Although written language is standardised across China, spoken Chinese varies from place to place. The written characters used might be the same but they can be read differently according to the local language (or dialect as Chinese languages are traditionally termed) spoken.

In modern China over 200 languages have been documented. These languages can be categorised into seven groups: Gan, Hakka, Mandarin, Min, Wu, Xiang and Yue. There are numerous languages and dialects within each of these groups, all of which have changed over time.

The Yue dialect group is spoken throughout the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, the neighbouring province to the west [see map below] and is often referred to as Cantonese. Guangzhou Cantonese is traditionally considered the standard Yue variety.

By the second half of the nineteenth century Guangzhou Cantonese was used as a language of commerce on the shores of the Pearl River Delta and was spoken inland along the West River all the way to the modern border with Vietnam. It was the main administrative, commercial and cultural language in southern China and was strongly affected by the languages spoken in the imperial capitals to the north.

For those interested in overseas Chinese one of the most important subdialects within the Yue languages are the Siyi (四邑, Sze Yap, See Yup) dialects. Siyi refers to an area of southern China, to the west of Guangzhou which includes the 'four counties' of Taishan (Xinning before 1920s), Xinhui, Kaiping and Enping [see map below].

As a significant number of nineteenth century Chinese immigrants spoke Siyi (in mandarin and See Yup in Cantonese), these dialects are widely spoken overseas, especially in North America and Australia. Each has changed in its own way over time. Siyi dialects preserve many of the influences and features of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary that were lost in Guangzhou Cantonese.

Short essay by Chinese Museum, 2013.