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I am curious, if supposedly Mandarin came before Cantonese, how can it be explained that poems, existing before the Ming dynasty which supposedly when Mandarin originated, have more rhythm in Cantonese?
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I think Cantonese came first, only because there are similarities in some words with Japanese and Korean words.
Mandarin is a newer, more refined language.
Inhabitants of each area in China have their own language, Cantonese is one of them. So the government set up a Mandarin to help the communication among citizens from different area.
both same time but different areas…
Old Chinese language is called wen-yan…
it looks like Cantonese is older
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