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For me the most difficult thing about learning Cantonese has been that there are very few learning materials for foreigners (and I assume even for Chinese people). And even the materials that exist are all only regarding basic conversational topics. There is basically no Cantonese literature at all. When I learned French it was very helpful to be able to follow audiobooks of stories from writers like Voltaire. The closest thing is watching Hong Kong movies, but they speak quickly and the subtitles are in Mandarin not Cantonese.

Are there any Cantonese literature or audiobooks out there?

A question for those Cantonese of you out there: Why does it seem that Cantonese people are so unwilling the write their own language? I understand that if you write Cantonese then other Chinese will not be able to understand, but so what? That sounds like their problem.

For the Vietnamese we used to write everything in Classical Chinese (文言). Since then we've switched to writing in our own language. We like it and are not ashamed of it. I don't see why the Cantonese shouldn't do similarly.

I don't understand why Cantonese are fiercely defensive of their language and at the same time refuse to write it down.

Don Kirkby
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oceanus
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  • 我寫廣東話, 你睇唔睇得明? :) – velut luna Apr 19 '16 at 16:44
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    提倡書寫廣東話口語不太可行。文言文又過於艱深。個人比較喜歡古典白話文（如四大名著）。閣下可試以廣東話讀四大名著，會感覺非常自然流暢。反之，以廣東話念近代白話文總覺"有點兒別扭"。蓋因白話文本系北京方言。國初提倡白話文，固因西風東漸，亦不否認有普及教育之利。權宜之計而已。今國人文化程度日高，教育漸趨普及，恢復古典白話文，此其時也。可提倡於正式寫作，官方文件，重要演講等使用古典白話文。如此，一則可提高中文之國際形象，二則可賦各方言以同等地位，消弭正統之爭。一舉兩得。

    I wrote the above paragraph with Cantonese in my mind. I will be happy enough to write Cantonese like this.

    My English is not good. Can someone help translate it into English? Thanks!

     – velut luna Apr 19 '16 at 18:34
  • 我睇得明! 我識講小小廣東話 :) – oceanus Apr 20 '16 at 01:41
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    @Mathaholic 此言差异,白话文非北语之专属,凡有四种,京白,苏白,粤白,韵白. – Lucius Hu Apr 20 '16 at 03:18
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    You need to understand that (1) the status of the different Chinese "dialects" is different from that of the languages within a branch of e.g. the Indo-European languages, Cantonese and Mandarin are not comparable to Portuguese and Spanish, etc. (2) Historically, the written language was Classical Chinese, with some works in vernacular languages, but Classical Chinese dominated until the early 1900s. (3) Politically, Cantonese speaking areas were dominated by Beijing in a way Spain has never dominated Portugal. – imrek Apr 20 '16 at 07:46
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    (4) The writing system is pretty much pronunciation agnostic and helped the acceptance of a single written std. language throughout China in a way, French could never have replaced any other Romance lang. in Europe. The only comparable situation was Norway where Danish (East Scandinavian) was introduced as the written standard in the Middle Ages, even though the original Norw. dialects belong(ed) to the Western branch. To this day, there are two written varieties of Norwegian (bokmål & nynorsk) reflecting the language policy of the Danish rulers of Norway, analogue to Cantonese & Mandarin. – imrek Apr 20 '16 at 07:52
  • @DrunkenMaster The situation you are describing is called diglossia. I understand that Chinese people are used to this dual language environment. All I'm saying is that I don't understand why Cantonese people are so happy to have their own language as a second class citizen that is literally going extinct and their method of protecting it is by not writing it and instead writing only in Mandarin. – oceanus Apr 21 '16 at 02:39
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    Ask a Bavarian/Occitan/Gallego if they are literate in their own dialect. Most likely not, and they won't really care. The concept you have to understand is that there is a difference in std. language that facilitates cross regional social/economic exchange, and home dialects that are restricted to people only who grew up in a certain area and it makes no sense to 99% of the pop. to be literate in their regional languages because it does not add anything to their social well-being. There is no point in attacking people why they don't want to write a language that is perceived less prestigious. – imrek Apr 21 '16 at 05:46
  • Fair enough. The key in your argument is the word perception. This perception was not always there. I can legitimately have the perception that 文言 is correct and 白話 is improper. This is the perception many people had in the beginning of the 20th century. 白話 did not magically become a "proper" language out of thin air. And for the record I am not attacking anyone. I am just very confused about why people are willing to degrade their own language and want to preserve it by not preserving it. It's a totally weird position to take. – oceanus Apr 21 '16 at 13:44
  • OP, just to clarify, when you're talking about written Cantonese / Mandarin, you're not talking about Traditional Chinese / Simplified Chinese right? – Alex Apr 21 '16 at 14:37
  • @Alex I am not talking about traditional and simplified. I am talking about the grammar and word usage. 我哋 vs 我們, 唔 vs 不, 食 vs 吃 for example. – oceanus Apr 21 '16 at 18:06
  • @oceanus gotcha. 我們, 不, 吃 - these words can be used in both Mandarin and Cantonese. – Alex Apr 21 '16 at 21:21
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    This is a valid question but it needs to be edited to make it less offensive. For the way it is written at the time of writing this comment (04/23/2016) I will flag it as being rude. – Cosmos Gu Apr 23 '16 at 23:35
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    I tried to keep the core question while removing assumptions about how Cantonese feel about their language. – Don Kirkby Apr 25 '16 at 04:12
  • I'm a born Cantonese and I have no problem of Written Vernacular Chinese. We still speak in Cantonese, so Written Vernacular Chinese is like the English in European countries. – Daniel Cheung Apr 26 '16 at 08:11
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    @DanielCheung Written Vernacular Chinese is definitely not like English in European countries. If you go to countries such as Spain, France or Poland you will see that the written language is more or less the same as the spoken language of the country, and a lot of people cannot read or write English at all. Even in Scandinavia, where basically everyone can speak English, it isn't generally used for written communication. – 米好 '-' Sep 30 '16 at 01:38

7 Answers7

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Why not write in written Cantonese?

Cantonese speakers are not unwilling to write their own language. Nowadays, written Cantonese is often used in lyrics, instant messaging, social network, advertisements and billboards. It is also gaining public attention as the Government of China wants to ban it.

There is a Yue Wikipedia site containing 40,000+ articles written in Cantonese. However, written Cantonese is almost always used only in informal writings.

For formal writings, standard written Chinese is being used. It is taught in school to write in standard written Chinese (i.e. written Mandarin). It is because Mandarin was chosen as the basis for standard written Chinese as they had the largest number of speakers during the language reform.

No matter which dialect one spoke, one still wrote in standardised Mandarin for everyday writing. However, Cantonese is unique amongst the non-Mandarin varieties in having a widely used written form. (Wikipedia)

Standard written Chinese is understood by speakers of all varieties of Chinese. Even so, there are some variations in vocabularies in different countries (see example).

Standard written Chinese can be spoken in Cantonese.

(It is interesting to know that, historically, written Cantonese has been used in Hong Kong for legal proceedings in order to write down the exact spoken testimony of a witness, instead of paraphrasing spoken Cantonese into standard written Chinese.)

Side reading: Language policy of Hong Kong

The language policy of Hong Kong is 兩文三語 (Bi-literacy and Tri-lingualism), which includes:

  • Written: Chinese & English
  • Spoken: Cantonese, Mandarin & English

Standard written Chinese is normally referred as "Chinese" (中文) or "written Chinese" (書面語) instead of "Mandarin Chinese".

For spoken Chinese (口語), Cantonese (Yue Chinese, namely 廣東話 / 粵語) is the de facto official spoken variety of Chinese in Hong Kong & Macau. It is influential in Guangdong province, and is widely spoken among overseas communities.

On the other hand, Mandarin Chinese (namely 普通話 / 國語 / 華語) is the official language of China & Taiwan, and one of the four official languages of Singapore.

Further reading

Before the 20th century, the standard written language of China was Classical Chinese, which has grammar and vocabulary based on the Chinese used in ancient China, Old Chinese. However, while this written standard remained essentially static for over two thousand years, the actual spoken language diverged further and further away. Some writings based on local vernacular speech did exist but these were rare. In the early 20th century, Chinese reformers like Hu Shi saw the need for language reform and championed the development of a vernacular that allowed modern Chinese to write the language the same way they speak. The vernacular language movement took hold, and the written language was standardised as Vernacular Chinese. Because they had the largest number of speakers, Mandarin was chosen as the basis for the new standard.

The standardisation and adoption of written Mandarin pre-empted the development and standardisation of vernaculars based on other varieties of Chinese. No matter which dialect one spoke, one still wrote in standardised Mandarin for everyday writing. However, Cantonese is unique amongst the non-Mandarin varieties in having a widely used written form. Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong was a British colony isolated from mainland China, so most HK citizens do not speak Mandarin. Written Cantonese was developed as a means of informal communication. Still, Cantonese speakers must use standard written Chinese, or even literary Chinese, in most formal written communications, since written Cantonese may be unintelligible to speakers of other varieties of Chinese.

Historically, written Cantonese has been used in Hong Kong for legal proceedings in order to write down the exact spoken testimony of a witness, instead of paraphrasing spoken Cantonese into standard written Chinese. However, its popularity and usage has been rising in the last two decades, the late Wong Jim being one of the pioneers of its use as an effective written language. Written Cantonese has become quite popular in certain tabloids, online chat rooms, instant messaging, and even social networking websites; this would be even more evident since the rise of Localism in Hong Kong from the 2010s, where the articles written by those Localists media are written in Cantonese. Although most foreign movies and TV shows are subtitled in Standard Chinese, some, such as The Simpsons, are subtitled using written Cantonese. Newspapers have the news section written in Standard Chinese, but they may have editorials or columns that contain Cantonese discourses, and Cantonese characters are increasing in popularity on advertisements and billboards.

Written Cantonese advertising banner in Mainland China It has been stated that Written Cantonese remains limited outside Hong Kong, including other Cantonese-speaking areas in Guangdong Province; e.g., (Snow, 2004). However, colloquial Cantonese advertisements are sometimes seen in Guangdong, suggesting that written Cantonese is widely understood and is regarded favourably, at least in some contexts.

Some sources will use only colloquial Cantonese forms, resulting in text similar to natural speech. However, it is more common to use a mixture of colloquial forms and Standard Chinese forms, some of which are alien to natural speech. Thus the resulting "hybrid" text lies on a continuum between two norms: Standard Chinese, and colloquial Cantonese as spoken.

Some Cantonese Learning Resources

Other References

wilson
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    Thanks for the informative answer! It's interesting to see that the reason Chinese gave up 文言 was to use "a vernacular that allowed modern Chinese to write the language the same way they speak". The ironic thing is if Cantonese write in 文言, then they do not write the same way they speak and if they write in 白話 , then they still do not write the same way they speak! It truly sucks to be a Cantonese! – oceanus Apr 21 '16 at 13:52
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    @oceanus I disagree with the opinion you're putting forth. No, it doesn't suck to be Cantonese, and no, Cantonese speakers aren't "ashamed" to write the way they speak. Many users of this forum have provided you with excellent answers to your question as written. However, the way I've read your replies, it doesn't look like you are ready to accept any of these responses. It sounds like you firmly believe your perception, and you aren't ready to be convinced by anyone else. In that case, there isn't anything more anyone here can say to change your mind. – judester Apr 22 '16 at 12:19
  • The original question as posted is inflammatory, in my opinion. A more respectful way to rephrase the question: why is written Chinese in Cantonese speaking regions NOT the same as common speech Cantonese. IMO, the answer is straightforward, and less eloquent than what others have already put forth: because the audience matters. I wouldn't write the way I speak for an essay I'm handing in, or for an external-facing email to a third party business associate. To reach a broader group of audience: one would write clearly in a way that is understandable by all intended readers. – judester Apr 22 '16 at 12:28
  • For the essay and email correspondence examples, I meant in English. It should have read: In English, I wouldn't write the way I speak for an essay I'm handing in, or for an external-facing email to a third party business associate. @wilson, apologies for the long commentary. I really liked your informative answer. +1 ! – judester Apr 22 '16 at 12:40
  • @judester Thanks for joining the discussion :). Ok you may be right that the wording in the question is less than perfect. Instead of ashamed I should have written "Why don't Cantonese want to write in their own language?". Unlike what a lot of other commenters seem to think, I 100% understand the distinction between written standard Chinese and Cantonese. What I don't understand is why wouldn't Cantonese people want to write in their own language. – oceanus Apr 24 '16 at 15:58
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    Like you said audience size does matter, but consider that the population of Cantonese speakers is ~60 million. That is a huge audience! This is on a similar scale as Italian, French, Vietnamese, Korean, and Urdu. All of these languages have their own literature. – oceanus Apr 24 '16 at 15:58
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    One more thing, your comparison: "I wouldn't write the way I speak for an essay I'm handing in, or for an external-facing email to a third party business associate." is not correct because Mandarin and Cantonese are completely different (but related) languages. It's not comparable to writing in a formal tone or word usage differences. They are different languages. In fact the only reason Cantonese people understand written standard Chinese at all is because they learn that as a 2nd language in school. – oceanus Apr 24 '16 at 15:58
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    This is called diglossia. It is similar to how in England in the past formal writing was done in the "educated" languages of Latin and French. However there was still literature written in Anglo-Saxon and now English is the language of the world. As a thought experiment consider if every English speaker were taught Portuguese in school and all books, TV programmes, and radio broadcasts were only in Portuguese. English speakers would write in Portuguese for the audience size, but obviously they are not writing in their own language. – oceanus Apr 24 '16 at 15:58
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It's not really that Cantonese people are unwilling to write the language; It's simply because the language is very oral-oriented where many slangs are involves mainly for effectiveness purpose.

It's similar to English when people use phase like "What ya'll doing?", which you won't see on most learning material for English or CNN news. In fact, written cantonese is commonly used in instant messaging tools, like what Mathaholic wrote in the comment.

Here's some learning material from another post:
https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/FSI/fsi-cantonese.html.

As for being defensive of the language, it's because there are signs with chances of the language being...extinct. Just imagine when you speak English and your next generations are only lectured in French, whereas in a 100 years no one will speak English on Earth. It is a little exaggerating but it gives you an idea.

Tsundoku
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Alex
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    I understand what you're saying, but I really don't believe it because every language in the world has slang and that doesn't stop people from creating literature. How does a language having slang words mean that you can't write books in that language? There are many many American books with the word y'all in them. – oceanus Apr 20 '16 at 01:44
  • As far as the defensiveness, I understand why they are that way. The Chinese government seems to really want to kill the language. My point though is that if you are actually defensive and actually want to preserve your language, then you should use it in more environments like literature but the Cantonese actively REFUSE to use their language in literature at the SAME TIME want to preserve it. Sounds impossible to me. – oceanus Apr 20 '16 at 01:46
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    Before Chinese started writing in 白話, they wrote in 文言. So does that mean in the past 白話 was only slang words and wrong to write and only 文言 was correct to write and then magically somehow 白話 became a "proper" language. I really don't believe this at all. – oceanus Apr 20 '16 at 01:50
  • @oceanus there are many books / comic books that are written in Cantonese. It's not people can't write it, it's just more books are wrote in...written form. As you've mentioned a couple times where people REFUSE to use the language, I really don't recall seeing anyone doing so. – Alex Apr 20 '16 at 14:15
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    It is true that China government wants to kill Cantonese. While, people of Cantonese-speaking regions (Hong Kong & Guangdong) are fighting for Cantonese instead of refusing it. – wilson Apr 21 '16 at 02:38
  • @Alex Ok so maybe refuse is too strong a word. But clearly there is a strong bias among Cantonese people to write in Mandarin only. I don't see that as a workable method to language preservation. – oceanus Apr 21 '16 at 02:38
  • @oceanus oh you're talking about traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese. It's a different thing. Both Cantonese and Mandarin can be written in Traditional and Simplified Chinese, it's the wording used to distinguish the differences. Refuse, then, is the right word. IMO, Simplified Chinese are like, if you're familiar the shorten words in English, something = sth, i don't know = idk, etc. While the word's meaning remains, its origin / history are lost. – Alex Apr 21 '16 at 14:29
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    @Alex No I am not referring to traditional and simplified scripts. I am saying that standard written Chinese (白話) is a standardised form of Mandarin speaking. Cantonese and all Chinese use 白話 as the standard written form which is different from the Cantonese language itself (粵語). For example in Mandarin you would write 我們 and in Cantonese you would write 我哋 to mean "we". My point is, how on earth can you hope to preserve the Cantonese language when you choose to write in Mandarin instead of the language you want to preserve? I think it is a road to failure. – oceanus Apr 21 '16 at 18:02
  • @oceanus I would say if it's a failure then we wouldn't be discussing about it today (i.e. long gone). It exists / preserves for a reason. Like i mentioned, 粵語 is written in lots of place - movie / books /etc. The argument from other people still holds. Also, take your example, 我們, it can be say in Cantonese too! When we "read" a book loud, we can say 白話 with 粵語, and it is considered Cantonese, not Mandarin. It's just for daily usage, 我哋 sounds more natural between Cantonese (people). – Alex Apr 21 '16 at 21:15
  • @Alex If you consider pronouncing 我們 as ngo5 mun4 makes it Cantonese, then would you say that pronouncing it as ngã môn turns it into Vietnamese? I wouldn't agree with that statement because yes the sound is Cantonese or Vietnamese, but clearly the text is in the Mandarin language. – oceanus Apr 21 '16 at 21:22
  • @oceanus I think this is where the confusion comes in. 我們 - a written form, is not Mandarin Language. It's a written form that's usable in both language. I would suggest you take some times to study if you're really interested. – Alex Apr 21 '16 at 21:25
  • @Alex And the written form 白話 is based on what language again? 我們 didn't come out of thin air. It comes from the way people speak in Beijing. – oceanus Apr 21 '16 at 21:31
  • @oceanus It comes from the way people speak in Hong Kong too. Ask a elementary student and he/she'll say it for you. There's no 'based on what language' here, it is shared. Also it's strange that you're on one hand asking for material for learning Cantonese, and admit it as a non effective language on the other hand. – Alex Apr 21 '16 at 21:38
  • @Alex They do that because of diglossia not because it is native Cantonese. What did I say to suggest to you I think it is a non-effective language? – oceanus Apr 21 '16 at 21:48
  • @oceanus Diglossia will be more properly used in area such as Quebec, where English and French are both used - And that they're 2 different set of language. Here's a little different - the written form CAN be used for both language. I understand it is confusing, and if you really wants to master the language, you need to learn its written form either way. As for the 2nd point, just read all your own comments – Alex Apr 21 '16 at 22:09
  • @oceanus also I think we're getting off topic here... I do believe my answer is providing what you're asking for. If you want a discussion on the topic we discuss in the comment, feel free to start a new post – Alex Apr 21 '16 at 22:12
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Awtho tradeetional Cantonaese haes been spaken fer a long tym, its spellin isna sae strict as in Mandarin, n aften hasna been teached at the schuil. Tradeeition haes it that the auld 文言文 was uised maist pairt in wrutten leid. Wrutten Cantonaese haes only been uised since the 20th yeirhunder, n resoorces aboot hou tae applee the leid in a conseestant mainer ar scairce. Wird order, dimeenuteeves n definit airtikils ar differin. Fer the maist pairt, thaim fowks that bruikit regional leid have haed no staudartised graimmar, leadin til mair speelin variation.

  • yur palaglah is a lit toe hard to readt! – Alex Apr 19 '16 at 21:30
  • +1 for the joke. – Enrico Brasil Apr 19 '16 at 21:54
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    @Enrico: not a joke, but an example of the situation for any language or dialect obscured by the majority tongue. I am sure the Scottish are as proud as the Cantonese, but they do well with a strictly spoken culture nevertheless. –  Apr 19 '16 at 22:20
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    @倪阔乐 I appreciate the point you're making :). The thing is that the problem of standardisation exists in every language. In my opinion it is only natural to want to use your own native language. If the problem is there is no standard for Cantonese, then why not just start writing in it and a standard will naturally emerge. When Shakespeare wrote his work, English was not standardised and was looked down upon as uneducated. Now English is the language of the WORLD. – oceanus Apr 20 '16 at 02:01
  • Before Vietnamese was romanised we wrote everything in 文言 and writing in Vietnamese was considered not as formal/educated/whatever. And even now that we use our own language that does not mean that there are no regional differences. There are many words that are spelled differently in the north than in the south. But that doesn't stop us. – oceanus Apr 20 '16 at 02:02
  • By the way, Scots actually does have its own literature unlike Cantonese :) – oceanus Apr 20 '16 at 02:02
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    @oceanus: So the Japanese do not write in their own language since they use Chinese characters? –  Apr 20 '16 at 05:06
  • @倪阔乐 Not at all. Of course Japanese (and Vietnamese) write in their own language while using Chinese words. The grammar is completely different because it is a different language. Did something I write suggest to you that I would think that the Japanese using Chinese characters means they do not write in their own language? – oceanus Apr 21 '16 at 02:24
  • @倪阔乐 Basically what you're saying is that there isn't a strong standard for writing Cantonese. But you haven't answered the question: Why shouldn't they just create one? Believe it or not, but there did exist a time when the standard for written Mandarin did not exist because everyone used 文言. At some point the Mandarin standard was created and at that time there were people just like you saying that it should not be created since 文言 already existed. – oceanus Apr 21 '16 at 02:29
  • @oceanus: who are they? Looking back at Western society, standardisation arose only when central authority intervened and incorporated public schooling, often with the collateral damage of repelling dialects, for the greater good of having a common means of communications. As for Cantonese, there is no central authority, and even in enclaves like Hongkong, the central authority has other objectives than to cater to the linguistic needs of the few. Just as there are no or few dialectal newspapers or books in Western nations, so there are also none or few in China. –  Apr 21 '16 at 21:31
  • @倪阔乐 The question of who they are really is at the heart of what I'm trying to get to. I agree mostly with you that language standardisation rarely comes without some authority government or otherwise. I can think of a counter example. In 1952 West Pakistan tried to force East Pakistan to give up their language Bengali in favour of Urdu. This lead to protests, violence, and Bangladesh splitting away from Pakistan. Ultimately if the Cantonese are happy to have their own language suppressed then that's what will happen. From the perspective of a Vietnamese this sounds totally crazy. – oceanus Apr 21 '16 at 22:04
  • @倪阔乐 Some interesting reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_Movement_Day – oceanus Apr 21 '16 at 22:05
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The modern written Chinese (白話文) is based on Mandarin, by the way of 我手寫我口 (I write what I say, 講乜寫乜).

Imagine a dialog:

we'll go for shopping, then have buffet, will you join?

no, my iPhone is dead, but i don't have money for repair, what can i do?

What do we say actually in Cantonese (講乜), if I write it down (寫乜):

我哋一陣去 shopping, 然後食 buffet, 你嚟唔嚟?

唔去啦, 部 iPhone 瓜咗, 又冇錢整, 點算?

Do you accept the above 2 lines as "written Cantonese"?

Then, is this an "English" sentence :-)

माफ गनुस्, why we need to pay for this haute-costume, cui bono?

Community
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水巷孑蠻
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    Yes that is written Cantonese. I've seen this kind of writing casually. My question is why not write literature this way? Without doing this how can you preserve your language or teach it to foreigners? – oceanus Apr 20 '16 at 03:44
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    cantonese is a chinese language, which assume that the written form should be in chinese characters only. that's the reason why "written cantonese" is not used in any formal, official documentations.

    personally, i write in literary chinese, "written cantonese" for SMS & email.

     – 水巷孑蠻 Apr 20 '16 at 04:15
  • You said that the reason why written Cantonese is not used formally is because being a Chinese language it must be written in Chinese characters. Sorry but that statement lacks logic. You yourself demonstrated above Cantonese written in Chinese characters. Your reasoning is either wrong or you did not state it clearly. – oceanus Apr 20 '16 at 04:51
  • By the way you could say exactly the same thing about Mandarin. Before Chinese started writing in 白話, they wrote in 文言. Mandarin is a Chinese language and therefore must be written in Chinese characters, therefore Mandarin is not used in formal documents. Do you see how illogical that sounds? By the way I'm sure you know that in the time of 文言, Mandarin was not used in formal documents because Chinese characters were invented to write 文言 not Mandarin. There were many characters that were invented or repurposed in order to write Mandarin such as 那 (which actually is a name of a kingdom). – oceanus Apr 20 '16 at 04:57
  • ok, i skip several steps. let me try again.

    1. according to the collins cobuild english language dictionary, language is "a system of communication which consists of a set of sounds and written symbols which are used by the people of a particular country or region for talking or writing in".

    2. han (漢), and some ethnic groups; using the same set of written symbols, chinese characters(中文字) roughly (there're some chinese characters used by cantonese only). At the same time, each ethnic group has it own set of sounds. e.g.: cantonese (廣東話), min (閩南話).

     – 水巷孑蠻 Apr 20 '16 at 10:52

  • latin alphabet (a-z) is not in the set of written symbol of chinese (中文字).

  • the "written cantonese" uses 2 sets of written symbols: chinese characters (中文字) & latin alphabets (a-z).

  • the writers, and the audience must understand both the set of sounds of cantonese and english (well, i guess it's, most of the time), and the sets of written symbols of chinese characters and latin alphabet; in order to write, understand "written cantonese".

  • anyone who only understand one set of symbol (either chinese, or, english), such "written cantonese" is incomprehensible.

    • – 水巷孑蠻 Apr 20 '16 at 10:55

  • for SMS and email, i write "written cantonese", cause i'm sure my friend understand it.

  • for formal, official documentations, when the audience is unknown, and one want to reach all people concerned; the proper way is to write in one set of written symbol only. so, write in modern written chinese (白話文), or english, would be the choice, cause there're significantly more people can understand modern written chinese, or english, than the number of people understand "written cantonese".

    • – 水巷孑蠻 Apr 20 '16 at 10:58

  • about the aim of preserve the language, literatures in "written cantonese" do exist in hong kong, clearly, the audience is limited.

  • well, to teach "written cantonese" to foreigner; it means to teach 2 sets of sounds and 2 sets of written symbols at the same time, when these 2 sets are so diverse from each other. i can't imagine how to teach a non-english specking foreigner (e.g. hindi, bengali speaking indian), omg :(

    • a long discussion. :)

    – 水巷孑蠻 Apr 20 '16 at 11:00