 7op Canada. December 29 2004 21:32. Posts 654 | Profile # |
| Are there more cantonese or mandarin? Or is it 50/50 |
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 Kaotu United States. December 29 2004 21:42. Posts 986 | Profile Blog # |
| its mandarin by a huge percentage. I think only about 9 or 10 percent of chinese people worldwide speak cantonese, while mandarin is more like 80%. Though I'm not exactly sure, I remember reading something like that at wikipedia. Mandarin is definetely more common, except for in hong kong. |
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| SiS United States. December 29 2004 21:43. Posts 753 | Profile # |
I'm pretty sure Mandarin
however, most cantonese speakers can atleast understand mandarin if you speak it to them even if they don't speak it themselves
(some notes: cantonese contains alot of slang words and there's no real right or wrong way to spell any of them in english so if you say diu lay instead of tiu lay or something, it is basically the same and they'll prob understand you) |
| | If you suddenly become to have twelve sisters, what do you think? |
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| Kaotu United States. December 29 2004 21:53. Posts 986 | Profile Blog # |
On December 29 2004 21:43 SiS wrote:
(some notes: cantonese contains alot of slang words and there's no real right or wrong way to spell any of them in english so if you say diu lay instead of tiu lay or something, it is basically the same and they'll prob understand you)
isn't that kind of true of mandarin too? I don't know, I'm learning mandarin right now. But won't most chinese speakers understand you if you confuse zh with g or something? And even if you pronounce some of your tones wrong, they can still decipher what you're saying? I don't know, thats just what I seem to remember reading. |
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 gg_hertzz December 29 2004 21:54. Posts 2090 | Profile Blog # |
Isn't this the type of question you could find a more accurate answer to by googling?
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 Refrain[FriZ] Canada. December 29 2004 22:00. Posts 4336 | Profile # |
i believe mandarin.
i speak cantonese mainly/some mandarin, but i can understand 80% mandarin
go cantonese though! |
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 Hautamaki Canada. December 29 2004 22:01. Posts 1311 | Profile Blog # |
| Mandarin is by far the more common. Like SiS says, almost any chinese person can understand it alright. Just to be safe though, they subtitle all their movies, because of small variances in local dialects, but anyone in china can make himself understood to anyone else in china, the language differences are not as big as people make out. Just a tip, you can tell which is mandarin and which is cantonese by the word construction. Chinese words never end with a consonant sound, except for an N and an R, soft sounds, whereas some cantonese words ends in hard consonants. For example, Chow Yun Fat. Nobody in northern china knows who Chow Yun Fat is, and they deny to my face that it's a chinese name. It's impossible, because Fat is an impossible word to make in mandarin. Chow Yun Fat's mandarin name is Zho Run Fa (not 100% on the pinyin there). You can also use that to distinguish between Korean and Mandarin. |
| | True learning is not the memorization of knowledge; it is the internalization of patterns. |
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 ironchef Canada. December 29 2004 22:02. Posts 1332 | Profile Blog # |
| mandarin.. but depending where you live, there may be more percentage of immigrants from hong kong etc.. so you may hear more cantonese or from hong kong films. |
| | “Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.” - Marcus Aurelius |
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 Hot_Bid Administrator December 29 2004 22:09. | Profile Blog # | |
| | @Hot_Bid on Twitter - ESPORTS life since 2010 - http://i.imgur.com/U2psw.png |
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| SiS United States. December 29 2004 22:21. Posts 753 | Profile # |
On December 29 2004 21:53 Kaotu wrote:
Show nested quote +On December 29 2004 21:43 SiS wrote:
(some notes: cantonese contains alot of slang words and there's no real right or wrong way to spell any of them in english so if you say diu lay instead of tiu lay or something, it is basically the same and they'll prob understand you)
isn't that kind of true of mandarin too? I don't know, I'm learning mandarin right now. But won't most chinese speakers understand you if you confuse zh with g or something? And even if you pronounce some of your tones wrong, they can still decipher what you're saying? I don't know, thats just what I seem to remember reading.
I've never seen many mandarin speakers that can perfectly understand everything someone is saying in Cantonese (like I said, there is quite abit of slang) |
| | If you suddenly become to have twelve sisters, what do you think? |
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 ares01256 United States. December 30 2004 12:30. Posts 355 | Profile # |
| mandarin is like the most spoken language in the world (or it is up there) |
| | Freedom costs a buck o five |
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| Hautamaki Canada. December 30 2004 12:31. Posts 1311 | Profile Blog # |
| Hot Bid, I was pretty close for just guessing =p |
| | True learning is not the memorization of knowledge; it is the internalization of patterns. |
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 0_0 United States. December 30 2004 13:16. Posts 2090 | Profile # |
| Yeah... Mandarin is definitely spoken more, something like 94%(or 96%?) of the population understands/speaks Mandarin, part of this population also speaks local dialects. |
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 {ToT}Strafe Thailand. December 30 2004 14:16. Posts 7019 | Profile Blog # |
| mandarin is most spoken in the world yep, followed by english,spanish |
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| SurG Russian Federation. December 30 2004 15:45. Posts 798 | Profile # |
On December 29 2004 21:42 Kaotu wrote:
its mandarin by a huge percentage. I think only about 9 or 10 percent of chinese people worldwide speak cantonese, while mandarin is more like 80%. Though I'm not exactly sure, I remember reading something like that at wikipedia. Mandarin is definetely more common, except for in hong kong.
What about other 10-11%??? |
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| 0_0 United States. December 30 2004 17:45. Posts 2090 | Profile # |
| They speak other dialects, although I'm pretty sure at least 90% of the people speak mandarin, so I don't know what thats from :-/, maybe its people whose "mother tongue" is a different dialect. |
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 ieatkids5 United States. December 30 2004 17:51. Posts 3892 | Profile Blog # |
On December 30 2004 15:45 SurG wrote:
Show nested quote +On December 29 2004 21:42 Kaotu wrote:
its mandarin by a huge percentage. I think only about 9 or 10 percent of chinese people worldwide speak cantonese, while mandarin is more like 80%. Though I'm not exactly sure, I remember reading something like that at wikipedia. Mandarin is definetely more common, except for in hong kong.
What about other 10-11%???
Other dialects. There are many others, but a lot of them have died out, or only very few people speak them anymore. |
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| J1 Canada. December 30 2004 17:58. Posts 579 | Profile # |
On December 30 2004 14:16 {ToT}Strafe wrote:
mandarin is most spoken in the world yep, followed by english,spanish
yep. |
| | Playing games in the ways of the DIAO... |
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| HiFi United States. December 30 2004 18:52. Posts 518 | Profile # |
| i think cantonese are better in doing business, daz why most chinese restaurant are run by cantonese owners. and daz why when u visit Vancouver BC u HAVE to know cantonese cuz i think 80% of chinese there speak cantonese and almost all restaurants there owned by cantonese ^^ |
| | dont spam ya apm, no good 4 ya health |
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| 0_0 United States. December 30 2004 19:04. Posts 2090 | Profile # |
| eh... maybe its partially that :-p, but also most of the people who come to western countries are from cantonese speaking areas(guang dong + hk) - perhaps because of better relations with the USA when hk was under British rule. Also, alot of the chinese that came in the 1800s were from the Hk area. Hk is a pretty big business area, but there are also other places like shanghai + beijing + taiwan that are very big and speak mandarin. |
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