What's the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin pronunciation?

Cantonese is a kind of Chinese dialect. Like other dialects, it comes directly from ancient Chinese. So generally speaking, the similarities and differences between Cantonese and ethnic groups are dominant. However, in the process of long-term development and evolution, Cantonese has also formed some characteristics different from * * * *. Understanding these characteristics is helpful to master Cantonese.

First, a large number of ancient Chinese elements are preserved, which are manifested in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. Phonologically, Cantonese retains the vowel stops and vowel stops in the Middle Ages, but these features have long since disappeared in northern dialects. Another example is tone. Cantonese retains the tone pattern of the Middle Ages, which is divided into Yin and Yang, and a middle tone is derived from Yin. In addition, Cantonese does not have the characteristics of tongue rolling, tongue rolling and light tone that northern dialects have. These features were developed after the Middle Ages, but Cantonese did not keep up with the changes in northern dialects. In terms of vocabulary, Cantonese retains some ancient words or meanings, but in northern dialects, these ancient words have been abandoned or rarely used. For example, in Cantonese, "sticky" means "stork", which is not used in northern dialects. Grammatically, putting an "A" before a person's name indicates intimacy, and putting a modifier behind it, saying "rooster" is called "rooster", which is the legacy of China's ancient characteristics.

Second, Cantonese retains many basic elements of the ancient "South Vietnamese" language. In the process of living with the aborigines and gradually assimilating them, the ancient Han people unconsciously absorbed the elements of "Guyue", which is mainly manifested in vocabulary. For example, in Cantonese, "you" means "this", "well" means "no" and "shrimp" means "bullying", all of which are the legacy of the word "Gu Yue".

Third, Cantonese absorbs more foreign words. After the Opium War, Hong Kong was ceded to Britain, and Guangdong was forced to set up a trading port. In the long-term contact with foreign countries, Cantonese has also absorbed many foreign words, mainly from English. Hong Kong Cantonese has absorbed more loanwords and strongly influenced Guangdong Cantonese. Some of these loanwords are not absorbed in Mandarin, such as "bus", and some are absorbed in Mandarin but translated differently, such as "salad" in Mandarin translated into Cantonese.

Fourthly, in the process of its formation and development, Cantonese has constantly created dialect words, some of which are still in use today and have also formed the characteristics of Cantonese.

Learning a language is not an easy task. Northerners often say that "if you are not afraid of heaven, you are afraid that Cantonese will speak Mandarin." It can be seen that it is not easy for Cantonese people to learn Mandarin well. It's not that Cantonese people are slow, but it's just as difficult for northern people to learn Cantonese, even more difficult than Cantonese people to learn Mandarin. The main difficulty for Cantonese people to learn Putonghua lies in pronunciation, but they are familiar with the vocabulary and grammar of Putonghua, because people with secondary education are generally familiar with the vocabulary and grammar norms of their own language, but the difficulty for northerners to learn Cantonese lies not only in pronunciation, but also in vocabulary and grammar. Therefore, when you make up your mind to learn Cantonese, you must be mentally prepared.

The first step in learning Chinese is to train your ears and distinguish two different sounds. Different languages have different phonemes. When you learn Cantonese, at least half of the sounds are unheard of in your life. Most people are not sensitive to sounds other than their mother tongue, so it is not easy to distinguish them. For example, chicken gei 1 in Cantonese does not have this sound in Mandarin (E in Cantonese is different from E in Mandarin, which means short A sound), and it is usually confused with street gai 1. Pay attention to the difference between these sounds when learning.

The second step in learning Chinese is to practice your mouth. Sometimes you know how to pronounce that sound, but when you start to speak, you will unconsciously pronounce another sound or stutter. Why is there such a situation of "lip service but not reality"? It is because you are not proficient in the pronunciation of this language and your tongue is not flexible that your pronunciation will be unconsciously influenced by your mother tongue. The only solution is to train your mouth by speaking more.

The third step in learning Chinese is to train your eyes. When listening to others, we should not only listen to his voice, but also look at his mouth, how his mouth moves and what his mouth is like. For example, the pronunciation of "Dian" and "Dian" in Cantonese is very similar. The pronunciation of point din2 is not closed, and the pronunciation of point dim2 is closed. If you can see the difference, you won't confuse the two voices.

Every language has its own special expression. It is not enough to know the pronunciation of words by optics, but also to know what words to express. For example, if you want to buy a water chestnut in Guangzhou, I'm afraid you can't buy it if you say "water chestnut", because Cantonese call it "horseshoe", even if he knows that water chestnut is a horseshoe, he will feel very uncomfortable. For example, when Cantonese people talk about time, they call five minutes "one word" and "4: 45" as "4.9 words" or "4.9". If you don't understand, you may mistake it for 4.9. Therefore, to learn a language, we must see more, listen more and speak more. When learning Cantonese, you can read some Cantonese reference books, talk with Cantonese speakers, ask questions, listen to Cantonese songs or watch Cantonese movies and TV dramas. It may be better to combine study with entertainment.