[Cantonese vs Mandarin Differences] Part 1: Pronunciation (SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON)

A quick side-by-side comparison of Cantonese vs Mandarin differences in pronunciation. This is part 1 of our Mandarin Cantonese Chinese language comparison series. Watch part 2 of Mandarin versus Cantonese Chinese vocabulary here: • [Cantonese vs Mandarin...
Welcome to Cantonese vs Mandarin Differences Part 1: Pronunciation! In this series of Cantonese versus Mandarin Chinese comparisons, we will be doing quick and rapid side-by-side comparisons between Cantonese and Mandarin. This side by side video comparison of Cantonese versus Mandarin pronunciation of common Chinese words will contain romanizations for each language: jyutping for Cantonese and pinyin for Mandarin.
A little bit about myself: I am Chinese American who grew up as a heritage speaker of Mandarin Chinese but also spent some time living in Hong Kong and being exposed to the Cantonese language (# CantoMando speaker :)) Thus, while I am not a native speaker of either language, I would say I have the basic grasp of each one: a little bit of Canto and a little bit of Mando. That being said, mistakes will be made, so if you are a native speaker and notice that I say anything wrong please feel to correct me! :) Also, I enjoy making personal videos (language study vlogs and hopefully some Cantonese vlogs in the future) about my own language learning journey and share whatever linguistic and cultural curiosities I may find along the way!
Maybe you want to learn Cantonese or learn Mandarin, or maybe you simply had no idea about the variety of different Chinese languages and wanted just to get an idea of what they are. The goal of this video is to give everyone just a sampling of how different Cantonese vs Mandarin sound. In this first episode, we will be looking at Mandarin versus Cantonese pronunciation in a side by side comparison. We won't be going into detail about Chinese initials and finals, nor into Mandarin or Cantonese tones, rather with this video I am simply planning to show language learners (and really anyone else who is curious) the high-level differences between Mandarin and Cantonese. Simply a quick way to let viewers hear for themselves!
LingoKev
Want more LingoKev Cantonese content?
Watch a video of me speaking Cantonese here: • I Lived in Hong Kong a...
Watch all Cantonese vs Mandarin differences videos here: • Cantonese vs Mandarin
#learncantonese #cantonesepronunciation #cantomando

[@lingokev]

Interested in more comparisons between Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese? Check out my playlist of Cantonese vs Mandarin differences here: kzbin.info/aero/PLqVhPcumDM7249ul9BKOA8Fnc4cmwziGU

[@ghostland8646]

as a Vietnamese and I can recognize a lot of the phonetic from canto because a lot of them sound the same in my language

[@narutoninjagoandtheflashar4256]

You’re right

[@revaholic]

I want to learn Vietnamese as a result - but don't know if northern or southern dialect is better to learn?

[@bumxibum]

@@revaholic if you want the dialect that similar to Cantonese then southern, if you don't want to learn a dialect that similar to Cantonese then Northern.

[@NealOfTaylor44]

never would have guessed that, but it totally makes sense with the connected history of Southern China & Vietnam

[@YorgosL1]

địa phương sound exactly like cantonese

[@alliebean3235]

some cantonese words sound super similar to korean! for example, 學校 and 학교, and 希望 and 희망 - the consonant sounds especially are really close to each other - i looked it up and apparently it's bc cantonese is a linguistic offshoot from middle chinese, which korean, japanese, and vietnamese all have a ton of loanwords from bc of the hanzi writing system, whereas standard mandarin evolved and changed over time to include a lot more sounds from languages and dialects from the northern parts of the region

[@lingokev]

That's super interesting to hear -- thanks for sharing! I've heard of similarities between Vietnamese and Cantonese, and was not aware of the similarities with Korean as well

[@wanghui562]

True, Mandarin is unfortunately polluted with manchurian accent. Shanghainese, Cantonese, and Hokkien are more authentically Chinese than Mandarin. Ancient Chinese poems rhyme in these ancient dialects more than in Mandarin.

[@alliebean3235]

@@wanghui562 i wouldn't say it's polluted, more changed and different. when talking about english for example, we wouldn't say middle english is a more pure form of it and that german and dutch are more authentically english than modern english is, it's just changed and evolved over time to incorporate more latin-based words into it, which happens in all languages. language is a living thing that reflects the lives and demographics of the people that speak it, and language changing isn't a bad thing. for example, english spoken in my country incorporates a lot of words pulled from polynesian languages because of our indigenous population; i say puku instead of tummy, and bidibidi instead of burr. being a purist about language can lead to close-mindedness and can block you off from experiencing the joy of cultural exchange and connection with new people, it can also be very classist and racist. i'm not accusing you of anything, just trying to provide my perspective on linguistic evolution and the way we talk about it

[@wanghui562]

​@@alliebean3235 Han Chinese are sensitive about these things because Qing Dynasty was a non-Han Manchurian Dynasty. We were colonized. If you trace the evolution of the version of Chinese spoken by China's capitals throughout the thousands of years, they sound more or less like Hokkien, and this suddenly changed during the Qing Dynasty. Unfortunately, the Han Chinese communists chose to standardize the Manchurian-sounding Mandarin over one of the Southern dialects like Shanghainese (which by the way is the dialect that Japanese most resembles), Hokkien (which Korean resembles in spite of geographic distance) or Cantonese (which sound the most beautiful to read ancient Chinese poems in) because the Chinese communists are one generation removed from uneducated peasants and they didn't use to think things through before they make such big decisions. Today, Shanghainese is a dying dialect, I am the last generation of Shanghainese that speak it. Manchurian is totally dead. Hokkien is almost dead. But this is what being Chinese is all about. We unify and standardize everything. I just hope more sophisticated people are in charge of this standardization process so we standardize with the most appropriate version of Chinese cultural heritage rather than the version of Chinese cultural heritage of whatever subgroup that is in power. I rant about Chinese dialects because I love them precisely because all of them have thousands of years of evolution and I hate to see any one of them die due to the government's standardization efforts. I know it's good for Chinese unity long-term but I am saddened to see Shanghainese die with my generation. Finally, Shanghainese preserves the most vowels from Ancient China, even more than Cantonese... Ah lament lament lament.

[@ghostland8646]

as a Vietnamese … I recognize some word from canto that is also the same like 希望﹐學﹐時間 etc. these canto phonetic is the same as Vietnamese

[@nisajth]

I've been learning Mandarin for about 6 years and whenever I listen a Cantonese song, I try to recognise some words. It is really informative. I found out that I really understood some words by looking at lyrics. Thank you ❤

[@allrahayu6201]

Awww so helpful. Let me learn Mandarin from now on then. Thanks 😊

[@dr0pthebeat]

Thank you for sharing!

[@addamrobin2]

Of course I got a Duolingo ad before this

[@vivi-ps5jk]

bro you need more subscribers, keep up the good work

[@lingokev]

Thank you! Appreciate the kind words!

[@connory94]

was curious to see how the two would sound in a side-by-side comparison. something feels off about Mandarin, but that's probably cause my family speaks Cantonese and I'm just used to that

[@tuliskuasal9848]

I love how the character has a complex shape but it said like just used two word

[@lingokev]

I hope you enjoyed hearing some differences between Cantonese vs Mandarin pronunciation. If you would like to see my motivations for learning Cantonese and where my Cantonese speaking level was when I decided to actively start studying it, check out this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYfUd4qvpsuXeLM Thank you all for the support! ✌🏽

[@WOWTHATSJAPAN2]

In my opinion, your family background is Mandarin but your pronunciation was spot on!

[@NealOfTaylor44]

As an American, tones sound beautifully melodic a lot like singing! it feels like I am singing when I speak these languages out loud

[@andychiam2814]

I found this online! Please read . "Probably not. Putonghua will replace Cantonese as Hong Kong’s official language (and English will cease to be an official language), but Cantonese will continue to be spoken at home among Cantonese people, just as other provincial dialects are spoken at home on the Mainland."

[@YorgosL1]

Cantonese is closer to Vietnamese it seem like.

[@zaryalace7475]

Cantonese are known as the 粵/Yue/Yut. Vietnam is 越南/Yuenan/Yutnaam which translates to Southern Yue/Yut. Even though the Chinese character is different, apparently they have the same origin. Which makes sense cause if you look at Vietnam history, they used to be part of the Chinese kingdom a long time ago.

[@abigaelbamgboye]

Oooh this fascinating - could be interesting to explore a bit of the history of the two languages?

[@abigaelbamgboye]

Haha that end screen - love the graphics/text used in Thai video too. Smooth editing 😊

[@mysteriouscliche]

I like the sound of Cantonese better, but Mandarin spellings are easier to learn.

[@gregtaylor9806]

The spellings only look strange in Cantonese because there are more tones. The numbers take the place of the accent marks from pinyin

[@spindleswift8667]

Very intriguing. I didn't think they were that close. Its kind of like Norwegian and German.

[@brianmhyung]

Norsk and deutsch belong to the germanic family, Canto and mando are categorized under the same language family (sino-tibetan), mando is just one of the northern branches of the sino-tibetan language.

[@MrGrumpyGills]

As a German native, I have to say Norwegian is completely unintelligible to me, these languages are not close at all. A better example would be Norwegian and Swedish.

[@mysteriouscliche]

@@MrGrumpyGills As a Nigerian who has a thing for languages and has an outside perspective, I would say I heard some phonetic similarities between Norwegian and German. Maybe you can’t hear it because you are used to it? The moment I heard ‘good morning’ in Norsk it sounded just a bit similar to ‘Guten morgen’

[@YorgosL1]

@@brianmhyungthat don’t mean anything. Canto / mandarin / hokkien are all very different from each other that be callled language

[@firdauszainudin7118]

Cantonese: best for outspokenness Mandarin : good for your business

[@xtdycxtfuv9353]

1:50 Ha cool! Phone in Chinese and in Japanese are cognates. Good video. I will subscribe and try watch more.

[@lingokev]

I didn't know that they were cognates in Chinese and Japanese -- cool! Thank you for the support!

[@quasipulsar2032]

Cantonese definitely gives me the vibe of south East Asian language family (Thai, Khmer, Vietnamese, Lao) Mandarin i feel like Is what westerners would imagine in sound when they think ‘Chinese’ and very distantly sounds minorly similar somehow to Korean in very subtle ways.

[@johnnychannel7824]

The two like different languages

[@MarkMiller304]

Different but still with much similarities

[@YorgosL1]

more different than similarities

[@MarkMiller304]

@@YorgosL1 I speak Cantonese and I learn Mandarin watching dramas and reading subtitles. Must be similar enough for me to pick up that easily.

[@isabellejoyaux1674]

En général, la sonorité du cantonais me paraît plus énergique et plus "chantante" à la fin.

[@Agaettis]

Time and Phone sound almost the same in Japanese as they do in Cantonese

[@lingokev]

That's awesome, I had no idea! Would love to learn a little bit of Japanese at some point, it would be cool to see the similarities.

[@raven.petrichor]

that was what I immediately noticed too!

[@littlewishy6432]

It sounds similar because it uses on'yomi, the Japanese kanji pronunciation closest to Chinese. 電話 = でんわ denwa, 전화 jeonhwa

[@YorgosL1]

@@littlewishy6432世界 world = se kai in japanese and sai gái in Cantonese. Lot of old pronunciation that you will find in southern China

[@rolexmongerthethird3964]

As a british guy, the Chinese community in the UK up until the late 1990s were all hong Kong chinese, and the movies, songs were all Cantonese. You then just assume that this is 'Chinese and so it becomes the normal as to what your perception of chinese culture is.'. I then remember listening to mandarin back in the mid to late 90s for the first time as we suddenly had students from China itself coming to the UK. and thinking to myself, what the hell is this? Is that the main Chinese dialect/language spoken.?!..then suddenly realising Cantonese is this minor regional languange/dialect ...when you thought that was the main chinese language all your life!! (Up until that point )

[@rr7firefly]

It's all greek to most of us. I used to hear Cantonese all the time whenever I rode the MUNI bus on Stockton Street in San Francisco. It was a chorus of indecipherable chatter.

[@kaneSbreh]

its like dutch and german

[@diemcarl5546]

Cantonese is just cool because it's spoken in Canton and HK, for instance. I learned some Mandarin, and thank god it has only 4 tones 😅 I always had this idea of Cantonese and Vietnamese similarities, it has to have something ❤

[@ronniep9272]

Cantonese sounds stronger and better.

[@lamorena6379]

Are you planning to learn both?

[@lingokev]

I’m currently focusing on Cantonese! Thanks for asking :) My mandarin I try to maintain by speaking with family but don’t foresee myself actively studying and advancing it in the near future for now.

[@Hilty888]

@@lingokev are your parents from northern China?

[@yanglers6219]

@@lingokev although mandarin is more widely spoken, cantonese just sounds better to the ears for me.

[@Nyctotope]

@@yanglers6219 I agree.

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

Some of the Cantonese sounds a bit like Thai slowed down.

[@kilozilo]

what do the numbers mean, for cantonese words

[@laststandpg3d525]

123

[@servantofaeie1569]

Tones.

[@mystique8134]

Cantonese more sounded like Southeast asian.

[@ZaEmperor95]

why are numbers at cantonese?

[@waikinchan1856]

There are 9 tones on Cantonese. The numbes indicate diffetent tones.

[@YorgosL1]

Sai gaai = 世界 world

[@Y2KMillenniumBug]

1, 2, PSALM? 😂

[@tabletalenovo9695]

The time is the same in Japanese holy hell

[@xjmmjbnqfstjdijoj2044]

Jikan, not sigan

[@YorgosL1]

@@xjmmjbnqfstjdijoj2044lol that’s literary the same sound. Anyone can guess without knowing the language

[@bulgingbattery2050]

Pyongyang

[@karisma1]

the pronunciation is surprisingly close to Japanese for either Cantonese and Mandarin.

[@zecroshac]

interesting, i've never thought that at all. they sound completely different to me, all three of them from each other.

[@xjmmjbnqfstjdijoj2044]

Only Sino-Japanese words sound vaguely similar ...native Japanese words are completely different though

[@YorgosL1]

@@xjmmjbnqfstjdijoj2044same with Vietnamese in this case but resemble Cantonese more

[@tomtalker2000]

I like Mandarin it flows better. Just my personal preference.

[@brightsun7073]

在我们的新中国成立后，在为官方语言的选择中，也确实经历了不少争论，而到最后决定以公平的投票作为选择官方语言的方式，并且把官方语言的称谓改为了现在的“普通话”。 于是就在1955年的《全国文字改革会议》上，各方代表在会议中纷纷向自己心仪的“普通话”进行投票，最终北京话以多一张票的微弱优势领先了竞争对手成都话，也就成为了现在中国的统一用语“普通话”。 如此，北京话的官方语言地位就这样建立了。方言存在于社会的各个角落，一门统一的官方语言对于各地区的交流始终都发挥着非常关键的作用。每个国家也有各自的官方语言发音，那么在我国，历史河流上的普通话又经历了怎样的演变呢，各个朝代的普通话又是以什么作为标准的呢？ 根究已知历史，我国最早的普通话版本可追溯到周朝时期，但那个时候还不叫普通话，而是称之为“雅言”。作为官方语言的“雅言”一般上都是当时国君所讲的方言，亦就是国家老大老家的家乡话。像当时周天子的家乡是陕西，那么当时的“雅言”就是陕西地区的方言，也被称之为“西府方言”。 公元前770年，周平王迁都洛邑（今河南洛阳），自此，洛阳雅言就成为了整个东周时期雅言的基础。而周朝的“雅言”能够快速地传播就是多亏了当时的社会环境：一，当时的诸侯会盟，使节往来都要使用“雅言”沟通；二，当时孔子的教育传播。 孔子在鲁国讲学，他的三千弟子来自四面八方，孔夫子就用雅言来为他们传道授业解惑，弟子们学有所成之后走向了祖国各地，也就很好地推广了当时的洛阳雅言。例如在《论语·述而第七》中说：“子所雅言，《诗》《书》、执礼，皆雅言也。”

[@xmemegodx]

2 minute video. 1 minute intro. stop

[@markrutte5637]

cantonese sounds funnier

[@mizmoka]

? funnier i guess but thats kinda phrased weirdly if you want to talk about another language

[@jorunnthorsdottir277]

wtf 😱

[@kittyrangshorts1209]

Soo mandarin more ch and cantonese less ch

[@ThomasRosehands]

Cantonese sounds beautiful & makes you feel at ease. Mandarin sounds like crude communist clatter.

[@wawawuu1514]

The video is way too long, sorry dude.

[@littlewishy6432]

Skill issue

[@TheRisingEagle93]

Cantonese sounds re tarded. Cantonese ethnicity should just admit that Han are superior to them.

[@TheRisingEagle93]

@@skraskraa._.5371 Literally you don't know sh!t about how both Mao and Jiang wanted to change the Han definition back in 1930s.

[@BLU3D4Y]

Cantonese predates Mandarin. Most China classic literature are written in Cantonese. Guess who sounds re tarded - you

[@TheRisingEagle93]

@@BLU3D4Y Riiiighht right right. Ethincally too, CANTonese predate Han and Jurchen in terms of when they got civilized right? 😁😆

[@BLU3D4Y]

@@TheRisingEagle93 If you're interested in Jurchen go ahead and learn it, it always better to learn more language. Knowing only one language/dialect foster a narrow mindset 🙄

[@TheRisingEagle93]

@@BLU3D4Y Hell nah. The only language that I need is American English. That's the only language that should exist.