Cantonese (粵語/粤语, lit. "Yụet (Guangdong) dialect") is one of the major dialect groups or languages of the Chinese language or language family. It is mainly spoken in the south-eastern part of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, by the Chinese minorities in Southeast Asia and by many overseas Chinese of Cantonese origin worldwide. Its name is derived from Canton, the former French romanisation used as the colonial English name for Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Province. It is a tonal language. A Special Administrative Region (SAR) (Simplified Chinese: 特别行政区; Traditional Chinese: 特別行政區; pinyin: tèbié xíngzhèngqÅ«; Cantonese IPA: /tɐk6piːt6 hɐŋ4tsɪŋ3kʰɵy1/; Jyutping: dak6bit6 hang4zing3keoi1; Yale: dahkbiht hàhngjingkeÅ«i) is a political subdivision of the Peoples Republic of China. ... A Special Administrative Region (SAR) (Simplified Chinese: 特别行政区; Traditional Chinese: 特別行政區; pinyin: tèbié xíngzhèngqÅ«; Cantonese IPA: /tɐk6piːt6 hɐŋ4tsɪŋ3kʰɵy1/; Jyutping: dak6bit6 hang4zing3keoi1; Yale: dahkbiht hàhngjingkeÅ«i) is a political subdivision of the Peoples Republic of China. ... ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ... SIL International is a non-profit, Christian, scientific organization with the main purpose to study, develop and document lesser-known languages for the purpose of expanding linguistic knowledge, promoting world literacy and aiding minority language development. ... This list of languages is alphabetical by English name. ... Spoken Chinese The Chinese spoken language(s) comprise(s) many regional variants. ... Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zhōngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (汉语/漢語, 华语/華語, or 中文; Pinyin: H nyǔ, Hu yǔ, or Zhōngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... Most languages are known to belong to language families (families hereforth). ... In this map of China, the light-coloured areas represent Mainland China, while yellow coloured area refers to Taiwan. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... Overseas Chinese (華僑 in pinyin: huáqiáo, or 華胞 huábāo, or 僑胞 qiáobāo) are ethnic Chinese who live outside of the China. ... Location within China Guangzhou (Simplified Chinese: 广州; Traditional Chinese: 廣州; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kuang-chou; Jyutping: Gwong2zau1; Yale: GwóngjaÅ«) is the capital of the Guangdong Province in southern China. ... Guangdong (Simplified Chinese: 广东; Traditional Chinese: 廣東; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kuang-tung; Postal System Pinyin: Kwangtung or Canton Province, Jyutping: gwong2 dung1), is a province on the south coast of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Tone refers to the use of pitch in language to distinguish words. ...

Different dialects of Cantonese are spoken depending on area. The most prestigious is the Guangzhou dialect, also referred to simply as "Cantonese". The Guangzhou dialect is the lingua franca of not just Guangdong province, but also the overseas Cantonese diaspora, spoken by about 70 million Cantonese worldwide. The Guangzhou dialect is also spoken in Hong Kong, a financial and cultural capital of southern China. In addition to the Guangzhou dialect, the Taishan dialect, one of the sei yap or siyi (四邑) dialects that come from Guangdong counties where a majority of Exclusion-era Cantonese-Chinese immigrants emigrated, continues to be spoken both by recent immigrants from Southern China and even by third-generation Chinese Americans of Cantonese ancestry alike. Standard Cantonese refers to the most prominent dialect of Cantonese (Yue), a subdivision of spoken Chinese. ... Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ... Guangdong (Simplified Chinese: 广东; Traditional Chinese: 廣東; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kuang-tung; Postal System Pinyin: Kwangtung or Canton Province, Jyutping: gwong2 dung1), is a province on the south coast of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Taishanese (台山話 Taishanese: Hoi4 saan6 wa1, Cantonese: toi4 saan1 wa6), or Seiyap, is a Chinese dialect (or group of very similar dialects) spoken in and around Taishan, in Guangdong province. ... The Chinese Exclusion Act, signed into law May 6, 1882, followed revisions made in 1880 to the Burlingame Treaty of 1868. ...

Like other major varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is often considered a dialect of a single Chinese Language for cultural or nationalistic reasons; most linguists consider Cantonese a separate language in the sense that they use the term, with notable exceptions in the People's Republic of China (see Is Chinese a language or a family of languages?). Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zhōngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (汉语/漢語, 华语/華語, or 中文; Pinyin: H nyǔ, Hu yǔ, or Zhōngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ...

Dialects of Cantonese

There are at least four major dialect groups of Cantonese: Yuehai, which includes the dialect spoken in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau as well as the dialects of Zhōngshān 中山, and Dōngguǎn; Sìyì (四邑, sei yap), exemplified by Táishān (台山, Toisaan, Hoisaan) dialect, which used to be ubiquitous in American Chinatowns before 1970; Gaoyang, as spoken in Yangjiang; and Guinan (Nanning dialect) spoken widely in Guangxi. However, Cantonese generally refers to the Yuehai dialect. Statue of Sun Yat-sen in Sunwen Memorial Park. ... Dongguan (Simplified Chinese: 东莞; Traditional Chinese: 東莞; pinyin: Dōngguān) is an important industrial prefecture-level city in the Pearl River Delta, in the Guangdong Province of southern China. ... Taishan (台山 pinyin: Táishān; Cantonese: Toisan; local: Hoisan ) is a coastal city in Guangdong Province, China. ... New York City is home to one of the largest Chinatowns in North America, and is centered around Canal Street in the borough of Manhattan. ...

For the last 150 years, Guangdong Province has been the home of most of the Chinese emigrants; one county near its center, Táishān (where the Sìyì or sei yap dialect of Cantonese is spoken), alone may have been the home to more than 60% of Chinese immigrants to the US before 1965, and as a result, Guangdong dialects such as sei yap (the dialects of Táishān 台山, Ēnpíng 恩平, Kāipíng 開平, Xīnhuì 新會 Counties) and what we understand to be mainstream Cantonese (with a heavy Hong Kong influence) have been the major spoken dialects abroad. As more and different kinds of Chinese emigrate, however, the situation is now changing, so that Min (Hokkien, or Fujianese dialect speakers) and Wu dialect speakers are also now heard, as well as Mandarin in increasing numbers from Taiwanese and Northern mainland immigrants. Guangdong (Simplified Chinese: 广东; Traditional Chinese: 廣東; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kuang-tung; Postal System Pinyin: Kwangtung or Canton Province, Jyutping: gwong2 dung1), is a province on the south coast of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Taishan (台山 pinyin: Táishān; Cantonese: Toisan; local: Hoisan ) is a coastal city in Guangdong Province, China. ... Taishan (台山 pinyin: Táishān; Cantonese: Toisan; local: Hoisan ) is a coastal city in Guangdong Province, China. ... Enping City (red) within Guangdong Enping (恩平; Cantonese: Yun Ping) is a city in Guangdong Province, China. ... Kaiping (开平) is a county-level city in the Guangdong province of southern China. ... Xinhui is a city in Guangdong province, in southern China. ... Mǐn Nán (Chinese: 閩南語), also spelt as Minnan or Min-nan; native name Bân-lâm-gú; literally means Southern Min or Southern Fujian and refers to the local language/dialect of southern Fujian province, China. ... Wu (吳方言 pinyin wú fāng yán; 吳語 pinyin wú yǔ) is one of the major divisions of the Chinese language. ... Mandarin   listen?(Traditional: 北方話, Simplified: 北方话, Hanyu Pinyin: BÄ›ifānghuà, lit. ... Taiwan is mostly mountainous in the east but gradually transitions to gently sloping plains in the west. ...

In addition, there are at least three other major Chinese languages spoken in Guangdong Province—Putonghua 普通話, which is official standard Mandarin, spoken in official occasions, used in education, and among the many internal migrants from the north seeking work in the developing south; Min-nan 閩南 (Southern Min) spoken in the eastern regions bordering Fújiàn 福建, such as those from Cháozhōu 潮州 and Shàntóu 汕頭; and Hakka 客家(話), the language of the Hakka minority 客家(人). Hànyǔ 漢語 or Mandarin is mandatory through the state education system, but in the Southern household, the popularization of Cantonese-language media (Hong Kong films, television serials, and Cantopop, most notably), isolation from the other regions of China, and the healthy economy of the Cantonese diaspora ensure that the language has a life of its own. Most wuxia films from Canton are filmed originally in Cantonese and then dubbed in Mandarin or English or both. Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zhōngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (汉语/漢語, 华语/華語, or 中文; Pinyin: H nyǔ, Hu yǔ, or Zhōngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... Standard Mandarin refers to the official Chinese spoken language used by the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. ... Min Nan, Minnan, or Min-nan (Simplified Chinese: 闽南语; Traditional Chinese: 閩南語; pinyin: ; POJ: Bân-lâm-gú; Southern Min or Southern Fujian language) is the language/dialect of southern Fujian province, China and neighboring areas, and descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora. ... Chaozhou (Chinese: 潮州 lit. ... The historic quarter of Shantou, which features both Western and Chinese architecture Shantou (Simplified: 汕头, Traditional: 汕頭 Pinyin: Shàntóu; Min Chinese: Swátōw or Suátāo) is a city of 784,000 in coastal eastern Guangdong Province, China. ... Hakka is one language in the family of languages known as Chinese. ... Hakka (Chinese: 客家; pinyin: kèjiā, literal meaning guest families) are a Han Chinese people whose ancestors are said to originate from around Henan and Shanxi in northern China over 2700 years ago. ... Cantopop is a colloquial abbreviation for Cantonese pop music, a form of popular music that is a subgenre of C-pop. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Mandarin   listen?(Traditional: 北方話, Simplified: 北方话, Hanyu Pinyin: BÄ›ifānghuà, lit. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Phonology

The area coloured in red shows the Cantonese-speaking region in the PRC.

See Standard Cantonese for a discussion of the sounds of Standard Cantonese and pages on individual dialects for their phonologies.

Download high resolution version (502x703, 142 KB)Map produced by Patrick Edwin Moran and based on material in the uncopyrighted Han-yu fang-yan yu fang-yan diao-cha and information an on-line map from the University of Texas This image has been released into the public domain by... Download high resolution version (502x703, 142 KB)Map produced by Patrick Edwin Moran and based on material in the uncopyrighted Han-yu fang-yan yu fang-yan diao-cha and information an on-line map from the University of Texas This image has been released into the public domain by... Standard Cantonese refers to the most prestigious dialect of Cantonese. ...

Cantonese versus Mandarin

In some ways, Cantonese is a more conservative dialect than Mandarin. This can be seen, for example, by comparing the words for "I/me" (我) and "hunger" (餓). They are written using very similar characters, but in Mandarin their pronunciation is quite different ("wǒ" vs. "è"), whereas in Cantonese they are pronounced identically except for their tones (ngo5 vs ngo6 respectively). Since the characters hint at a similar pronunciation, it can be assumed that their ancient pronunciation was indeed similar, but in Mandarin the two syllables acquired different pronunciations in the course of time. Although the ancient pronunciation has not been maintained in Cantonese, there have been fewer changes in Cantonese, and so their modern values are closer to the older ones than Mandarin.

Cantonese sounds quite different from Mandarin, mainly because it has a different set of syllables. The rules for syllable formation are different; for example, there are syllables ending in non-nasal consonants (e.g. "lak"). It also has a different set of tones. Cantonese is generally considered to have 6 or 7 tones, the choice depending on whether a traditional distinction between a high-level and a high-falling tone is observed; the two tones in question have largely merged into a single, high-level tone, especially in Hong Kong Cantonese. Many (especially older) descriptions of the Cantonese sound system give a somewhat higher number of tones, e.g. 10. This is chiefly because, in these accounts, a separate tone category is assigned to syllables ending in p, t, or k for each of the three pitch levels in which such syllabes occur. Most linguists today consider this an unnecessary complication.

Mandarin has 4 tones plus a "neutral" tone.

Cantonese preserves many syllable-final sounds that Mandarin has lost or merged. For example, the characters, (裔,屹,藝,艾,憶,譯,懿,誼,肄,翳,邑,佚) are all pronounced yi4 in Mandarin, but they are all different in Cantonese (jeoi6, ngat6, ngai6, ngaai6, yik1, yik6, yi3, yi4, si3, ai3, yap1, and yat6, respectively). However, Mandarin's vowel system is somewhat more conservative than Cantonese's, in that many diphthongs preserved in Mandarin have merged or been lost in Cantonese. Also, Mandarin makes a three-way distinction among alveolar, alveopalatal, and retroflex fricatives, distinctions that are not made by Cantonese. Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-18, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... In phonetics, a diphthong (Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds) is a vowel combination usually involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ... Alveolars are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, the internal side of the upper gums (known as the alveoles of the upper teeth). ... In phonetics, alveolo-palatal consonants are a subtype of postalveolar fricative articulated with the blade of the tongue between the alveolar ridge and the palate. ... Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ...

There is another obvious difference between Cantonese and Mandarin. Mandarin lacks the syllable-final sound "m"; final "m" and final "n" in Cantonese have merged into "n" in Mandarin, as in Cantonese "taam6" (譚) and "taan4" (壇) versus Mandarin tán, Cnt. "yim4" (鹽) and "yin4" (言) versus Mnd. yán, Cnt. "tim1" (添) and "tin1" (天) versus Mnd. tiān, Cnt. "ham4" (含) and "hon4" (寒) versus Mnd. hán. The examples are too numerous to list. Furthermore, nasals can be independent syllables in Cantonese words, like "ng5" (五) "five," and "m4" (唔) "not."

There are clear sound correspondences in, for instance, the tones. For example, a fourth-tone word in Cantonese is usually second tone in Mandarin. The comparative method (in linguistics) is a method used to detect genetic relationships between languages and to establish a consistent relationship hypothesis by reconstructing: the common ancestor of the languages in question, a plausible sequence of regular changes by which the historically known languages can be derived from that common...

This can be partly explained by their common descendence from Middle Chinese (spoken), still with its different dialects. One way of counting tones gives Cantonese 9 tones, Mandarin 4 and Middle Chinese 8. Within this system, Mandarin merged the yin and yang sounds, while the Cantonese split one of them into 2 over time. Also, within this system, Cantonese is the only Chinese dialect known to have split tones rather than merge them since the time of Middle Chinese.

Despite the broad area over which Cantonese is spoken, most universities in the US do not and have not historically taught Cantonese. Most only offer Chinese classes in Mandarin because of Mandarin's status as the official dialect of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. In addition, Mandarin was the court dialect formerly used in Imperial China. But Cantonese courses can be found at some US universities. The University of Hawaii is one example. The Republic of China (Traditional Chinese: 中華民國; Simplified Chinese: 中华民国; Wade-Giles: Chung¹-hua² Min²-kuo², Tongyong Pinyin: JhongHuá MínGuó, Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó, Taiwanese POJ: Tiong-hoâ Bîn-kok) is a vibrant, multiparty democratic state that today is composed of the island groups of Taiwan, the Pescadores... China is the worlds oldest continuous major civilization, with written records dating back about 3,500 years and with 5,000 years being commonly used by Chinese as the age of their civilization. ... Jean Charlots mural called Commencement is featured at Bachman Hall, the administrative center of the University of Hawai`i System. ...

Written Cantonese

Main article: Written Cantonese

Standard written Chinese is, in essence, written Standard Mandarin. People who speak another Chinese language (or dialect), when reading aloud, usually use their language's sound values for the characters. However, this written language sounds stilted and unnatural. Unusual for a regional (i.e., non-Mandarin) Chinese language, Cantonese has a written form, including many unique characters that are not found in standard written Chinese. Readers who do not know Cantonese often find written Cantonese odd, and even unintelligible in parts. However, written Cantonese is commonly used informally among Cantonese speakers. Circumstances where written Cantonese is used include conversations through instant messenger services, subtitles in Hong Kong movies, and advertisements. It rarely finds its way into the subtitles of Western movies or TV shows, though The Simpsons is a notable exception. To Cantonese speakers, their own language is more expressive, and is better received among speakers of Cantonese. Written Cantonese refers to the written language used to write colloquial standard Cantonese using Chinese characters. ... Standard Mandarin is the official Chinese spoken language used by the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. ... Vernacular Chinese (pinyin: Bai hua; Wade-Giles: Pai hua) is a style or register of the written Chinese language essentially modeled after the spoken language and associated with Standard Mandarin. ... A screenshot of PowWow, one of the first instant messengers with a graphical user interface An instant messenger is a client which allows instant text communication between two or more people through a network such as the Internet. ... Production of teletext subtitles A subtitle can refer to one of two things: textual versions of a film or television programs dialogue that appear onscreen, or an explanatory or alternate title, in addition to the main title of a work. ... The history of Chinese-language cinema has three separate threads of development: the Hong Kong, the Mainland and Taiwan. ... Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ... The Simpsons is a long-running animated television series, with 17 seasons and 356 episodes since it debuted on December 17, 1989 on FOX, and is a spinoff of The Tracey Ullman Show. ...

Records of legal documents in Hong Kong also use written Cantonese sometimes, in order to record exactly what a witness has said.

Colloquial Cantonese is rarely used in formal forms of writing; formal written communication is almost always in standardized Mandarin or hanyu, albeit still pronounced in Cantonese. However, written colloquial Cantonese does exist; it is used mostly for transcription of speech in tabloids, in some broadsheets, for some subtitles, and in other informal forms of communication. It is not uncommon to see the front page of a Cantonese paper written in hanyu, while the entertainment sections are, at least partly, in Cantonese. The vernacular writing system has evolved over time from a process of modifying characters to express lexical and syntactic elements found in Cantonese but not the standard written language. In spite of their vernacular origin and informal use, these characters have become so important in the Canton region for communication that the Hong Kong Government has incorporated them into a special Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS). Hanyu can refer to: a city in Saitama, Japan - see Hanyu, Saitama The Chinese name for the Chinese language (漢語 (traditional) / 汉语 (simplified); pinyin hànyǔ). ... Hanyu can refer to: a city in Saitama, Japan - see Hanyu, Saitama The Chinese name for the Chinese language (漢語 (traditional) / 汉语 (simplified); pinyin hànyǔ). ... The Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (commonly abbreviated to HKSCS) is a set of Chinese characters -- 4,702 in total in the initial release -- used exclusively in Cantonese. ...

A problem for the student of Cantonese is the lack of a widely accepted, standardized transcription system. Another problem is with Chinese characters: Cantonese uses the same system of characters as Mandarin, but it often uses different words, which have to be written with different characters. At least this is the case in Hong Kong, but in the Canton area of mainland China, Cantonese is written with the exact same characters as Mandarin, though the characters stand for words not actually used in Cantonese. An example may help to clarify this: 漢字 hànzì, hanja, kanji… in Traditional Chinese and other languages. ... In this map of China, the light-coloured areas represent Mainland China, while yellow coloured area refers to Taiwan. ...

The written word for "to be" is 是 in spoken Mandarin (pronounced shì) but is 係 in spoken Cantonese (pronounced hai6). In formal written Chinese, only 是 is used; 係 is only used in classical literature. However, in Hong Kong, 係 is often used in colloquial written Cantonese.

Many characters used in colloquial Cantonese writings are made up by putting a mouth radical (口) on the left hand side of another more well known character to indicate that the character is read like the right hand side, but it is only used phonetically in the Cantonese context. The characters [1] 㗎, 叻, 吓, 吔, 呃, 咁, 咗, 咩, 哂, 哋, 唔, 唥, 唧, 啱, 啲, 喐, 喥, 喺, 嗰, 嘅, 嘜, 嘞, 嘢, 嘥, 嚟, 嚡, 嚿, 囖 etc. are commonly used in Cantonese writing. As not all Cantonese words can be found in current encoding system, or the users simply don't know how to enter such characters on the computer, in very informal speech, Cantonese tends to use extremely simple romanization (e.g. use D as 啲), symbols (add an English letter "o" in front of another Chinese character; e.g. 㗎 is defined in Unicode, but will not display in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0. hence the proxy o架 is often used), homophones (e.g. use 果 as 嗰), and Chinese character of different Mandarin meaning (e.g. 乜, 係, 俾 etc.) to compose a message. For example, "你喺嗰喥好喇, 千祈咪搞佢啲嘢。" is often written in easier form as "你o係果度好喇, 千祈咪搞佢D野。" (character-by-character, approximately 'you, being, there (two characters), good, (final particle), thousand, pray, don't, mess with, him/her, (genitive particle), things', translation 'You'd better stay there, and please don't mess with his/her stuff.')

Other common characters are unique to Cantonese or deviated from their Mandarin usage, they include: 乜, 冇, 仔, 佢, 佬, 係, 俾, 靚 etc.

The words represented by these characters are sometimes cognates with pre-existing Chinese words. However, their colloquial Cantonese pronunciations have diverged from formal Cantonese pronunciations. For example, in formal written Chinese, 無 (mou4) is the character used for "without". In spoken Cantonese, 冇 (mou2) has the same usage, meaning, and pronunciation as 無, differing only by tone. 冇 represents the spoken Cantonese form of the word "without", while 無 represents the word used in Mandarin (pinyin: wú) and formal Chinese writing. However, 無 is still used in some instances in spoken Chinese in both dialects, like 無論 ("no matter what"). A Cantonese-specific example is the doublet 來/嚟, which means "to come". 來(loi4) is used in formal writing; 嚟 (lei4) is the spoken Cantonese form. Cognates are words that have a common origin. ... Categories: Stub ...

See also

• Written Cantonese
• Chinese written language
• Chinese input methods for computers

Written Cantonese refers to the written language used to write colloquial standard Cantonese using Chinese characters. ... Various styles of Chinese calligraphy. ... The Chinese language uses a logographic script—one in which one character corresponds roughly to one word or meaning—there are vastly more characters, or glyphs, than there are keys on a standard computer keyboard. ...

External links

Wikibooks has more about this subject:

Cantonese

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

Dictionaries

Dictionaries which include Spoken Cantonese Entries

• A Comparative Database of Modern Chinese and Cantonese: A Cantonese↔Chinese Dictionary at the Chinese University of Hong Kong: This is one of the few online sites with an extensive database of spoken Cantonese terms and phrases on the Internet. Almost exclusively in Chinese, though.
• CantoDict: A Cantonese-English Dictionary at Sheik's Cantonese Forum: This dictionary has both spoken and written Cantonese entries and its database is still growing
• Database of Cantonese Common Words: In Japanese and English; requires Japanese font

Character-Only Cantonese Pronunciation Dictionaries

• The Chinese University of Hong Kong Research Centre for Humanities Computing: Chinese Character Database: With Word-formations Phonologically Disambiguated According to the Cantonese Dialect: A vast Chinese character database of over 13,000 characters with audio pronunciations in Cantonese. This site is viewable in Chinese and English. You can choose from seven transcription schemes to view character pronunciations. By default, the site is displayed in Chinese and uses the LSHK jyutping transcription scheme. To view the site in English and/or use a different transcription scheme, a cookies enabled browser is required. For each character you can find Cantonese pronunciations, Mandarin pronunciations, character ranking/frequency, Big5 encoding number, Unicode number, cangjie (chongkit) input code, and which radical the character can be found under using a traditional Chinese dictionary.
• Cantonese Talking Syllabary: in Chinese; require Big5 font
• Chinese Character Dictionary
• MDBG free online Chinese-English dictionary: An online Chinese English dictionary supporting both Cantonese and Mandarin. (You need to click the compound word to get the individual Cantonese readings of each character; no direct Cantonese phrase pronunciation guide at the moment.) Standard Chinese words only. Vernacular Cantonese not supported

Big-5 or Big5 is a character encoding method used in Taiwan (Republic of China) and Hong Kong for Traditional Chinese characters. ... In computing, Unicode provides an international standard which has the goal of providing the means to encode the text of every document people want to store on computers. ... Portrait of Cangjie showing his four eyes Cāngjié or Cāng Jié (Traditional Chinese: 倉頡; Simplified Chinese: 仓颉), also known as Chongkit (the Cantonese pronunciation of his name), is a legendary figure in ancient China, claimed to be an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of the Chinese...

Other Links

• Learn Cantonese!: Great site with basic vocabulary and phonetics
• 粵語拼盤: Learning the phonetic system of Cantonese
• Sheik's Cantonese Forum: a popular Cantonese Forum for English-speaking learners.
• China West Exchange: Free Cantonese and Mandarin lessons.
• Ethnologue report on Cantonese
• Hong Kong Government Book Store: The Hong Kong Government Publications Office has a series of 9 books containing the complete language course used to train non-native speaking civil servants in Cantonese
• Hong Kong Government site on the HK Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS)
• Wikicities has a wiki about Cantonese: Cantonese

Wikicities is a wiki hosting service created in 2004 by Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley. ...