Is Cantonese more ancient than Mandarin?

What may surprise people is that Cantonese is actually older than Mandarin. Cantonese is approximately 2000 years old and belongs to the Yue family of Chinese languages (粵語) spoken in southeast China. The term Cantonese comes from Guangzhou, aka Canton, the capital of the Guangdong province in China (pictured above).

Which Chinese dialect is the oldest?

Hokkien
The oldest Chinese dialect, Hokkien.

Is Cantonese closer to old Chinese?

Linguists agree to some extent. ‘Cantonese is closer to classical Chinese in its pronunciation and some grammar,’ Jiang Wenxian, a Chinese language scholar, said. … ‘Many ancient poems don’t rhyme when you read them in Putonghua, but they do in Cantonese. ‘Cantonese retains a flavour of archaic and ancient Chinese.

Is Chinese traditional Cantonese or Mandarin?

The table below solves the riddle: In mainland China and Singapore, Mandarin is the spoken language and people resort to Simplified Chinese when they write. In Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant dialect while people write in Traditional Chinese.

What is the oldest language in the world?

Tamil language
The Tamil language is recognized as the oldest language in the world and it is the oldest language of the Dravidian family. This language had a presence even around 5,000 years ago.

Is Guangdong Cantonese?

Languages and ethnicities

The majority of the province’s population is Han Chinese. Within the Han Chinese, the largest subgroup in Guangdong are the Cantonese people. Two other major groups are the Teochew people in Chaoshan and the Hakka people in Huizhou, Meizhou, Heyuan, Shaoguan and Zhanjiang.

Can a Mandarin speakers understand Cantonese?

However, the two languages are distinct when spoken. Mandarin speakers typically cannot understand Cantonese speakers, and vice versa.

Should I learn Cantonese or Mandarin?

It really depends on what you want to do. If you’re in Hong Kong, then by all means learn Cantonese. If you want to read Tang poetry, then learn Cantonese, because the poems still rhyme in Cantonese, where they may not in Mandarin. But if you want a generally useful language, learn Mandarin.

Do Hong Kongers speak Mandarin?

Hong Kong’s recent census report states that Mandarin is the second language most spoken on the island following Cantonese. … As for Mandarin, 48% of Hong Kong’s population can speak it, compared to 46% of population that can speak English.

How do you reply to Xie Xie?

不用谢 bú yòng xiè

As we know, you should answer “bu keqi 不客气” (you’re welcome) when someone said “xiè xie” to you. However, many Chinese answered “bu yong xie” instead. “bu yong xie” means “you don’t need to say thank you to me”.

Does WAYV speak Mandarin or Cantonese?

Lucas, Hendery, and Xiaojun all speak Cantonese. When the group is together they all speak Mandarin. Ten and YangYang speak English to each other. Kun speaks Korean to Ten.

What is the hardest language to learn?

Mandarin
Mandarin

As mentioned before, Mandarin is unanimously considered the toughest language to master in the world! Spoken by over a billion people in the world, the language can be extremely difficult for people whose native languages use the Latin writing system.

What is Goodnight in Chinese?

Chinese translation of ‘good night!’

(before going to bed) 晚安！

What is Jie Jie?

jiě jie. older sister CL:個|个[ge4]

What’s your name in Chinese?

你叫什么( (nǐ jiào shénme míngzi?)

What is Google Chinese?

Google used its Chinese name, GǔGē (“harvest song”), but it never caught on with Chinese internet users. On 12 April 2006, Google’s Global CEO Eric Schmidt announced Google’s Chinese name as “谷歌” (The Chinese character version of GǔGē) in Beijing. Google officially entered the Chinese mainland market.

How do you greet someone at night in China?

If you want to say goodnight to someone in Chinese, you should say 晚安 (wǎn’ān). Just like English, Chinese has different greetings to use for different times of day.

How do you say good night in India?

In Hindi/Marathi, it is “Shubh Ratri- शुभ रात्रि”. In Gujarati- it is “Shubh Ratree- શુભ રાત્રી”. In Urdu/Kashmiri/Sindhi/Farsi, it is “Shab-b-Khair- شب بخےر”. In Bengali/Assamese, it is “Shubho Ratri- শুভ রাত্রী”.