Cantonese (Cantonese pinyin: jyut6 jyu5; Cantonese), also known as Cantonese, Cantonese, commonly known as vernacular, and overseas known as Tang dialect, is a tonal language of the Chinese language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family. One of the major dialects, it is also the mother tongue of the Guangfu ethnic group of the Han people.

Distribution

Cantonese is spoken in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong Province, western Guangdong, south-central and southeastern Guangxi, and western Hainan Province (in villages where Danzhou dialect and Mai dialect are spoken) , Hong Kong, Macau and other regions, as well as Singapore in Southeast Asia, Medan City in North Sumatra Province in Indonesia, Christmas Island, Malaysia, northeastern Vietnam (where the Sanyu tribe lives), as well as Chinese communities in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

The outstanding feature of the distribution of Cantonese in Guangdong and Guangxi is its distribution along the river: with Guangzhou and Hong Kong as the center, it expands to the east, west and south in four channels. The first channel is the Xijiang River-Pearl River, that is, the area along the Xijiang River eastward to Panyu (Guangzhou) includes Wuzhou and Hezhou in Guangxi and Zhaoqing, Fengkai, Deqing, Foshan, Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Shenzhen, and Jiangmen in Guangdong. and other cities, as well as the two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. The second channel is Xijiang-Yujiang, that is, tracing the Xijiang, Xunjiang, and Yujiang rivers directly to Jiaozhi County. Including the four cities of Nanning, Chongzuo, Guigang and Wuzhou in Guangxi and most of their affiliated counties. The third channel is Beiliujiang-Nanliujiang. Including Guangxi Yulin, Beihai, Qinzhou, Fangchengang and other cities and their affiliated counties. The fourth channel is the Nanjiang River-Jianjiang River, which goes up the Nanjiang River and crosses the Yunkai Mountains to the Jianjiang River Basin. Including the two cities of Yunfu and Maoming in Guangdong and their affiliated Yunan, Luoding, Xinyi, Gaozhou, and Huazhou, and Zhanjiang City and its affiliated Wuchuan and Lianjiang.

The sub-provincial or prefecture-level cities in Guangdong Province that are purely Cantonese or mainly Cantonese include Guangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, Zhaoqing, Maoming, Yangjiang, Yunfu and Qingyuan; cities Jurisdictional districts, county-level cities, and counties/autonomous counties include:

Guangzhou Municipality’s jurisdiction includes Yuexiu District, Liwan District, Haizhu District, Tianhe District, Baiyun District, Huangpu District, Panyu District, Nansha District, Luogang District, and Huazhou District. Du District, Zengcheng District, and Conghua District;

Guangdong Province

Foshan City’s jurisdiction includes Chancheng District, Nanhai District, Shunde District, Gaoming District, and Sanshui District;

< p>Shenzhen City has jurisdiction over Futian District, Luohu District, Nanshan District, Baoan District, Yantian District, and Longgang District;

Shantou City has jurisdiction over Shenshan District

Dongguan City;

Longmen County in Huizhou City;

Zhongshan City;

Zhuhai City’s districts Xiangzhou District, Doumen District, and Jinwan District;

Jiangmen City’s district Jianghai District, Pengjiang District, Xinhui District and county-level cities Taishan City, Kaiping City, Heshan City, Enping City;

Zhaoqing Municipal District Duanzhou District, Dinghu District, Dawang District and county-level cities Gao Key cities, Sihui City, and Guangning County, Huaiji County, Fengkai County, and Deqing County;

Jiangcheng District, the jurisdiction of Yangjiang City, and Yangchun City, a county-level city, as well as Yangdong County and Yangxi County;

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The jurisdiction of Yunfu City is Yuncheng District and the county-level city Luoding City, as well as Xinxing County, Yunan County, and Yun'an County;

The jurisdiction of Qingyuan City is Qingcheng District, Qingxin District, and the county-level city Lianzhou City And Fogang County, Yangshan County, Lianshan Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County;

Zhenjiang District, a district under the jurisdiction of Shaoguan City;

Maonan District, a district under the jurisdiction of Maoming City, and county-level cities Gaozhou City and Huazhou Prefecture City, Xinyi City;

Zhanjiang City has jurisdiction over Chikan District (Old City), Xiashan District (Old City), Potou District and the county-level city Wuchuan City.

The advantage of knowing Cantonese

In addition, Cantonese is also spoken in some areas in the following areas of Guangdong Province:

Shaoguan City’s Wujiang District, Qujiang District and county level Lechang City and Nanxiong City;

Yingde City, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Qingyuan City;

Boluo County and Huicheng District of Huizhou City;

< p>Baoan District, Longgang District, Yantian District, Shenzhen Municipality;

Shantou City;

Mazhang District, Zhanjiang Municipality (a few) and Lianjiang City, Leizhou City (sporadically distributed ), as well as Suixi County (a small part) and Xuwen County (sporadically distributed);

Dianbai District of Maoming City;

Hong Kong and Macao regions: the entire Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macao Special Administrative Region Use Cantonese.

Guangxi: There are more than 30 Cantonese-speaking counties and cities in Guangxi, namely Nanning, Yongning, Hengxian, Guigang, Guiping, Pingnan, Tengxian, Wuzhou, Yulin, and Beiliu

< p>Guangxi District

, Rongxian, Bobai, Luchuan, Fangchenggang, Dongxing, Qinzhou, Hepu, Pubei, Lingshan, Beihai, Cangwu, Cenxi, Zhaoping, Mengshan, Hezhou, Zhongshan, Baise, Chongzuo, Fusui, Ningming, Pingxiang and Longzhou.

In addition, Cantonese-speaking populations are also distributed in other cities in Guangxi where Cantonese is not spoken, usually in streets along rivers. Due to the development of new Guangxi immigrants during the Republic of China, the population of southeastern Guangxi migrated to the central Guangxi plain due to the need to improve agricultural technology, and there are many Cantonese-speaking villages.

Hainan Province: Danzhou, Dongfang, Ledong, Qiongzhong, Sanya, Changjiang and Puyu Village, Puqian Town, Wenchang City.

Overseas: Many overseas Chinese speak Cantonese. In Chinatowns and Chinese communities, many overseas Chinese communities use Cantonese as their common language. They are mainly distributed in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and other countries or regions.

In the past, the vast majority of Chinese in North America, Central America, Oceania, the United Kingdom, and Northern Europe used Cantonese to communicate. However, due to a slight increase in immigrants from mainland China, the proportion of Cantonese speakers has slightly decreased. However, Cantonese is still the daily language used by most overseas Chinese.

Due to the large population of Cantonese immigrants in the San Francisco area of ??the United States, or other Cantonese-speaking areas (that is, people from the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, such as: many people in Guangxi can speak Cantonese), the San Francisco City Railway in San Francisco also provides Cantonese broadcasts on buses, which is one of the few A U.S. government agency that provides Chinese-language broadcasts in the U.S. bus system.