Er, I don't think Cantonese can just "cease." (Or at least, it is not very likely that something like this can happen, even over time. This is only if, of course, China doesn't take over the world .. which is not going to happen. >.>; ) As long as there are Cantonese people, the dialect cannot die. Hong Kong is not as small as it looks; there are many people who speak Cantonese and not ALL Cantonese people are moving to America. There are also many people who still speak fluent Cantonese in America, and in Canton, as well as many other places in China. Yes, Mandarin is getting more popular and more people are learning how to speak it, but that doesn't mean that people will stop learning/speaking Cantonese completely and just move right into Mandarin. Learning Mandarin helps because there are a lot more people (and in a lot more places), it seems, who speak the language, and simplified Chinese is getting more popular. Hong Kong, Canton, etc, are still Cantonese places and as long as they exist, Cantonese will exist as well. Besides, Cantonese culture is still a large part of society .. that doesn't get erased so easily. Would people stop letting their babies crawl and push them right to walking? Nothing happens that quickly, and it wouldn't make sense for a whole dialect to be wiped out just because another one happens to be more popular. Even if Hong Kong becomes a Mandarin place (again, highly doubtful of happening), it won't happen in an instant. As long as there is still a spark, there can still be a fire. o.o That's my two cents ... it might not influence you much, but it is a strong belief of mine. ( And please, spell Cantonese right next time. =___=;; )
if china gets more strong then i think i should get a head start and learn mandarin even though my cantonese is not good! so i think *MAYBE* later on is more usefull to know mandarin
Keep on with the Cantonese! Your parents, like many parents think that their children should deserve the best , better life and plan for the future, success is usually measured by material things, career and idealisitic partner However when their children have a better life already, comfortable living in the west, they will soon realise the importance of culture, humanity and a life! Cantonese means a way of culture, human values, communication and a style of well being that is in the Canton province that is different from provinces where mandarin dominates. What you want to decide is what your life style is, then use the appropriate language to communicate to other people. Once a dialect is gone the way to communicate its proud identity and culture will disappear slowly... the best way to look, to learn and to avoid the mistake is to look at USA and then Europe, Africa, Asia with its diversed cultures. See for yourself the enrichment of life by being different! From a more sanguine and candid truth viewpoint, a dialect and a language is a communication tool and a skill that could be learnt, however, the cultural value is a representation of the collective human values of a specific group of people. When people prefer mandarin to cantonese even when it is not their thousands of years of heritage then they have traded practicality of a skill for a way of life style that they inherited from their ancestors. Another words, they are trading their heritage and bloodline for a learnable skill. Just learn from the proud peoples around the world who are not Chinese and who have preserved their own dialect and language as a prized gift from their ancestors! E.g. Flemish in Belgium, Welsh in Wales, Romance in Switzerland, Karen in the Indochina, many languages on the Indian subcontinent.....now how about the Red Indians in USA too!
I can speak and understand both Mandarin and Cantonese, but more fluent in Cantonese than Mandarin. In my opinion Canto is more popular because of HK Movies. At least, that's how I learnt Cantonese. Ever so faithful series after series taught me that language.
no, i don't think canton fill fade out because cantonese people are distinctly different from mandarin people. not only that, Canton is one if not the wealthiest province in china and many cities outside of china have a predominately canton chinese population (i.e. vancouver)
Cantonese isn't going to fade anytime soon. With over 200 million+ speakers, its going to grow and evolve and survive. Sure, there's more Mandarin speakers, and its the defacto standard, but Cantonese speakers can be found worldwide.
Cantonese won't die for sure... well, I at least won't be bothered to call my 蝦餃 "Har Gow" to "Xia Jiao" -cool Though, the formal way of Cantonese, like reading books, will be replaced with mere Colloquial Cantonese, or at least so I feel
haha has anyone noticed the word 'KETCHUP' doesnt sound/look like an english word at all? and how do u say it in cantonese?? anyway, cantonese won't die out, but mandarin will definitely increase in popularity... u'll probably find ppl being trilingual instead of bilingual if they are canto speaking family originally i mean look at guangzhou - mandarin has been the official language for ages yet everyone still speak canto there. same with hk... canto will still be the main language spoken for ages to come
Cantonese will not suddenly cease. Thats just stupid. You guys do realise that there is still a huge population of Chinese descendant that still speak cantonese? They wont suddenly dissapear because mandarin is more important. Though I do see more and more people taking it up and knowing both the dialect. Its kind of like saying Iraq will cease to speak arabic because of the USA taking it over.
The Chinese race started out speaking a Cantonese based language since the time of the Han dynasty, and it's lasted over 2500 years. Why would anyone think that it's going to disappear anytime soon? Just because the current Chinese government choose Mandarin as the national language doesn't mean people will not continue to use Cantonese, be it for entertainment or for business. Also, whether or not Cantonese disappears really depend on us, not on what the Chinese government says. If we resist and force Mandarin speakers to learn Cantonese to do business with us instead of letting them bully us into learning Mandarin to please their needs, we can make Cantonese the dominant language. I think it's ridiculous that over zelous parents who don't know how to think logically are advising / coercing their kids to give up Cantonese to pick up Mandarin. It's fine to learn Mandarin IN ADDITION to cantonese, but why give up Cantonese? It's as stupid as parents speaking English to their kids as they are growing up, and now these kids can't speak, read, or write Chinese.
i'm fluent in canto, mando and eng... n i can read pretty well but can't write... n i don't think canto will b overruled... too much canto speaking ppl out there... ppl in HK will always speak canto... even tho canto is my mother tongue i still find mando easier... it only has 4 sounds... where as canto has 9... n mando sounds more gentle than canto... canto sounds like thai or viet
yea dawn... we should really hook up n have lotta Canton kids.. -lol ahahaha I hope Canton don't ever cease.. along with many other diff languages there... cause that ish is too special...
I also don't think there is any danger of Cantonese ceasing to exist.. Cantonese is not just spoken in HK. There are areas of China where Cantonese is dominant. I have a friend from China who says she greatly prefers Cantonese over Mandarin even though she is fluent in both. Except in school, she rarely spoke Mandarin at all.
