Cantonese has a history of more than 2,200 years since the Qin Dynasty.
"Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals" is called "Baiyue", "Historical Records" is called "Nanyue", "Hanshu" is called "Nanyue", "Yue" and "Guangdong" are related, and are also referred to as "Guangdong" ", generally refers to the Lingnan area. The ancestors of Guangdong have lived, worked and multiplied on this land for a long time.
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Central Plains region was once again in a long-term civil war, and the north fell to foreign hands for the first time. A large number of Central Plains scholars and people moved to Lingnan, and northern Chinese continued to impact the local language. At that time, Ancient Chinese was mixed with the previously formed Ancient Yue, which further narrowed the differences between Ancient Yue and Central Plains Chinese. This period was the growth period of Cantonese.
The Qing Dynasty was closed to the outside world, leaving only Guangzhou as a port for trade with other countries. After many foreigners came to China, the Chinese they mastered was Cantonese rather than Mandarin. Many officials in the capital often came into contact with Cantonese in order to do business with foreigners, which made Cantonese spread reversely to the Central Plains for the first time.
Extended information:
Cantonese was formed during the Qin and Han Dynasties. At that time, Qin Shihuang captured the land of Baiyue, and the people in the Lingnan area fled in order to avoid Qin Shihuang's war and rule. Therefore, the Chinese people entered the Lingnan area and began to live. The language spoken by Chinese people also began to merge with Lingnan dialect. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, more people from the Central Plains went to live in the Lingnan area.
Subsequently, the number of people in the Lingnan area slowly increased. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Cantonese was formed and its pronunciation and pronunciation were established. And after that, there was little influence from Chinese. People in the Lingnan area have been developing Cantonese on their own, with their own characteristics.
And in modern times, more and more people speak Cantonese, and some people want to use Cantonese as the national Mandarin. Therefore, there are actually many people who speak Cantonese. Cantonese has also undergone continuous development to become what it is today.
When the Republic of China was founded, although there was a tendency for modern vernacular to replace the old classical Chinese for formal writing, there were not many restrictions on the actual use of Cantonese. However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the state standardized the Mandarin accent as the national lingua franca.
Cantonese is increasingly influenced by Mandarin, so much so that many younger generations in the Cantonese-speaking areas of mainland China do not understand the Cantonese pronunciation of some technical nouns. This situation has caused many native Cantonese speakers to begin to feel a sense of mother tongue crisis.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Cantonese