LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Cantonese
built 650 days ago
The Cantonese tone system is quite difficult, even for speakers of other Chinese dialects. There are anywhere from 6 to 10 tones depending on how they are classified (the scary higher numbers are used mainly for linguistic comparison with the tone system in Middle Chinese - 6 is the more practical count.) The tones are difficult since one must consider both the pitch and contour of each syllable, and every syllable has a tone. Even when considering tones, there are a large number of homophones in Cantonese. Using the correct tone is crucial if you wish to be understood as a small tone mistake can completely change the meaning of a word. Another noteworthy feature of Cantonese is the large number of sentence-final particles which add subtle shades of mood and are difficult to master for non-native speakers. Since Cantonese is a tonal language, you cannot change the intonation of a word to show meaning like you can in English or other non-tonal languages.
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Cantonese is mainly spoken in Guangdong (where Guangzhou/Canton is the capital) and Guangxi provinces and most of the overseas Chiinese communities in Autralia, Europe, North America and other parts of the world. But the number of Mandarin-speaking overseas Chinese people is increasing rapidly in recent years as more Taiwanese and people from Northern China emmirgrated and have been playing a more active role in the world economy and culture exchange. Cantonese is the most extensively spoken Chinese dialect after Mandarin because of the strong influence of Hong Kong's economy and culture( pop songs, TV programs and movies) and ... because more Cantonese people went abroad in the early years.
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Cantonese