Cantonese

E25452

Cantonese is a major Chinese language variety spoken primarily in Guangdong province, Hong Kong, Macau, and among overseas Chinese communities worldwide.

Observed surface forms (8)


Statements (68)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Chinese language variety
Sinitic language
spoken language
closelyRelatedTo Taishanese
Yuehai dialects
family Sino-Tibetan languages
hasDialect Cantonese self-linksurface differs
surface form: Guangzhou Cantonese

Cantonese self-linksurface differs
surface form: Hong Kong Cantonese

Cantonese self-linksurface differs
surface form: Macanese Cantonese

Taishanese
hasDistinctGrammarFrom Standard Chinese
surface form: Standard Mandarin
hasDistinctVocabularyFrom Standard Chinese
surface form: Standard Mandarin
hasLoanwordsFrom English
Japanese
Portuguese language
surface form: Portuguese
hasOnlinePresence widely used on social media
hasPhonemicTones yes
hasRomanizationStandard Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanization
Yale Cantonese
surface form: Jyutping

Yale Cantonese
historicalAncestor Middle Chinese
isPartOf Yue Chinese
languageCodeISO639-1 zh (macrolanguage)
languageCodeISO639-2 yue
languageCodeISO639-3 yue
lexicalInfluenceOn Hong Kong English
mutualIntelligibilityWith low with Mandarin
numberOfTones 6 to 9 depending on analysis
officialStatus official language of Hong Kong
official language of Macau
phonologicalFeature preservation of entering tones
rich inventory of final consonants
primaryRegion Guangdong Province
surface form: Guangdong province

Hong Kong, China
surface form: Hong Kong

Macau
scriptDirection left-to-right
spokenIn Australia
Canada
Guangxi Province
surface form: Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Guangzhou
Malaysia
Pearl River Delta
Singapore
Southeast Asia
United Kingdom
United States of America
surface form: United States

Viet Nam
surface form: Vietnam

overseas Chinese communities
standardVarietyCenter Guangzhou
Hong Kong, China
surface form: Hong Kong
subfamily Sinitic languages
subgroup Yue Chinese
usedAsLinguaFrancaIn Pearl River Delta
usedIn Cantopop
Hong Kong cinema
Hong Kong television
Macau media
usedInCourts language of court proceedings in Hong Kong
usedInEducation medium of instruction in many Hong Kong schools
usedInGovernment working language of Hong Kong government
usesColloquialCharacters yes
writingStandard no single fully standardized written colloquial form
writingSystem Cantonese self-linksurface differs
surface form: Cantonese Pinyin

Chinese characters
Jyutping romanization
Traditional Chinese characters
Cantonese self-linksurface differs
surface form: Written Cantonese

Yale romanization

Referenced by (30)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Yang associatedLanguageVariety Cantonese
Lingnan ethnicGroup Cantonese
this entity surface form: Cantonese people
Cantonese hasDialect Cantonese self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: Guangzhou Cantonese
Cantonese hasDialect Cantonese self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: Hong Kong Cantonese
Cantonese hasDialect Cantonese self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: Macanese Cantonese
Wikinews hasLanguageEdition Cantonese
this entity surface form: Cantonese Wikinews
East Asia hasMajorLanguage Cantonese
Chinese language hasPart Cantonese
Anna May Wong heritage Cantonese
this entity surface form: Taishanese Chinese
Asian New Zealander language Cantonese
Chinese Malaysians language Cantonese
eastern China language Cantonese
subject surface form: Eastern China
Kowloon language Cantonese
Lingnan language Cantonese
Tan languageContext Cantonese
Chinatown languageUsed Cantonese
subject surface form: Chinatown, San Francisco
Guangzhou languageUsed Cantonese
Yuehai Subdistrict languageUsed Cantonese
Zhuhai languageUsed Cantonese
subject surface form: Hong Kong
Whisper supportsLanguage Cantonese
Cantonese writingSystem Cantonese self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: Written Cantonese
Cantonese writingSystem Cantonese self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: Cantonese Pinyin