More about Cantonese

We usually refer to the languages spoken in China around the隋, 唐,宋 periods (between 6th and 10th AD) as Middle Chinese (中古漢語). Some modern Chinese dialects still have certain characteristics that are closer to the older pronunciations of Middle Chinese than others. Reading rhyme-based classical literature (文言), especially poetry, in these dialects seems more coherent to the original reading must have been. Such dialects include Cantonese, Southern Min 閩南, and the Wen Zhou 溫州dialect. These southern dialects retain more of the original tones. Not all, but more.

Cantonese has nine tones, Mandarin has four, and the old Middle Chinese (中古漢語) has eight. Cantonese preserves many Middle Chinese’s syllable sounds that Mandarin has lost or merged. For example, the characters 裔, 屹, 藝, 憶, 譯, 懿, 誼, 肄, 翳, 邑, and 佚 are all pronounced "yi" in Mandarin, but they are all different in Cantonese. And the character 學 is another example of what was lost in Mandarin. In Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese, it is “hohk”, "hók", "hak", “học ",”hak”, and "gaku" respectively. The pronunciation in Mandarin is “xue”. Big difference.

I find the best way to decide is through Chinese poetry. Read the poem by the famous Du Fu （杜甫） of Tang Dynasty and you'll find that Cantonese makes them sound better. In Cantonese, we got chum, sum, yum, sum and kum. In Mandarin, we got get xun, sen, yin, xin and qin.

丞相祠堂何處尋，錦官城外柏森森。
映階碧草自春色，隔葉黃鸝空好音。
三顧頻煩天下計，兩朝開濟老臣心。
出師未捷身先死，長使英雄淚滿襟。

(This poem was rhymed within the Rhyming Group of 侵韻)