The strongest argument claiming that the Cantonese was systematically killed, perhaps due to the fact that the education system uses Mandarin as the default language. I think it’s a mistake to think that the whole North and South “China” speak Mandarin.
Cantonese is spoken by 70 million people around the world, 50 million in Guangdong Province. Such a large number seems to offer numerous communication options for foreigners who are interested in learning Cantonese language. Ironically, despite the lack of standards, despite the lack of evidence, it seems that the most effective way for foreigners to learn Cantonese is whether native Cantonese speakers want to talk to them in Cantonese.
Wide spectrum northern dialects are classified as Mandarins only in the language. In China, it’s safe to say that each city has its own dialect. You blindly can choose the “forging” name of the dialect, adding “Hua” (话, language) to toponym, which is really such a dialect / language, in most cases. Wenzhou has three very distinctive dialects in the urban area of medium size. The main dialects are Sichuanhua legitimately to be recognized as a language in the same way as Cantonese.
Will Mandarin overcome Cantonese in Hong Kong?
Yes, the fact is that there is pressure from the top to the squeezed out Cantonese, but there is also a strong resistance, from groups representing Cantonese, etc., to maintain the status quo. Although, the use of Mandarin is increasingly common in the banking and financial sector in Hong Kong, Cantonese is still very strong in terms of daily activities.
Many local and foreign students learn Cantonese so that they can assimilate into local culture – after all, to many mainlanders, Cantonese is not really difficult, grammar is similar to Mandarin, tones are similar, the only big difference to Mandarin is the word Cantonese people use, but it is still not mission impossible.
Many Activities are conducted in Cantonese
There is a movement in Hong Kong trying to revive the Cantonese, many common Hong Kong people think it is important for the continent of different identities. A professor at the Hong Kong University is preparing to build a new Cantonese-Cantonese dictionary after they realized there was no reference book.
Cantonese have their own TV, radio stations, local operas, pop songs, films, underground shows, Fictions web. So, no, the Cantonese is not dying as we hope it is.
According to wikipedia, Cantonese has 59 million native languages and has two main centers to ensure their survival – Hong Kong and Macao. In the 80s to 90s Hong Kong was the cultural center of all things in China and then produced movies, songs and books extremely popular. Many ships Chinese adore Stephen Chow and Bruce Lee, especially in the case of Stephen Chow, many go long-distance and actually learn Cantonese so they can appreciate the best movies. Even today, millions in China and on the basis of (all the bad) television programs produced by TVB, which is producing shows almost exclusively in Cantonese.
Cantonese People are proud of their language
The Cantonese are extremely proud of their language, and will endeavor to protect it. I think this is quite recognized throughout China. In addition, many local people in HK, Macau, Guangdong and Guangxi, rather speak Cantonese, and non-local in HK, Macau, GD and GX and want to learn Cantonese, especially in HK and Macau, I know many foreigners, and non-local mainland and Taiwan learn Cantonese in Uni. and the church. If you like HK, it’s free to learn, it’s a wonderful language.
Why is it Important to study Cantonese?
Widely Spoken Dialects in China
Cantonese is not a Mandarin language because the characters are the same manuscript, grammar is 99% the same, only the excuse is different in pronunciation. People who do not speak Mandarin can communicate with people who do not speak Cantonese in writing, without any problems. It is one of the dialects in China
Mother Tongue For Business
Cantonese is the language of Hong Kong and is the first language of business leaders across China in southeast and south-east Asia. All Hong Kong experience and expertise that is suitable for Information Technology Bachelor of Commerce or Bachelor of Commerce and Commercial Banking, Financial Market Advisory or Derivatives requires only Cantonese, English / Cantonese or English / Cantonese / Mandarin. Indeed, the local Cantonese market, and all employees can communicate strongly in English. Especially when millions of dollars are spent on projects, precision is very important and cannot rely on dictionaries and riddles. Only Cantonese solve such problem with ease.
Open Market for language skill
The Chinese population is rapidly expanding its presence on the Internet. Many are enrolled in Cantonese learning especially those seeking employment in Hong Kong, and those who seek to bring light in the mother tongue. While the Chinese speak some foreign (non-Chinese), like, there are proportionally less non-Chinese speakers than Chinese speakers in Mandarin Cantonese. There is a need and market for that language.
Easy to Learn
Cantonese grammar is surprisingly easy in many ways. There is no need to learn verbs for verbs, and almost without prefixes or suffixes worry about learning. On the other hand, there are many root words that help teach a new vocabulary that is used and reused in combination with other roots
With about 100 million non-Chinese Putonghua learning in the world, the Cantonese remains opaque to foreigners. The answer may be Cantonese, with a higher number of tones, as well as significant differences between verbal and written forms, and the jam is full of language changes, slang and slander of sentences, it is simply “too heavy” to disturb the reasons for the studies. With foreign governments making rules and participating in many aspects of life, discouraging foreigners learn language can be a form of self-defense. Speaking in Cantonese was the way to keep a part of themselves in their own world. “The problem with the system (for students) is to use numbers without expressing a tone, which is not so intuitive,” says Lee. The difficult terrain did not help the fact that the words Cantonese romanised do not understand the local Chinese, who communicate in Cantonese, but written using Chinese characters.
Written language is not phonetic. She uses characters that make sense, but they do not show how to pronounce them. There are over 7,000 characters in modern use, and must be functional literacy to remember the meaning and excitement of over 2,000 characters and their different combinations.
The spoken and written languages are different. There are dialectal characters but are not widespread and are not fully standardized. In most languages, reading and writing can be helpful in learning the language. This is not true Cantonese as the student has already moved well in his or her oral skills.
Cantonese is a tonal language. Words should be expressed in tone to convey the exact meaning or understand. For language speakers that are not tone, which adds the weight level.
Many Cantonese sounds are not present in Western languages.
There are very few words pertaining to Western languages. Speakers of Germanic languages (such as English) and Latin (French, Italian, Spanish, etc.) do not find many similar words in Cantonese.
