Baihua

[Ian_Lee]

Why is Cantonese being called Baihua by people from other provinces?

In Shenzhen, I met some people from Hunan and Sichuan whom said that they were trying to learn "Baihua".

I scratched my head and later understood that they meant they tried to learn some Cantonese.

[Quest]

We call Cantonese Baihua in guangzhou.

[skylee]

In Yunnan too.

[smithsgj]

How do you write this Baihua? The same as normal Baihua (modern written Chinese), and the language of the Bai minority? All seems very confusing!

[smithsgj]

That wasn't clear. I mean what are the characters "bai" and "hua"?

[Quest]

白话，"clear/understandable language"

[skylee]

baihua = 白話 (plain language)

Both my local guides in Yunnan and Guilin who spoke Cantonese said they spoke "白話".

[skylee]

Quest, but why? I want to know too.

[smithsgj]

Particularly weird in Yunnan cos there are Bai zu folk there!

[Quest]

I dont know why, some say 广州话 some say 白话。It is 白话 to the locals. I dont know why people from other provinces call it 白话 too.

[pazu]

白話 means 口頭語 (colloquial language) and it suits quite well for the position of Cantonese. And indeed almost all CHinese I met in mainland called Cantonese as Bai Hua.

Hong Kong Chinese is an exception to this rule. Ian, so I think a better question should be, "why Hong Kong Cantonese don't called their language as Bai Hua?"

[Quest]

I dont know why they call it 广东话, either.

[smithsgj]

So don't Chinese in China use BaiHua to mean the other two things I said?

btw what's YueHua or YueYu. Another term for Cantonese?

[roddy]

I've only ever heard 白话 used in the context of Lu Xun and so on. Yuehua is what the 月亮 uses when it makes speechs to 代表 your 心，
I assume . . .

[smithsgj]

Monsieur le Gendarme, 粵 not 月

[pazu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quest

I dont know why they call it 广东话, either.

is it a sarcastic statement rather than a question?

I think the reason is simple, it's the language of the richest city in Guangdong Province.

Guangdonghua isn't necessarily a language common to all Guangdongren, just like you wouldn't think Chinese language family includes Uyghur or Tibetan, though Xinjiang and Tibet are parts of China now.

[pazu]

Every province (except Inner Mongolia) has a single Chinese character as abbreviation, e.g. 粵 for Guangdong, 桂 for Guangxi, 滇/雲 for Yunnan.

And so naturally Cantonese is called 粵語.

粵話 probably means Cantonese, but this combination just isn't common.

However, 粵方言 means all dialects in Guangdong Province, not only Cantonese, but including Teochew, Hakka, etc.

[roddy]

I've only never noticed 粤 in 粤菜 on Cantonese restaurants.
So who sang 粤亮代表我的心 then?

Roddy

[bathrobe]

'Baihua' in Beijing and the north refers to the language that forms the basis of modern Mandarin.

Until I came to the south I had never heard it used in the meaning 'Cantonese'. I think most northerners would be slightly confused upon first encountering this usage (I met one in Beihai who didn't know this usage).

[smithsgj]

Dunno. It might have been Confucius, but you'd have to check his CV.