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GENERAL
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 (330,000), and Indonesia (180,000).
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.
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LINGUISTIC
AFFILIATION
As one
of the Chinese languages, Cantonese belongs to the Sino Tibetan
language family, which also includes Tibetan and Lolo Burmese
and Karen (both spoken in Burma). The major linguistic distinctions
within Chinese are Mandarin, Wu, Min, Yue (Cantonese), and
Hakka (See Li and Thompson 1979). Cantonese is more closely
related to Min and Hakka than it is to Mandarin and Wu.
Given
all the dialects that exist within Cantonese, the language
is sometimes referred to as a group of Cantonese dialects,
and not just Cantonese. Oral communication is virtually impossible
among speakers of some Cantonese dialects. For instance, there
is as much of a difference between the dialects of Taishan
and Nanning as there is between Italian and French.
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LANGUAGE
VARIATION
According
to its linguistic characteristics and geographical distribution,
Cantonese can be divided into four dialects: Yuehai (including
Zhongshan, Chungshan, Tungkuan) as represented by the dialect
of Guangzhou City; Siyi (Seiyap) as represented by the Taishan
city (Toishan, Hoishan) dialect; Gaoyang as represented by
the Yangjiang city dialect; and Guinan as represented by the
Nanning city dialect, which is widely used in Guangxi Province.
If not otherwise specified, the term Cantonese often refers
to the Guangzhou Dialect, which is also spoken in Hong Kong
and Macao.
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HISTORY
The origins
of Cantonese can only be guessed at due to the lack of historical
records. Dialectal differences in ancient China were noted
as early as the Chunqiu (770-476 BC) period. Some sources
speculate that Cantonese, along with the Wu and Xiang variants,
took shape as early as the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC). Toward
the end of the Qin Dynasty, the Linnan (now Guangdong and
Fujian) area was colonized by the Han people, who brought
the Han language. Han, which is also referred to in the literature
as the Northern dialect, was used as the standard language
during the Qin Dynasty. A long period of political turmoil
and geographical separation after the Han Dynasty (202 BC
to 220 AD) was responsible for the drift of the local variety
away from the Northern dialect. Interactions with local people
also helped to form a distinctive dialect that is now known
as the Yue dialect. Although not clearly stated in historical
records, it is generally agreed that by the Tang Dynasty (618-907
AD) Cantonese had all the linguistic characteristics that
distinguish it from any other variety of the Chinese dialects.
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USAGE
OF CANTONESE
All in
all, Cantonese is perhaps the most important dialect of Chinese,
and second only to Mandarin, the national language of China.
It enjoys considerable prestige even in China itself. In the
west, it is perhaps even more important, since Cantonese speakers
outnumber the speakers of all other dialects combined in most
western countries. Cantonese is currently the most publicized
Chinese dialect spoken in the Chinese provinces of Guangzhou,
Hong Kong, Macau and parts of Hainan Island. It also enjoys
wide currency in Chinese communities in Malaysia, Canada,
Australia and North America. Of all the various Chinese dialects,
Cantonese has gained by far the highest profile of all Chinese
dialects thanks to the aggressive expansion of Hong Kong's
entertainment industry -- kungfu movies, TV series based on
ancient Chinese novels, Canto-pop, teen idols. In addition,
Hong Kong is the only place in China where Cantonese is used
as the medium of instruction in schools and universities.
Even in Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton), all education
is implemented in Standard Chinese.
Despite
Singapore's scarce land area, it is home to over 30 specific
mother tongue groups. As a result of Singapore's plurality,
its language situation is of interest to many scholars. It
is generally agreed that Singapore's language planning and
language management has been successful with the end result
being language shift from "undesirable" dialects to the official
languages.
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