In the vast sea of languages, are Hakka and Cantonese similar?
The answer to this question may surprise you.
Hakka, referred to as Hakka, is a tonal language within the Chinese ethnic group under the Sino-Tibetan language family, and is the common language of the Han Hakka people and one of the tools for identification.
The Hakka language is known as "the living fossil of ancient Chinese in the Tang and Song dynasties", and it is also one of the most significant symbols of Hakka culture.
Hakka dialect contains a lot of written expressions from the Tang and Song dynasties, and retains a large number of ancient Chinese phonology from the Tang and Song dynasties, as well as the pronunciation characteristics of many ancient Chinese words and common words in the Central Plains.
And Cantonese, commonly known as vernacular, is also known as Cantonese.
It is a tonal language, belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family, the Chinese dialect of the Chinese family.
Cantonese is widely spoken in the central and western parts of Guangdong, southeastern Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macao and some countries or regions in Southeast Asia, as well as overseas Chinese communities.
From the Han Dynasty to the Tang and Song dynasties, the Han people in the Central Plains continued to migrate to Lingnan, which promoted the development and stereotyping of Cantonese.
Since the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the Cantonese language has changed less.
Cantonese is one of the southern dialects that retains more Middle Chinese elements, and the most prominent feature is that it retains the common sound of Middle Chinese relatively completely, and its initials, finals, and tones are highly consistent with the standard rhyme book "Guangyun" of ancient Chinese.
Qing Dynasty scholar Chen Li believes that the tone of the Guangzhou dialect is in line with the Sui and Tang Dynasty rhyme book "Cut Rhyme", because "for more than 1,000 years, people from the Central Plains have migrated to Guangzhou, and today's Guangyin is the sound of the Central Plains in the Sui and Tang dynasties." ”
Mr. Nan Huaijin, a master of Chinese studies, believes that Cantonese is the Chinese language of the Tang Dynasty.
So, are Hakka and Cantonese close?
From a historical point of view, both have a profound historical heritage and cultural accumulation.
Hakka retains the pronunciation characteristics of the ancient Chinese pronunciation of the Tang and Song dynasties and the pronunciation characteristics of many ancient Chinese words and common words in the Central Plains
Cantonese, on the other hand, retains the common sound of Middle Chinese, and its initials, finals, and tones are highly consistent with the standard rhyme book of ancient Chinese, Guangyun.
These commonalities make the two somewhat similar.
However, in practical application, due to regional differences and cultural inheritance, there are still great differences between Hakka and Cantonese in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.
So, while the two are similar in some ways, there are significant differences overall.
Hakka and Cantonese, as two different dialects of Chinese, each carry rich historical and cultural information and unique regional characteristics.
The similarities and differences between them are topics that deserve our in-depth research and **.
By understanding the historical origins and cultural connotations of these two dialects, we can better understand and appreciate the rich and colorful linguistic and cultural traditions of the Chinese nation.