Mandarin or Cantonese?

For those who know anything about the two dialects/languages, which do you enjoy speaking and/or listening to?

I have heard many say that Mandarin is mostly useful for official reasons while Cantonese has a more lively and relaxed feel to it. I especially enjoy old Cantonese pop music compared to Mandarin ones. Cantonese tones seem to flow well with melodies.

Cantonese sounds like an Austroasiatic language, similar to Vietnamese and Thai, though Cantonese's grammar is very different from that of South Asian languages. Whereas, Mandarin sounds more smoothly and softly than Cantonese, and Mandarin has fewer tones and less strange characters that are not used any more in Mandarin articles, in fact, those Cantonese characters are not original standard ones, and we'd rather write those Original character, if we were Hongkonger. What do you think of it?

佢（qu）他或她（佢哋仲係唔係人嚟嘎？）
乜（mie）什麽（你講乜啊？）
嘅（ge）的（喱個係我嘅女朋友。）
嬲（niao）生氣（我好嬲你！）
係（xi）是（你真係個好人嘞！）
咁（han）如此，這樣（咁都得？）
哋（die）相當餘國語中的“們”字用法（佢哋仲係唔係人嚟嘎？）
唔（en）不是（佢哋仲係唔係人嚟嘎？）
睇（di）看（今晚我哋睇電視囉！）
啲（di）的，那些（喱啲係乜嚟嘎？）
冧（lin）陶醉（我好冧啊！）
冇（mao）沒有（我冇錢啦！）
惗（nie）想（惗緊乜嘢啊？——再想什麽？）
嘎（ga）語氣助詞（如係唔係嘎？）
咩（mie）什麽（妳講咩啊？）
嗻（zhe）語氣助詞（係咁嗻）
嗟（jue）語氣助詞
嚟（li）來（過嚟啦！）
叻（li）很棒（你好叻啊！）
喱（li）那（喱啲係乜嚟嘎？）
咪（mi）不要（咪搞我！）
梗（geng）當然（梗係啦！）
喺（bei）在（你喺邊喥啊？）
抦（bing）毆打（信唔信我柄你啊？）
啵（bo）語氣助詞（係啵！）
俾（bi）給（快啲俾錢！）
嘈（cao）吵（你哋唔好咁嘈啦！）
噏（xi）嘮叨（妳唔好再噏我啦！）
掟（ding）扔（垃圾唔好亂掟啊！）
嘞（le）語氣助詞（你真係個好人嘞！）
靓（liang）漂亮或表示幼稚（妳好靚女啊！）
囖（lo） 語氣助詞（就係囖）
揾（wen）找（搵到工啦？）
嗮[嘥] 浪費（真係嗮氣嘞……）
攞或摞（luo）拿（攞錢去邊啊？）
咦[噫] (yi)語氣助詞（咦？妳係邊個？）
咗(zuo)了（妳食咗飯未啊？）
喔(wo)語氣助詞（係喔。）
疴（ke）拉（尿）（我去咗疴尿啊！）
拗（ao）矛盾（你哋喺喥拗緊乜啊？）
乸（na）雌性（乜佢咁乸性嘎？）
撩（liao）挑（妳唔好撩起我把火啊！）
拎（lin）拿（拎部電腦去整先。）
啖（dan）量詞，相當於“口”（飲啖水先！）
憇（qi）哄（憇細路仔咩？）
呃（e）騙（我讀得書少，你唔好呃我！）
掂（dian）完結（我搞掂嗮啲嘢啦！）
唓（che）語氣助詞，表示鄙夷（唓，又吹水！）
嘢（ye）東西（咩嘢嚟嘎？）
瞓（fen）瞓覺（睡覺）

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In fact, the Original Characters should be found out and chosen as Standard Chinese characters in written Cantonese. Don't you think so?

Cantonese sounds really funny to me, since I also speak Thai. And a lot of Cantonese words sound down right dirty in Thai. I'm just saying.

To: Cheung/Chang

Are you still there?

Cantonese sounds more dynamic.
Mandarin sounds too feminine/gay, total lack of energy.

--In fact, the Original Characters should be found out and chosen as Standard Chinese characters in written Cantonese. Don't you think so?--


Nope, Cantonese reading of many Mandarin characters is found annoying and strange by many HongKong/Macau people, therefore, it's better to use an equivalent Cantonese character.

There are variations in both. Taiwanese accented Mandarin sounds less macho than the northern counterpart; the Hong Kong version of Cantonese sounds girly compared to the Guangzhou one. Anyhow, the feminine variants of both languages are actually nicer sounding to my ears. It is probably the same reason some prefer French to Spanish.

"Taiwanese accented Mandarin sounds less macho than the northern counterpart"

In the 1940s, many Wu speaking immigrants arrived at Taiwan and became as the teachers of Mandarin courses in primary and secondary schools. Their native Wunese accent influenced the Taiwan Mandarin that is so called the Lan Ching Mandarin.

Cantonese is a kind of dialect of Mandarin, which means it could only be understand by people from some special place, like Hong Kong. I think in the future, with the connection between people strengthened, Cantonese will be replaced by Mandarin.
If you want to learn Chinese, I think http://www.learnchinese.bj.cn is a good choice, with professional teachers and bilingual volunteers.

<<Cantonese is a kind of dialect of Mandarin>>

If you think that, you obviously don't understand Chinese history at all.

-Cantonese will be replaced by Mandarin. -

dream on

Cantonese will be replaced by Mandarin, it's not a daydream, but it takes so much time, maybe 100 or 150 years, and just like the decline of HAKKA.

<<Cantonese will be replaced by Mandarin, it's not a daydream, but it takes so much time, maybe 100 or 150 years, and just like the decline of HAKKA.>>

Keep dreaming. Mandarin may be the national language but it will not replace the language of local peoples. Without all the different dialects, speech would become rigid and flavorless.

Yes, Cantonese is much closer to Classiacal Chinese than Mandarin, it's true.

But it's only spoken in Hongkong, Macau, & Guangdong, and it can't be widely understood by most of Chinese people, except its native speakers.

And most foreigners tend to learn Mandarin, instead of Cantonese, when they have a plan to study Chinese, Mandarin is absolutely the best choice.

I really like Classical Chinese, but I still can't understand Cantonese, especially the strange characters of Cantonese, such as the forms of "口“+漢字。