Naturally, some knowledge of mandarin can be helpful in learning cantonese, but one cannot assume that it is simply a matter of learning a new pronunciation for the same language, or a new set of vocabulary to go with the same grammar. I think the difference between cantonese and mandarin is more like the difference between english and swedish. The taiwanese mandarin is a variant of the standard mandarin. Languages and intercultural studies, chinese university of hong kong. How to describe differences between cantonese and mandarin. The difference between mandarin chinese and cantonese esl. Except for tones, vocabulary and grammar structures also differs.
Apr 19, 2018 cantonese and mandarin are written in the same way, though cantonese favors traditional chinese characters rather than simplified. Mandarin is also the main dialect in taiwan and singapore. Is there a difference between written cantonese and mandarin. The poster who compared the difference to american and british english is totally wrong. Also, the grammar between mandarin and cantonese are fairly different. Cantonese and mandarin different dialects or different. In mandarin verbs of giving, an indirect object precedes a direct object. Because cantonese is a predominantly spoken language, it is relatively difficult for. Whats the difference between chinese, mandarin and cantonese.
We will first learn about prepositions, negation, questions, adverbs, and pronouns including. Difference between mandarin and cantonese compare the. They are obviously very closely related and share a lot of vocabulary, but intelligibility is pretty much zero. Aug 31, 2019 the term chinese refers to a common language spoken in china, but actually, it is a linguistic group part of the sinotibetan linguistic family that encompasses hundreds of local language varieties, generally classified into seven main regional languagesdialects mandarin, cantonese, hakka, wu, min, xiang, and gan, each one including its own subdialects. Cantonese is spoken by the people of hong kong, macau and the wider guangdong province, including guangzhou previously canton in english. Before we dive any deeper, below are some very concise but correct verified facts for your quick information. One observable difference between mandarin and cantonese is how the spoken word is written. The differences between mandarin and cantonese is obviously, as for the tones, we all know that there are 4 tones in mandarin,however,there are 9 tones in cantonese. The differences between english and chinese introduction. However, people who learned the simplified characters would not be able to recognize the characters of traditional chinese. Jul 16, 2011 as two major languages spoken in china, the difference between mandarin and cantonese is very interesting topic to a linguist.
When talking about language, people often instantly assume that when you say chinese you mean mandarin. Because they have different pronunciation, grammar and lexicon, the two languages sound totally different. What are the differences between mainland and taiwanese mandarin pronunciation. This paper presents, from a computational point of view, a comparative study of mandarin and cantonese at the three aspects of sound systems, grammar rules and vocabulary contents, followed by a discussion of the. The term chinese refers to a common language spoken in china, but actually, it is a linguistic group part of the sinotibetan linguistic family that encompasses hundreds of local language varieties, generally classified into seven main regional languagesdialects mandarin, cantonese, hakka, wu, min, xiang, and gan, each one including its own subdialects. While pronunciation is completely different in mandarin chinese and cantonese, the grammar is almost identical. In this case, writing in vernacular cantonese will look different from writing in vernacular mandarin, because of slight differences in grammar, vocabulary, etc. Mandarin is the language used primarily in mainland china and taiwan whereas cantonese is used in canton and is the common language spoken by the overseas chinese. Spoken mandarin and cantonese are not mutually intelligible. Cantonese is spoken in hong kong, macau, guangzhou, and southern parts of china in that vicinity. Cantonese and mandarin are written in the same way. A notable difference between cantonese and mandarin is how the spoken word is written. For example, gwai lo in cantonese refers to a foreigner.
The difference between mandarin chinese and cantonese. A language can be spoken, written andor signed, like the american sign language. There are unwritten rules about which particles can be combined and in what order they occur which are probably too complicated to explain here. But that is not the case since there are several versions of spoken chinese. What are the differences between mandarin and cantonese. These tones are vital when trying to convey your meaning, making cantonese harder to learn than mandarin. What people call chinese is actually the written version of vernacular mandarin, or written putonghua. Cantonese chinese is spoken in hong kong and macau. It is also spoken in guangdong, where cantonese chinese originated, in guangzhou and in guangxi. The grammar in cantonese is much harder than mandarin grammar by using more particles, which makes it harder for nonnative speakers to learn. Most foreign chinese communities, such as those in london and san francisco. Cantonese and mandarin is up there on a 70% difference in vocabulary usage, and this figure does not include the occasional differences in grammar. Also there is confusion about what you actually mean when you said having knowledge of another chinese dialect eases up the learning process for cantonese, languages may be easier to understand if you have a basis in it, but. Mandarin is the lingua franca of china, and is the official language of china you can learn some basics here.
There are six different tones in cantonese, or even nine if you count the historical nasal tones. Nailing the tones is what makes these languages among the most difficult to learn. It is the main dialect throughout the bigger cities, but many cities and provinces have also retained their local dialects. The most common variants of the chinese language are mandarin and cantonese.
Interdialect differences exist in pronunciation, vocabulary and syntactic rules. Mandarin is also spoken in taiwan alongside taiwanese. In hong kong cantonese, three of the nine tones have merged, and so in reality there are only six tones at the moment. There is also a difference between mandarin and cantonese in the placement of the adverbs. Technically, cantonese keeps the pronunciation and grammar features of the ancient chinese more. While the term cantonese specifically refers to the prestige variety, it is often used to refer to the entire yue subgroup of. Basic cantonese introduces the essentials of cantonese grammar in a. Jul 21, 2012 cantonese and mandarin is up there on a 70% difference in vocabulary usage, and this figure does not include the occasional differences in grammar.
However, the cantonese speaker would usually use geh in speech. In the 1940s, taiwanese people started using it as a medium of instruction in schools. Low falling 4 starts at the same pitch as low level 6, but then drops. The difference between high and mid level tone 1 and 3 is about twice that between mid and low level 3 and 6. The difference between mandarin chinese and cantonese learn languages september 10, 2019 in the western world, we often speak about learning chinese, or people who speak chinese, but really, the term chinese refers to a group of language varieties, which most of the time arent even mutually intelligible.
Mandarin and cantonese are spoken throughout different parts of china, and where in china you go will dictate which one you will encounter. Hss08 and reconstructing the history of chinese dialectal grammar from. With expertise in translation, localization, and creative services in over 100 languages, venga partners with clients to help them communicate globally and support their global ambitions. The experimental evidence shows that acoustic difference between sandhied tone 3 and lexical tone 2 is larger in. Cantonese greetings chinese language learning, learn. Simplified or traditional chinese, mandarin or cantonese. All chinese characters are written to a uniform size, and. It is widely spoken in taiwan and is also the countrys official language. While the written language is essentially mutually intelligible, cantonese and mandarin have a fair bit of variation in individual words, expressions, word order and local slang.
Aspects of cantonese grammar the handbook of chinese. In general, they are used to link words to other words. Although cantonese shares some vocabulary with mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible, when spoken, because of differences in pronunciation, grammar and lexicon. Mandarin has five tones, while cantonese has nine different tones. The 5 main differences between mandarin and cantonese. For example, the possessive particle which follows a noun and is equivalent to the s in english is in mandarin. Here are some examples to clearly illustrate each one of these important areas. Cantonese greetings chinese language learning, learn mandarin. I agree, cantonese is not a dialect, it is a regional language. Also there is confusion about what you actually mean when you said having knowledge of another chinese dialect eases up the learning process for cantonese, languages may be easier to understand if you have a basis in it, but with the languages in china.
For mandarin speakers to understand your cantonese writing 100% of the time, you would be required to write cantonese in mandarin grammar. A typical language will have words, phrases, idioms and a grammar structure. A language can be spoken, written and or signed, like the american sign language. Both mandarin and cantonese are tonal languages, meaning one word can have multiple meanings depending on how its pronounced. As two major languages spoken in china, the difference between mandarin and cantonese is very interesting topic to a linguist. Also, some of the words are just said differently between the dialects, similarly to how american english may differ from british english. Corpusbased learning of cantonese for mandarin speakers for future work, we would like to enrich the corpus by providing pronunciation information, and to use the interface to teach cantonese grammar. If someone were to refer to a specific dialect, it is likely they would say the name of that dialect instead of chinese. Since were on this subject, let us see what the similarities and differences of c. Taiwanese mandarin in 2020 things you have to know first. As a quick example, spoken mandarin and cantonese use different words for to eat. The first is that cantonese contains only 7 of the 12 or so vowel sounds found in english so you will need to teach completely new sounds to your students.
Mandarin has only four tones per sound, while cantonese has six to nine tones, depending on how specifically the tones are being counted. Wu is further supported by their differences in the tolerance of postverbal object. Jul 06, 2018 cantonese is a completely different spoken language than mandarin, and uses nine tones instead of just four, as mandarin does. Both languages are spoken in malaysia and singapore. Differences between cantonese and mandarin writing. Difference between language and dialect language vs dialect. However, they are usually insignificant in comparison with the similarities the. It is the traditional prestige variety of the yue chinese dialect group, which has about 68 million native speakers. Apr 11, 2018 what are the differences between mainland and taiwanese mandarin pronunciation. Cantonese and mandarin are written in the same way, though cantonese favors traditional chinese characters rather than simplified. Start learning cantonese the fast, fun and easy way. Cantonese is not mutually intelligible with other chinese languages. When they hear a person from china speaking, they immediately say that the person is speaking in chinese. Corpusbased learning of cantonese for mandarin speakers.
A cantonese speaker would pronounce this character as dik, and they would use this character in formal writing. Cantonese is a variety of chinese originating from the city of guangzhou also known as canton and its surrounding area in southeastern china. The second issue is that cantonese does not make the difference between long and short vowels that is found in english. Chinese punctuation marks are used to organize and clarify written chinese. Whats the difference between mandarin and cantonese. Jan 29, 2014 the taiwanese mandarin is a variant of the standard mandarin. However, these languages have major differences that depend on a variety of aspects. Hence to learn cantonese effectively one needs to pay attention to its grammar. There is not one single chinese language, but many different versions or dialects including wu, cantonese and taiwanese.
Mandarin chinese is the official language in china. Mandarin and cantonese are two very related languages that people often mistake to be one and the same. Whilst a text may look almost the same, its pronounced quite differently, as you may discover in a business meeting with a chinesespeaking negotiator representing the other party. Cantonese is an analytic language in which the arrangement of words in a sentence is. Difference between taiwan language and hongkong language. These two tongues feature similar basic alphabets, but differences including dialects and colloquialisms mean its important to understand which is relevant to your market before taking your translation further. To be sure, it has its fair share of rules to remember, but those rules arent overwhelming by any means. Many people think that chinese is just one language. Qiu gui su is a native mandarin speaker who has taught mandarin chinese for over 20 years. The distinction between dialect and language is important for designing.
May 20, 20 the first is that cantonese contains only 7 of the 12 or so vowel sounds found in english so you will need to teach completely new sounds to your students. Mandarin has 4 tones whereas cantonese has 6 to 9 tones. For instance, cantonese and mandarin in their written forms are, for the most part, mutually intelligible, but they differ significantly in their rules of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary when spoken wardhaugh 2008. The difference between mandarin and chinese people instantly assume when you say chinese you mean mandarin because it is the standard language and the most common to learn right now.
Whats the difference between cantonese and mandarin just published this article today. Although the past few decades has seen a huge rise in mandarin chinese learners, decades ago, due to film and chinese abroad, cantonese used to be the more popular language internationally a generation ago. To hear the pronunciation, just click on the sound icon. The following cantonese grammatical points are not found in mandarin chinese. Chinese punctuation marks are similar in function to english punctuation marks but sometimes differ in the form or look. It is also spoken in singapore, thailand, and malaysia. Summary despite the general perception of close similarities among all the varieties, there are significant differences between them that are vital to our understanding of the chinese language. Mandarin and cantonese fall into the former, referring to the two most common verbal dialects in china. The primary difference is in pronunciation, where cantonese is usually referred to as having 6 tones and mandarin 4. Because the languages are so similar, cantonese grammar is as easy to learn as chinese grammar. Essentially, cantonese is just a local dialect, and when cantonese people write proper, the grammar, vocab, sentence structuring are all based on the mandarin language even though a different version of character is used.
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