Chinese vs Cantonese
Countries
China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan
Hong Kong, Macau
National Language
China, Taiwan
China, Guangdong
Second Language
Republic of Brazil
Not spoken in any of the countries
Speaking Continents
Asia
Asia
Minority Language
Indonesia, Malaysia
Hawaii
Regulated By
Chinese Language Standardization Council, National Commission on Language and Script Work, Promote Mandarin Council
Civil Service Bureau, Government of Hong Kong, Official Language Division
Interesting Facts
- Chinese language is tonal, since meaning of a word changes according to its tone.
- In Chinese language, there is no grammatical distinction between singular or plural, no declination of verbs according to tense, mood and aspect.
- 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.
Similar To
Not Available
Chinese Language
Derived From
Not Available
Not Available
Alphabets in
Chinese.jpg#200
Cantonese-Alphabets.jpg#200
Scripts
Chinese Characters and derivatives
Chinese Characters and derivatives
Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom
Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom
How Are You?
你好吗？ (Nǐ hǎo ma?)
你好吗？
Good Night
晚安 (Wǎn'ān)
晚安
Good Evening
晚上好 (Wǎnshàng hǎo)
晚上好
Good Afternoon
下午好 (Xiàwǔ hǎo)
下午好
Good Morning
早安 (Zǎo ān)
早上好
I Love You
我爱你 (Wǒ ài nǐ)
我爱你
Excuse Me
劳驾 (Láojià)
原谅我
Dialect 1
Mandarin
Guangzhou
Where They Speak
China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan
outside mainland China
How Many People Speak
Not Available
Where They Speak
China, United States of America
Hong Kong
How Many People Speak
Not Available
Where They Speak
China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam
Hong Kong
How Many People Speak
Not Available
Second Language Speakers
Not Available
Native Name
中文 (zhōngwén)
Kwang Tung Wa
Alternative Names
Not Available
Guangfu, Metropolitan Cantonese
French Name
chinois
Not Available
German Name
Chinesisch
Not Available
Pronunciation
Not Available
Not Available
Ethnicity
Han
Not Available
Origin
1250 BC
17th century
Language Family
Sino-Tibetan Family
Sino-Tibetan Family
Subgroup
Not Available
Not Available
Branch
Not Available
Not Available
Early Forms
No early forms
No early forms
Standard Forms
Standard Chinese
Standard Cantonese
Language Position
Not Available
Signed Forms
Wenfa Shouyu 文法手語 ("Grammatical Sign Language", Signed Mandarin (Taiwan))
Not Available
Scope
Individual
Not Available
ISO 639 1
zh
No data available
ISO 639 2/T
zho
Not Available
ISO 639 2/B
chi
Not Available
ISO 639 3
zho
No data available
ISO 639 6
Not Available
Not Available
Glottocode
sini1245
cant1236
Linguasphere
79-AAA
No data available
Language Type
Living
Not Available
Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Verb-Object
Not Available
Language Morphological Typology
Analytic, Isolating
Not Available
Chinese and Cantonese Language History
Comparison of Chinese vs Cantonese language history gives us differences between origin of Chinese and Cantonese language. History of Chinese language states that this language originated in 1250 BC whereas history of Cantonese language states that this language originated in 17th century. 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 Chinese and Cantonese Language History.
Chinese and Cantonese 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 Chinese and Cantonese greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Chinese and Cantonese language. Chinese word for "Hello" is 您好 (Nín hǎo) or Cantonese word for "Thank You" is 谢谢. Find more of such common Chinese Greetings and Cantonese Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.
Chinese vs Cantonese Difficulty
The Chinese vs Cantonese difficulty level basically depends on the number of Chinese Alphabets and Cantonese 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 Chinese and Cantonese are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Chinese and Cantonese, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Chinese is 88 weeks while to learn Cantonese time required is 88 weeks.