Comparison of Cantonese and Standard Chinese

Cantonese and Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin, are both varieties of Chinese (Sinitic languages). Cantonese is often referred to as a dialect of Mandarin even though it is not mutually intellegible or derived from the latter.

Mandarin is part of the Mandarin Chinese (Northern Chinese) branch, and Cantonese being part of the Yue Chinese branch.

Vocabulary

Standard Chinese and Cantonese are estimated to have 19% lexical similarity. Many cognates exist, but there are also false friends.

Cantonese has possible Tai-Kadai substrata.

In fact, Mai states that Cantonese and Mandarin are 62% lexiconal similarity, instead of 23.1% and 1.8% as described by Li. A 2008 study suggested there is around 24% lexical similarity and 50% phonological similarity.

Phonology

He states that The Two varieties are similar in their phonology for only 21.5% of commonly-used words; and similar in lexical meanings and usage for only 23.1% of vocabulary entry.

Mai says there are actually 63.7% phonological similarity between Cantonese and Mandarin.

Cantonese has 19 initials and 53 finals. Mandarin has 19 initials.

Cantonese has vowel length as a distinctive feature.

Tones

Cantonese has 6 phonemic tones and 3 checked tones. Mandarin is described as having 4 phonemic tones and a neutral tone. The following chart describes the correpaondence of tones compared to the Four Tones of Middle Chinese.

Comparison to Middle Chinese

Cantonese is thought to be one of the closest extant varieties of Chinese to Middle Chinese.

On the other hand, Mandarin retains a few features such as the retroflex consonant, which was lost inmost southern Chinese.

Grammar

Both are analytical languages.

Cantonese has different grammatical particles.