What does writing look like in cantonese?

Cantonese doesn't have its own distinct writing system. It is written using Chinese characters, just like Mandarin and other Chinese languages. The characters themselves are the same, but the pronunciation and sometimes meaning can differ slightly between Cantonese and Mandarin.

Here's a breakdown:

* Characters: Cantonese uses the same traditional Chinese characters as Mandarin.

* Pronunciation: Cantonese has a different pronunciation for many characters compared to Mandarin. This is why even if you can read Mandarin, you might struggle to read Cantonese text.

* Tones: Cantonese has six tones, while Mandarin has four. This means that Cantonese uses different tones for some characters compared to Mandarin.

* Vocabulary: Cantonese has some unique vocabulary words that are not found in Mandarin.

Example:

Let's take the word "hello" as an example:

* Mandarin (Simplified): 你好 (nǐ hǎo)

* Cantonese (Traditional): 你好 (nei hou)

The characters are the same, but the pronunciation is different.

Conclusion:

While Cantonese doesn't have its own writing system, it utilizes the same Chinese characters as other Chinese languages with some differences in pronunciation and vocabulary.