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Cantonese vs English


English vs Cantonese


Countries

Countries
Hong Kong, Macau  
Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, Fiji, Ghana, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Malta, Mauritius, Micronesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somaliland, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United Kingdom, Zambia, Zimbabwe  

Total No. Of Countries
2  
13
33  
2

National Language
China, Guangdong  
Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guyana, Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, United States of America  

Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries  
India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore  

Speaking Continents
Asia  
Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America  

Minority Language
Hawaii  
South Africa  

Regulated By
Civil Service Bureau, Government of Hong Kong, Official Language Division  
Not Available  

Interesting Facts
  • Cantonese have lot of slangs, many of them include words that do not make sense at all and some also have English in them.
  • Even though Cantonese and Mandarin are dialects of Chinese, Cantonese has 8 tones instead of Mandarin's 4.
  
  • Most of the English words begin with the letter S than any other letter.
  • English is third most commonly spoken language in the world.
  

Similar To
Chinese Language  
Not Available  

Derived From
Not Available  
Latin  

Alphabets

Alphabets in
Cantonese-Alphabets.jpg#200  
English-Alphabets.jpg#200  

Alphabets
28  
10
26  
8

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
8  
5
5  
2

How Many Consonants
20  
10
21  
11

Scripts
Chinese Characters and derivatives  
Latin  

Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom  
Left-To-Right, Horizontal  

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
10  
8
7  
6

Time Taken to Learn
88 weeks  
13
6 weeks  
3

Greetings

Hello
您好  
Hello  

Thank You
谢谢  
Thank you  

How Are You?
你好吗?  
How are you?  

Good Night
晚安  
Good Night  

Good Evening
晚上好  
Good Evening  

Good Afternoon
下午好  
Good Afternoon  

Good Morning
早上好  
Good Morning  

Please
请  
Please  

Sorry
遗憾  
Sorry  

Bye
再见  
Bye  

I Love You
我爱你  
I love you  

Excuse Me
原谅我  
Excuse Me  

Dialects

Dialect 1
Guangzhou  
American English  

Where They Speak
outside mainland China  
United States of America  

How Many People Speak
Not Available  
225,000,000.00  
3

Dialect 2
Xiguan  
Hiberno-English  

Where They Speak
Hong Kong  
Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom  

How Many People Speak
Not Available  
4,500,000.00  
15

Dialect 3
Hong Kong  
Welsh English  

Where They Speak
Hong Kong  
United Kingdom  

How Many People Speak
Not Available  
2,500,000.00  
14

Total No. Of Dialects
3  
3
188  
34

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
60.00 million  
27
1,200.00 million  
1

Speaking Population
16.00 %  
2
5.43 %  
4

Native Speakers
52.00 million  
21
400.00 million  
3

Second Language Speakers
Not Available  
400.00 million  
1

Native Name
Kwang Tung Wa  
English  

Alternative Names
Guangfu, Metropolitan Cantonese  
Not Available  

French Name
Not Available  
anglais  

German Name
Not Available  
Englisch  

Pronunciation
Not Available  
/ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/  

Ethnicity
Not Available  
Not Available  

History

Origin
17th century  
5th Century AD  

Language Family
Sino-Tibetan Family  
Indo-European Family  

Subgroup
Not Available  
Not Available  

Branch
Not Available  
Not Available  

Language Forms
  
  

Early Forms
No early forms  
Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English and English  

Standard Forms
Standard Cantonese  
Standard English  

Language Position
Not Available  
3  
3

Signed Forms
Not Available  
Signed English  

Scope
Not Available  
Individual  

Code

ISO 639 1
No data available  
en  

ISO 639 2
  
  

ISO 639 2/T
Not Available  
eng  

ISO 639 2/B
Not Available  
eng  

ISO 639 3
No data available  
eng  

ISO 639 6
Not Available  
engs  

Glottocode
cant1236  
stan1293  

Linguasphere
No data available  
52-ABA  

Types of Language
  
  

Language Type
Not Available  
Living  

Language Linguistic Typology
Not Available  
Subject-Verb-Object  

Language Morphological Typology
Not Available  
Analytic, Fusional, Isolating, Synthetic  

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Cantonese and English Language History

Comparison of Cantonese vs English language history gives us differences between origin of Cantonese and English language. History of Cantonese language states that this language originated in 17th century whereas history of English language states that this language originated in 5th Century AD. Family of the language also forms a part of history of that language. More on language families of these languages can be found out on Cantonese and English Language History.

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Cantonese and English Greetings

People around the world use different languages to interact with each other. Even if we cannot communicate fluently in any language, it will always be beneficial to know about some of the common greetings or phrases from that language. This is where Cantonese and English greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Cantonese and English language. Cantonese word for "Hello" is 您好 or English word for "Thank You" is Thank you. Find more of such common Cantonese Greetings and English Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.

Cantonese vs English Difficulty

The Cantonese vs English difficulty level basically depends on the number of Cantonese Alphabets and English Alphabets. Also the number of vowels and consonants in the language plays an important role in deciding the difficulty level of that language. The important points to be considered when we compare Cantonese and English are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Cantonese and English, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Cantonese is 88 weeks while to learn English time required is 6 weeks.

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