Mandarin or Cantonese?
Chinese-speaking regions are vital for international business, a fact now acknowledged across industries. A go-to for international marketers, Mandarin is of course key for communicating with global consumers, but it’s not the only way to reach Chinese-speaking audiences. Prevalent in Southeast China, Hong Kong, Macau, and throughout the Chinese diaspora, Cantonese is the second most widely spoken type of Chinese after Mandarin — in fact, it almost became the official language in mainland China.
You may be wondering:
· Are Mandarin and Cantonese markets largely the same?
· Do all Cantonese speakers also speak Mandarin?
· Can I use the same Chinese translator for Mandarin and Cantonese?
· Which is right for my business?
Let’s take a look.
What’s in a name?
Mandarin is known as 普通話 (“normal speech”) in mainland China and 國語 (“national language”) in Taiwan. Cantonese is commonly known as 廣東話 (“Guangdong speech”) or 粵語 (“Yue language”), both of which reference the Southern part of China where many native speakers reside.
Origins
Cantonese can be traced back to the fall of the Han Dynasty in 220 CE. When Northern forces attacked, the Han people fled to the South, taking their language — Archaic Chinese — with them. Scholars believe that Ancient (Middle) Chinese, spoken during the later Tang and Song Dynasties (7th to 13th centuries), sounded similar to Cantonese. Their reasoning? Many poems written during this period rhyme in Cantonese but not in Mandarin. This suggests that throughout its long history, Cantonese has retained many of the tones and meanings of Ancient Chinese.
Mandarin, highly influenced by the Manchurian language from the North, was first documented much later in the Yuan Dynasty (14th century). After the 1911 revolution ended imperial rule in China, the founding fathers gathered to vote on an official language. While Mandarin and Cantonese were not the only two languages considered, Cantonese lost to Mandarin by a very small margin.
Geography
Today, Mandarin is the official language in mainland China and Taiwan and one of the four official languages of Singapore. Since the emergence of China as one of the world’s largest economies, Mandarin has attracted many non-native speakers as a second or third language. Cantonese lessons among ambitious Westerners are, sadly, not as popular, so those who speak Cantonese are usually native speakers with a decent understanding of colloquialisms. As mentioned, Cantonese speakers in Asia are concentrated in the southeastern parts of China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Although Hong Kong and Macau officials are advocating for a Mandarin takeover, Cantonese still forms an essential part of cultural identity for its native speakers.
As native Cantonese speakers are required to learn Mandarin in school, you might assume that all Cantonese speakers know Mandarin. However, many Chinese immigrants who left before the British handover of Hong Kong in 1997 or the Portuguese handover of Macau in 1999 never learned Mandarin, so Cantonese continues to reign in the Chinese diaspora. Many of these immigrants live in Chinatowns in Western countries like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Indeed, the Chinese word for “Chinatown” is 唐人街 (“the street of Tang people”).
Writing
As you’ve likely guessed, both Mandarin and Cantonese use Chinese characters in writing. So native speakers of Mandarin and Cantonese can communicate with each other through the written word, right? Not so fast.
Emperor Qin Shi Huang first unified Chinese characters in 221 BCE, but in 1949, traditional Chinese characters were simplified in an attempt to improve national literacy. This led to the coexistence of two writing systems: Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
Simplified Chinese characters have fewer strokes and are thus considered easier to memorize. For example, the Traditional Chinese character for turtle, 龜, is 龟 in Simplified Chinese. As Simplified and Traditional Chinese use different forms of the same character, people who know one or the other are sometimes able to guess the meaning based on character appearance and context, but that is not given.
As Simplified Chinese is largely used in mainland China and Traditional Chinese in Hong Kong, it is easy to associate Simplified Chinese with Mandarin and Traditional Chinese with Cantonese. However, it is important to note the exceptions. Taiwan’s official language is Mandarin, but they communicate using Traditional Chinese characters. Many Chinese immigrants in Singapore speak Cantonese but write using Simplified characters.
Speaking
Are Cantonese and Mandarin distinct languages or simply different dialects of the same language? This is a hot-button issue and the source of much controversy. Despite some overlap in terminology, Cantonese and Mandarin are mutually unintelligible in speech. Mandarin has four tones and Cantonese nine, so the same Chinese character can have drastically different pronunciation.
Additionally, spoken Mandarin and Cantonese can also differ in grammar, due to the unique structure of colloquial Cantonese. While it is possible to speak Cantonese using formal (written) grammar, it would sound very odd — akin to a modern Londoner speaking Shakespearean English. For example, “give me that cup of water” in Mandarin is 給我那杯水 (gěi wǒ nà bēi shuǐ), and while it is not wrong to say 給我那杯水 (kap1 ngo5 na5 bui1 seui2) in Cantonese, you are much more likely to hear 畀嗰杯水我 (bei2 go2 bui1 seui2 ngo5), which translates more closely to “give that cup of water [to] me.”
As such, Mandarin and Cantonese are quite distinctive. If an interpreter was hired to translate Cantonese to Mandarin, the process would involve significant changes to prepositions and syntax.
Idioms
Unsurprisingly, Mandarin and Cantonese have unique idioms. Even if someone from Hong Kong could read a Simplified Chinese article, they may not understand the full message if Mandarin idioms or colloquialisms are used. The Cantonese expression 鷄同鴨講 (gai1 tung4 aap3/aap2 gong2), which translates to “the chicken talks to the duck,” perfectly sums up the Mandarin-Cantonese communication barrier. Many of these colloquialisms are region-specific, which is also why there is also a distinction between the Mandarin of mainland China and that spoken in Taiwan.
Cantonese is embedded with the kind of linguistic intricacies that make for copywriting gold. For example, the term 水 officially means “water” in both forms of Chinese, but this simple, four-stroke character can also mean “money,” “chatting,” “information,” and more in colloquial Cantonese. Think of the pun potential!
Put simply, Cantonese is more complicated than Mandarin, which is essentially why the latter is officially recognized in mainland China and more widely taught as a second language in the West. Although Cantonese-speaking areas are starting to mandate Mandarin education, Cantonese still retains its value in marketing. The two languages and their associated cultures are distinct enough to merit their own localized content. We always recommend using a specialist in the specific type of Chinese desired.
In a sea of Mandarin commercials, it is heartwarming for Cantonese speakers to be greeted with the language that sounds like home. Marketing in a native tongue with respect to local nuances always displays the sincerity of a brand, and gives businesses amazing potential to resonate with international audiences. It’s our pleasure at Tag to guide this process and make brand messaging come alive — in any language.
