Hong Kong dialect and Canton dialects have minor differences. They are both referred to as Cantonese. Both in China and abroad Cantonese functions as a de facto standard among Cantonese speakers. Wiedenhof 2. Cantonese is the main language in Hong Kong. According to a census in , which was published on the website of government Hong Kong, Hong Kong has recognised both Cantonese and Mandarin, but also English, as official languages. Language is a way to communicate. Dialect is a variety of a language, especially one spoken in a specific part of a country of other geographical area Matthews They are nevertheless problematic terms, both for finding a definition to distinguish one from another and finding criteria for delimiting varieties Hudson Moser elaborates that there is no universally accepted criterion to distinguish languages from dialects.
Some dialects have very slight accent differences, while some others can be developed into different languages. Some hues of green are very different while others are very difficult to distinguish. At the same time, he also points out that the most pragmatic way to differentiate language and dialects is whether the speakers can understand each other. If the speakers have great difficulty or even find it impossible to understand each other, then these two speeches should be considered two different languages.
Cantonese is very different from Mandarin. It is widely known that Mandarin speakers and Cantonese speakers do not understand each other. The first unified Chinese dynasty Qin was established by Han Chinese in BC in the central part of modern China in the area of current day Shaanxi province.
Together with other provinces in the North, this was where Mandarin was initially spoken. It is approximately km away from current day Guangdong province where Cantonese is mainly spoken. When Li compared the pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary of Cantonese and Mandarin he found great differences. Cantonese has a close relationship with other neighbouring minorities languages including those of the Yao and Zhuang minorities.
This could be explained with historical reasons. The name itself shows that the people there were very different from the people in the central China. Because of war and other reasons, the Northern Han people came to this area. Later, it was developed into Cantonese Li Therefore, Cantonese is not a regional variation of Mandarin, but a very different language. Cantonese and Mandarin share the same written form. Cantonese and Mandarin are both written in Chinese characters, therefore they are both variations of Chinese language rather than two languages, he argues.
I would argue that spoken communication is the primary purpose for a language. Every person speaks a language but not everyone is literate. Using writing language as a primary standard is against the primary purpose of language. Cantonese is believed to have originated after the fall of the Han Dynasty in AD, when long periods of war caused northern Chinese to flee south, taking their ancient language with them.
Mandarin was documented much later in the Yuan Dynasty in 14th century China. It was later popularised across China by the Communist Party after taking power in By , the Education Bureau had started publicising its long-term goal of adopting Putonghua, not Cantonese, as the medium of instruction in Chinese classes, even though it offered no timetable on when this should be achieved.
It said a maximum of schools could join the scheme over four years. Officially, the city government encourages students to become bi-literate in Chinese and English and trilingual in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. But Robert Bauer, a Cantonese expert who teaches at several universities in Hong Kong, said Scolar and the Education Bureau were essentially "bribing" schools to make the switch from Cantonese to Mandarin as the medium of instruction in Chinese language classes.
The Chinese government hates that, and so does the Hong Kong government. Those who support this view point to a gaffe made by the Education Bureau in On its site detailing Hong Kong's language policy, it stated that Cantonese was a "Chinese dialect that is not an official language". It caused an outcry, as Hong Kong residents certainly believe theirs is a proper form of Chinese, and not just a dialect.
The bureau was forced to apologise and delete the phrase. In , there was hope and expectation that the city, unlike the rest of China, would soon enjoy universal suffrage. But the Chinese government's interpretation of reform angered the public. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in unprecedented protests in The reform proposal was vetoed by pro-democracy politicians in , and today, Hong Kong seems stuck in a political stalemate.
Against this backdrop, Cantonese has not just survived but thrived in a totally unexpected way, according to linguistics expert Lau Chaak-ming. Starting about 10 years ago, writing in vernacular Cantonese, in addition to standard Chinese, began appearing in public in advertisements. Mr Lau said this trend has greatly accelerated in the past four years.
Previously, advertisements and newspapers used only standard written Chinese, which is easily comprehensible to all Chinese-literate readers, whereas non-Cantonese speakers might struggle to understand the written vernacular. Mr Lau dates the rise in written Cantonese to greater awareness of a local Cantonese identity, as opposed to a more general Chinese sense of self.
Mr Lau and a number of volunteers are compiling an online Cantonese dictionary, documenting its evolution. Working in parallel, Mr Bauer, the Cantonese expert, will soon be publishing a Cantonese-English dictionary, which will be available online and in book form.
According to these experts, Cantonese isn't dying at all. Cantonese is also popular in Canada where more than 0. Thousands of people in Europe also speak the language. Over 0. Canton was, at this time, the most important city in China and one of the largest trading hub in the region. The language would later spread to other regions of ancient China and had native speakers in areas as far as Malaysia and Cambodia by the 19th Century.
Cantonese characters.
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