Yue

[John Cowan]

Doug Ewell scripsit:

> I have no idea where this came from, but:
> 
> 1. Cantonese, not Yue, is the main Chinese language spoken in Hong Kong
>    and Macau.

This is off-topic to the request, but being afflicted with Geek Answer Syndrome,
(the tendency to answer questions that haven't been asked), I can't help
clearing it up.  "Cantonese" and "Yue" are synonymous.  More precisely,
"Cantonese" is a somewhat polysemous term: it can mean the local variety
of Guangdong (= Canton) city, or Guangdong province, or the whole language
in all its varieties to which they belong.

"Yue" has been applied to a variety of Southern things throughout Chinese
history:  the "hundred Yue" were the non-Chinese kingdoms south of China
at any given point, and the word "Viet" is another form of the same word.

So Yue is indeed the language of the streets (though not of the administration)
in Hong Kong and Macau.

-- 
John Cowan          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org
It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was
laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds
upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply
persists from blind imitation of the past. --Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.