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devotech2 on scored.co
1 year ago1 point(+0/-0/+1Score on mirror)1 child
Hong Kong was utterly taken over by overwhelming majority Han Chinese. So no. They're of northern descent. Their neighbors to the west, guanxi, are significantly less Han. It's like how white south-easterns in the states are usually northwestern Europeans but southwesterners always seem to be beaners.
The difference is far more pronounced in the southwest of China rather than the southeast, because Han dominion was less pronounced to their southwest. Should've specified that, in hindsight.
Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese are practically alien languages compared to what the Han Chinese spoke in ancient times, but Cantonese is actually considered linguistically closer to ancient Chinese than mandarin is. They both come from the Han and are both descended from the same language, though.
It's like comparing English to Russian and deciding that we are completely different races from each other because we sound way different. That's just how languages evolve. The relationship between ancient chinese, Cantonese, and mandarin is analogous to the relationship between proto indo european, English, and Russian. A fuck load of diversion and change happens within thousands of years.
An actual southern Chinese native language would be hmong, which isn't even in the same language family at all.
The difference is far more pronounced in the southwest of China rather than the southeast, because Han dominion was less pronounced to their southwest. Should've specified that, in hindsight.
It's like comparing English to Russian and deciding that we are completely different races from each other because we sound way different. That's just how languages evolve. The relationship between ancient chinese, Cantonese, and mandarin is analogous to the relationship between proto indo european, English, and Russian. A fuck load of diversion and change happens within thousands of years.
An actual southern Chinese native language would be hmong, which isn't even in the same language family at all.