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Yuehai Yue

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yuehai
粵海
Native toChina
RegionPearl River Delta, Guangdong
Native speakers
(13 million? cited 1998)[1]
Dialects
  • Guangfu
  • Sanyi
  • Xiangshan
  • Guanbao
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologyueh1236
Linguasphere79-AAA-ma
The four main Yuehai languages, at right, are shaded in pink

Yuehai (Chinese: 粵海; Jyutping: jyut6 hoi2; pinyin: Yuèhǎi) is the main branch of Yue Chinese, spoken in the Pearl River Delta of the province of Guangdong, as well as Hong Kong and Macau. It is commonly called Cantonese,[2] though that name is more precisely applied to the Guangzhou topolect of Yuehai.

Topolects

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

References

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  1. ^ "Guangfu" (apparently = all of Yuehai) in Olson, An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of China
  2. ^ "Yue Chinese in China | Cantonese Chinese in China". www.mandarinrocks.com. Retrieved December 3, 2025.