Nei ho ma?

Cantonese (粵語), is a language spoken by over 95 million people. It's the language of the people of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Guanxi in southern China. It's also widely spoken outside these places and worldwide.

Cantonese is not officially regulated like Mandarin. This means that there is no standard phonology like Mandarin (which uses pinyin). I will use my teachers phonology and describe it as I go along in my classes.

Cantonese is tonal, there are 9 tones in 6 contours, this makes the language particularly difficult to learn for people from an English background (like me). However, here, I strip things down to just 5 tones and use numbers to describe them. The tones are:

1. A high tone, sing this out
2. A rising tone, think doubt.
   
3. Starts at the mid range, goes down and then rises.
4. A falling tone, thing certainty.
5. Untoned, normal voice

I do not use the 5th tone when I transliterate Cantonese in these lessons. But you should be aware of it.

Obviously it's tough learning a language without audio support, I recommend you go out and find a Cantonese friend to practice with! If you can't find one of those, go to your local China town and hang out there.

Cantonese is written in Chinese characters, I may introduce some characters, but only as an illustration for everyday living. This course will only use colloquial language, any formal grammar and language will be highlighted and explained.

The title of this blog entry 'Nei 'nay or lay' ho ma?', literally means, 'You (singular) good (ma)?'. The word Nei can be pronounced as Nay or Lay (in lazy accent). It's one of the most common phrases amongst Cantonese speakers.

Formatting will be explained as it it introduced, however from the paragraph above, I highlight the formatting:

• particles will be bold and red, e.g. ma above is the question particle
• Cantonese words are in bold
• Pronunciation is in italics and quoted e.g. 'lay' from above
  

Enjoy learning Cantonese with me!