I am often intrigued by how widespread a lot of extended and even non-extended families are, and it’s fascinating to think of family members coming from different places to visit each other and having family gatherings with a bunch of different accents. What countries do you have known family members in?
I’m in Philly
Some are in NYC, USA
Many are throughout Guangdong Province, PRC
Not sure if this is accents but: Cantonese and Taishanese (台山, not 泰山) are mutually intelligible, but sounds a little different. Cantonese have 6 tones, Taishanese has 9 tones (compare to the 4 in Mandarin).
We don’t use Mandarin unless its with other non-Cantonese that are from China. Mandarin is just something that the government just started forcing. Think of like the Native Americans and the European colonizers forcing to learn a different language. Except this case, the colonizers are just a bit to the north on the same continent.
Similarly, we don’t use English unless its with people that speak none of the above mentioned languages.
Thanks for sending me on the deep dive on 粤语, 广东话，台山话 and finding out about 粤海, and the ambiguity in the meaning of Cantonese.
Edit: what language would you prefer to use with someone who spoke both Mandarin and English fluently as second languages?
For my family its
For me it’s:
Like I conaider Mandarin and Cantonese separate languages (although CCP loves to call Cantonese a “dialect” to erase local cultures), but since Cantonese and Taishanese are so similar, I guess you can call Taishanese a dialect of Cantonese (although I’m no language expert)
Like I grew up in the US, 90% people I talk to are in the US. When I’m at home, the language is cantonese.
Like there are less than 1% of the time I use Mandarin. I feel like 90% of the Chinese diaspora in the US is Cantonese (GuangZhou has a history of immigration to the US. I heard about the California gold rush and their recriment of chinese laborers, that’s probably when the Chinatowns were established.)
You’re right in saying 汉语 and 粤语 are different.
But then, when I lived in China I had teachers tell me Japanese and Korean were really dialects of Chinese because they used to be written with 汉字… 🙄 Imperialism gonna imperial…
Though due to that cultural imperialism lots of Cantonese’s unique vocabulary is being replaced by the Chinese equivalent, and even the grammar is changing to fit more closely. =(
Various 粤语 speech is still just about the norm in the UK amongst the Chinese diaspora, though more the 粤海 variant of Hong Kong, due to our own imperialist history. But that is changing with more recent waves of PRC migrants.