喺華埠，廣東話係呢個社區嘅心臟，佢係一種好有表達力嘅語言，我哋講嘢嘅時候會好有動感，有時咁大聲，人地會誤以為我哋係發生激烈嘅爭執。而呢個特點或許係因為廣東話有六個聲調，而普通話有四個。我哋聽下普通話同廣東話嘅分別。

In Chinatown, Cantonese is the Beating Heart of this community it’s a very expressive language and we can be very animated when we talk so loud that people mistake our Lively conversations for heated arguments, and this characteristic might be because Cantonese uses six tones Mandarin uses four. Let’s hear the differences in Mandarin and Cantonese

廣東話嘅歷史好複雜，有好多理論聲稱呢種語言係唐朝同孫吳之間誕生嘅，當時由中原一帶嘅移民遷往中國南部，定居喺我哋而家所知嘅廣州，廣東嘅首府。仲有其他歷史學家聲稱佢起源喺更早嘅漢朝。一啲資料指廣東話係漢語同南方嘅各種族（例如百越）嘅混合體。而呢種語言唔單止係喺中國講，喺世界各地都有社區講廣東話。喺澳洲，廣東話係第五多人講嘅家庭語言，根據最新人口普查記錄，有近三十萬人講廣東話。全球總共有將近八千六百萬廣東話使用者，而過半數係喺廣東、澳門同香港嘅人。不過，幾年後呢個數字可能會變得唔同。一啲年長嘅講廣東話嘅人開始同佢哋嘅子女講普通話，令年輕人開始失去流利講廣東話嘅能力。

The history of Cantonese is complicated many theories claim the language was born between the tang and Sun dynasties where migrants from the Central Plains Region traveled down to Southern parts of China and settled in what we now know as Guangzhou the capital of Guangdong South other historians claim it originated centuries earlier in the Han Dynasty some sources say Cantonese was a hybrid of the Han language and various ethnic groups from the south called Baiyue. It’s not just in China Cantonese is spoken in many communities worldwide in Australia Cantonese is the fifth most spoken language at home with nearly 300 000 speakers recorded in the latest census there are nearly 86 million Cantonese speakers worldwide and more than half of those speakers are from Guangdong South one Sai Sam Hong Kong and Macau but that stat will look very different in a few years. Some older Cantonese speaking locals are talking to their children in Mandarin as younger people start to lose their fluency in Cantonese.

對一啲比我細嘅堂兄弟姊妹黎講，普通話係一個很大嘅改變。喺我細嘅時候係喺中國長大，每個人都講廣東話。當時我哋嘅老師都喺用廣東話教我哋。到而家嘅普及普通話宣傳嚟之前，2021年，中國啟動咗一個計劃，希望到2025年，85%嘅市民都用普通話。政府希望通過在教育系統同職場推廣普通話，達到全國統一使用一種國語嘅目標。而呢個宣傳普通話嘅舉動引起咗唔少廣東話使用者嘅抵抗。見到我啲同胞自家嘅語言冇咁頻密咁被講，真係好可惜。咁廣東話將會面臨絕種嘅風險，我對未來好擔心。不過我覺得，如果廣東話真係絕種，喺香港嘅過程會比較長。

some of my younger cousins who are like 10 20 years younger and they don’t speak the language commonly known as Mandarin is a drastic change for many when I was a kid growing up in China everybody’s full countries I mean my primary school teachers taught us in counties I was like before the like the promotion of Mandarin in 2021 China launched a campaign for 85 of its citizens to use Mandarin by 2025. the government wants one national language for National unity in the education system and the employment the promotion of Mandarin sparch controversy with many Defenders of Cantonese concerned the widespread Campaign Will eliminate the language there are signs like these plastered in cities that read speak Mandarin those signs that say speak standard Chinese and when you standard characters there you see those all over China everywhere fortunately we don’t see that in Hong Kong yet the government’s campaign to take up Mandarin has stirred up resistance among Cantonese speaking people it is such a Pity to see my own language is not spoken as frequently as people of my own Heritage so with casinades on his way to Extinction I’m concerned for the future but I think the Cantonese if it goes extinct it will be a much longer process in Hong Kong

喺香港，講廣東話係一種自豪同認同嘅來源。語言學專家話，一種語言嘅存續取決於好多社會文化因素，例如屋企講嘅、學校教唔教、同個人嘅選擇。我覺得而家啲人講普通話嘅意願唔係因為政府嘅推動，而係因為佢哋認為普通話係一種更實用、更有用途嘅漢語方言。好多人相信，講普通話可以確保佢哋將來在學校同工作方面有好的發展。近年嚟，都有啲努力去保存廣東話。所以我覺得情況慢慢有所改善。我意思係佢唔會即刻消失，但係要真正保存好佢，需要時間同努力。呢個保存嘅努力喺2015年已經開始生效，中國啟動咗一個全國性嘅計劃去保存唔同嘅語言同方言。佢最終係咪會成功就未知數，不過佢哋都喺盡力咁做，政府話佢哋會尋找方法去保存廣東話。語言學專家對廣東話嘅存續感到樂觀。當然，國家主義宣傳係一個因素。我覺得最有影響力嘅因素係佢嘅使用者會唔會係屋企講廣東話，家長會唔會願意同自己嘅孩子傳授呢門語言。

in Hong Kong speaking Cantonese is a source of Pride and identity Linguistics experts say the survival of a language relies on a range of social cultural factors like speaking it at home teaching it at school and personal choice I think people’s willingness of speaking Mandarin right now it’s not because the government is pushing it they choose what they preferred Mandarin because Mandarin is like a more practical and useful variety of the Chinese language to them many people believe speaking Mandarin guarantees a good future at school and work in recent years there have been some efforts that would make to try to preserve the language so I think it’s improving slowly I mean it’s not gonna die but it’s it will take time and effort to really preserve your language and preservation efforts have started taking effect in 2015 China launched a Country-Wide program to preserve different languages and dialects whether it can succeed now is another question but they’re doing their best and the government says they’re finding ways to preserve Cantonese linguistic experts are optimistic for the language’s survival yeah of course like nationalist propaganda is a factory I think the most influential impactful Factor would be whether this language is spoken in a housing and whether parents are willing to speak the language and pass it on to their kids.

It also starts right here with Cantonese-speaking people like myself, to continue talking in Canto… hopefully fluently.