The history and origin of Cantonese

History and Origin of Cantonese

Cantonese has a history of more than 2,200 years since the Qin Dynasty. Cantonese has a history of more than 2,200 years since the Qin Dynasty.

Qin and Han Dynasties

In ancient times, many primitive tribes in the Lingnan region were generally called Nanman by the Chinese people in the Central Plains. After Qin Shihuang went south to capture "Baiyue", the Chinese people came to the Lingnan area, while the Southern Barbarians fled to the mountains or areas further south. At that time, the Chinese language began to be introduced into the Lingnan area. After the fall of Qin, Zhao Tuo, the captain of Nanhai County, annexed Guilin County and Xiang County and became king, establishing the short-lived Nanyue Kingdom. During the heyday of the Han Dynasty, the Huaxia ethnic group merged with many surrounding ethnic groups and evolved into the Han ethnic group. This period was the period when the Cantonese language took its formative form.

Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Central Plains region was once again in a long-term civil war, and the north fell to foreign hands for the first time. A large number of Central Plains scholars and people fled to Lingnan, and the northern Chinese language continued to exert influence on the local people. Language shock. At that time, Old Chinese was mixed with the previously formed Old Cantonese, which further narrowed the differences between Old Cantonese and Central Plains Chinese. This period was the growth period of Cantonese.

Tang and Song Dynasties

During the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, the Han population in the Lingnan area further increased, and the aborigines who had been in long-term contact with the Han people had been Sinicized. In mountainous areas where there are fewer Han people, the local aborigines continue to maintain their own language and culture. At this stage, Cantonese was still influenced by ancient Chinese and became a language that not only corresponded to the pronunciation of medieval Chinese but also had some independent vocabulary. From the fall of the Tang Dynasty to the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun fell for four hundred years. During this period, a large number of Central Plains Han people continued to move south to the Pearl River Delta, narrowing the difference between ancient Cantonese and Central Plains Chinese. This was also the last time that the differences between Cantonese and Central Plains Chinese were narrowed. At this point, Cantonese is very close to Central Plains Chinese in both pronunciation and grammar. Therefore, the Tang and Song dynasties can be regarded as the final period of Cantonese. Therefore, modern Cantonese can still correspond to the pronunciation of "Guangyun" in the Song Dynasty, but it is difficult to correspond to the pronunciation of ancient Chinese in the Yuan Dynasty or later.

In the Yuan, Ming and early Qing dynasties

In the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols moved their capital to Dadu (formerly known as Yanjing and later renamed Beijing) located in the sixteen states of Yanyun, and used the local dialect as their official language language. The difference between Central Plains Chinese at that time, Middle Chinese and Cantonese continued to grow thereafter: Central Plains Chinese at that time developed rapidly towards Beijing Mandarin, and the entry tone of Beijing Mandarin quickly disappeared (that is, the -p/-t/-k rhyme endings fell off , for example, the three characters "Ruribei" have different rhymes and endings in both medieval Chinese and modern Cantonese), and soft tones that do not belong to the traditional four tones of "Pingshang goru" appeared; Cantonese that has been established has not been influenced by the Yuan Dynasty. Develop independently. From the Ming Dynasty to the mid-Qing Dynasty, the Mandarin rhyme endings in Central Plains further disappeared (modern Mandarin only has the -n/-ng rhyme endings, and the -m endings merged with the -n endings). There are also g/k/h initial consonants connecting i/u finals that are completely palatalized into j/q/x initial consonants (for example, the three characters "Ji Qixi" have g/k/h initial consonants in both medieval Chinese and modern Cantonese. Modern Mandarin has been completely palatalized into j/q/x initial consonants); Cantonese has steadily and slowly transformed into modern Cantonese. The most obvious thing is that it no longer distinguishes between z/c/s initial consonants and j/q/x initial consonants. The length of Cantonese finals divides the yin-in tone into upper and lower yin-in tones (for example, the two yin-in-tone characters "色丝" have short and long finals respectively, the former is assigned into the sharp upper yin-in tone, and the latter is Send in a low Yin Ru sound similar to the Yang Ru sound).

Mid-to-late Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was closed to the outside world, leaving only Guangzhou as a port for trade with other countries. After many foreigners came to China, the Chinese they mastered was Cantonese rather than Mandarin. Many officials in the capital often came into contact with Cantonese in order to do business with foreigners, which caused the reverse spread of Cantonese to the Central Plains for the first time. During this period, a large number of Cantonese people migrated to America, Australia and Southeast Asia, and Cantonese began to spread to all parts of the world.

When the Republic of China was founded in modern times, although there was a trend of northern vernacular replacing classical Chinese for formal writing, there were no restrictions on the actual use of Cantonese. At one time, there was a proposal to designate Cantonese as the national Mandarin language.

However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, during the nationwide campaign to promote northern languages ??as Mandarin, Cantonese was increasingly influenced by Mandarin. As a result, many younger generations in the Cantonese-speaking areas of mainland China did not understand the Cantonese pronunciation of some technical nouns. This situation has caused many native Cantonese speakers to begin to feel a sense of crisis in their mother tongue.

Extended reading: Cantonese speaking skills

Just like learning English, you need a specific environment to learn quickly. For example, if you go to a foreign country and study for a while, you will find that you My English level has been greatly improved, at least my listening skills. Therefore, to learn Cantonese, it is best to stay in the Cantonese-speaking area of ??Guangdong for a long time.

Secondly, you should watch more Cantonese TV and listen to more Cantonese radio stations to enhance your understanding of Cantonese. The more contacts you have, the deeper your understanding will be.

Thirdly, Cantonese To be honest, as a Cantonese, I don't know much about reading the text, but from the outside, I can roughly understand it. After all, it has little to do with language and hearing.

Another thing is that learning a language requires more attempts. It doesn’t matter even if you make a mistake. If the person you are talking to speaks Cantonese, then just let him be the teacher to correct you. That is to say, as long as You dare say, you can find a teacher anytime, anywhere.

Because there are more loan words in Cantonese now, and Cantonese is often changing, so we must keep pace with the times. Listening to more Cantonese MP3s, videos or some news will be of great help. Generally It only takes a few months to learn Cantonese and you can speak fluently.

How to learn Cantonese efficiently

1. Listen more:

1. Listen to audio tutorials on Cantonese learning online;

2. Bookstores and some video stores have supporting CDs (or tapes) related to Cantonese learning. Buy a set and listen to it every day. If you have MP3, MP4, or your mobile phone supports the function of playing MP3 audio, then you can put these Copy the mp3 audio tutorial to your player to learn Cantonese anytime, anywhere;

2. Talk more:

Just like learning a foreign language, start with daily conversations and learn every day Three sentences (no need to be more.

Use the loop learning method, that is, learn three new sentences every day, and review the three sentences from yesterday and the day before yesterday before learning the new words). Use them after you have learned them, and speak them out boldly.

3. Master the corresponding rules between Cantonese and Mandarin:

Cantonese and Mandarin are both Chinese, and their initial consonants, finals, and tones have certain corresponding rules. Master the relationship between the two Corresponding rules, learning will get twice the result with half the effort.

Generally speaking, Cantonese has more tones, rhymes, and tones than Mandarin. That is to say, a word with the same initial consonant in Mandarin may be divided into two or three initial consonants in Cantonese.

For example, words with the initial consonant k in Mandarin are divided into k, f, and h in Cantonese. For example, the initial consonant of "dependence, loss" is k, the initial consonant of "ku,kuo" is f, and the initial consonant of "empty, Kang" The initial consonant is h.

The same is true for vowels and tones. Cantonese has 9 tones. You should pay attention to which two tones in Cantonese a certain tone in Mandarin is equal to.

Some people say that learning Cantonese is difficult. In fact, it is mainly a matter of confidence and learning methods.

How to learn Cantonese well? In the final analysis, it depends on three things:

First, you must persevere and spend a certain amount of time learning Cantonese every day;

Second, take the initiative to tell people, don’t just wait for others to tell you;

Third, don’t hesitate to tell because you are afraid of making mistakes or being laughed at. As the saying goes, the more you make mistakes, the more you will learn. Come on! Be bold, careful, and thick-skinned. Listen more and speak more to practice your ears and mouth.

Tips for learning Cantonese in Hong Kong

1. Spend as much time as possible in a Cantonese environment

Listen to as many Cantonese speakers as possible and watch as many Cantonese versions as possible TV programs and Cantonese learning tutorials on some Cantonese teaching websites. Create an authentic Cantonese environment for yourself at all times and everywhere. Even if you can't speak it, it can increase your perception of Cantonese and speed up the pace of Cantonese learning.

2. Postponing learning Cantonese words

Some people may not agree, but if you want to learn Cantonese quickly, learning Cantonese words will hinder your overall Cantonese learning pace. When you can have a verbal conversation with Cantonese people in Cantonese, then it will be better for you to study and learn Cantonese words, and it will be much easier. (Let me tell you some good news: in Cantonese, the appearance and meaning of most words are the same as in Mandarin, and only a small number of them are special words in Cantonese; in addition, in fact, you can’t understand those special Cantonese words. It doesn’t matter, language focuses on oral listening and speaking. Besides, few Cantonese people nowadays can write Cantonese characters correctly.)

3. Keep learning and reviewing.

You can download some "Cantonese and Mandarin learning mp3 tutorials" and put them into your MP3, MP4, MP5 player or mobile phone to study anytime and anywhere.

4. Don’t be shy, speak out boldly

Speak out boldly. Only when you speak too many sentences will you become fluent, so if you don’t speak, you will definitely not learn well. Even if you made a mistake and the other person doesn't understand, you can still explain it to him in other ways until he understands what you mean. Usually, they will help you correct your mistake and tell you the correct way of saying it. As the saying goes, the more you make mistakes, the more you will learn! Be bold, careful and thick-skinned, listen more and speak more to train your ears and mouth.

5. Keep learning Cantonese for at least 30 minutes every day

Language learning is a continuous accumulation process. Only by insisting on continuous learning can you learn well, learn firmly, and learn quickly. Don’t be lazy