for: Standard Cantonese

Cantonese, also known as Jyut Jyu, is a primary branch of Chinese. The name "Cantonese" is also commonly used in a narrower sense for Standard Cantonese, which is the prestige dialect of Cantonese in the broader sense.

The issue of whether Cantonese in the broader sense (Yue) should be regarded as a language in its own right or as a dialect of a Chinese language depends on conceptions of what a language is. Like the other primary branches of Chinese, Cantonese is considered to be a dialect of a single Chinese language for ethnic and cultural reasons, but is also considered a language in its own right because it is mutually unintelligible with other varieties of Chinese.

The exact number of Cantonese speakers is unknown due to a lack of statistics and census data. The areas with the highest concentration of speakers are Guangdong and parts of Guangxi in southern mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau; with Cantonese-speaking minorities in Southeast Asia, Canada, and the United States.Lau, Kam Y. 1 (1999). Cantonese Phrase book. Lonely planet publishing. ISBN 0864426453.

Names

To avoid the ambiguity of the English name "Cantonese", linguists may refer to the entire language as "Yue", though "Cantonese dialects" in the plural is found in more colloquial contexts. Cantonese in the narrow sense may likewise be called the "Canton/Kwongchow dialect". People of Hong Kong, Macau and Cantonese immigrants abroad usually call it 廣東話 "Kwongtung province speech".

Varieties

The Guangdong languages includes a group of dialects:

• Cantonese proper, or Yuehai (lang: 粵海粵語), which includes the Canton dialect spoken in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau as well as the dialects of Zhongshan and foshan;
• Sìyì (lang: 四邑粵語, sei yap), exemplified by Taishan dialect (lang: 台山粵語), also known as Taishanese, was ubiquitous in American Chinatowns before ca 1970;
• Gaoyang dialect, spoken in Yangjiang;
• Ngfaa dialect (lang: 吳化粵語), spoken mainly in western Guangdong;
• Ngaulau dialect (lang: 勾漏粵語), spoken in western Guangdong and eastern Guangxi;
• Gunbou dialect (lang: 莞寶粵語), spoken in Dongguan, Shenzhen and some parts of Hong Kong;
• Jungcam dialect (lang: 邕潯粵語), spoken mainly in Guangxi and its Capital Nanning;
• Jamlim dialect (lang: 欽廉粵語), spoken in southern Guangxi;
• Logwong dialect (lang: 羅廣粵語), spoken in northwestern Guangdong;
• Tanka dialect (lang: 疍家話), spoken by Boat people of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan;
• Pinghua (lang: 廣西平話), spoken in central Guangxi (in mainland China ofically designated as a separate dialect from Cantonese);
• Danzhou dialect (lang: 儋州話) and Mai dialect (lang: 邁話), spoken in Hainan province2 -