There will be alot of other languages that will cease before cantonese, because there's alot of people in HK. And as long as there continues to be entertainment (movies, music, etc.) created in cantonese, its not gonna stop.
I thought it's appropriate to mention, since it is kind of related. The United Nations no longer release their publications in traditional Chinese writing format. The traditional Chinese format are commonly used in Hong Kong, Taiwan (and I think Singapore too) while the simplified Chinese is used in Mainland China. Any thoughts?
lol, so true..., except for dim-sum -lol where people move carts around yelling out the name of food (at least here it is) also..., the difference between Simplified and Traditional isn't that bad, its more of the radicals getting simpler, and some parts of words getting omitted
^ But then with simplified Chinese, many words uses the same character (I grow up with Traditional but I am equally fluent in both writing style) So it may get kind of confusing.
hold up just a second... is this happening for real? cantonese is fading out, i had no idea seriously?
as long as there are still people speaking and production of cantonese shows and movies the dialect will last.
I hope not. Although I'm not very fond of the language, it's still our language. It's a very cool language to speak, but doesn't sound very nice.
Cantonese still got ages left ...........the government i am sure will try to preserve it although i can only see Mandarin spreading further.............i am unsure whether the spread of Mandarin will be under control
i doubt cantonese will fade away anytime soon. possibly in 500 years. HK and chinatowns will still primarily speak cantonese.
Cantonese will not cease, but it is just becoming less popular. Most people in HK will know mandarin but many people in China don't know cantonese. Mandarin is also easier to learn for westerners.
i hope cantonese neva die sometimes i would really prefer cantonese in chinese movie. But its not liek i really mind about mandarin. Cantonese > Mandarin even tho im learning mandarin right now well learning popular and commonly used language is the way to go.
I went to HK and Shanghai and it was weird esp when we were in Shanghai and tried to ask for the toilet, tried in canto, tried in english even tried the actions (lol) but they didn't understand at all!!! They just took us and my little neice to the nappy section! Then I wrote it and she looked at me funny lol. I think I might have to learn mandarin as everything is more mandarin than canto eg music and films, its sad to say but it probably will fade eventually :(
No, I don't think Cantonese will cease, but in the future Mandarin will definitely be more preferred than Cantonese and Mandarin will probably take over Cantonese. Of course you might say 'How do you know, its the future, no one knows what the future is like. ' I admit that I don't know the future, but I'm backing my claim with the current evidence of how widely Mandarin is used. Out of the whole of China, only the Canton Province and Hong Kong speaks Cantonese, although the other cities and provinces might have a different dialect, they will still speak or know Mandarin as their second language. Another thing, all schools who are teaching 'Chinese' are teaching the kids Mandarin rather than Cantonese, and it's also highly unlikely that a school will teach Cantonese to their students mostly because Mandarin is the official language of the Chinese people. This also applies to the schools in Canton. I studied in Canton for two years when I was small and all subjects were taught in Mandarin and Pinyin and Mandarin were taught to little kids since they start Preschool. Lastly, most Hong Kong stars are currently learning Mandarin, and I'm sure they see how much more they can achieve with a second language in their resume. Anyways, my personal preference would be Cantonese, but if learning Mandarin can hold such a big future for anyone, I suggest that learning the language wouldn't hurt, especially if you already know Cantonese.
