Is Cantonese a dialect? Why?

Cantonese is one of the seven dialects of Chinese in China, and it is also the mother tongue of Guangfu people of Han nationality. Also known as Cantonese, it is also called Vernacular in Cantonese area and Tang Hua outside China.

Cantonese is a branch of Chinese. If Chinese is regarded as a language, Cantonese is a first-class dialect formed by Chinese in Guangdong and Guangxi, and the second half is a second-class dialect. If Chinese is regarded as a "Han family" and Cantonese as an independent language, there are several Cantonese dialects under Cantonese. Cantonese is a kind of tonal language. Influenced by the southward migration of population during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, a large number of ancient Chinese words were preserved.

Cantonese speakers are mainly distributed in Guangdong, Hongkong, Macau, Guangxi and Hainan in China. In China, Cantonese speakers are the third largest group after Mandarin and Wu dialect. With the population of Guangdong and Guangxi emigrating overseas in modern times, Cantonese is the most widely used Chinese language in Chinese communities in Canada and Australia.

Extended data

The writing system of Cantonese

Modern Cantonese generally adopts the modern Chinese vernacular writing system which appeared in the early 20th century in formal occasions, and its grammar and vocabulary are almost the same as written Mandarin. The grammar, vocabulary and expression of this vernacular Chinese are quite different from those of Cantonese, but it seems that people have basically become accustomed to this difference and have not felt great inconvenience.

But when people read this vernacular in Cantonese, they generally don't read it literally. Readers will get used to adjusting literal translation sentences according to Cantonese grammar, vocabulary and language and repeating them in Cantonese.

In order to be close to the people, the mass media will add a lot of Cantonese words from time to time. Some magazines will adopt another writing system of Cantonese, and a large number of them will be written according to Cantonese grammar and terminology, which is difficult for China users who don't know Cantonese to understand.

Newspapers will take a compromise approach, mainly written in Mandarin and vernacular, but in dialogues and introductions, Cantonese dialogues will be written in Cantonese vernacular, which will make the articles more vivid and will not be distorted when translated into Chinese vernacular.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Cantonese

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