Cantonese

The term "Cantonese" derives from "Canton", the old name given by Westerners to Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province.

Cantonese usually refers to the people, spoken language (dialect) or cuisine of Canton and the surrounding area. The Chinese name of Canton is written 廣州, pronounced guang3 zhou1 in Mandarin and guong2 zaw1 in Cantonese (pronunciation issues are dealt with below). Cantonese dialect written in Chinese is 廣州話 (Cant. guong2 zaw1 wa2; Mand. guang3 zhou1 hua4) or 粵語 (Mand. yue4 yu3).