Since ancient times, the various primitive tribes residing in the Lingnan region were collectively referred to as the “Southern Barbarians” by the Huaxia tribes (ancient Chinese / Han) living in the Central Plains. Before the Qin dynasty expanded southward, the languages in Lingnan exhibited characteristics of both ancient Chor and indigenous “Hundred Yuet” languages. During the ancient period, the languages in Lingnan likely belonged to the Austronesian languages family. Comparative linguistics has found that Cantonese, Min and Hakka languages all contain numerous “sound without character” words, many of which are retained from the Austronesian languages substratum. The languages spoken by the Hundred Yuet tribes in the two Guang regions were referred to as “bird language” by the Han people, highlighting the conflict between the two cultures.
In the 29th year of Emperor Qin(218 BCE), the Qin dynasty began its campaign against the Hundred Yuet lands of Lingnan. In the thirty-third year of Qin Shi Huang (214 BCE), the Qin Canal was opened, connecting the waterway between the Chor region (present-day Hunan) and western Guangdong (present-day Guangxi), thus facilitating more frequent exchanges between the Central Plains and Lingnan. Subsequently, the entire Lingnan region was conquered, and prefectures and counties were established. In the 2nd year of the 2nd Qin emperor (208 BCE), Chiu Tor established the Southern Yuet kingdom. The monarchs of Southern Yuet implemented policies to unite the Hundred Yuet people, employing the Yuet people and promoting intermarriage between the Han and Yuet, thereby accelerating cultural exchange and integration.
Similarities with minority languages
Linguists have found that Cantonese contains numerous elements from the ancient languages of the Hundred Yue peoples in the Lingnan region, who are the ancestors of today’s Thai, Li, Zhuang, Dong, Yao, She, Miao, and other ethnic groups. The Miao and Yao languages in northern Thailand share many tones and words remarkably similar to Cantonese, such as เจ็ด七 (7), แปด八 (8), เก้า九 (9), and สิบ十 (10). In other words, Cantonese is closer to the minority languages of Lingnan than to Northern Chinese (Han).
Dialect experts also acknowledge that some syntactic structures in Cantonese are consistent with those of minority languages, rather than standard Chinese. For example, in Cantonese, modifiers are placed after the noun, such as in “食飯先” (eat first), “食快啲” (eat faster), “畀晒佢” (give it all to him), “肥得滯” (too fat), and “高過頭” (too tall), which differ from the standard Chinese “先吃飯” (eat first), “快點吃” (eat faster), “全給他” (give it all to him), “太膩了” (too greasy), and “太高” (too tall). This structure is similar to that of the Zhuang-Dong languages. Cantonese also has some high-frequency core vocabulary, such as the word for “this” (呢), which is the same in Zhuang-Dong and Miao-Yao languages. Additionally, words like “痕” (itchy), “冧” (collapse), “揼” (stomp), and “擙” (shake) are consistent with the Hundred Yue languages.