Where does Cantonese come from? How did the split between Mandarin and Cantonese come about?

The Origin of Cantonese

Cantonese is the earliest form of Mandarin in China

To discuss the origin of Cantonese, it is important to find out where it came from. Some people think that Cantonese originated from the "Baiyue" language of Lingnan in the Cham Dynasty, which is not true. It is true that the Cantonese language has preserved some elements of the ancient Lingnan "Baiyue" language, but its main source is the "elegant language" of the ancient Central Plains.

The Yayan language was based on the original Huaxia language used by the Huaxia tribal confederation headed by the Yellow Emperor. By the Zhou Dynasty, it had developed into a national ****same language in the Central Plains, which can be said to be the earliest "common language" in China. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, the dialects of the vassal states were different, while official contacts, literati lectures and rituals were all in the elegant language. Confucius said: "The elegant language of the son, poetry, books and rituals are all in elegant language." When the Qin Dynasty conquered the "Hundred Vietnams", it conscripted fugitives from the six original states, as well as son-in-laws and jia people, to serve as "reclamation soldiers" in Lingnan. These soldiers came from all over the world and had to use the elegant language to communicate with each other. However, since the settlers were alone in the fields, their language was only spoken in the towns and did not spread to the whole Lingnan area. It was not until Zhao Tuo built the superb state of South Vietnam that he adopted the costumes and living customs of the indigenous people of Baiyue and spoke their language. It can be seen that the Ya-yin language did not spread in Lingnan, but only appeared in a small number of very small "Ya-yin Island". The spread of the Ya-yin language in Lingnan began in the Western Han Dynasty after the pacification of the South Vietnamese State. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up the "Jiao-toe Department of Assassins" to monitor the counties, and the Eastern Han Dynasty removed the Jiao-toe Department of Assassins and set up Jiaozhou, which was a Han Chinese regime, and the official communication had to speak in Ya-yin. The government of Jiaotong Department and Jiaoshu was mostly located in Guangxin (now Fengkai and Wuzhou), and the elegant language was firstly used in Guangxin. Guangxin was also an early trading town in Lingnan. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent emissaries from Xuwen, Hepu, opened the Maritime Silk Road, silk, porcelain, miscellaneous fabrics and other purchases of pearl, Bili Liuli, stones and other overseas treasures, through the Nanliujiang - Beiliujiang and Jianjiang - Nanjiang two trade routes imported into Guangxin, and then through the Hejiang - Xiaoshui lost. Then they were exported to the Central Plains through the Hejiang River and Xiaoshui River. The elegant language imported from the Central Plains gradually spread to this area through trade activities.

Guangxin was also the early cultural center of Lingnan. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, a large number of literati and scholars used this place as a position to carry out cultural activities and set up pavilions to teach students and disciples. The most prominent among them were the scribes Chen Yuan and Shi Xie. Chen Yuan was known as the "Confucian Scholar of Linghai", and in his later years he returned to Guangxin to run a school, becoming one of the pioneers of Lingnan culture. Shang Xie served as the governor of Jiaotong County for more than 40 years, and at one time, he was "the governor of seven counties", and many literati from the Central Plains came to follow his name, and they traveled to and from Jiaotong, Guangxin and other places to give lectures as a profession. When these literati spread the Chinese culture in the Central Plains, of course, they used the elegant language with Chinese characters as the symbols of record. When the indigenous people learned Chinese culture and Chinese characters, they also learned the elegant language. Since the languages of the indigenous people were so different that they could not communicate with each other, and since they did not have writing, in addition to the use of the YaYan language when they interacted with the Han Chinese, the YaYan language was also used by the tribes to interact with each other. In this way, the YaYan language has become the indigenous tribes of the same language, just like the Spring and Autumn and Warring States when the vassal states used YaYan language, the formation of bilingualism, in their own tribes to use their own mother tongue, foreign relations use YaYan language. At the same time, some elements of the ancient Baiyue language were also absorbed by the language of the Han Chinese immigrants, thus gradually forming a dialect of the Chinese language - Cantonese.

In the beginning of the formation of the Cantonese language, the difference with the Chinese language in the Central Plains was not obvious. After the Jin Dynasty, there was first the "Five Hu Rebellions", followed by the 200-year-long division of the country into north and south. The nomadic peoples of the north came to dominate the Central Plains, bringing a great impact on the culture and language there, and the elegant language, which had been used as an ethnic ****similar language since the Zhou Dynasty, gradually disappeared. In this-. During this period, the Lingnan region maintained a relatively stable situation, and the Cantonese language, which evolved from the Central Plains' elegant language, did not undergo the same changes as the Central Plains' Chinese language, and kept its original sound system. As Prof. Li Rulong said; "The differentiation of the Middle Chinese sepoy fricative consonants, the merging of nasal rhyming endings, the weakening and shedding of sepoy rhyming endings, the return of turbulent upward, and the entry of the three tones of pai, all of which were common changes in many dialects, were all rejected by the Cantonese dialect." ("A Macro-Study of Dialects and Culture") Thus, while Yayan has disappeared from today's North and Central Plains, a large number of its elements are preserved in today's Cantonese.

Fengchuan Tufu Saiyin: a living fossil of early Cantonese

The fact that Cantonese has preserved a large number of elements of the Yayan language of the Cham Dynasty can be confirmed by checking the sound system of Cantonese with that of Cheyun, one of the earliest and most widely used Chinese phonetics texts. The Cheyun, one of the earliest works on phonology in China, was written in the early years of the Sui Dynasty, and recorded the phonology of the Southern Dynasty scholars, i.e. the phonology of the Late Elegant Languages. Comparing the sound system of Cheyun with that of the seven major dialects of Chinese today, it can be seen that the one that has preserved this sound system the most and the most complete is Cantonese. Taking the ancient incoming tones as an example, the northern Chinese dialects, due to the influence of nomadic languages, have generally detached the endings of their seiyin rhymes, and therefore, people in this part of the country nowadays do not know what the incoming tones are all about at all. Other Chinese dialects have preserved some of the initials, but they are incomplete. Cantonese has rejected the rule of "three sounds", so it has preserved the complete set of the ancient initials, which correspond neatly to the nasal endings.

In the Fengkai area, where the Cantonese language was formed, elements of the ancient Yayan phonological system have been preserved even more clearly. In the Cheyun phonetic system, there is a set of turbocellular consonants, which have disappeared from most Chinese dialects and are no longer found in today's Guangzhou dialect of Cantonese. However, this set of turbocellular consonants has been preserved in the Cantonese of Fengkai. What is even more remarkable is that in Fenkai Cantonese, not only the characters pronounced as the turbid stop consonant "并", "定", and "群", but also some of the characters already pronounced as the clear stop consonant in Cheyun (切韵), but also some of the characters already pronounced as the clear stop consonant in Cheyun (切韵), and some of them have been lost in Fenkai Cantonese. In addition, some of the characters that have already been pronounced as the cleansing sounds "帮", "端", and "见", are also pronounced as the turbulent sounds. As we know, "the clearing of turbid tones" is a law in the evolution of Chinese consonants. According to this law, the more developed the turbosonic consonants are, the older they are. The fact that Fenkai Cantonese has more developed turbid stop consonant than Cheyun indicates that it has preserved a sound system that is older than Cheyun, that is, the sound system of Yayan language in the two Han dynasties. Therefore, it is an indispensable living fossil of the ancient Yayan language, as well as a living fossil of the early Cantonese language, and a witness to the fact that the Cantonese language was formed in ancient Guangxin.

From the "distribution along the river" to the center of the early Cantonese language

Because Guangxin is located at the place where the Gui, He and Xijiang rivers converge, and holds the key to the Xijiang River, it can reach Panyu to the east along the river, and reach Jiao-toe to the west along the river, and arrive at the counties of Yulin and Hepu to the south through the tributaries of Beiliujiang and Nanyangjiang rivers, it was a transportation hub in the era of the predominance of the waterway. It was a transportation hub in the predominantly waterway era. After the formation of the Cantonese language in this area, it expanded to the east, west and south by virtue of the river, thus forming the pattern of "distribution along the Ting". It is divided into six basins:

1. Xijiang - Pearl River Basin The area from Guangxin along the Xijiang River eastward to Panyu (Guangzhou) includes Wuzhou in Guangxi and the cities of Zhaoqing, Foshan, Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Dongguan and Shenzhen in Guangdong, as well as Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions. During the Three Kingdoms period, the Dongwu regime moved the rule of Jiaosu Prefecture from Guangxin to Panyu, the former capital of South Vietnam. Panyu is a large oriental port that has been in existence for many years, and the Pearl River Delta around it has very convenient land and water transportation, and the conditions for the development of agriculture and the commodity economy are unique, so it has gradually become the political, economic, and cultural center of the Lingnan region, and the area from Guangxin to Panyu has become the main area where the Cantonese language is spoken. The Cantonese spoken in this area is often referred to as "Guangfu dialect".

2. Xunjiang-Yujiang River Basin From Guangxin, the Xunjiang, Yujiang River goes straight to Jiaotong County, which includes the cities of Nanning, Chongzuo, Guigang and most of the counties in Guangxi. Jiaotong County was also a place where Han Chinese immigrants settled earlier, and thus the Cantonese language was introduced to this area at a very early stage. The sub-dialects of Cantonese in this area are close to the Guangfu dialect and can talk to each other.

3. Beiliujiang - Nanliuhan Basin The Beiliujiang - Nanliuhan Basin travels up the Beiliujiang River from Guangxin to Hepu County via Nanliujiang River, and includes the cities of Yulin, Beihai, Qinzhou, and Fangchenggang in Guangxi and the counties thereof. After the opening of the Maritime Silk Road, Hepu, which is located at the mouth of the Nanliu River, became one of the earliest ports of departure, and this -'belt became a major trade route in the early days of Lingnan. With the development of trade and commerce, the Cantonese language gradually spread. The Cantonese language in this area has preserved a lot of ancient Chinese rhythms, but in general, the difference between Cantonese and Cantonese is not obvious, and basically, you can talk to each other.

4. Nanjiang--Jianjiang Basin The Nanjiang River is traced by Guangxin, crossing the Yunkai Mountain Range to the Jianjiang River Basin, which includes the cities of Yunfu, Maoming, and Zhanjiang in Guangdong and most of the counties (cities) belonging to them. This passage leads to Xuwen, the earliest port of departure of the Maritime Silk Road at the southern end of the Leizhou Peninsula, and is therefore also a major trade route. The Jianjiang River Basin belongs to Gao Liang County, and during the Nanliang, Nan Chen and Sui dynasties, the local slang leader Mrs. Xian and the governor Feng Bao*** harmonized with each other and pursued the policy of Han-Slang harmony, so that the Han immigrant cultures and the indigenous cultures of the Baiyue gradually merged, and the Cantonese language, which had been imported from Guangxin, gradually passed through this area. The Cantonese language in this area has absorbed some elements of the local indigenous language, but in general, there is not much difference between the phonetics and the Guangfu dialect, and basically, you can talk to each other.

The above four sub-dialect areas, all of which started from Guangxin, were formed through the expansion of the waterways, and their phonological systems have maintained a greater degree of consistency. The situation is different in the following two sub-dialect areas.

5. The Moyang River Basin includes Yangjiang City in Guangdong Province and its subordinate areas of Yangdong, Yangxi and Yangchun. Its Cantonese sub-dialect is usually called "Liangyang dialect", and its vowel system is similar to that of the Jianjiang basin, which some people classify as a "piece" (Gaoyang piece). In fact, these two sub-dialects have obvious differences in the combination of sounds and rhymes, and it is difficult to talk to each other.

6. The Tanjiang River basin includes Jiangmen City in Guangdong Province and its affiliated cities of Xinhui, Taishan, Kaiping and Enping, which were historically known as the "Four Euphonies", and their sub-dialects of Cantonese are also known as the "Four Euphonies". The sub-dialect of Cantonese is also known as "Siyi dialect". The Siyi dialect is also spoken in Heshan and Doumen District of Zhuhai. Although Siyi is not far from Guangzhou, it is the sub-dialect of the Cantonese language system that is most different from Guangzhou dialect, because the Tam River and the Xijiang River are not connected by water. This fact strongly proves that the center of the early Cantonese language was not in Guangzhou but in Guangxin.

Development of Lingnan culture must protect the Cantonese language

In November 1999, a UNESCO conference declared that February 21st of each year, starting in 2000, would be "International Mother Language Day". The organization published the "World Map of Languages in Danger of Disappearing" report states: "Language is the most powerful tool for the preservation and development of the tangible and intangible heritage of mankind. The various campaigns to promote the dissemination of mother tongues all contribute not only to linguistic diversity and multilingual education, but also to raising awareness of the world's linguistic and cultural traditions as a means of bringing about the unity of the peoples of the world on the basis of understanding, tolerance and dialogue."

It is thus clear that the protection of mother tongues, like the protection of cultural heritage, has become a subject of common concern for all countries of the world***.

Language is not only a tool for human communication, but also a relatively comprehensive reflection of the unique spirit of an ethnic group or people in a region in terms of their mode of thinking, mode of production, way of life, customs, religious beliefs and so on, which is the crystallization of the traditional culture of the ethnic group or the region. Guangdong's local traditional culture is usually divided into three major components: Guangfu culture, Hakka culture and Chaoshan culture, which are actually based on the three major Chinese dialects in the territory. Cantonese is not only the mother tongue of the people in the Guangfu area, but also the most important dialect in the Lingnan area, which not only contains the traditional culture of the Guangfu area, but also preserves a large number of traditional cultures that have disappeared in the Central Plains. Without Cantonese, many cultural varieties in Lingnan would no longer exist. Therefore, in the process of building a cultural province and developing Lingnan culture, the value of the Cantonese language must be re-recognized and its protection must be strengthened. Fengkai, as the birthplace of the Cantonese language, should especially do something in this regard.

In recent years, many scholars have called for the establishment of a national language and writing museum, but it has not been realized. As the birthplace of Lingnan culture and the Cantonese language, Fengkai can take a step forward and establish a Cantonese museum in the museum to collect and accumulate materials of the Cantonese language in the local and neighboring areas, especially those unique phonetic phenomena, such as the turbulent tone mentioned above, etc. Preserving these rare living fossils of the early Cantonese language not only allows the museum to be a place where the Cantonese language was formed in ancient Guangnan, but also to be a place where the Cantonese language can be used as an educational tool for the people. The preservation of these rare "living fossils" of the early Cantonese language will not only serve as a witness to the formation of the Cantonese language in ancient Guangxin, but also as a valuable source of information for the study of Lingnan culture and the study of China's ancient language and culture.