Cantonese

Picture
Image from UCLA LMP

Facts

Introduction
Cantonese (also known as Yue) is one of several major languages in China and has approximately 64 million speakers (Grimes 1992). Of those 64 million, there are more than 46 million speakers in southern China and over 5 million in Hong Kong. Cantonese speakers are also found in Malaysia (750,000), Vietnam (500,000), Macao (500,000), Singapore (33,000), and Indonesia (18,000). Smaller communities (less than 30,000 speakers) also exist in Thailand, New Zealand, Philippines, Costa Rica, Brunei, and Nauru. Sizeable Chinese communities use Cantonese in Canada (several hundred thousand), the United States (for example, 180,000 in San Francisco), Australia, the United Kingdom, Panama, the Netherlands, and some other European countries.

The various Chinese languages are often referred to as dialects because they have in common the Chinese writing system. Thus, an educated speaker of any of the language varieties recognizes written Chinese, but may pronounce it in his or her own "dialect." These "dialects," however, are not mutually intelligible. Hence, from a linguistic point of view, they are not considered proper dialects but rather as separate languages (Norman 1988). The term language is used here to refer to the major distinctions within Chinese (for example, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Wu, and Min) and the term dialect to refer to further distinctions (for example, Toishan is a dialect of Cantonese).
The term Cantonese comes from the name of the place called Canton, now known as Guangzhou, the port city in southeast China and capital of Guangdong province. However, recent studies (China Encyclopedia Publishers 1988) reveal that Cantonese is exclusively used in less than half of the areas in the province. It is the only or major language in forty counties and cities of the province. It is also spoken in sixteen other counties, co-existing with other variants of Chinese. In the neighboring province of Guangxi, it is used in twenty three counties, usually together with other varieties of Chinese.
Language sample
Click play below to hear a greeting in Cantonese

Mandarin

Picture
Image from UCLA LMP

Facts

Introduction
Mandarin is the most widely spoken of all Chinese languages/dialects and is used by upwards of 720 million people in China, or 70 percent of the population of China (Grimes 1992). It is spoken in a huge area of the mainland running diagonally from the extreme southwest to Manchuria and also along the entire east coast north of Shanghai. To generalize, most of China with the exception of the southeastern provinces from Vietnam in the southwest to Shanghai in the northeast is Mandarin speaking. Other exceptional areas are in the far west. There are also non-Chinese speaking minorities in many areas of China.

Substantial numbers of speakers are in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, the USA, Mongolia, Vietnam, Brunei, South Africa, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Hong Kong. The total number of speakers in approximately 885 million (Grimes 1994).
Language sample
Click play below to hear a greeting in Mandarin

Taiwanese Hokkien

Picture

Facts

Introduction
Taiwanese Hokkien, commonly known as Taiwanese, is the Hokkien dialect of Min Nan as spoken by about 70% of the population of Taiwan. The largest ethnic group in Taiwan, for which Hokkien is considered a native language, is known as Hoklo or Holo (Hō-ló). The correspondence between language and ethnicity is generally true though not absolute, as some Hoklo speak Hokkien poorly while some non-Hoklo speak Hokkien fluently. Pe̍h-oē-jī (POJ) is a popular orthography for this language, and for Hokkien in general.


Taiwanese Hokkien is generally similar to Amoy. Minor differences only occur in terms of vocabulary. Like Amoy, Taiwanese Hokkien is based on a mixture of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou speech. Due to the mass popularity of Hokkien entertainment media from Taiwan, Taiwanese Hokkien has grown to become the more influential Hokkien dialect of Min Nan, especially after 1980s. Along with the Amoy dialect, the Taiwanese prestige dialect (based on the Tâi-lâm variant) is regarded as ‘standard Hokkien’.

Language sample
Click play below to hear a greeting in Mandarin