Yuehai dialects

Yuehai
粵海方言
Native to	China
Region	Guangdong
Native speakers	13 million? (1998)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Yue Yuehai
Dialects	Guangfu Sanyi Zhongshan Guan-Bao
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
ISO 639-6	(none)
Glottolog	yueh1236[2]
The four Yuehai dialects, at right, are marked with a 'Y'

Yuehai (粵海方言) is the main branch of Yue Chinese, spoken in Guangdong province, Hong Kong, Macau and oversea Chinese communities. It is commonly called Cantonese, though that name is more precisely applied to the Guangfu dialect of Yuehai.

Dialects

Yuehai is divided into four principal dialects, each of which contains various subdialects. Cantonese is the prestige form.

• Guangfu dialect (Cantonese)
  • Guangzhou dialect
  • Hong Kong dialect
  • Macau dialect
  • Xiguan dialect
  • Wuzhou dialect
  • Tanka dialect
• Nan-Pan-Shun/Sanyi dialect (Samyap)
  • Nanhai dialect
  • Jiujiang dialect
  • Xiqiao dialect
  • Panyu dialect
  • Shunde dialect
• Zhongshan dialect
  • Shiqi dialect
  • Sanjiao dialect

• Guan-Bao dialect
  • Dongguan dialect
  • Bao'an dialect (Waitau)

References

1. "Guangfu" (apparently = all of Yuehai) in Olson, An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of China
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Yuehai". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.