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'''Cantonese''' (Traditional Chinese: 粵語, Simplified Chinese: 粤语; [[Hanyu Pinyin]]:''Yuè Yǔ''; [[Jyutping]]: jyut6 jyu5) is the de facto [[official language]] of [[Hong Kong]] and [[Macau]] and is also the lingua franca of Guangdong Province. Despite its being commonly called a [[dialect]], it is in fact a separate language from [[Mandarin]], the official spoken language of [[China]], differing not only [[phonology|phonologically]], but also [[grammar|grammatically]] and in [[vocabulary]].

'''Cantonese''' ([[Jyutping]]: jyut6 jyu5) is the de facto [[official language]] of [[Hong Kong]] and [[Macau]] and is also the lingua franca of Guangdong Province. Although it is sometimes called a [[dialect]] (mainly by some leftist governments), it is completely different from [[Mandarin]], the official spoken language of [[China]], differing [[phonology|phonologically]], [[grammar|grammatically]] and in [[vocabulary]].

Cantonese preserved many features found in Ancient Chinese that are lost in [[Mandarin]]. It kept many of Ancient Chinese's final [[consonant|consonants]] (i.e. "m", "n", "ng", "p", "t", and "k") and has at least six tones, compared to Mandarin's two final consonants (i.e. "n" and "ng") and Mandarin's four tones. Cantonese also has fewer initial consonants but it also has about twice as many distinctively different syllables compared to Mandarin. Therefore, colloquial Cantonese words tend to be more monosyllabic compared to Mandarin, whose words tend to be more polysyllabic, because Cantonese does not differentiate as many homonyms.

Linguistic studies have shown that the Cantonese language is '''not''' a dialect of any language in particular but rather a language in its own right with its own history. It is related to many languages spoken in South East Asia, particularly the languages used in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. However, written Cantonese is rarely encountered outside Hong Kong even in overseas Cantonese-speaking communities.

Since Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule in 1997, the central Chinese government has not asserted that Mandarin would take over as the official spoken language of the region (as it is throughout China), but removed Cantonese's status as official language, declaring that "Chinese" as the official language - a vague distinction.

Since Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule in 1997, the central Chinese government has not asserted that Mandarin would take over as the official spoken language of the region (as it is throughout China), but removed Cantonese's status as an official language, declaring that "Chinese" as the official language. Since Cantonese is not a Chinese language (despite claims by the government to the contrary), this can be taken to mean that although Cantonese is still used in practice in Hong Kong's institutions, strictly speaking the language no longer has any legal status at all and there is a danger that its use may be undermined in the distant future, a proposition that the mainstream media is unlikely to report on.

[[Category:China]]

[[Category:China]]