Cantonese ( Guăndōnghuà )

The Yuè dialects , or Cantonese, are spoken by 71 million people in the province of Guǎndōng and the city of Guǎngzhōu (Canton), as well as in Hong Kong, and in expatriate Chinese communities and Chinatowns in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States (Ethnologue). The origins of Cantonese are not known due to absence of reliable historical records, however, it is generally agreed that it had acquired linguistics traits distinguishing it from other Chinese dialects by the time of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).

Cantonese is one of the major languages of China. Standard Cantonese, also known as the Guǎndōng dialect ( ) refers to the most prestigious dialect spoken in Guǎngzhōu (Canton), Hong Kong, and Macau.

People's Republic of China (PRC)

In PRC, Cantonese is used alongside Mandarin. The latter is used as the medium of education and government administration. There are also some television and radio programs in Cantonese. Because of PRC's language policies, articulated through the National Language Standardization Conference (October 1955), most people in China today are proficient in Mandarin. As a consequence, Cantonese-Mandarin bilingualism is increasing in Cantonese-speaking provinces of the country.

Hong Kong and Macau

Cantonese is the official language of Hong Kong alongside English. It is the language of choice for education, business, government, and the media. For instance, Hong Kong's important and popular film industry is in Cantonese. It is too early to predict the effects of unification on the status of Cantonese in Hong Kong.

Select from the languages below:
Egyptian Arabic	Modern Standard Arabic	Cantonese
Croatian	Czech	Danish
Dutch	English	Finnish
German	Greek	Hindi
Icelandic	Italian	Japanese
Korean	Mandarin	Polish
Portuguese	Russian	Spanish
Swedish	Turkish	Hebrew
Ukrainian	Welsh