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Cantonese: Written Cantonese
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Cantonese (... known as Yue) is one of several major languages in China with approximately 64 million speakers. The word Cantonese derives from Canton, now known as Guangzhou, a port city in southeast China. Cantonese, as with many Chinese languages, is often considered a dialect because it shares the Chinese writing system, yet differs in the spoken form. An educated speaker of Cantonese is able to read written Chinese, but may pronounce it in his or her own dialect. There are four major groups of Cantonese dialects: Gaoyang, as it is spoken in Yangjiang; the Nanning dialect of Guinan which is spoken widely in Guangxi; Siyi (sei yap), whose best representation is the Taishan dialect (which before 1970 was widely used in U.S. Chinatowns); and Yuehai (which includes Zhongshan, also known as Chungshan, and Tungkuan, which is also known as Dongguan) which is the main dialect of Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau. The term Cantonese, however, generally refers to the Yuehai dialect.
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Formally, written Cantonese does not exist; almost always formal written communication is conducted in hanyu. But in fact, over time, Cantonese has modified hanyu characters for unique expressions, syntax, and words. As a result, informally, written Cantonese does in fact exist, although used mostly for transcription of speech and informal forms of communications. However, they are so important for communication, that the government of Hong Kong has incorporated them into a special Supplemental Character Set (HKSCS).
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The first written documents in Cantonese date back to the 19th century. Today, Cantonese is used mainly in personal correspondence, popular newspapers and magazines, and in fiction. Mandarin is the vehicle for official writing in the Peoples Republic of China.
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An influential work on Cantonese, A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced According to the Dialect of Canton, written by Wong Shik Ling, was published in 1941. He derived IPA based transcription system on Cantonese, S. L. Wong system and many Chinese dictionaries published later in Hong Kong was based on the transcription. Althought Wong ... derived a romanisation scheme, also known as S. L. Wong system, it is not widely used as his transcription system.
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Written Cantonese