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Yue Chinese

Yue
Cantonese
粵語/粤语
廣東話/广东话
Yueyu-vector.svg
Yuhtyúh (Yue) written in traditional (left) and simplified (right) Chinese characters
Region Pearl River Delta (central Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau); southeastern Guangxi
Ethnicity Cantonese people
Taishanese people
Native speakers
60 million (2007)
Dialects
Traditional Chinese
(Written Cantonese)
Cantonese Braille
Official status
Official language in
Hong Kong (as Chinese)
Macau (as Chinese)
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog yuec1235
Linguasphere 79-AAA-m
Idioma cantonés.png
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
Yue / Cantonese
Traditional Chinese 粵語
Simplified Chinese 粤语
Cantonese Yale Yuhtyúh
Cantonese Jyutping Jyut6 jyu5
Hanyu Pinyin Yuèyǔ
Literal meaning Language of Yue
Commonly known as
Traditional Chinese 廣東話
Simplified Chinese 广东话
Cantonese Yale Gwóng dūng wá
Cantonese Jyutping Gwong2 dung1 waa6
Hanyu Pinyin Guǎngdōng Huà
Literal meaning Guangdong speech

Yue or Yueh (English pronunciation: /ˈjuː/ or /juːˈ/; Chinese: ; pinyin: yuè; Cantonese pronunciation: [jyːt̚²]; Mandarin pronunciation: [ɥɛ̂]) is a primary branch of Chinese spoken in southern China, particularly the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi.

The name Cantonese is often used for the whole branch, but linguists prefer to reserve that name for the variety of Guangzhou (Canton) and Hong Kong, which is the prestige dialect. Taishanese, from the coastal area of Jiangmen located southwest of Guangzhou, was the language of most of the 19th-century emigrants from Guangdong to Southeast Asia and North America. Most later migrants have been speakers of Cantonese.

Yue varieties are not mutually intelligible with other varieties of Chinese. They are among the most conservative varieties with regard to the final consonants and tonal categories of Middle Chinese, but have lost several distinctions in the initial and medial consonants that other Chinese varieties have retained.


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