Table of Contents
Is Cantonese and Thai the same?
6 Answers. Cantonese does contain a substrate from the Tai languages, which includes Thai and Zhuang as modern members, so that could be a source of similarities. However, the word for chicken (雞), and most other Cantonese vocabulary, can be traced to Chinese sources, so that’s not it.
Is it easy for Chinese to learn Thai?
Yes, Thai is considerably easier to learn than any of the other three. I believe the three hardest are Japanese, Chinese and Korean in that order. Thai is a tonal language but although that is a foreign concept it isn’t actually terribly difficult to learn.
Can someone who speaks Mandarin understand Cantonese?
However, the two languages are distinct when spoken. Mandarin speakers typically cannot understand Cantonese speakers, and vice versa.
Can Hokkien understand Cantonese?
A hokkien speaker cannot understand a Cantonese speaker. Both dialects are different. A mandarin speaker can more or less understand a Cantonese speaker because a lot of mandarin and cantonese words are pronounced very similarly eg left and right in mandarin and Cantonese sounds almost the same.
What language family is Thai?
Tai language family
Thai language, also called Siamese, the standard spoken and literary language of Thailand, belonging to the Tai language family of Southeast Asia.
Can mandarin speakers understand Thai?
I found that my Chinese-speaking students can pick up Thai easily and at the same time Thais can also study Mandarin faster than studying Japanese or Korean languages. If you did minimal mistakes, it’s still understandable. Fortunately, word orders of Thai and Chinese are pretty flexible.
Is Thai grammar similar to Chinese?
Conclusion: The main grammatical difference between the two languages is the different word order. Thai grammar is slightly more complex than Chinese as there are more cases and variations.
How many Hokkien speakers are there?
Hokkien | |
---|---|
Ethnicity | Hoklo |
Native speakers | large fraction of 28 million Minnan speakers in mainland China (2018), 13.5 million in Taiwan (2017), 2 million in Malaysia (2000), 1 million in Philippines (2010), 0.5 million in Singapore (2015) |
Language family | Sino-Tibetan Chinese Min Coastal Min Southern Min Hokkien |
Why does Cantonese have so many sounds like Thai?
Many words in Cantonese and Hokkien sound very much like Thai, for example Number 1 – 10 or the names of common objects such as chair (Gao Ee), table (Tou), guest (Khaek/khek). Mandarin has fewer sounds because the Chinese writing system has no phonetic information.
How hard is it to learn Cantonese?
Any language is challenging to learn, and Chinese languages are no different. But it’s absolutely doable if you choose the right language learning tools, create a study plan, and commit to it, consistently learning over a long time. If you do those things, you will learn Mandarin or Cantonese.
How useful is Cantonese as a second language?
Degree of usefulness. Cantonese is quickly becoming the less useful language since business and government activities in China are conducted in largely in Mandarin. And most people, even Cantonese speakers, have learned Mandarin as a second language in school.
What is the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin?
Tonal differences. While they are both tonal languages (where different tones give different meanings to the same sound), the number of tones is different. Mandarin has only four tones per sound, while Cantonese has at least six (and can have up to nine).