Introduction
In 21st Century, since China's economic growth keeps going. The language of Chinese has started drawing the society's attention. When I tell people that I can speak both Cantonese and Mandarin, I'm often being asked, "What's the difference between that and Mandarin?" Mandarin Chinese, a standard form based on the Beijing dialect, with elements from other Mandarin dialects, was adopted as the national language in China. Cantonese Chinese, an official language in Hong Kong and Macau. Actually, the history of Cantonese language has started since the time of the Christ which was being in existence 2000 years ago. As it is older than Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese is closer in pronunciation to ancient Chinese. It might be a surprise that it was older than Mandarin Chinese. But in fact, more surprising is the fact that Mandarin is merely 700-800 year old. However, because of migration of Cantonese speaking people from Hong Kong to major cities of the world, Cantonese is alive and kicking and has become a competitor of Mandarin internationally.
Mandarin Chinese, also known as “Putonghua”, which is a big part of the Chinese Language family, the top language after English that speaks in the world. There are about nine-hundred and fifty five million people of speakers, 14.4% of our world population. Mandarin Chinese are usually spoken in China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.
What is Cantonese Chinese?
Cantonese Chinese also belongs to a part of the Chinese Language family, rank number twenty-four in the “Top 100 languages speak in the world”. There are about fifty-nine million speakers, 0.89% of our world population. Cantonese Chinese are usually speaks in Guangdong China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Are Mandarin and Cantonese the same?
Because of Mandarin and Cantonese are two much related languages, so that there are many people specially in the European countries think that Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese Chinese are the same, as Cantonese is often described as a dialect of mandarin, but the fact these two languages are totally different from their way of pronunciation, written language and meaning. Cantonese is actually being a separate, distinct language.
Differences between Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese ?
The differences between the two languages, while Mandarin has a full fledge script, but Cantonese is mostly an oral language and when Cantonese speaking people have to read and write, they make use of mandarin, which means that they will speak in Cantonese, but write in mandarin. But the difference is when Cantonese people, specially people living in Hong Kong, they will write in “traditional Chinese” But Mandarin speakers who live in other cities in China will write in “simplified Chinese”. It is because that the characters and wordings in Mandarin have been simplified in 1950, while characters in Cantonese are still traditional. That’s why the written language of Cantonese speakers and Mandarin speakers are totally different. Also referred to as a language of the youth, Cantonese has a huge number of slangs that are continuously getting added but Mandarin is more old style with only a little of slangs added.
Similar Characteristics between Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese?
One unique thing about Mandarin and Cantonese is that both are tonal languages and a single word may have many meanings depending upon their context intonation and pronunciation.
Which one is easier to learn?
Cantonese is tougher in this respect, having nine tones while Mandarin has seven tones and they also have different vowels and consonants. For beginners, Cantonese can be more difficult because there are totally nine tones in Cantonese while there are only four in Mandarin. Despite
similar characters being in use in these languages, pronunciation of words is so dissimilar and also sometimes it is so hard to understand for Mandarin speaking people because Cantonese use lots of different expressions in their daily oral so some of the humorously Cantonese speakers describe it as “Chicken talking to ducks” when a mandarin speaker trying to understand what Cantonese speaker said. It might be harder to learn Cantonese than Chinese, but Cantonese speakers are always find their dialect more lively, fun to speak and colorful, with an abundance of slung, a unique humor to it, and distinctive culture, which makes it more appealing to new learners. It is more expressive than any other Chinese dialect.
Both languages are worth to learn, specially, now China is becoming stronger, many business related work are relate to China, learning Mandarin is very helpful for doing business. Nowadays, all of the Hong Kong student will take a total of three languages in school. Cantonese as their first language, Mandarin and English as their second language, so that they can be easier to communicate with people who are from other countries with different languages, specially Mandarin and English these two international language. So if you have a choice, learn Mandarin. Because it is easier and faster to learn. If you know Mandarin, you can even be understood even in Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou. But if you need to talk to a Cantonese who doesn’t know Mandarin at all, good luck with that!
References
1) Minglang Zhou, Hongkai Sun (2004). Language Policy in the People's Republic of China: Theory and Practice Since 1949. Springer.ISBN 978-1402080388.
2) Cantonese as written language: the growth of a written Chinese vernacular, p.48, Donald B. Snow, Hong Kong University Press
