rendelharris Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Jeremy Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Bob Buzzard Wrote: > > > -------------------------------------------------- > > > ----- > > > Is it in Mandarin or Cantonese? > > > > > > Neither. Mandarin and Cantonese are spoken > > dialects, there's no such thing as Cantonese or > > Mandarin writing > > > > Ignorant bloke with Wikipedia (me) alert: > "standard written Chinese is based on a standard > spoken language ("Mandarin") and previously on > Classical Chinese. Although most other varieties > of Chinese are not written, there are traditions > of written Cantonese, written Hokkien, and written > Shanghainese, among others." _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ As a professional translator (for both Mandarin & Cantonese) am I in the position to provide an "official" translation for these menu items? :-) Settings for the Recording - Image resolution - Auto recording - Recording interval - Timestamp _____________________________________________________________________ What are the differences between the Cantonese and Mandarin? Mandarin and Cantonese are two SPOKEN styles/dialects of Chinese language. Mandarin is the official state language of China and is the lingua franca of the country. It is in many areas the primary spoken language, including Beijing and Shanghai, although many provinces still retain their own local dialect. Mandarin is also the main dialect in Taiwan and Singapore. Cantonese language is spoken by the people of Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong province, including Guangzhou (previously Canton in English). Most foreign Chinese communities, such as those in London and San Francisco, also speak Cantonese thanks to emigration from Guangdong. So why didn't other Chinese dialects gain the same or similar importance in western world? Why don't we hear much of "Shanghainese", "Shandongnese" or "Sichuanese". This is because the Grangdong (Canton) province was the earliest in China to start its communication and economic exchange with the western world more than one hundred years ago (Hong Kong was then a small village lying on the south coast of Guangdong). Many Chinese people nowadays living in the United States are of Canton (Guangdong) origin, and their accent (Cantonese) is much more heard by western people than any other Chinese dialect was.
