Standard Cantonese Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Standard Cantonese refers to the dialect of Chinese spoken in and around the cities of Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau, in China. Standard Cantonese is a dialect of Yue, one of the major divisions of spoken Chinese. It is the official Chinese spoken language of Hong Kong and Macau.It is casually known as just Cantonese, which in academic context can also refer to the broader category to which it belongs, Yue Chinese or Yuèyǔ (TC:粵語 / SC:粤语). Standard Cantonese is also known as the Guangdong dialect (Guǎngdōnghuà 廣東話 / 广东话), though this is imprecise, since many other dialects are spoken in Guangdong province. It is more formally called the Guangzhou dialect (Guǎngzhōuhuà 廣州話 / 广州话 or Guǎng-fǔ Báihuà 廣府白話 / 广府白话).
| Table of contents |
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2 Phonology 3 Romanization 4 Written Cantonese 5 Cantonese versus Mandarin 6 See also 7 External Links |
History
Details to be completed later.Phonology
Like any dialect, the phonology of Standard Cantonese varies among speakers. Unlike Standard Mandarin, there is no offical agency to regulate Standard Cantonese. Below is the phonology accepted by most scholars and educators, the one usually heard on TV or radio in serious broadcast like news reports. Common variations are also described.Initials
Initials (or onsets) are initial consonants of possible syllables. The following is the inventory for Standard Cantonese as represented in IPA:
| Labials | Coronals | Sibilants | Palatals | Velars | Labial-Velars | Glottals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unaspirated Stops | p | t | ts | k | ( kw ) | ( ʔ ) | |
| Aspirated Stops | pʰ | tʰ | tsʰ | kʰ | ( kʰw ) | ||
| Nasals | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| Fricatives | f | s | h | ||||
| Approximants | l | ( j ) | ( w ) |
Notice the aspiration contrast and the lack of phonation contrast for stops. The sibilant affricates are grouped with the stops for compactness in displaying the chart.
Some linguists prefer to analyze /j/ and /w/ as part of finals to make them analogous to the /i/ and /u/ final-heads in Standard Mandarin, especially in comparative phonological studies. However, since final-heads only appear with null initial, /k/ or /kʰ/, analyzing them as part of the initials greatly reduces the count of finals at the cost of only adding four initials. Some linguists analyze a /ʔ/ (glottal stop) when a vowel other than /i/, /u/ or /y/ begin a syllable.
The position of the coronals varies from dental to alveolar, with /t/ and /tʰ/ more likely to be dental. The position of the sibilants is usually alveolar, but can be postalveolar or alveolo-palatal, especially before the /y/ vowel. Some linguists prefers to use /ʃ/ in place of /s/ in the chart.
Some speakers cannot distinguish between /n/ and /l/, and between /ŋ/ and the null initial. Usually they pronounce only /l/ and the null initial. That is most common among the young people of Hong Kong, and may be considered substandard.
Finals
Finals (or rhymes) are the remaining part of the syllable after the initial is taken off. There are two kinds of finals in Cantonese, depending on vowel length. The following chart lists all possible finals in Standard Cantonese as represented in IPA:
| ɑː | ɛː | iː | ɔː | uː | œː | yː | ||||||||
| Long | Short | Long | Short | Long | Short | Long | Short | Long | Short | Long | Short | Long | Short | |
| -i / -y | ɑːi | ɐi | ei | ɔːi | uːi | ɵy | ||||||||
| -u | ɑːu | ɐu | iːu | ou | ||||||||||
| -m | ɑːm | ɐm | iːm | |||||||||||
| -n | ɑːn | ɐn | iːn | ɔːn | uːn | ɵn | yːn | |||||||
| -ŋ | ɑːŋ | ɐŋ | ɛːŋ | ɪŋ | ɔːŋ | ʊŋ | œːŋ | |||||||
| -p | ɑːp | ɐp | iːp | |||||||||||
| -t | ɑːt | ɐt | iːn | ɔːt | uːt | ɵt | yːt | |||||||
| -k | ɑːk | ɐk | ɛːk | ɪk | ɔːk | ʊk | œːk | |||||||
''Comments to be added later, including alternative interpretion of short vowels.
Tones
Standard Cantonese has nine tones in six distinct tone contours.
| Tone name | Yin Ping | Yin Shang | Yin Qu | Yang Ping | Yang Shang | Yang Qu | Shang Yin Ru | Zhong Yin Ru | Yang Ru |
| Contour | 55 / 53 | 35 | 33 | 21 / 11 | 13 | 22 | 55 | 33 | 22 |
| Number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 (1) | 8 (3) | 9 (6) |
Standard Cantonese mostly preserves the tones in Middle Chinese in the manner shown in the chart below.
| Middle Chinese | Standard Cantonese | ||||
| Tone | Initial | Central Vowel | Tone Name | Tone Contour | Tone Number |
| Ping | V- | Yin Ping | 55 / 53 | 1 | |
| V+ | Yang Ping | 21 / 11 | 4 | ||
| Shang | V- | Yin Shang | 35 | 2 | |
| V+ | Yang Shang | 13 | 5 | ||
| Qu | V- | Yin Qu | 33 | 3 | |
| V+ | Yang Qu | 22 | 6 | ||
| Ru | V- | Short | Shang Yin Ru | 55 | 7 (1) |
| Long | Zhong Yin Ru | 33 | 8 (3) | ||
| V+ | Yang Ru | 22 | 9 (6) | ||
Comments to be added later.
This is an Article on Standard Cantonese. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Standard Cantonese Romanization
Details to be completed later.Written Cantonese
Details to be completed later.Cantonese versus Mandarin
Details to be completed later.See also
External Links
Details to be completed later.