Language or Dialect

The Education Bureau of China recentlystarted a debate. They put this on awebsite: “Although… Chinese andEnglish are the two official languages inHong Kong, nearly 97 percent of thelocal population learn Cantonese (aChinese dialect that is not an officiallanguage)." People began to talk aboutCantonese and Mandarin. They asked:Are these languages or dialects? Bothanswers can be correct. There are twoways to think about it.

On the one hand, many people in Chinathink Cantonese and Mandarin aredialects. They say Cantonese andMandarin are dialects of Chinese.Different people speak them in differentplaces. On the other hand, linguiststhink Cantonese and Mandarin areseparate languages. Cantonese andMandarin speakers do not understandeach other, so linguists call Cantoneseand Mandarin different languages. Bothideas can be true. The two ideas aredifferent ways to look at Cantonese andMandarin.