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Recent discussions on the number of speakers recorded for various languages got me thinking about Cantonese. When "Chinese" is mentioned, Mandarin is normally meant, but I read once, somewhere in the mid-80s, that Cantonese may, then at least, have had more speakers. Of the four main actors in Crouching Tiger, only one spoke classical Mandarin before filming began, which might also suggest that the official language of the PRC and the ROC is not necessarily the most common form of spoken Chinese. Once more into the breach, my dear Sinophiles. 
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old hand
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I can't really comment on the language used, except to say that it sounds marvelous!
I thought Cantonese was mainly spoken in Hong Kong and a handful of other regions, and not that wide spread.
Anyway, I saw the film yesterday and was impressed. I highly recommended it (not just for Sinophiles). My only quibble is that it failed to find a suitable pace. The visuals are stunning. Just my 2CNY :-)
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Which Chinese is bigger? I have read that 50 years agonatives of the island were commonly 7 feet tall. If they still are, Taiwanese are the bigger.
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I thought Cantonese was mainly spoken in Hong Kong
Yes indeed. I'll check as soon as Kaisheng gets in about relative numbers of speakers. He's from Taiwan and does not speak Cantonese. Siu-ling in chorus speaks both so I could ask her too. Not sure where she's from right off hand.
Ænigma wants him to be Kajar and her to be Siva. Siva I know but who's Kajar?
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the Kajar dynasty in Persia (1794-1925)?
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Thanks, tsuwm. Ænigma sure has some interesting holes and interesting non-holes. [nonidempotent]
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In reply to:
tuswm: the Kajar dynasty in Persia (1794-1925)?
Do you mean Kajar or Khazar??? Atomica.com found NO entry for Kajar, but here's what they have to say about the Khazars:
Khazars, ancient Turkic people who appeared in Transcaucasia in the 2d cent. A.D. and subsequently settled in the lower Volga region. They rose to great power; the Khazar empire at its height (8th–10th cent. A.D.) extended from the northern shores of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea as far west as Kiev. The Khazars maintained friendly relations with the Byzantine Empire. Their empire came to an end in 965, when they were defeated by the duke of Kiev. In the 8th cent. the Khazar nobility embraced Judaism and thus are believed by some to be the ancestors of many East European Jews.
On the Chinese languages - some friends who lived in mainland China once told me that Cantonese was the written language and Mandarin the spoken - or was it t'other way 'round?
By the way, here's a question for you all: Have you heard the latest about Red China?
Shoshannah
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Sh>Do you mean Kajar or Khazar???
do a google search on'kajar dynasty' (163 hits)... founded by Aga Muhammad Khan.
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Cantonese/Mandarin
No, no. I don't know much about Chinese, but I do know that Cantonese is the Chinese dialect spoken in southern China, centering around Canton (Guangzhou); Mandarin is the northern dialect spoken in the area centering on Beijing. There are several other dialects, including Fukien (east coast). The various dialects differ from each other to such an extent that they are not mutually intellegible; a Cantonese speaker will understand very little of what a Mandarin speaker says. Of course, the written language, being composed of ideographs, is universal, since it does not depend on the spoken language.
It has been said, and I have not seen anyone dispute it, that most of the Chinese in the U.S. speak Cantonese. During the period in the late 1800s when Chinese emigrated to the West Coast (primarily) and later to other parts of the U.S., most of them came from southern China and spoke Cantonese. This is why Chinese food, as served in Chinese restaurants in the U.S., up to about 20 years ago, was almost exclusively Cantonese. When Sichuan and Hunan food was introduced, it was like a revolution -- we roundeyes had never dreamed that Chinese food could be like that, being accustomed to the Cantonese style only. Of course the joke was on us. It appears that in China, Cantonese is the gourmet style of cooking; the imperial family, although northerners (from Mongolia, actually) ate Cantonese food exclusively.
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It has been said, and I have not seen anyone dispute it, that most of the Chinese in the U.S. speak Cantonese. During the period in the late 1800s when Chinese emigrated to the West Coast (primarily) and later to other parts of the U.S., most of them came from southern China and spoke Cantonese.
This goes along with what Kaisheng said. If you go to a Chinatown district most of what you hear (if not English) will be Cantonese. Later immigrants have been mostly Mandarin speakers. He also said that he believes that Mandarin has the largest number of native speakers of all the languages we lump together as Chinese.
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