, as well as Hong Kong and Macao. The second river is Xijiang-Yujiang, which goes back to Xijiang, Jiang Xun and Yujiang and reaches Jiaozhi County. Including Nanning, Chongzuo, Guigang and most counties in Guangxi. The third river is Beiliu River-Nanliu River. Including Guangxi Yulin, Beihai, Qinzhou, Fangchenggang and other cities and counties. The fourth passage is Nanjiang-Jianjiang, that is, back to Nanjiang, across the Yunkai Mountains to Jianjiang Valley. Including Yunfu, Maoming, Yunnan, Luoding, Xinyi, Gaozhou, Huazhou, Zhanjiang, Wuchuan and Lianjiang in Guangdong.

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 Toe Toe Secretariat and the Jiaozhou Government were located in Guangxin (now opened in Zhaoqing), and Yayan was first used in Guangxin. 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 from the Central Plains admired his name and came to attach themselves to it. They traveled to Jiaotoe and Guangxin to give lectures. 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, Ya Yan has become a homophonic sound of various indigenous tribes, just like Ya Yan was used in the contacts 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 using Ya Yan in foreign exchanges.

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. Yayan, which has always been a national language, has undergone great changes since the Zhou Dynasty. At the same time, during this period, Lingnan area has maintained a relatively stable situation. Cantonese, which evolved from Yayan, has not changed like Central Plains Chinese, and has always 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 developed into modern Mandarin and Mandarin in today's North and Central Plains, while Cantonese has better inherited the original flavor of Yayan.

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

Cantonese retains many quaint phonetic factors, 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. Due to the rapid development of northern Chinese dialects and the rapid evolution of languages, stops and vowels are generally separated. 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. Because Cantonese is isolated from the Central Plains, it is in a semi-wild state, so there is no change law of "entering tone three times", so it preserves the whole set of entering tone in ancient times, which corresponds neatly to nasal rhyme.

In the areas where Cantonese is formed, the factors of quaint phonology are obviously 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. Some people say that the voiced sound of closed Cantonese is more developed than the rhyme of cut rhyme, which shows that it preserves the rhyme earlier than 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.

Edit this Cantonese development schedule.

Qin and Han dynasties

Since ancient times, many primitive tribes living in Lingnan area have been called Nanyue people by Chinese people living in the Central Plains. After Qin Shihuang's expedition to the south, Huaxia people came to Lingnan area, while Nanyue people fled to mountainous areas or more southern areas. At this time, Huaxia language began to be introduced into Lingnan area. After the demise of the Qin Dynasty, Zhao Tuo, the commander-in-chief of Nanhai County, annexed Guilin County and Xiang County to become the king, and established a short-lived Nanyue State. In the heyday of the Han Dynasty, the Huaxia nationality merged with many neighboring nationalities and evolved into the Han nationality. This period is the embryonic period of Cantonese.

Wei, Jin, southern and northern dynasties

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Central Plains fell into a long-term civil war again, and the north fell into the hands of foreigners for the first time, so that people from the Central Plains fled to Lingnan one after another, and the population of Han nationality in Lingnan increased greatly. This is the first peak of the migration of Central Plains population to the south in the history of China. At that time, Chinese introduced from the Central Plains was mixed with old Cantonese, which narrowed the difference between old Cantonese and Central Plains Chinese. This period is the growth period of Cantonese.

Tang and song dynasties

At the peak of the Tang Dynasty, the Han population in Lingnan area further increased, and the aborigines who had long-term contact with the Han people had been sinicized. In the mountainous areas where the Han nationality is less distributed, primitive tribes continue to maintain their own language and culture. At this stage, Cantonese is still influenced by Chinese in the Central Plains, becoming a language that can not only correspond to the Middle Ages, but also has an independent vocabulary grammar. After the demise of the Tang Dynasty, sixteen states were lost for 400 years. In the Song Dynasty, the north fell into the hands of foreigners again, and the people of the Central Plains fled to Lingnan. This is the second peak of the migration of the Central Plains population to the south in the history of China, and it is also the last time to narrow the differences between Cantonese and Central Plains Chinese. The Tang and Song Dynasties can be regarded as the period when Cantonese was stereotyped, so modern Cantonese can still correspond to the pronunciation of Guang Yun in the Song Dynasty, but it is difficult to correspond to the pronunciation of Chinese in the Central Plains in the Yuan Dynasty or later.

Yuan Ming Qing dynasty

In the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols moved their capital to Dadu (formerly Yanjing, later renamed Beijing) in sixteen states, and used the local dialect as the official language. Since then, the differences between Zhongyuan Chinese, Medieval Chinese and Cantonese have been widening: Zhongyuan Chinese at that time has rapidly developed in the direction of Beijing Mandarin, and the entering tone of Beijing Mandarin has also rapidly disappeared (that is, the ending of -p/-t/-k has fallen off, such as the word "entering the north of Japan"). Cantonese, which has been stereotyped, developed independently without the influence of the Yuan Dynasty.

From the Ming Dynasty to the mid-Qing Dynasty, the rhyme endings of Central Plains Mandarin further disappeared (only -n/-ng rhyme endings were left in modern Mandarin, and -m and -n rhyme endings were merged). There are also g/k/h initials connected with i/ü vowels that are completely jawed into j/q/x initials (for example, the word "Jiqixi" has g/k/h initials in medieval and modern Cantonese, but it is completely jawed into j/q/x initials in modern Mandarin); Slowly but surely, Cantonese has gradually become modern Cantonese. The most obvious thing is that z/c/s initials and j/q/x initials are no longer distinguished, and according to the length of Cantonese vowels, the Yin entering tone is divided into upper and lower Yin entering tones (for example, "Sexi" has short vowels and long vowels respectively, the former is divided into a sharp upper Yin entering tone, and the latter is divided into a lower Yin entering tone similar to that of Yang entering tone).

Middle and late Qing dynasty

As the Qing Dynasty closed its doors to the outside world, only Guangzhou was left to trade with other countries. Therefore, quite a few foreigners come to China to master Cantonese instead of Mandarin. Many Beijing officials often contact Cantonese for business talks with foreigners, which makes Cantonese spread to the Central Plains for the first time. During this period, a large number of Cantonese migrated to America, Australia and Southeast Asia, and Cantonese began to spread all over the world.

Modern Times

When the Republic of China was founded, although the formal writing of classical Chinese was replaced by northern vernacular, the practical use of Cantonese was not restricted. However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, in the overall campaign of "promoting Putonghua", Cantonese has been subjected to unprecedented restrictions and its status has been greatly reduced. Cantonese is increasingly influenced by northern Chinese, so that many young people in Cantonese-speaking areas in Chinese mainland do not know the pronunciation of some special terms in Cantonese. Due to the national policy, all schools should teach in Putonghua. The younger generation has grown up in Mandarin for a long time. Some children can speak fluent Mandarin to communicate with foreigners, but they don't know much about Cantonese. This situation has made many Cantonese speakers feel a sense of crisis in their mother tongue. Therefore, in recent years, the call for the protection of local languages and cultures has gradually increased in various parts of China. Therefore, the widespread use of Cantonese in Hong Kong and Macao has played a great role in the preservation of Nanyue culture and Cantonese. In addition, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao have benefited from the long-term economic opening and the development of popular culture. These achievements have also spread many words of Cantonese origin.

Edit this passage in China.

Cantonese is spoken in Chinese mainland, Guangdong and Guangxi, with Guangzhou dialect as the center. The user population is around 50 million. The visit area is roughly as follows:

There are 47 counties and cities in Guangdong Province that are pure Cantonese or mainly Cantonese, accounting for more than 1/3 of the total area of the province, namely Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhaoqing, Jiangmen, Shenzhen, Maoming, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Nanhai, Panyu, Dongguan, Shunde, Longmen, Fogang, Zengcheng, Conghua, Huadu, Qingyuan, Lianxian and Yangshan. In addition, Cantonese is also spoken in Huizhou, Shaoguan, Zhanjiang, Haifeng, Boluo, Huiyang, Huidong, Renhua, Lechang, Yingde, Baoan, Dianbai, Suixi, Haikang, Xuwen and Lianjiang 16 counties and cities.

There are 24 counties and cities in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region that speak Cantonese, namely Nanning, Hengxian, Guigang, Guiping, Pingnan, tengxian, Wuzhou, Yulin, Beiliu, Rongxian, Bobai, Luchuan, Fangcheng, Qinzhou, Hepu, Pubei, Lingshan, Beihai, Cangwu, Cenxi, Zhaoping, Mengshan, Hezhou and Zhongshan. In addition, there are many overseas Chinese whose mother tongue is Cantonese, who are mainly distributed in Southeast Asia, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Almost more than 90% of overseas Chinese and Chinese Americans come from Cantonese dialect areas.

Hong Kong and Macao: Cantonese is spoken throughout the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macao Special Administrative Region.

Cantonese dialects are distributed in most parts of Guangdong Province, Danzhou dialect-Maihua dialect-Jia Dan dialect in Hainan, eastern and southern Guangxi, and Hong Kong and Macao.

Baise-Nanning-Guiping-Wuzhou-Zhaoqing-Guangzhou is the golden waterway for Xijiang shipping, accessible in Cantonese.

dialect

Guangdong dialect (standard dialect)

Guangzhou dialect: also known as Guangfu dialect, is a recognized standard accent in Cantonese. Guangfu dialect itself is constantly changing and developing. Before 1949, the words used in Guangzhou dialect were quaint and less influenced by the northern dialect.

Divided into the following categories:

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 close, but the pronunciation of many words in Shunde is different from other places. For example, the pronunciation of "concave" is [NAP] instead of [lap]; Eating is not called eating rice, but eating rice.

Luoguang dialect: distributed in Zhaoqing, Sihui, Luoding, Guangning, Huaiji, Fengkai, Deqing, Yunan, Yangshan, Lianxian and Lianshan. Represented by Zhaoqing dialect.

Although all the phonetics and vocabulary are close to Guangzhou dialect, the intonation still retains the characteristics of the early ancient saying. For example, the high and low key of Yin Ping Tone is obviously different from that of Gao Pingtiao Tone, and the tone of Yin Ping Tone is biased (the tone value is similar to the fourth tone of Putonghua). There is almost no prevalent lazy sound in Cantonese dialect. For example, all words with non-I vowels are prefixed with initials [ng], ke [ngo 1], short [ngai2], sub [ngaa3], love [ngoi3] and evil [ngok3]. [n], [l] The sounds are different

(Modern) Hong Kong Dialect: Before 1949, Hong Kong Dialect had a strong Cantonese-Hakka mixed accent (that is, Hakka dialect was influenced by the tone and vocabulary of Guangfu dialect, and vice versa). Among them, Jintian dialect is the representative, but this accent only exists among the elderly people in Hong Kong today.

After 1949, a large number of lazy sounds began to appear in Hong Kong dialect, among which the disappearance of nasal sounds (that is, n/l is indistinguishable) and the disappearance of W- awkward sounds are the most obvious. The new generation of young people generally pronounce "you [nei]" and "I" [NGO] as [lei] and [o]. Misread "Guo" as "[gok]" and "Guo" as "Geh". This phenomenon seems to be related to a large number of foreign immigrants. For them, the pronunciation of n/l is not very different, and in most cases, confusing the two will not bring serious communication obstacles. Therefore, when they come to Hong Kong to learn this new dialect, they often give up what is difficult and take what is easy, thus diluting some indistinguishable pronunciation differences. This is also called "theory of human nature", which has also appeared in the evolution of desktop Mandarin and American English.

However, before the 1980s, the mass media still tried their best to avoid lazy voices in radio and TV programs. To this day, there are still Hong Kong linguists who criticize lazy pronunciation many times and put forward the activity of "correcting pronunciation". However, the lazy voice seems to be the characteristic of Cantonese in Hong Kong. In most mass media and singers' performances, lazy voices are regarded as "fashionable" and "fashionable" accents. But on the whole, Hong Kong dialect and Guangzhou dialect are still very close.

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, plumbers call foremen, brakes call brakes, bearings call bearings, strawberries call strawberries, and so on. Many old people still refer to stamps as stamps and insurance as insurance. These idioms may confuse foreign Chinese users.

Siyi dialect

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. The pronunciation of Siyi dialect is very different from that of Guangzhou dialect.

Movies in Levin dialect

Levin dialect is mainly distributed in Maoming, Huazhou, Gaozhou, Xinyi, Dianbai, Zhanjiang, Wuchuan, Yangjiang, Yangchun and the northern part of Leizhou Peninsula.

Huazhou Dialect Film (Huazhou Dialect)

Huazhou dialect is a sub-dialect of Cantonese and one of the oldest and most special dialects in China. Huazhou dialect is simple, rich in vocabulary and special in grammar. It retains many ancient sounds and meanings of elegant words in the Central Plains, and at the same time, it is mixed with ancient slang culture in western Guangdong, which is the result of the integration of Central Plains culture and western Guangdong culture. The population of Huazhou dialect is about 6.5438+0.4 million.

Southern Guangxi dialect

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 into ethnic minority areas and absorbed ethnic minority language elements, forming a dialect that is completely 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:

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.

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 (now Hezhou) and its vicinity. The internal differences are very small. Represented by Wuzhou dialect, the phonetic system has 2 1 initials and 46 finals.

Goulou Cantonese (Beiliu dialect): mainly distributed in Yulin, Guigang (except Pingnan County and Guiping County) 13 counties and cities. Beiliu is located in Yulin area, and Beiliu dialect is a typical representative of Goulou Cantonese. Throughout the ages, Goulou belongs to Beiliu, Rongxian dialect is closest to Beiliu dialect, and Beiliu dialect is closer to Guangdong Cantonese than Yulin dialect. The phonology is complex, with 10 tones. There are rare voiced initials B and D in other dialects of Cantonese. Many words have lost their endings, such as [lar] in the second reading. And the vocabulary is also very distinctive. It is very different from Guangzhou dialect, so it is difficult for both of them to communicate.