Cantonese/Mandarin Differences

[duhhybrid]

y u no speak 1 dialect?

[spore637]

Actually 五 in Cantonese is pronounced ng5 but not m5

[TommieAitken]

French and English. they share alphabets for scription. though they are two diffrent langues.

Cantonese and Mandarin. they share Hanzi for scription. though they are two diffrent languages.

That's it.

[MoriAryka]

Cantonese sounds much better.

[3830106]

thx for this video:] Definetly like and favorite.

[teateatheman]

I wonder why Han Chinese still use the term ManDaRin ? There ain't no more Greater-Men-(from) Man(chus) to rule over you ! ManDaRin is such an arrogant term coined by rulers with superior complex. When I hear this term, I can imagine Han Chinese kowtowing to Qing court officials.

Man (<-Manchus), Da = Great, Rin = Man, men .

[harmonyordie]

@teateatheman

LOL, this is (surprisingly) a common misunderstanding of the word "mandarin". Actually it came from the Portuguese word "mandarim" in 16th century (at that time the Han Chinese still rule China as the Ming Dynasty). Mandarim basically means language of the officials, and it has nothing to do with Manchus.

[teateatheman]

@harmonyordie ! Could you cite the origin of this Portuguese (loan) word "mandarim" ? Your source may have placed it in the wrong century ! Yes ! Mandarin does mean "language of the officials" ! And Who are those officials ? 滿大人 ! Isn't Mandarim the Portugese transliteration of these 3 Chinese characters ? Are you sure Mandarin has nothing to do with Manchus ?

[harmonyordie]

@teateatheman

No, the portugese translation is from the Chinese word "官話" which means official language. A simple evidence which can prove this word has nothing to do with Manchus is that the word "Mandrim" already appeared in the book "De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas", and this book was published decades before the Manchus took over China.

[CantonCanadaboy]

@harmonyordie

Cantonese should be official language of China.

Cantonese is the best language.

[harmonyordie]

@CantonCanadaboy

Nah that's just too arrogant. Contonese is not even the most speaked unofficial dialect in China. My first language is Wu dialect and it also had significant influence throughout Chinese (even Japanese) history. Considering the population of native speakers Mandarin is the only choice of official language in China, but other dialects should be protected and children should learn their own diaclects instead of completely relying on Mandarin in their daily life.

[CantonCanadaboy]

@harmonyordie

Sorry, Cantonese is language, not dialect.

[harmonyordie]

@CantonCanadaboy

The method to define language and dialect is very complecated, and sometimes it involves political power. For example many Scandinavian languages are mutually understandable and people from different countries can easily make conversations with each other without difficulties. However, they are defined as different languages such as Norwegian and Swedish. That's because different countries want to create it's own cultural and political identity.

[harmonyordie]

@CantonCanadaboy

Now the situation in China is the adverse to the Scandinavian languages. Since China has only one central government so all the sinitic languages are officially defined as different dialects of Chinese. Although many dialects (not only Cantonese) could be defined as a language but they lack the political support to do so. And finally it does not only happen in China, many countries are doing the same thing to create cultral and political indentity.

[CantonCanadaboy]

@harmonyordie

So tired with chorus " Cantonese is dialect". We- Cantonese know clearly what is Cantonese and what is Mandarin. So I can sure that Cantonese is one language, not dialect.

And if you don't believe, you can ask other Cantonese about it. And in Hongkong, Cantonese is also official language.

Thank you for your information, but I still keep our opinion "Cantonese is language"

[teateatheman]

Lots of Cantonese words sound closer to Sino-Viet (Hán-Việt) words than to Mandarin . The last dynasty in China was the Qing, those are rulers from Manchuria, they speak Chinese with Manchurian accent, that why there are differences.

[TheDoom13]

Shit Shit Mi?? lol

[Chibii00]

You got a few mandarin tones wrong.

[SuperNEKO64]

are they always written the same? aren't there any exceptions? if so, you would be able at least to chat with the other dialect 8D

[happyman489]

@SuperNEKO64 There really is only "one" chinese language. Mandarin and Cantonese are not different languages, they are basically massively different pronunciations of the same written system (more or less the same that is). Taiwanese would be another major one which sounds totally different from Cantonese or mandarin. Watch the fence argument clip from the movie Hot Fuzz if you don't get what i mean, it is sort of like that, with an emphasis on sort of.

[0MeiXin0]

@happyman489 I don't know why you're comparing Taiwanese to Cantonese and Mandarin. Unlike both Mandarin and Cantonese, Taiwanese can not be written in the vernacular, it has no written language.

[BAIYUE1]

@SuperNEKO64

Cantonese and Mandarin is different language

Chinese character even not record all Cantonese language

Now Cantonese has latin writing system : yale, yuetpin which can record all Cantonese language.

Cantonese with Mandarin can compare with French and English.

[hannah60000]

@BAIYUE1 My friend who has a one Mandarin parent and Cantonese parent said that the writing script is the same throughout China just read different depending where your from.

[BAIYUE1]

@hannah60000

It is Hanzi (traditional Chinese character) . In past, even Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese also can read it ( Hanzi or traditional Chinese character ). Because Hanzi ( traditional Chinese character is hieroglyphic , so you can read it with one meaning but different voice or language.

So Cantonese and Mandarin are different language, but still can read it.

Similarly, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese can understand each other through Hanzi if they learn it.

[BAIYUE1]

@hannah60000

Now, China change traditional Chinese character to easier form which is simple Chinese charater. But it is also hieroglyphic.

Are you understand?

Chinese character is hieroglyphic while Latin character is onomatopoeia.

[34601k]

Yeah Mandarin and Cantonese and all the other Chinese "dialects" should be classified as separate languages under the Sino-Tibetan family. Dialect differences would be like US English vs. UK English. Min Chinese vs. Cantonese or Mandarin vs. Cantonese would be like an English speaker trying to understand Finnish or Romanian, its just not possible.

[ASilverPeony]

Why do people say they're so different. I think they're pretty similar.

[aabceacba]

VERY interesting! I'm learning (Mandarin) Chinese, and I love it. I new Mandarin and Cantonese were very different, so thank you for the demonstration.

谢谢！

[songokukingdomhearts]

well, I've been told that 1 billion of the 1.3 billion people in China speak Mandarin, and that everyone in China has to learn Mandarin.

[wtfcowbbq]

@songokukingdomhearts thats how the chinese govt which is controlled by the manderin is killing off other languages cause they see it as inferior thats why they dont like their govt

[jradetzky]

mandarin sounds more elegant to my ear

[Sluggo552]

you have a chinky eye

[daredevil335619]

@Sluggo552 cuz im asian

[daredevil335619]

@ElMakz Does it really matter what kind of Asian I am? I am a American Born Chinese but my family roots traces back to Guangzhou, thats Southern China. 

[ElMakz]

@daredevil335619 no it doesnt i was just saying that all the asians does not look like oyu as many poeple claim I have even heard from really stupid people that say that asians are a race which is complelty idiotic.

[daredevil335619]

@ElMakz Well, everyone looks different.

[Dzongka]

@ElMakz Exactly. I say I'm Asian to everyone (South Asian), and here in America, many people perceive that all Asians must have yellow skin and epicanthic folds on their eyes. What bull.

[wtfcowbbq]

@Dzongka cause they are ignorant u have to show them a map they dont know about geography lol

[JeromeLeong]

the mandarin accents is so strong @_@ mine is just plain accents like how taiwanese speaks

[woodloneboy]

when i speak cantonese i say "doh tzay" for thank you

[daredevil335619]

@woodloneboy You say that when someone do something for you like buying a gift or giving you money etc.

[woodloneboy]

@daredevil335619 alright then do tzay... no wait, hm goy... fuck. SHE SHE!

[phr4nk3rd00d13]

the numbers are similar to different asian languages' because chinese influence was quite strong in the past and countries often adopted chinese counting systems...

[ciaoskater]

this is so cool! I thought Cantonese sounded kinda like Korean, at least the numbers anyway.

[HAMMERxHCA]

"I am American " is similar to Japanese (or Japanese is similar rollin Chinese )

[yoesop]

Holy shit lol cantonese numbers are kinda like laos. 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 are really similar and 3 8 9 10 are almost exactly how its pronounced

[TranThanhHai1]

@yoesop yes, cantonese and laos or thais do sound samiliar. and they look samiliar too. most cantonese are related to yue people such as laos, tai, and other tribes that live in souteast china, north vietnam, and laos and north thailand.

[yoesop]

@TranThanhHai1 that is so cool!!! china influenced a lot of countries then!

[mount922]

your accent is too strong when you speak mandarin

[daredevil335619]

@mount922 Like I said in the description, I only studied Mandarin for four years.

[munsterr777]

This was interesting.

[OldmanChester]

Daayum! Mandarin is uuuugly.

[twinqletwinqle]

Looks like they're different languages not dialects.

[kanashiida]

@twinqletwinqle you could say that but both dialects share the same script.

[ElMakz]

@twinqletwinqle thats what they are.

[ian27293]

@twinqletwinqle

They use the same symbols

[twinqletwinqle]

@ian27293 So did Vietnamese at one point.

[ian27293]

@twinqletwinqle

and the japanese

[kristennakamura93]

cool video!

[BBarNavi]

廣東腔的四聲同一聲,"六"讀成"溜".

[BBarNavi]

@BBarNavi 還有,普通話捲舌太誇張了吧...

[NiutamUkGeDoru]

Hehehe I could tell before reading any of the comments that you're a southern Chinese speaker (your 'zaijian' sounds like 'zhaijian', your 9 sounds like 'zhou' instead of 'jiu' some of your tones in Mandarin are a bit off) and I'm a Lao Wai!

[daredevil335619]

@NiutamUkGeDoru thank you

[infinera06]

Why use Cantonese slang words instead of what the written words are?

[daredevil335619]

@Yimjie I am American Born Chinese. My parents are from Guangzhou.

[xTenshiAi]

Aaa Mandarin sounds so hard to pronounce >_< I really wanna learn it though

[xTenshiAi]

Thanks so much! I finally know the differences!!

[MrThanathos2010]

you are amazing I always wanted to hear cantonese and mandarin like this to compare. greetings from Argentina

[yukipham18]

@daredevil335619 Hm if the case is that they don't speak the same language, then it must be a challenge for them to act out the scenes not knowing what the other actors are saying and with basically just their memorization of the script to respond back. Anyway thank you very much for all your help. I'm really interested to learn Mandarin one day in the future. Any suggestion on how I should get started?

[daredevil335619]

@yukipham18 No problem. Well, when I first learned Mandarin, I bought a Lonely Planet dictionary which helped me became a fluent speaker. I just read it everyday and try to hit down as many vocab as I can and I also tried speaking it with other people. Speaking with others is the best way to learn. You could also take classes too, that really helps but you have to be really dedicated to it. Dont learn it off and on because thats the easiest way to forget.

[yukipham18]

@daredevil335619 thank you for the explanation. I also notice that when the mandarin speaking actors say something, the voice and background sounds match perfectly but when the Cantonese speaking actors respond back, I can tell it was dubbed plus their lips movement don't match the sound either. Why would that be if the Cantonese actors can speak mandarin? /:(

[daredevil335619]

@yukipham18 Well its either they dont speak Mandarin or their Cantonese accent is too noticable. I notice that a lot in many Chinese movies as well.

[MetalHeart8787]

@daredevil335619 you have to be good to reconize a hongkong person speaking mandarin.

(well most chinese could easly) but for me its hard to notice.

easy for me to tell a Japanese speaking mandarin or someone who is a begginer at Japanese.

one important thing to remeber (for people new at chinese) all Hongkong films are spoken in cantonese, mainland/shanghai/Beijing are speaking mandarin. but then theres dialects then its hard for me to follow.

[yukipham18]

Hello there I was just having a question about these two languages that haven't been answered for a while. So I watched a lot of Chinese movie (even though I'm vietnamese) and sometimes I'd see actors, who speak Cantonese, on set with actors who speak mandarin. And since both languages are known to be quite different, how do you suppose those actors work together?

[daredevil335619]

@yukipham18 Most Cantonese speakers can also speak Mandarin, so when they work with Mandarin speaking actors, they speak Mandarin with each other...and in some cases, some people can understand each other, meaning one speaks in Mandarin and the other responds in Cantonese. Mandarin and Cantonese are different languages but sometimes it can be understandable because some words are really similiar to each other. Hope that answer your question.

[MegaGoodmusiclover]

very nice and clear to see the difference :)

[papi010]

Thanks for the video!

[daredevil335619]

@papi010 your welcome! Hope it was helpful!