Comparison between Cantonese and Putonghua

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 ancient Lingnan "Baiyue" language, 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 use elegance in communication. 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 from the Central Plains came here and followed them in succession. They travel, communicate and give 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, 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 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. Taking Rusheng in ancient times as an example, due to the influence of nomadic language, Chinese dialects in the north are generally separated from stops and rhymes, so people in this area don't know what Rusheng is like 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.

Also known as Cantonese, commonly known as Cantonese and Guangfu dialect, and called vernacular by local people, it is a dialect with complicated language phenomena, more ancient sounds and characters and less internal differences among the seven major Chinese dialects.

Guangzhou dialect is popular in Guangdong and Guangxi, centering on Guangzhou dialect. The user population is around 40 million. The visit area is roughly as follows:

There are 47 counties and cities in Guangdong Province that are pure Cantonese dialect or mainly Cantonese dialect, 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, Huaxian, Qingyuan, Lianxian and Yangxian. 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 23 counties and cities in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region that speak Cantonese, namely Nanning, Hengxian, Guigang, Guiping, Pingnan, tengxian, Wuzhou, Yulin, Beiliu, Rongxian, Bobai, Luchuan, 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.

According to its linguistic features and geographical distribution, Cantonese can be divided into four parts: ① Cantonese is mainly distributed in the Pearl River Delta, central Guangdong, southwest Guangdong and parts of northern Guangdong Province, which is the most populous and widely used part of Cantonese, represented by Cantonese, and has great representation and influence in Cantonese. ② Siyi tablets, mainly distributed in Taishan, Kaiping, Enping, Xinhui, Doumen and other counties, represented by Taishan dialect. (3) Levin, mainly distributed in Zhanjiang and Maoming counties, and Yangjiang and Yangchun counties in Jiangmen, represented by Yangjiang dialect. ④ South Guangxi is mainly distributed in Nanning, Hengxian, Guigang, Guiping, Pingnan, tengxian and Wuzhou along Yongjiang, Yujiang and Jiang Xun in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yulin, Beiliu, Rongxian, Bobai and Luchuan counties in Yulin region, and Qinzhou, Hepu, Pubei, Lingshan, Beihai and Wuzhou regions in Qinzhou region. Its pronunciation is consistent, but there are some differences. According to their internal similarities and differences, Guinan dialect can be divided into Guangfu dialect (represented by Wuzhou), Yongxun dialect (represented by Nanning), Goulou dialect (represented by Yulin) and Qinlian dialect (represented by Qinzhou).