Similarity between Cantonese and Japanese Kanji Pronunciation

[alphone]

From :

https://universalalphaomega.blogspot.com/2022/06/similarity-between-cantonese-and.html
 

Cantonese and the Japanese Kanji system both preserve ancient Chinese pronunciation, as well as some important ancient Chinese features not inherited by the modern official Chinese, a.k.a. Mandarin. By comparative study of Cantonese and Japanese Kanji pronunciation, we can better understand ancient Chinese, and further more, better understand ancient Chinese literature and culture.

 

For example, a double-character word - ‘目的’, is pronounced ‘Mok Dek’ in Cantonese, and ‘Moku Deki’ in Japanese. Here is a comparative table :

 

Chinese character	Cantonese	Japanese
目	Mok	Moku
的	Dek	Deki

 

The Cantonese pronunciation of ‘目’ is ‘Mok’, the ending ‘k’ is called a Checked Tone or an Entering Tone (入聲). This is an ancient Chinese feature preserved in Cantonese but lost in Mandarin.

 

The Japanese pronunciation of ‘目’ is ‘Moku’, the second syllable ‘ku’ represents the Checked Tone ‘k’ in the ancient pronunciation of ‘目’.

 

Why does the Checked Tone ‘k’ in ancient Chinese become ‘ku’ in Japanese ? 

 

Japanese uses Kana(仮名)s to simulate foreign language pronunciation. A Kana is either a vowel sound or a consonant+vowel sound ( except for ‘ん’ / ‘ン’ which pronounces ‘n’ ), there is no Kana for a single consonant ‘k’, so the only solution is to choose a Kana of [ ‘k’ + vowel ] pronunciation to simulate the consonant-only sound ‘k’. In this case, Kana ‘く’ / ‘ク’, which pronounces ‘ku’, is chosen.

 

For Chinese character ‘的’, the situation is similar.

 

The Cantonese pronunciation of ‘的’ is ‘Dek ’, the ending ‘k’ is a Checked Tone. 

 

The Japanese pronunciation of ‘的’ is ‘Deki’, the second syllable ‘ki’ simulates the Checked Tone ‘k’.

 

If we say ‘目的’ in Japanese quickly, the vowel of the second syllable of each Kanji can be pronounced lightly or omitted, so it would sound like ‘Mok Dek’, exactly the same as the Cantonese pronunciation.

 

There are a lot more examples like this. Such as :

 

The Chinese character ‘僕’ is pronounced ‘Bok’ in Cantonese, and ‘Boku’ in Japanese. The second syllable in the Japanese pronunciation, ‘ku’, simulates the Checked Tone ‘k’.

 

‘國’ is pronounced ‘Gwok’ or ‘Gok’ in Cantonese, and ‘Goku’ in Japanese ( in terms spelled with ‘國’ such as ‘中國’, ‘外國’, ‘全國’, etc. ). ‘ku’, the second syllable in the Japanese pronunciation of ‘國’, simulates the Checked Tone ‘k’.

 

‘擊’ is pronounced ‘Gek’ in Cantonese, and ‘Geki’ in Japanese. The second syllable in the Japanese pronunciation, ‘ki’, simulates the Checked Tone ‘k’.

 

‘敵’ is pronounced ‘Dek’ in Cantonese, and ‘Deki’ in Japanese. The second syllable in the Japanese pronunciation, ‘ki’, simulates the Checked Tone ‘k’.

 

‘薩’ pronounces ‘Sat’ in Cantonese, and ‘Satsu’ in Japanese. The second syllable in the Japanese pronunciation, ‘tsu’, simulates the Checked Tone ‘t’.

 

‘易’ pronounces ‘Yek’ or ‘Yee’ in Cantonese, and ‘Eki’ in Japanese. The second syllable in the Japanese pronunciation, ‘ki’, simulates the Checked Tone ‘k’.

 

Besides, there are many Chinese characters whose pronunciation contain no Checked Tones, their Cantonese pronunciation are also similar to their Japanese Kanji pronunciation.

 

For example, ‘萬’ pronounces ‘Man’ in Cantonese, and ‘Man’ in Japanese, almost identical, just slightly different in tone.

 

‘解’ pronounces ‘Gai / Kai’ in Cantonese, and ‘Gai / Kai’ in Japanese, almost the same. ( The exact pronunciation is between ‘Gai’ and ‘Kai’, so it can be written as ‘Gai’ or ‘Kai’, but neither of them is 100% accurate. )

 

‘大’ pronounces ‘Dai’ in Cantonese, and ‘Dai’ in Japanese, exactly the same.

 

‘門’ pronounces ‘Moon’ in Cantonese, and ‘Mon’ in Japanese.

 

‘簡’ pronounces ‘Gan / Kan’ in Cantonese, and ‘Gan / Kan’ in Japanese.

 

‘單’ pronounces ‘Dan’ in Cantonese, and ‘Dan’ in Japanese.

 

Say ‘簡單’ in Japanese quickly, the sound is almost identical to the Cantonese pronunciation of ‘簡單’.

 

‘市’ pronounces ‘See’ in Cantonese, and ‘Shi’ in Japanese.

 

‘問’ pronounces ‘Mʌn’ in Cantonese, and ‘Mon’ in Japanese ( in terms like ‘問題’ ).

 

‘題’ pronounces ‘Tai’ in Cantonese, and ‘Dai’ in Japanese.

 

‘家’ pronounces ‘Ga’ in Cantonese, and ‘Ka’ in Japanese ( in terms like ‘家屋’ : Ka-Oku ).

 

‘話’ pronounces ‘Wa’ in Cantonese, and ‘Wa’ in Japanese ( On'yomi 音読み ).

 

‘世界’ pronounces ‘Sai Gai’ in Cantonese, and ‘Se-Gai’ in Japanese.

Edited June 5, 2022 by alphone

[alphone]

Reference links :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji#On'yomi_(Sino-Japanese_reading)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checked_tone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kana
http://www.romajidesu.com/kanji/
https://jisho.org
 

[alphone]

 

The core of ancient Chinese culture ( represented by the religions, literatures, languages, etc. of Tang & Song Dynasty ) kept moving to the south, along with the migrating nobles and civilians, this is called ‘Garments and Headwear’s Migration to the South’ (衣冠南渡). The ‘Garments and Headwear’ represent the ancient Chinese civilization.

 

The southward migration of ancient Chinese culture happened a number of times in the history. The final destination is the southernmost end of mainland China - the Canton territory (Guangdong province). When the core of ancient Chinese culture finally arrived Canton (廣東), it stayed there, and greatly influenced the culture and languages of the region.

 

So we can say that nowadays the people from Canton (廣東) , whose mother language is Cantonese, are true inheritors of ancient Chinese culture. They can understand ancient Chinese culture better than the northerners if they want to.

 

The Song dynasty’s last habitation was Canton :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yamen

[looschmaster]

If I recall correctly the variety of Chinese which preserves the most archaic Chinese is Minnan (centered on Fujian), not Cantonese. And it's not because the Fujianese represent the "purest" Chinese people, it's because its geographic isolation preserves the old language (the area is heavily mountainous). In the same way, there are people living on an isolated island in North Carolina who still speak Elizabethan English (see https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20190623-the-us-island-that-speaks-elizabethan-english), and the Dungan people of Central Asia speak an archaic variant of Central Plains Mandarin. 

 

Canton was also a big trading port and influenced by Europeans in the past two hundred years. Also, a lot of the north-to-south migrations in Chinese history were towards the Jiangnan area, not Canton. For example, see the Eastern Jin dynasty, all the Southern Dynasties, and the Southern Song dynasty. Except for a few years, they all had their capitals in the Yangtze delta. The Yangtze delta was the go-to place for Chinese emperors (and their courts) when the north fell. So I disagree with you here. You wouldn't call coastal North Carolinians the "true inheritors" of English culture, would you?

[alphone]

Besides, many Chinese-origin words sound very similar in Korean, Vietnamese, and Cantonese. But Korea & Vietnam do not use Chinese characters now, so it is more difficult to do comparison among these three languages and find out the similarities.

[alphone]

On 6/14/2022 at 10:49 AM, looschmaster said:

If I recall correctly the variety of Chinese which preserves the most archaic Chinese is Minnan (centered on Fujian), not Cantonese. And it's not because the Fujianese represent the "purest" Chinese people, it's because its geographic isolation preserves the old language (the area is heavily mountainous). In the same way, there are people living on an isolated island in North Carolina who still speak Elizabethan English (see https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20190623-the-us-island-that-speaks-elizabethan-english), and the Dungan people of Central Asia speak an archaic variant of Central Plains Mandarin. 

 

Canton was also a big trading port and influenced by Europeans in the past two hundred years. Also, a lot of the north-to-south migrations in Chinese history were towards the Jiangnan area, not Canton. For example, see the Eastern Jin dynasty, all the Southern Dynasties, and the Southern Song dynasty. Except for a few years, they all had their capitals in the Yangtze delta. The Yangtze delta was the go-to place for Chinese emperors (and their courts) when the north fell. So I disagree with you here. You wouldn't call coastal North Carolinians the "true inheritors" of English culture, would you?

It makes no sense to initiate a fight between Cantonese and Minnan, because Mandarin is killing both of them. Even if Minnan defeats Cantonese completely, it can hardly survive the government-enforced Mandarin.

 

Edited June 26, 2022 by alphone

[looschmaster]

On 6/25/2022 at 9:26 PM, alphone said:

It makes no sense to initiate a fight between Cantonese and Minnan, because Mandarin is killing both of them. Even if Minnan defeats Cantonese completely, it can hardly survive the government-enforced Mandarin.

I'm not trying to initiate a fight between Cantonese and Minnan, I'm just saying that Cantonese doesn't represent the most archaic dialect of Chinese. And also that if there is a dialect which preserves the "most archaic" Chinese, it doesn't make those people the "true inheritors" of ancient China or Chinese culture.