Cantonese (廣東話 Gwóngdūngwáh) is a widely spoken Chinese language. It is the local language in current use within the province of Guangdong, China, official language in the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, as well as in the Special Administrative Region of Macau, and used in many overseas Chinese communities in South-East Asia and elsewhere, with Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) being two places where Cantonese is the dominant language in a Chinese community that is in turn huge and influential. Cantonese is also the dominant language in many Chinatowns all over the world, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Chicago, London, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Vancouver, Toronto and Kuala Lumpur. The dialect of Chinese spoken by many inhabitants of eastern Guangxi Province in mainland China, is often referred to a form of Cantonese as well.
Note that "dialect" has a different meaning when applied to Chinese from when it is appied to other languages. Chinese "dialects" have widely diverging pronunciations of the same words and even different words for expressing the same thing and different grammar such as different word order. Chinese "dialects" are mutually unintelligible, as different as say, Italian and French, which we would call "related languages" rather than "dialects". For all practical purposes, Cantonese is a foreign language for native speakers of Mandarin or other Chinese "dialects".
Meanwhile, there are different variations of the Cantonese dialect that differ greatly from one another. For example, the Cantonese spoken in the far west of Guangdong province (like Taishan) is not very intelligible to a native of Guangzhou City.
Speakers of all Chinese varieties usually use the same characters in reading and writing. Written language is more formal and closer to standard Mandarin Póutūngwáh (Mandarin Chinese), even when used by Cantonese speakers. Oral Cantonese contains many words for which there has traditionally not existed a written form. In recent decades, however, characters for many of these words have been created, chiefly by the Hong Kong popular printed media such as newspapers and magazines. It should be noted that the different Cantonese-speaking communities use one of two different forms of writing: in Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia and many overseas Chinese communities, traditional Chinese characters are in use, whereas the Cantonese-speaking communities in mainland China's Guangdong province as well as Singapore use simplified Chinese characters.
In many cases, the regional varieties are not clearly regionalised but vary gradually across a region. Thus, linguists can identify anywhere between seven and seventeen separate Chinese languages where the speakers of different dialects are mutually unintelligible. This list is based on the Cantonese spoken in Guangzhou. Note that the Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong and Macau differ slightly due to Western influences, though standard Cantonese as spoken in Guangzhou would be understood by everyone. The Cantonese spoken in Singapore and Malaysia also differ slightly due to Malay influences.
Some of the phrases in the list are difficult to translate from English to Cantonese.
Pronunciation guide
The pronunciations given in this guidebook use the Yale Romanization system. Sounds can only be approximated at best. This guide gives a general indication of the correct sound to make, but the best way to be completely accurate is to listen closely to native speakers and to mimic the sounds they make.
Consonants
Yale
Pronunciation
b
b in "ball"
p
p as in "pat"
m
m as in "mom"
f
f as in "foot"
d
d in "dog"
t
t as in "top"
n
n as in "not"
l
l as in "lap". This is more like a rolling "r" sound, as in "ladder" or "butter", but it's a slide between d, t, l, and/or r.
g
g in "good"
k
k as in "kite"
ng
ng as in "singer"
h
h as in "hot"
j
blend of the z in "Mozart" and the j in "judge"
ch
blend of the ts in "cats" and the ch in "church"
s
s as in "sleep"
gw
gw as in "hogwash"
kw
qu as in "quark"
y
y as in "yard"
w
w as in "want"; otherwise, like English "v" in "victory"
Finals
The final consonants p, t, and k are unreleased. This means that they are virtually silent and you hear no "puff of air" at the end of the syllable.
Yale
Pronunciation
aa
a as in "spa"
aai
igh as in "sigh"
aau
ow as in "how"
aam
am as in "Vietnam"
aan
awn as in "pawn"
aang
combination of aa and ng
aap
op as in "opt"
aat
ought as in "ought"
aak
alk as in "talk"
ai
i as in "kite"
au
ou as in "scout"
am
ome as in "some"; otherwise, like "am" in "ham".
an
un as in "sun". This can be pronounced like "an" in "man"
ang
ung as in "lung". This may sound like "ang" in "rang".
ap
up as in "cup". This can be pronounced like "ap" in "map".
at
ut as in "cut"; otherwise, like "at" in "cat".
ak
uc as in "suck"; otherwise, like "ack" in "back".
e
e as in "bet"
ei
ay as in "say"
em
em as in "temple"
eng
eng as in "penguin"
ek
eck as in "peck"
i
ee as in "tee"
iu
ew as in "few"
im
eem as in "seem"
in
een as in "seen"
ing
ing as in "sing"
ip
eep as in "sleep"
it
eet as in "meet"
ik
ick as in "sick"
o
aw as in "paw" (British English)
oi
oy as in "boy"
ou
oe as in "toe"
on
orn as in "scorn" (British English)
ong
ong as in "song" (British English)
ot
ot as in "hot" (British English)
ok
ock as in "stock" (British English)
u
oo as in "coo"
ui
ooey as in "gooey"
un
oon as in "soon"
ung
combination of ou and ng
ut
oot as in "boot"
uk
oke as in "joke"
eu
er as in "her" (Britsh English, with rounded lips)
eung
combination of eu and ng
euk
ork as in "work" (British English)
eui
eui as in "deuil" (French)
eun
ine as in "engine"
eut
ut as in "put"
yu
u as in "tu" (French)
yun
un as in "union"
yut
Ut as in "Utah"
m
mm as in "hmm"
ng
ng as in "sing"
Tones
Cantonese is a tonal language. This means that the same syllable, pronounced in a different tone, has a different meaning. To complicate this, there may be more than one character pronounced as the same syllable with the same tone (though this is uncommon). In this case, context usually helps resolve the ambiguity. This may sound daunting, but is in fact is better than say, English, where there are a great deal of words that are spoken identically (eg. their, there, they're) and have nothing but context to help determine which one it is. Cantonese has context and tone to help distinguish words.
Different variations of the Cantonese dialect have a different number of tones, from as few as six to as many as ten or more. Most speakers, however, and all modern linguistic interpretations get by with being able to distinguish (both in spoken and heard Cantonese) between the following six tones:
Yale
Description
Start-to-end pitch
Yale
Description
Start-to-end pitch
1
ā
High Level
4
àh
Low Falling
2
á
Mid Rising
5
áh
Low Rising
3
a
Mid Level
6
ah
Low Level
The tonal pronunciation of Cantonese is by far the most difficult aspect of the often daunting language. The very minor initial difficulty in learning the tones is sometimes more than made up for by simple grammar, and absence of almost all plurals, genders, tenses and forms that make many other world languages seem difficult by comparison.
Phrase list
Basics
To be or not to be?
Cantonese, as in Chinese, does not have words for "yes" and "no" as such; instead, questions are typically answered by repeating the verb. Common ones include:
To be or not to be
係 haih, 唔係 mh'haih
To have or not have / there is or is not
有 yáuh, 冇 móuh
To be right or wrong
啱 āam, 唔啱 mh'āam
Hello.
你好. Néih hóu.
How are you?
你好嗎? Néih hóu ma?
How are you recently? (more popular in daily usage)
近排點呀 Gahnpàaih dím a? (informal)
Fine.
幾好. Géi hóu. (No need to say "thank you" after answering "fine" in Cantonese)
What is your name?
你叫乜嘢名呀? Néih giu māt'yéh mèhng a?
What is your name (formal, literally means "How do I address you")?
請問點稱呼? Chíngmahn dím chīngfū?
My name is ______ .
我個名叫______. Ngóh go mèhng giu ______ .
Nice to meet you.
幸會. Hahng'wúih.
Please.
請. Chíng.
Thank you. (when someone helps you)
唔該. M̀h'gōi.
Thank you. (when someone gives you a gift)
多謝 Dōjeh.
You're welcome.
唔使客氣. M̀h'sái haak-hei.
Excuse me. (getting attention)
唔好意思. M̀h'hóu yisi
Excuse me. (to get past)
唔該. M̀h'gōi.
Sorry.
對唔住. Deui-m̀h-jyuh. (In Hong Kong, it's more common to use the English word "sorry" instead)
Goodbye
再見 Joigin. (In Hong Kong, "bye bye" is often used instead)
In Cantonese, "train" is translated into 火車 (fóchē) and "bus" is 巴士 (bāsí). The language uses measure words or numeral classifiers before the actual nouns. In context of the following examples, the respective Cantonese measure words for 火車 and 巴士 are 班 (bāan) and 架 (ga).
Reading a Chinese Menu
Look for these characters to get an idea of how your food's cooked. With help from The Eater's Guide to Chinese Characters (J. McCawley).
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