Mandarin Cantonese facts

While investigating facts about Mandarin Cantonese Difference and Mandarin Cantonese Map, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Because written Chinese uses characters to represent concepts rather than sounds, speakers of different languages such as Mandarin and Cantonese can communicate through writing, but not speech.

how different are mandarin and cantonese?

"Chinese" is not just "Mandarin" and "Cantonese", but at least 7 distinct language groups, or hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible

What is the difference between mandarin and cantonese language?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what is spoken more mandarin or cantonese. Here are 12 of the best facts about Mandarin Cantonese Chula Vista and Mandarin Cantonese Translator I managed to collect.

what is the difference between mandarin and cantonese?

1. In the Mulan song, 'I'll Make a Man Out of You', Donny Osmand provided the singing voice for Captain Li Shang. Jackie Chan dubbed the singing and speaking voices in Mandarin and Cantonese.

2. Jackie Chan has released 20 albums in multiple languages; Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Taiwanese and English. In the closing credits of a lot of his films, he’s the vocals behind its theme song.

3. Jackie Chan sings in Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Taiwanese and English And He Won Best Foreign Singer Award in Japan in 1984.

4. The Cantonese dialect of Chinese does have a separate written form from standard Chinese, for informal purposes. For formal writing, they write in Mandarin-based standard Chinese, but would read it aloud in Cantonese pronunciation, which sounds unnatural compared to daily Cantonese speech.

5. During the change from imperialism to republic in China, there was a debate over which would be the official dialect. It came down to a vote and Cantonese lost by a slim margin to Mandarin.

6. Only 5% of Chinese people speak Cantonese. Cantonese (also called Yue) is only the 4th most commonly spoken Chinese dialect in China behind the Mandarin, Wu and Min dialects.

7. Although Mandarin and Cantonese share the same (traditional) characters, their pronunciations are very different. Mandarin has mainly four tones while Cantonese has six tones.

8. Bruce Lee never actually did his iconic high-pitched fighting screams, since all of his dialogue in his films was dubbed in Mandarin by another actor (he spoke only Cantonese).

9. The main language in Shanghai is neither Mandarin or Cantonese, but Shanghainese.

10. The Wu Tang Clan's name was inspired by an old Hong Kong film titled "Shaolin & Wu Tang" (in English) but should be pronounced "Mou Dong" in it's original language (Cantonese). "Wu Tang" in Mandarin actually means "sugar-free": The Sugar-Free Clan...