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Yue varieties

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 Liangguang (Guangdong and Guangxi), western Hainan, Hong Kong and Macau
Ethnicity Cantonese people
Taishanese people
Native speakers
60 million (2007)
Dialects
Traditional Chinese
(Written Cantonese)
Simplified Chinese
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 language
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Cantonese Yale Yuhtyúh
Literal meaning 'Language of Yue'
Guangdong language
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Cantonese Yale Gwóngdūng wá
Literal meaning 'Guangdong speech'

Yue or Yueh (English pronunciation: /ˈjuː/ or /juːˈ/; Cantonese pronunciation: [jyːt̚²]) is one of the primary branches of Chinese spoken in southern China, particularly the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, collectively known as Liangguang.

The name Cantonese is often used for the whole branch, but linguists prefer to reserve that name for the variety of Guangzhou (Canton), Hong Kong and Macau, 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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