Chinese dialects

[Litnax]

Usually in English, we say Chinese dialects as Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, etc.

I would like to know if Chinese native speakers has other names for these dialects? Or are they the same? I remember a native speaker said the word 'Cantonese' differently but I couldn't recall what it was. Anyone?

[linguaholic]

A native cantonese speaker would refer to Cantonese as '广东话‘ (guǎngdōnghuà). Native Mandarin Speakers refer to Mandarin Chinese as 普通话 (pǔ tǒng huà). Hokkien in Chinese is 福建话 (fù jiàn huà). Hope that helps.

[CeliVega]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_varieties_of_Chinese

As shown by the link above, there's more to Chinese than just Hokkien, Hakka, and Cantonese (some of the more well-known dialects). It's actually quite troublesome when people from both side can only communicate with their own dialects. Even though we learn and read the same language, the way the language is spoken is different >_>

[Litnax]

Thanks guys, these really helps. 

This also reminds me of a documentary about people in China (mainly Beijing, Shanghai). I remember a senior citizen's complaint about the government urging the people to use Mandarin as the main language.

"Why should I use Mandarin? This is not my native language!" (Subtitled of course) If I'm not mistaken, the old man was a native of Shanghai.

[linguaholic]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_varieties_of_Chinese

As shown by the link above, there's more to Chinese than just Hokkien, Hakka, and Cantonese (some of the more well-known dialects). It's actually quite troublesome when people from both side can only communicate with their own dialects. Even though we learn and read the same language, the way the language is spoken is different >_>

Exactly!

For instance, I am now learning Cantonese and it is really quite different from Mandarin Chinese. One big difference is that you have 6 tones (arguably even 9 in total), whereas in Mandarin Chinese you have 4 tones (arguably 5, if counting the neutral tone). As CeliVega mentioned, the script (characters) are more or less identical, no matter which dialect you are speaking. I can basically confirm that, however there can be some 'special' characters for different dialects, which are not used (or not used as often) in Mandarin Chinese, for instance. I would like to give you an example for this:

The character 有 means 'have' in Mandarin Chinese. If you won't to negate 有 in Mandarin Chinese, you would just simply say 没有。In Cantonese, however, you use a special character for saying 'not have', which is 冇 (please note that this corresponds to the Mandarin Chinese character 有，just without the last two strokes). That is pretty funny and interesting, isn't it? :grin:

[CeliVega]

Oh yes, Cantonese!

They kind of have their own way of writing as well. From what I know:

你们好吗？ = 你哋好嗎？

吃过饭了吗？ = 吃咗饭未？

I remember these subtitles from some old Hong Kong movies.

[Litnax]

When it comes to movies, I always prefer Cantonese spoken ones (HK movies) - maybe because I'm so used to watch them since I was a kid. When it comes to songs though, Mandarin does sound better, maybe because its a bit smoother when sung.

[CeliVega]

Cantonese songs can be really nice too!

From what I see, there's too many love songs in both chinese and cantonese songs. They should come up with more varieties! But I guess the same can be said about songs in other languages too >_>

[Litnax]

There's this old song by Teresa Teng that I absolutely love - Tian Mi Mi :grin:

[CeliVega]

Huh......didn't see that coming

It's actually quite rare for people to appreciate old songs these days. Back then people actually sings with pure SKILLS instead of relying on things like autotune or vocal modified into a techno sounding songs. Here's my absolute favourite song from the era that I wasn't even born yet:

劉文正 - Liu Wen Zheng - Wai Po De Peng Hu Wan - 外婆的澎湖灣

[Litnax]

I think I've heard this one before when I was a kid  :grin:

This old karaoke video is just too funny  Too much drama.

[Pinutile]

Native Chinese call  Cantonese "广东话" or “粤语” (the later is more frequent, I think). 粤 is the name for ethnic groups once lived there and now the short name for 广东省。