Cantonese

PluralCantonese (some meanings)

1. 1
   noununcountable

   A Sinitic language spoken mainly in Guangdong (Canton), Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as by Chinese minorities in Southeast Asia and many overseas Chinese worldwide.

   He picked up Cantonese during five years of working in Hong Kong.

   The market vendors switched between Cantonese and Mandarin depending on the customer.

   Note

   Spoken Cantonese and Mandarin are mutually incomprehensible, even though the two share a written script. A word written the same way and read aloud by a speaker in Hong Kong and a speaker in Beijing comes out as two different words. That is why writers list Cantonese alongside Hakka as one of the major Chinese languages. As a language name it is uncountable: you speak Cantonese, never "a Cantonese."

2. 2
   adjective

   Relating to the Cantonese language.

   The app drills Cantonese tones with short listening exercises.

   The film's subtitles include Cantonese romanization for language learners.

3. 3
   adjective

   Relating to Cantonese cuisine, the style of cooking associated with Guangdong and Hong Kong.

   The hotel's Cantonese kitchen is known for its roast goose and dim sum.

   Cantonese cooking favors fresh ingredients and light, careful seasoning.

4. 4
   adjective

   Relating to the city of Guangzhou (also known as Canton) or to the province of Guangdong.

   Nineteenth-century Cantonese ports handled much of China's trade with the West.

   The delegation toured Cantonese factories across the Pearl River Delta.

   Note

   Canton is the older Western name for Guangzhou, and the word is simply Canton plus -ese, the suffix also found in Japanese and Portuguese. Every other use of the word grows from this sense of place. The adjective is not comparable: a port or a factory is Cantonese or it is not, so avoid "more Cantonese" or "very Cantonese."

5. 5
   adjective

   Relating to the Cantonese people.

   Cantonese communities took root in cities from San Francisco to Sydney.

   Cantonese opera remains a treasured art form among older generations.

6. 6
   nouncountableplural

   An inhabitant of Guangzhou (Canton), or a person of Cantonese descent.

   The shop's owner, a Cantonese by birth, imports tea from his home province.

   Thousands of Cantonese crossed the Pacific to work in California during the Gold Rush.

   Note

   The noun for a person keeps the same form in the plural: one Cantonese, thousands of Cantonese, never "Cantoneses." It appears chiefly in the plural, but the singular is still at home in narrative prose. Stella Dong's Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City (2000) introduces Sun Yat-sen as "a mustached Cantonese with a broad face."

7. 7
   noununcountable

   The dialect of Cantonese spoken in Guangzhou (Canton), Hong Kong, and Macau, treated as the standard form of the language.

   Migrants from rural Guangdong often shift from their home dialects to Cantonese after settling in Guangzhou.

   Hong Kong television and film helped establish Cantonese as the region's standard spoken variety.

   Note

   Here the same name narrows to one variety. It refers to the speech of Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau, which serves as the standard for the language as a whole. Context decides which meaning is intended. A migrant from rural Guangdong may already speak a Cantonese home dialect and still be said to learn Cantonese in the city. In that second phrase, Cantonese means this standard form.

Showing meanings only. Show all 7