What language is Cantonese?

"Guangdong" includes Guangdong/Guangxi in a broad sense. In the Ming Dynasty/Qing Dynasty, Guangdong was called Eastern Guangdong, and Guangxi was called Western Guangdong, collectively known as "Two Guangdong".

Cantonese is a Chinese dialect mainly distributed in central and western Guangdong, eastern and southern Guangxi, and Hong Kong/Macau. Cantonese is the official academic name, and the so-called "Cantonese" is the customary name for Cantonese by Hong Kong people. However, more people in Guangdong/Guangxi are accustomed to calling Cantonese "vernacular". There are about 60-70 million native speakers of Cantonese (vernacular).

Only half of the population in Guangdong speaks Cantonese (vernacular). Cantonese (the rest speak Hakka/Min Teochew/Min Leizhou), Guangxi Han people account for nearly two-thirds of the population of Guangxi, half of the population speaks Cantonese (vernacular), whether in Guangdong or Guangxi, Cantonese (Vernacular) are the largest dialects, so people who speak Cantonese (Vernacular) are not necessarily Cantonese, and not all Cantonese people speak Cantonese. In other words, calling this dialect "Cantonese" is extremely Inaccurate.

Cantonese accents vary from place to place, and Cantonese is the standard accent, and Hong Kong Cantonese is also derived from Cantonese.