A comparison of the Cantonese pronunciations recorded in Guangzhouhua zhengyin zidian and Guangzhouhua biaozhunyin zihui = "Guangzhou hua zheng yin zi dian" yu "Guangzhou hua biao zhun yin zi hui" Yue yu zhu yin bi jiao yan jiu

Abstract

Cantonese is not only a lingua franca of the Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macau but also a Chinese dialect widely used in overseas Chinese communities around the world. Being the most prestigious Yue dialect, Cantonese is an important dialect worth investigating. In the past few decades, over a dozen dictionaries on Cantonese have been compiled. Among them, the Guangzhouhua zhengyin zidian 廣 州話正音字典 and Guangzhouhua biaozhunyin zihui 廣州話標準音字彙 are widely used and influential pronunciation standards on Cantonese. Despite their importance, systematic studies on Cantonese pronunciations given in these two dictionaries are few and far between. The present dissertation attempts to analyze the differences between the two dictionaries to obtain a comprehensive list of their differences. The analysis is conducted with reference to the number of pronunciations given to each character; the ordering of the pronunciations; tone change; and the listing of commonly used pronunciations. Their differences are then examined in the hope that language teachers may have a concrete basis on which the students’ pronunciation may be corrected.