Cantonese,orStandardCantonese,isalanguagethatoriginatedinthevicinityofCanton(i.e.Guangzhou)insouthernChina,andisoftenregardedastheprestigedialectofYueChinese. 　　InmainlandChina,itisalinguafrancainGuangdongProvinceandsomeneighbouringareas,suchastheeasternpartofGuangxiProvince.OutsidemainlandChina,itisspokenbythemajoritypopulationofHongKongandMacauineverydaylife.ItisalsospokenbyoverseasChinesecommunitiesinSoutheastAsia,theUnitedStates,Canada,Peru,Cuba,Panama,Australia,andNewZealand,aswellaspartofEurope,andisthemostwidelyspokenChinesedialectintheworld. 　　Whiletheterm"Cantonese"refersnarrowlytotheprestigedialectdescribedinthisarticle,itisoftenusedinabroadersensefortheentireYuebranchofChinese,includingrelateddialectssuchasTaishanese. 　　TheCantoneselanguageisalsoviewedaspartoftheculturalidentityforthenativespeakersacrosslargeswathesofsouthernChina,HongKongandMacau.AlthoughCantonesesharesmuchvocabularywithMandarinChinese,thetwolanguagesarenotmutuallyintelligiblelargelybecauseofpronunciationandgrammaticaldifferences.Sentencestructure,inparticulartheplacementoftheverb,sometimesdiffersbetweenthetwolanguages.TheuseofvocabularyinCantonesealsotendstohavemorehistoricroots.ThemostnotabledifferencebetweenCantoneseandMandarinishowthespokenwordiswritten;withMandarinthespokenwordiswrittenassuch,wherewithCantonesetheremaynotbeadirectwrittenwordmatchingwhatwassaid.Becauseofthisdifference,itisoftensaidthatCantoneseis"slang"whileMandarinis"proper"Chinese.[2][3]