What is the difference between Mandarin, Chinese and Cantonese?

[bigbangfan]

Hey. I'm just intrigued by the differences between these languages. Can a person know one of these languages and still understand the other two?

Plus, to tie up IB to the topic, the IBO offers CHINESE A1 and A2 but does not offer CHINESE B, instead it offers MANDARIN B and ab initio. Do you know why?

[Arrowhead]

I think this would give you some valuable advice.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081015011114AAiRP2n

[Peanut Butter Jelly]

Well Chinese is the general language.

You could think of Manadrin and Cantonese as sub-languages.

Manarin uses simplified chinese characters, while Cantonese uses traditional chinese characters.

If you take Chinese A, you can choose simplified or traditional while you write the papers. I believe for the orals, you can speak mandarin or cantonese.

For the B level, mandarin B is completely simplified characters while speaking mandarin and cantonese is traditional characters while speaking cantonese.

And for the record, mandarin and cantonese are very different languages (speaking wise). The writing may be similar (traditional is harder), but it is very possible to know both languages.

I know many Hong Kong people who can speak both cantonese and mandarin.

[Xydan]

I assume because in Chinese A1 and A2, you are trying to learn how to read the language, which is written the same- either traditional or simplified- throughout the country.

On the other hand, in language B you are trying to learn how to speak the language. You have to choose either Cantonese or Mandarin, though I'd be surprised if Cantonese is offered.

Cantonese is alot harder to learn to speak than Mandarin. Officially they are dialects for political reasons, but linguisticly, they are seperate languages.

This means that although you can understand each to other a small extent, you will not be able to communicate. Stick with Mandarin. It's much more viable and easier to learn.

[The Filipino Limner]

Let's get this straight.

FOR THE LANGUAGES

Mandarin is the language all chinese speak. Quote:

When the Mandarin group is taken as one language, as is often done in academic literature, it has more native speakers (nearly a billion) than does any other language. For most of Chinese history, the capital has been within the Mandarin area, making these dialects very influential. Mandarin dialects, particularly the Beijing dialect, form the basis of Standard Chinese, which is also known as "Mandarin".

The Mandarin that is included in IB is the Mandarin all Chinese whether you go to Beijing or to SiChuan or to Taiwan speak. Generally, everyone knows how to speak Mandarin.

Now, Cantonese is limited to HongKong and the GuangZhou area. It is a dialect. It is completely different from Mandarin. Words may be the same, but the way you pronounce it is different. Also, less people speak Cantonese compared to Mandarin.

FOR THE WRITING

You generally will be able to guess some of the characters from each if you learn the other but you generally won't understand it. (I can speak and read, and write simplified chinese, though I can understand some traditional chinese characters because I was taught traditional chinese when I was a kid. Now, I generally don't recognize traditional characters.)

LEARN SIMPLIFIED CHINESE. It is the way of writing the nearly 1 Billion people in China know how to write. Traditional chinese is now only used in Taiwan.

LEARN MANDARIN. It is more universal, and you'll be able to get to talk with more people with it.

SOURCES: I speak Mandarin, Fookien, another dialect and a little bit of Cantonese, so I generally know how this works! )

If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to help!

[Peanut Butter Jelly]

I guess it's sort of like English and British English (which has many grammatical differences) and maybe possibly even French and Quebecois.

Edited September 11, 2011 by God

[ninety]

To understand the differences between the Chinese languages requires a little history lesson.

First of all, the Western world generally refers to the Chinese dialects/languages collectively as 'Chinese', but Chinese people themselves treat each of them as separate languages. It's a bit like how Westerners refer to a bunch of Indian languages as 'Indian', or a bunch of people of different Indian faiths as 'Hindu'.

Historically, different languages have always been spoken in various areas of China, such as Cantonese, Mandarin and Fookien. Many of these are spoken languages.

The prevalent language in China has always been written Chinese. Traditional Chinese characters were used for thousands of years until the Communist Party came into power in the 20th century, introduced its cultural revolution, and created the set of characters we now call Simplified Chinese. Supposedly they created Simplified Chinese because Traditional Chinese was too complicated for everyone to learn. This is why Traditional Chinese is only used in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the non-communist areas. And this is also why if you study classic Chinese texts, they're all written in Traditional Chinese!

These days Mandarin is the official language throughout China. It's both a spoken and written language. But if you go to different areas, you'll find people speaking different local languages. For example, Cantonese is a spoken language prevalent in the Guangdong area (Southern China) and in Hong Kong and Macau. It follows most of the grammatical rules of written Chinese (with many irregular exceptions) but it's much more complicated than Mandarin because unlike Mandarin which has 4 tones, Cantonese has 6! It's a difficult language to master if you're not already a native speaker.

If you're a new learner of Chinese, it's obvious that you should learn Mandarin because it's the Chinese language with the most speakers. Learn Simplified Chinese first, because it's easier, and more people use it. But if you have the interest or ever have the chance, do try to learn Traditional Chinese. I mean, it reflects thousands of years of beautiful Chinese culture. Think of the classic poets and writers and thinkers, like Confucius, who all used Traditional Chinese. I just think that it's such a shame, that these beautiful traditional characters that've been used by Chinese people for thousands of years are now replaced by simplified characters.

By the way, I live in Hong Kong so I prefer Traditional Chinese

Edited September 15, 2011 by ninety