ABSTRACT
The sound system of Cantonese is unfamiliar to speakers of European languages in several respects. Cantonese is a tone language in which the pitch or pitch pattern with which a syllable is pronounced is crucial to the identity of the word or syllable. This chapter provides sufficient background information for the grammar to be used effectively and a phonological analysis of the Cantonese sound system. As in Mandarin, however, the possible combinations of sounds into syllables in Cantonese are restricted by comparison with European languages. The actual difference in length depends on the syllable: in a closed syllable such as haak 'client', the long vowel in Cantonese may be no longer than a short one in English. As Cantonese is a tonal language where pitch is used to differentiate words, intonation at the level of the sentence is restricted, at least by comparison with English.
