Standard Chinese
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A-Hua
Re: Standard Chinese
Cantonese has its own written form, nobody out there never read a HongKong based periodical, it is full of its own characters, which can't be read by any Mandarin speaker only. Also go over to Taiwan, hundreds of characters are used to represent southern min dialect terms, by sound only, an approxiation of a Mandarin character's sound, but not using the meaning at all, but nobody would write a whole paper.
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PPK
Re: Standard Chinese
thats another invalid point. all those cantonese words and hokkien words can be read in mandarin, and their meanings can be found in more professional chinese dictionaries. just that people dont look up in those dictionaries or dont know how to pronounce those words doesnt mean they dont belong to the chinese writing system. another situation is that modern dialect speakers dont even know how to write what they speak, they create new words or use other characters instead of using the appropriate word. example, 'keng-gai' in cantonese meaning 'chatting', 'nou giah' in hokkien or teochew meaning 'a kid', they are just obsolete, people who used modern mandarin, including myself, can only know some but dun used them anymore. but they still can be found in better chinese dictionaries.
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sfboy
Re: Standard Chinese
ppk makes a very good point
the fact of the matter is: most words in Cantonese which people think do not have a character, actually do, but because the schools never teach these characters, people nowadays create new characters, approximate them, or use characters which represent the same sound.
also PPK's claim that Cantonese is one the of older Chinese forms is not without proof. just by looking at the basic words of 'drink' jam2 飲 and 'eat' sik6 食 Cantonese use these characters, which are also used in the ancient forms of chinese while mandarin uses 'eat' hek3吃 'drink' hot3 喝 if i am not mistaken, both the hek3 and hot3 originally meant something else, try looking it up in a more advanced or etymological dictionary.
Also, run and walk. Cantonese will use 走 zau2 for run and 行 for walk. Mandarin use 走 for walk and 跑 for run. In many instances, Cantonese will use a more original meaning than Mandarin does. The fact that Cantonese is more monosyllabic than Mandarin is undeniable, as is more ancient forms of Chinese.
Of course the examples are not limited to these but it is nevertheless support for the theory that Cantonese is one of the older Chinese languages.
the fact of the matter is: most words in Cantonese which people think do not have a character, actually do, but because the schools never teach these characters, people nowadays create new characters, approximate them, or use characters which represent the same sound.
also PPK's claim that Cantonese is one the of older Chinese forms is not without proof. just by looking at the basic words of 'drink' jam2 飲 and 'eat' sik6 食 Cantonese use these characters, which are also used in the ancient forms of chinese while mandarin uses 'eat' hek3吃 'drink' hot3 喝 if i am not mistaken, both the hek3 and hot3 originally meant something else, try looking it up in a more advanced or etymological dictionary.
Also, run and walk. Cantonese will use 走 zau2 for run and 行 for walk. Mandarin use 走 for walk and 跑 for run. In many instances, Cantonese will use a more original meaning than Mandarin does. The fact that Cantonese is more monosyllabic than Mandarin is undeniable, as is more ancient forms of Chinese.
Of course the examples are not limited to these but it is nevertheless support for the theory that Cantonese is one of the older Chinese languages.