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Japanese vs Cantonese


Cantonese vs Japanese


Countries

Countries
Japan   
Hong Kong, Macau   

Total No. Of Countries
1   
14
2   
13

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

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

Alphabets
99   
40
28   
10

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
5   
2
8   
5

How Many Consonants
14   
4
20   
10

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
  
  

Language Levels
5   
4
10   
8

Time Taken to Learn
88 weeks   
13
88 weeks   
13

Greetings

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   

Dialects

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   

Total No. Of Dialects
31   
25
3   
3

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
128.00 million   
14
60.00 million   
27

Speaking Population
1.90 %   
10
16.00 %   
2

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   

History

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
8   
8
Not Available   

Signed Forms
Signed Japanese   
Not Available   

Scope
Individual   
Not Available   

Code

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   

Countries >>
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Japanese and Cantonese Language History

Comparison of Japanese vs Cantonese language history gives us differences between origin of Japanese and Cantonese language. History of Japanese language states that this language originated in 1185 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 Japanese and Cantonese Language History.

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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.

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