Countries
Japan
  
Hong Kong, Macau
  
National Language
Japan
  
China, Guangdong
  
Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
  
Not spoken in any of the countries
  
Speaking Continents
Asia, Pacific
  
Asia
  
Minority Language
Palau
  
Hawaii
  
Regulated By
Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁) at the Ministry of Education
  
Civil Service Bureau, Government of Hong Kong, Official Language Division
  
Interesting Facts
- In Japanese Language, there are 4 different ways to address people: kun, chan, san and sama.
- There are many words in Japanese language which end with vowel letter, which determines the structure and rhythm of Japanese.
  
- 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
Korean Language
  
Chinese Language
  
Derived From
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Alphabets in
Japanese-Alphabets.jpg#200
  
Cantonese-Alphabets.jpg#200
  
Phonology
  
  
Scripts
Kana
  
Chinese Characters and derivatives
  
Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom
  
Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom
  
Hard to Learn
  
  
Hello
こんにちは (Kon'nichiwa)
  
您好
  
Thank You
ありがとう (Arigatō)
  
谢谢
  
How Are You?
お元気ですか (O genki desu ka?)
  
你好吗?
  
Good Night
おやすみなさい (Oyasuminasai)
  
晚安
  
Good Evening
こんばんは (Konbanwa)
  
晚上好
  
Good Afternoon
こんにちは (Konnichiwa!)
  
下午好
  
Good Morning
おはよう (Ohayō)
  
早上好
  
Please
お願いします (Onegaishimasu)
  
请
  
Sorry
ごめんなさい (Gomen'nasai)
  
遗憾
  
Bye
さようなら (Sayōnara)
  
再见
  
I Love You
愛しています (Aishiteimasu)
  
我爱你
  
Excuse Me
すみません (Sumimasen)
  
原谅我
  
Dialect 1
Sanuki
  
Guangzhou
  
Where They Speak
Kagawa
  
outside mainland China
  
How Many People Speak
1,000,000.00
  
28
Not Available
  
Dialect 2
Hakata
  
Xiguan
  
Where They Speak
Fukuoka
  
Hong Kong
  
Dialect 3
Kansai
  
Hong Kong
  
Where They Speak
kansai
  
Hong Kong
  
How Many People Speak?
128.00 million
  
14
60.00 million
  
27
Native Speakers
128.00 million
  
9
52.00 million
  
21
Native Name
日本語
  
Kwang Tung Wa
  
Alternative Names
Not Available
  
Guangfu, Metropolitan Cantonese
  
French Name
japonais
  
Not Available
  
German Name
Japanisch
  
Not Available
  
Pronunciation
/nihoɴɡo/: [nihõŋɡo], [nihõŋŋo]
  
Not Available
  
Ethnicity
Japanese (Yamato)
  
Not Available
  
Origin
1185
  
17th century
  
Language Family
Japonic Family
  
Sino-Tibetan Family
  
Subgroup
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Branch
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Language Forms
  
  
Early Forms
Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese and Early Modern Japanese
  
No early forms
  
Standard Forms
Japanese
  
Standard Cantonese
  
Language Position
Not Available
  
Signed Forms
Signed Japanese
  
Not Available
  
Scope
Individual
  
Not Available
  
ISO 639 1
ja
  
No data available
  
ISO 639 2
  
  
ISO 639 2/T
jpn
  
Not Available
  
ISO 639 2/B
jpn
  
Not Available
  
ISO 639 3
jpn
  
No data available
  
ISO 639 6
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Glottocode
nucl1643
  
cant1236
  
Linguasphere
45-CAA-a
  
No data available
  
Types of Language
  
  
Language Type
Living
  
Not Available
  
Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Object-Verb
  
Not Available
  
Language Morphological Typology
Agglutinative, Synthetic
  
Not Available
  
Japanese 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 Japanese and Cantonese greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Japanese and Cantonese language. Japanese word for "Hello" is こんにちは (Kon'nichiwa) or Cantonese word for "Thank You" is 谢谢. Find more of such common Japanese Greetings and Cantonese Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.
Japanese vs Cantonese Difficulty
The Japanese vs Cantonese difficulty level basically depends on the number of Japanese 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 Japanese and Cantonese are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Japanese and Cantonese, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Japanese is 88 weeks while to learn Cantonese time required is 88 weeks.