Cantonese

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Cantonese is a leid spoken in an aroond the ceety o Canton (now Guangzhou) in soothren Cheenae, bi the majority population o Hong Kong an Macau, an as a lingua franca o Guangdong province, eastren Guangxi province, an some neighborin auries.  It is uised in Hong Kong an Macau as the de facto offeecial spoken leid o government an instruction in schools.  It is spoken bi owerseas Cheenese communities in Canadae, Peru, Panama, the Unitit States an Australie, as weel as atouer Europe an Sootheast Asie, bein the maist widely spoken Cheenese leid an a lingua franca in mony o these communities. While the same "Cantonese" generally refers narraely tae the Hong Kong-Guangzhou dialect, it is also uised in a braider sense for the Yue branch o Cheenese, whilk includes sib dialects lik Taishanese.

The Cantonese leid is an aa viewed as pairt o the cultural identity for the native speakers athort muckle swathes o soothren Cheenae. Awthoch Cantonese skares muckle vocabulary an grammatical structur wi Mandarin Cheenese, the twa leids arna mutually intelligible, in muckle pairt acause o pronunciation differences.Cantonese: a comprehensive grammar, p.5, Stephen Matthews and Virginia Yip, Routledge, 1994Cantonese as written language: the growth of a written Chinese vernacular, p. 48, Donald B. Snow, Hong Kong University Press, 2004

Names
In Inglis, the term "Cantonese" is ambiguous. Cantonese proper is the dialect native tae the ceety o Canton, whilk is the traditional Inglis name o Guangzhou, an later brocht tae Hong Kong an Macau; this narrae sense mey be specified as "Canton dialect" or "Guangzhou dialect" in Inglis.Ramsey and Ethnologue, respectively

Housomeivver, "Cantonese" mey an aa refer tae the primary branch o Cheenese whilk conteens Cantonese proper as weel as Taishanese an Gaoyang; this braider uisage mey be specified as "Yue" (粤). In this airticle, "Cantonese" will be uised for Cantonese proper.

References


Category:Cheenese dialects
Category:Leids o Hong Kong