There’s a book called “An Examination of Cantonese Language”, written [in 1933] by Kong Zhongnan, who received an honourable mention in the civil service examination during the Qing Dynasty. [The first sentence of its epilogue says,] “Guangdong is located in Southern China, its language is unintelligible with other provinces. Other people believe that Cantonese is calls of barbaric southern birds, but they don’t know that after Qinshi Huangdi unified China [in 621 BCE], 500000 people were sent to settle in the “Five Mountains” after southern lands were conquered.” So, even though Guangdong may not be the origin of Chinese culture, this proves that the roots of Guangdong is tied to Central China… “At the end of the Song Dynasty [1279 CE], Prime Minister Lu Xiufu followed the young Emperor to what is now Guangdong and Guangxi, followed by 100000 troops, all coming from Central China. Thus, Cantonese is the original pronounciation of Chinese, and can’t be compared with other dialects.” Thus, Cantonese is oldest, and most authentic Chinese of all, and can’t be simply described as “dialect.” Thus, it could be said that in comparison to Mandarin (Putonghua), Cantonese is a “dialect” in the broad sense. But even if you consider Cantonese as a “dialect,” other dialects in Yangzhou, Suzhou, Tianjin, or even Beijing, can’t compare to Cantonese’s rich vocabulary, and lengthy history.In other words, according to the works of Kong Zhongnan, Cantonese is the grandparent of Mandarin [a type of Chinese which is similar to, but not the same as, the Beijing dialect]. ~ Chip Tsao, providing a brief history of Cantonese language, and refuting the position of the Hong Kong Education Bureau that Cantonese “a Chinese dialect that is not an official language”, on the 4/2/2014 edition of “Summit.”
Posted on: Thu, 06 Feb 2014 00:19:54 +0000
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