Just found a good link for Mandarin speakers to learn Cantonese:
轻松学粤语 http://hemanhong.inetradio.cn/program/3361.aspx
11 FREE LESSONS!
You may find some good comparison between Mandarin and Cantonese too, but you need to know how to read Mandarin first. Enjoy!
We have learned some major differences in Cantonese and Mandarin pronunciation. You can also find this in Wikipedia:
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 modern Cantonese. For example, jiang (將) and zhang (張) are two distinct syllables in Mandarin or old Cantonese, but in modern Cantonese they have the same sound, “jeung1″. The loss of distinction between the alveolar and the alveolopalatal sibilants in Cantonese occurred in the mid-19th centuries and was documented in many Cantonese dictionaries and pronunciation guides published prior to the 1950s. A Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Canton Dialect by Williams (1856), writes: The initials “ch” and “ts” are constantly confounded, and some persons are absolutely unable to detect the difference, more frequently calling the words under “ts” as “ch”, than contrariwise. A Pocket Dictionary of Cantonese by Cowles (1914) adds: “s” initial may be heard for “sh” initial and vice versa.
There are clear sound correspondences in, for instance, the tones. For example, a fourth-tone (low falling tone) word in Cantonese is usually second tone (rising tone) in Mandarin.
Now, let’s take a look at the grammar.
2)Grammatical Differences Between Cantonese and Mandarin:
The most noticeable one is the position of adverb 先（Cantonese Jyutping:sin1 ; Pinyin:xian1).
e.g.
| Cantonese | Mandarin |
| 你走先 nei5zau2sin1 |
你先走 ni1 xian1 zou3 |
1)Let’s continue to compare Cantonese and Mandarin pronunciation
B)There are some Cantonese sounds that do not exist in Mandarin.
e.g. Sounds with the ending ‘m’: saam1 三(three)/衫(clothes) caam3 杉(fir) sim4禅（Zen)
In Mandarin, they are pronounced as: san1三 shan1衫(clothes)/杉(fir) chan2禅(Zen)
From the above, you know that the different characters with the same pronunciation with the same tone in Cantonese may pronounced very different in Mandarin and vice versa. This causes mistakes for Cantonese and Mandarin-speakers trying to speak the other language.
By mistake, Mandarin-speakers may say saan1 ger3 instead of saam1 go3 for 三个（three items)
and Cantonese-speakers may say cen4san1 instead of chen4shan1 for 衬衫 (shirt).
In many of the cases, these Northern and Southern accents can be understood.
Sometimes, it causes lots of misunderstanding or discomfort for the listeners.
Note that we do not have zh、ch、sh、r、x in Cantonese while
in Mandarin there are no ending m (aam, am) p, t, k or initials m and ng or the following finals (added initial g, s, f to make examples):
goe鋸 soeng商 soek削 seoi需 seon詢 seot摔 syu書 syun孫 syut雪, fui 灰(no. It is not the same as ‘ui’ in Pinyin for Mandarin)
Some may want to say the Cantonese Jyutping ’s’ is the same as ‘x’ in Pinyin. No, there is a little difference.
e.g. The Cantonese syun1孫(grandson) is not the same as xun1熏(smoked) in Mandarin
The Cantonese si1gwaa1丝瓜(Luffa) is not the same as xi1gua1西瓜(water melon) in Mandarin
Maybe the subtle difference is hardly noticed for beginners.
Any feedback or correction is welcome.
Please bookmark this series for more updates soon.
We use Jyutping for all examples of Cantonese words, and Pinyin for Mandarin.
The Cantonese vs Mandarin or Mandari vs Cantonese Series (1)
Although Cantonese use the same set of Chinese characters (almost… maybe 5% difference), there are a lot of differences between Cantonese and Mandarin. Not just the differences in pronunciation, but also in grammar and word usage.
Today, we are starting a series to show the differences for those who are interested.
For beginners of Chinese, we do not encourage learning both Cantonese and Mandarin at the same time. You need to learn the one that you think is the most useful for you currently for one or two years and master the basic before you move onto the other.
I hope this series is useful for those Mandarin-speaking and Cantonese-speaking learners who want to learn the other one.
I can’t stress it enough: do not learn both languages at the same time. Master one first.
1) First major difference is pronunciation between Cantonese and Mandarin
A)Cantonese has at least 6 tones (some said 9 tones) while Mandarin has only 4 simple tones plus a neutral tone, which does not exit in Cantonese
e.g.
Here’s the tone comparison between Cantonese and Mandarin:
Cantonese:fu1夫 fu2虎 fu3富 fu4扶 fu5妇 fu6负 (click for details)
Mandarin: fu1夫 fu2福 fu3斧 fu4富/负 xing4fu 幸福=happy/happiness
Note that Mandarin xing4fu幸福 is pronounced as hang6fuk1幸福 in Cantonese
Any Mandarin word with tones from 1 to 4 may become a neutral tone (some mark it with 5) when it is the 2nd character of word. e.g. 欺负 qi1 fu5 = to bully
Cantonese tones become one of the hardest thing to learn for Mandarin-speaking people, but if enough listening and practice are done, it can be overcome more easily.
Please bookmark this series for more updates soon.
We use Jyutping for all examples of Cantonese words, and Pinyin for Mandarin.
Earlier on this web site, I just chose a phonetic Cantonese romanization system at will. After some good research, I found that we need to adopt the most popular system called Jyutping, which has a lot of good features.
More on that soon.
(Special Thanks to Mike, who just reminded us to improve as soon as possible. We agree. We need to remove any confusion from our site. Mike, please contact us with your real email)
The following differences between Jyutping and the Yale romanization should be noted:
Jyutping and the Yale romanization system represent Cantonese pronunciations with the same letters in:
* The initials: b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw, w.
* The vowel: aa (except when using alone), a, e, i, o, u,yu.
* The nasal consonant: m, ng.
* The coda: i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k.
But they have difference with the following exceptions:
* The vowels eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping, while the eu represents both vowels in Yale.
* The initial j represents /j/ in Jyutping while y is used instead in Yale.
* The initial z represents /ts/ in Jyutping while j is used instead in Yale.
* The initial c represents /tsʰ/ in Jyutping while ch is used instead in Yale.
* In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the vowel yu, then the initial j is appended before the vowel. In Yale, the corresponding initial y is never appended before yu under any circumstances.
* Jyutping defines three finals not in Yale: eu /ɛːu/, em /ɛːm/, and ep /ɛːp/. These three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as deu6 (掉), lem2 (舐), and gep6 (夾).
* To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping while Yale originally uses tone marks together with the letter h (though tone numbers can be used in Yale as well).
For further information on both systems, please refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyutping
Voice by Kaibo
Hi, all.
Here’s a great way to check what you have learned. Call in to record and let us listen to see if you have mastered the Cantonese sentences.
Want to learn the exact words for 1 to 10 in Cantonese? Come Here
You can actually come “Here to learn more of the basic useful Cantonese.
Cantonese learners often wonder what are the differences between Cantonese and the official Chinese language — Mandarin.
Actually, there are a lot of differences which we need to understand and often find interesting. Here I can only list a few of them.
1. Of course, the pronunciation is different. So different that Cantonese speakingand Mandarin speaking people cannot understand each other. Some learners under estimate the differences and take the similarity for granted so that lots of misunderstanding is caused.
e.g. The number 2 in Cantonese sound like “yi”, very similar to the number 1 in Mandarin “yi” (1st tone). The word for water melon in Mandarin “xi gua” sounds like ?? si1gua1(Luffa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luffa)
2. When Cantonese write formal articles, they tend to use formal Chinese Mandarin words expressions. The major differences between the two dialects are mainly in their oral forms.
3. There are many words and expressions are directly “borrowed” from English, so sometimes it is very difficult to translate them from Cantonese into Mandarin.
(tobe updated)
