Are Hokkien and Cantonese similar?
The reason for such a huge difference is that, Hokkien is a much older language, older than Cantonese. It might have descended directly from old Chinese. I was told by Fujian natives that neighbouring villages and towns, all speak somewhat different Hokkien dialects. Hokkien is called Fujianhua (福建话) in Mandarin.
What language is Cantonese most similar to?
Mandarin is probably the closest to Cantonese as they share a lot of the same characters for writing and have similar pronunciations for words. Mandarin is easier to learn though, since Cantonese has different spellings and pronunciations for most of its characters.
Is Hokkien a mother tongue?
The chain of transmission might even involve an intermediary, such as the Straits Chinese (or Peranakans), whose Baba patois contains both Malay and Hokkien words. In the Singapore Armed Forces, one of the things all NSmen were told by their sergeants was that ‘over here, Hokkien is your mother tongue’.
Which Chinese dialect is closest to Middle Chinese?
3 Answers
- cantonese (and several southern dialects/languages) is highly correlated to middle chinese, which was used in 唐 dynasty.
- cantonese still has 入聲 (entering tone), while mandarin lost it.
Can Cantonese speakers understand Hokkien?
A hokkien speaker cannot understand a Cantonese speaker. Both dialects are different.
Should I learn Cantonese or Mandarin?
It really depends on what you want to do. If you’re in Hong Kong, then by all means learn Cantonese. If you want to read Tang poetry, then learn Cantonese, because the poems still rhyme in Cantonese, where they may not in Mandarin. But if you want a generally useful language, learn Mandarin.
Can mandarin speakers understand Cantonese?
However, the two languages are distinct when spoken. Mandarin speakers typically cannot understand Cantonese speakers, and vice versa.
Is Hokkien a race?
The Hokkien ‘dialects’ are not all mutually intelligible, but they are held together by ethnolinguistic identity….
| Hokkien | |
|---|---|
| Region | Southern Fujian Province and other south-eastern coastal areas of China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia |
| Ethnicity | Hoklo |
Is Hokkien an ethnicity?
Because Hokkien, Hakka, and Cantonese aren’t separate ethnicities, anywhere. These three designations that you’ve listed are separate languages under the Sinitic language sub-grouping under Sino-Tibetan—one of the world’s primary language groups.
What countries speak Sino Tibetan?
The Sino-Tibetan language family includes early literary languages, such as Chinese, Tibetan, and Burmese, and is represented by more than 400 modern languages spoken in China, India, Burma, and Nepal. It is one of the most diverse language families in the world, spoken by 1.4 billion speakers.
Which is harder Hokkien or Cantonese?
Most definitely Taiwanese Hokkien would be harder than Cantonese for Mandarin speakers. All practical reasons aside, like Hong Yeu mentioned, thre colloquial layer of Hokkien is from an older form of Chinese not shared by the other dialects.
Can a Hokkien speaker understand Cantonese?
A hokkien speaker cannot understand a Cantonese speaker. Both dialects are different. A mandarin speaker can more or less understand a Cantonese speaker because a lot of mandarin and cantonese words are pronounced very similarly eg left and right in mandarin and Cantonese sounds almost the same.
Why does Hokkien sound similar to Japanese?
It sounds identical whether you vocalise these words in Hokkien or Japanese. Well, it is not coincidental. The similarity in their pronunciation has its roots in ancient China. Like the Japanese language, Hokkien was greatly affected by the Chinese language spoken in Tang Dynasty or even earlier.
Why does Teochew sound like bird talk to Cantonese speakers?
Teochew sounds like a foreign language or “bird talk” to Cantonese speakers as Cantonese is not mutually intelligible with Teochew while Teochew sounds like improper hokkien to Hokkien speakers as Teochew shares some cognates wit hokkien but significantly different pronounciations and sometimes different vocabularies from Hokkien.
Where did the Hokkien language come from?
“So you can say Hokkien originated from Old Chinese, but was influenced by Middle Chinese. They mixed and evolved into what is known as today’s Hokkien language. There were also some native languages (in the Fujian region) introduced into the mix.”