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151-515: The area where present-day Ho Chi Minh City is located was likely inhabited long since prehistory; the empire of Funan (although it is still debated whether Funan is a Khmer state) and later Chenla maintained a presence in the Mekong Delta for centuries. The city was known as Prey Nôkôr ( Khmer : ព្រៃនគរ ) to the Khmer Empire , which likely maintained a settlement centuries before its rise in

302-714: A botanical garden , the Norodom Palace , Hotel Continental , Notre-Dame Cathedral , and Bến Thành Market , among many others. In April 1865, Gia Định Báo was established in Saigon, becoming the first newspaper published in Vietnam. During the French colonial era, Saigon became known as "Pearl of the Orient" ( Hòn ngọc Viễn Đông ), or "Paris of the Extreme Orient". On 27 April 1931,

453-570: A linguistic discrimination that has also contributed to social conflicts between the two sides, with a growing number of Chinese Americans (including American-born Chinese ) of Cantonese background defending the historic Chinese-American culture against the impacts of increasing Mandarin-speaking new arrivals. In Northern California , especially the San Francisco Bay Area , the California Cantonese have historically dominated in

604-629: A Chinese community. The majority of Cantonese-speakers in Canada live in the Greater Toronto Area and Metro Vancouver . There are sufficient Cantonese-speakers in Canada that there exist locally produced Cantonese TV and radio programming, such as Fairchild TV . As in the United States, the Chinese Canadian community traces its roots to early immigrants from Guangdong during the latter half of

755-482: A centre of resistance against Tây Sơn. Two years later, a large Vauban citadel called Gia Định , or Thành Bát Quái ("Eight Diagrams") was built by Victor Olivier de Puymanel , one of the Nguyễn Ánh's French mercenaries . The citadel was captured by Lê Văn Khôi during his revolt of 1833–35 against Emperor Minh Mạng . Following the revolt, Minh Mạng ordered it to be dismantled, and a new citadel, called Phụng Thành ,

906-426: A common Vietnamese surname ( Hồ , 胡 ) with a given name meaning "enlightened will" (from Sino-Vietnamese , 志 明 ; Chí meaning 'will' or 'spirit', and Minh meaning 'light'), in essence, meaning "light bringer". Nowadays, "Saigon" is still used as a semi-official name for the city, in some cases being used interchangeably with Ho Chi Minh City, partly due to its long history and familiarity. "Prey Nokor City"

1057-533: A dictator who ruined Vietnam by starting the war with South Vietnam. As a result, they generally do not recognize the name Hồ Chí Minh City , and will only refer to the city as Sài Gòn , the previous official name of the city. By the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 6th tenure, 1st session, for officially renaming Saigon-Gia Dinh City as Ho Chi Minh City. The National Assembly of

1208-537: A distinct classical literature was developed in Cantonese, with Middle Chinese texts sounding more similar to modern Cantonese than other present-day Chinese varieties, including Mandarin. As Guangzhou became China's key commercial center for foreign trade and exchange in the 1700s, Cantonese became the variety of Chinese interacting most with the Western world. Much of the sources for this period of early Cantonese, such as

1359-525: A long tradition of being one of the centers of economy, entertainment and education in Vietnam. As such, the city is also the busiest international transport hub in Vietnam, as Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport accounts for nearly half of all international arrivals to Vietnam and the Port of Saigon is among the busiest container ports in Southeast Asia . Ho Chi Minh City is also a tourist attraction. Some of

1510-598: A metropolitan area covering most parts of the southeast region plus Tiền Giang Province and Long An Province under planning, will have an area of 30,000 km (12,000 sq mi) with a population of 20 million inhabitants by 2020. Inhabitants of Ho Chi Minh City are usually known as "Saigonese" in English and "dân Sài Gòn" in Vietnamese. The majority of the population are ethnic Vietnamese ( Kinh ) at about 93.52%. Ho Chi Minh City's largest minority ethnic group are

1661-469: A mission to ask his son-in-law, King Chey Chettha II, to set up tax collection stations in Prey Nokor (Sài Gòn) and Kas Krobei (Bến Nghé). Although this was a deserted jungle area, it was located on the traffic routes between Vietnam, Cambodia, and Siam. The next two important events of this period were the establishment of the barracks and residence of Vice King Ang Non and the establishment of

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1812-518: A more important status by the natives than ever before as a common identity of the local people. This has led to initiatives to revive the language such as its introduction into school curricula and locally produced programs on broadcast media. Cantonese has historically served as a lingua franca among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, who speak a variety of other forms of Chinese including Hokkien , Teochew , and Hakka . Additionally, Cantonese media and popular culture such as cinema of Hong Kong

1963-532: A new région called Saigon–Cholon consisting of Saigon and Cholon was formed; the name Cholon was dropped after South Vietnam gained independence from France in 1955. From about 256,000 in 1930, Saigon's population rose to 1.2 million in 1950. In 1949, former Emperor Bảo Đại made Saigon the capital of the State of Vietnam with himself as head of state. In 1954, the Geneva Agreement partitioned Vietnam along

2114-607: A palace at Tân Mỹ (near the present-day Cống Quỳnh–Nguyễn Trãi crossroads). It can be said that Saigon was formed from these three government agencies. In 1679, Lord Nguyễn Phúc Tần allowed a group of Chinese refugees from the Qing dynasty to settle in Mỹ Tho , Biên Hòa and Saigon to seek refuge. In 1698, Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh , a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyễn rulers of Huế by sea to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in

2265-576: A reference to its former status as a Khmer port city. Of the about 3 million Overseas Vietnamese , a majority left Vietnam as political refugees after 1975 as a result of the Fall of Saigon and the resulting takeover by the Communist regime, taking up residence in North America, Western Europe, and Australia. The majority are opposed to the existing government of Vietnam, and, in many cases, view Hồ Chí Minh as

2416-541: A relatively minor presence compared to other Southeast Asian nations, being the fourth most spoken Chinese variety after Hokkien, Hakka and Teochew. Despite the majority of Chinese Filipinos are Fujianese , there are also sizeable Cantonese population in the Philippines, with many of them mainly came from Taishan , Guangdong . Many of the Cantonese people and their descendants live in Baguio and its province Benguet , where

2567-421: A separate Hong Kong identity. A similar identity issue exists in the United States, where conflicts have arisen among Chinese-speakers due to a large recent influx of Mandarin-speakers. While older Taiwanese immigrants have learned Cantonese to foster integration within the traditional Chinese American populations, more recent arrivals from the mainland continue to use Mandarin exclusively. This has contributed to

2718-573: A significant proportion of the entertainment industry in China migrated to Hong Kong in the early decades of the 20th century, the Hong Kong-based entertainment industry underwent a transformation to suit overseas as well as domestic audiences. With the bifurcation of the film industry into Cantonese and Mandarin, the use of the Xiguan accent of Guangzhou as a conservative prestige accent of standard Cantonese

2869-602: A small group of Bawean from Bawean Island in Indonesia (about 400; as of 2015), they occupy District 1. Various other nationalities including Koreans, Japanese, Americans, South Africans, Filipinos and Britons reside in Ho Chi Minh City, particularly in Thủ Đức and District 7 as expatriate workers. As of April 2009, the city recognises 13 religions and 1,983,048 residents identify as religious people. Buddhism and Catholicism are

3020-536: Is ASEAN's 6th largest economy , also the biggest outside an ASEAN country capital. Since ancient times, water transport has been heavily used by inhabitants in the area. The area was occupied by Champa from 2nd century AD to around the 19th century, due to Đại Việt 's expansionist policy of Nam tiến . After the fall of the Citadel of Saigon , the city became the capital of French Indochina from 1887 to 1902, and again from 1945 until its cessation in 1954. Following

3171-737: Is 28 °C (82 °F), with little variation throughout the year. The highest temperature recorded was 40.0 °C (104 °F) in April while the lowest temperature recorded was 13.8 °C (57 °F) in January. On average, the city experiences between 2,400 and 2,700 hours of sunshine per year. The city is a municipality at the same level as Vietnam's provinces , which is subdivided into 22 district-level sub-divisions (as of 2020): They are further subdivided into 5 commune-level towns (or townlets), 58 communes, and 249 wards (as of 2020 , see List of HCMC administrative units below). On 1 January 2021, it

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3322-573: Is 47 km (29 mi). Due to its location on the Mekong Delta, the city is fringed by tidal flats that have been heavily modified for agriculture. Saigon is considered one of the most vulnerable cities to the effects of climate change , particularly flooding. During the rainy season, a combination of high tide, heavy rains, high flow volume in the Saigon River and Đồng Nai River and land subsidence results in regular flooding in several parts of

3473-525: Is also available in the nation and Cantonese is prevalent in locally produced Chinese television. Cantonese spoken in Malaysia and Singapore often exhibits influences from Malay and other Chinese varieties spoken in the country, like Hokkien and Teochew. The Singapore government uses Mandarin as the official Chinese variety and has a Speak Mandarin Campaign (SMC) seeking to actively promote using Mandarin at

3624-523: Is also widely spoken as well in the town of Sekinchan in the district of Sabak Bernam located in the northern part of Selangor state and also in the state of Perak , especially in the state capital city of Ipoh and its surrounding towns of Gopeng , Batu Gajah , and Kampar of the Kinta Valley region plus the towns of Tapah and Bidor in the southern part of the Perak state, and also widely spoken in

3775-515: Is an official language alongside Portuguese . As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in everyday life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is mutually intelligible with the Cantonese spoken in the mainland city of Guangzhou , although there exist some minor differences in accent, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Cantonese first developed around

3926-619: Is becoming increasingly concentrated in Brooklyn's Sunset Park, also known as Little Fuzhou , which is causing the city's growing Cantonese and Fuzhou enclaves to become increasingly distanced and isolated from both each other and other Chinese enclaves in Queens. Flushing's Chinatown , which is now the largest Chinatown in the city, and Elmhurst's smaller Chinatown in Queens are very diverse, with large numbers of Mandarin speakers from different regions of China and Taiwan. The Chinatowns of Queens comprise

4077-420: Is expected to grow to 13.9 million by 2025. The population of the city is expanding faster than earlier predictions. In August 2017, the city's mayor, Nguyễn Thành Phong, admitted that previous estimates of 8–10 million were drastic underestimations. The actual population (including those who have not officially registered) was estimated 13 million in 2017. The Ho Chi Minh City Metropolitan Area ,

4228-566: Is growing, with a number of educational institutes offering Cantonese as an elective language course. Cantonese is widely used as the inter-communal language among Chinese Cambodians , especially in Phnom Penh and other urban areas. While Teochew speakers form the majority of the Chinese population in Cambodia , Cantonese is often used as a vernacular in commerce and with other Chinese variant groups in

4379-466: Is in the Cantonese name of Chợ Lớn ( chữ Nôm : 𢄂𡘯), the Chinese district of Saigon. The Cantonese (and original) name of Cholon is "Tai-Ngon" ( 堤 岸 ), which means "embankment" (French: quais ). The theory posits that "Sài Gòn" derives from "Tai-Ngon". Vương (1960) favored this etymology. The proposal that Sài Gòn is from non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 堤岸 tai4 ngon6 (“embankment”, SV: đê ngạn),

4530-509: Is largely a countermeasure against Hong Kong's influence, as the autonomous territory has the right to freedom of the press and speech and its Cantonese-language media have a substantial exposure and following in Guangdong. Nevertheless, the place of local Cantonese language and culture remains contentious, as with other non-Mandarin Chinese languages. A 2010 proposal to switch some programming on Guangzhou television from Cantonese to Mandarin

4681-571: Is largely influential in the local Chinese media and is used in commerce by Chinese Malaysians. Due to the popularity of Hong Kong popular culture , especially through drama series and popular music, Cantonese is widely understood by the Chinese in all parts of Malaysia, even though a large proportion of the Chinese Malaysian population is non-Cantonese. Television networks in Malaysia regularly broadcast Hong Kong television programmes in their original Cantonese audio and soundtrack. Cantonese radio

Names of Ho Chi Minh City - Misplaced Pages Continue

4832-407: Is mostly used in informal settings like social media and comic books. In English, the term "Cantonese" can be ambiguous. "Cantonese" as used to refer to the language native to the city of Canton, which is the traditional English name of Guangzhou , was popularized by An English and Cantonese Pocket Dictionary (1859), a bestseller by the missionary John Chalmers . Before 1859, this variant

4983-446: Is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong and Guangxi, people also call it "provincial capital speech" ( 省城話 ; 省城话 ; Saang2 seng4 waa2 ; Sáangsèhng wá ) or "plain speech" ( 白話 ; 白话 ; Baak6 waa2 ; Baahkwá ). In academic linguistic circles, it is also referred to as "Canton prefecture speech" ( 廣府話 ; 广府话 ; Gwong2 fu2 waa2 ; Gwóngfú wá ). In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities,

5134-406: Is only non-verbatim with respect to vernacular Cantonese, it is possible to read Standard Chinese text verbatim in formal Cantonese, often with only slight changes in lexicon that are optional depending on the reader's choice of register. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may appear similar but are pronounced differently. Conversely, written (vernacular) Cantonese

5285-408: Is popular throughout the region. In Vietnam , Cantonese is the dominant language of the main ethnic Chinese community, usually referred to as Hoa , which numbers about one million people and constitutes one of the largest minority groups in the country. Over half of the ethnic Chinese population in Vietnam speaks Cantonese as a native language and the variety also serves as a lingua franca between

5436-478: Is spoken by ethnic Chinese in Portugal who originate from Macau , the most established Chinese community in the nation with a presence dating back to the 16th century and Portuguese colonialism . Since the late-20th century, however, Mandarin- and Wu-speaking migrants from mainland China have outnumbered those from Macau, although Cantonese is still retained among mainstream Chinese community associations. Cantonese

5587-540: Is still the most common way to refer to the city inside Vietnam, despite an official name change after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Sài Gòn is still used to refer to the central district, District 1 . Sài Gòn Railway Station in District 3 , the main railway station serving the city, retains the name, as well as the city's zoo . The name is also found in company names, book titles and even on airport departure boards:

5738-455: Is the translation to Hanyu Pinyin of certain terms which originated from southern Chinese varieties. For instance, dim sum is often known as diǎn xīn in Singapore's English-language media, though this is largely a matter of style, and most Singaporeans will still refer to it as dim sum when speaking English. Nevertheless, since the government restriction on media in non-Mandarin varieties

5889-527: Is well known in Khmer, whereas "Ho Chi Minh City" is used to refer to the whole city. The earliest settlement in the area was a Funan temple at the location of the current Phụng Sơn Buddhist temple, founded in the 4th century AD. A settlement called Baigaur was established on the site in the 11th century by the Champa . Baigaur was renamed Prey Nokor after conquest by the Khmer Empire around 1145, Prey Nokor grew on

6040-456: The 17th parallel ( Bến Hải River ), with the communist Việt Minh , under Ho Chi Minh , gaining complete control of the northern half of the country , while the southern half gained independence from France. The State officially became the Republic of Vietnam when Bảo Đại was deposed by his Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm in the 1955 referendum , with Saigon as its capital. On 22 October 1956,

6191-451: The Cantonese name of Chợ Lớn, (e.g. by Garnier, 1866 and Vương, 1960) has been critiqued as folk-etymological, as: According to Lê Van Phát, a Vietnamese military officer, a similar source for the name may have developed from the Thai words Cai-ngon , meaning "cotton bush" or "cotton plant". Lê stated that Laotians refer to Saigon as "Cai-ngon". The Cham etymology is considered to be one of

Names of Ho Chi Minh City - Misplaced Pages Continue

6342-529: The Chinese characters used to spell the name in chữ Hán : 嘉 , which means "joyful", "auspicious", or "pretty", and 定 , which means "decide" or "pacify". Another possible etymology, based on the fact that Malay speakers existed in the region during the era of Vietnamese settlement, relates the name to the Malay words ya dingin or ya hering , meaning "cool and cold" or "cold and clear", respectively—perhaps referring to

6493-577: The Hong Kong Basic Law . The Chinese language has many different varieties , of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and tribunals. It is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation also exists in neighboring Macau , where Chinese

6644-447: The IATA code for Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport is SGN. There is much debate about the origins of the name, the etymology of which is analyzed below. The Vietnamese most often write the name as Sài Gòn , in two words, following the traditional convention in Vietnamese spelling. Some, however, exceptionally write the name of the city as "SaiGon" or "Saigon" in order to save space or give

6795-493: The Sacramento River Delta (see Locke, California ). It is a Yuehai variety much like Guangzhou Cantonese but has "flatter" tones. Chinese is the second most widely spoken non-English language in the United States when both Cantonese and Mandarin are combined, behind Spanish. Many institutes of higher education have traditionally had Chinese programs based on Cantonese, with some continuing to offer these programs despite

6946-685: The Vietnamese People's Army . In 1976, upon the establishment of the unified communist Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the city of Saigon (including the Cholon area), the province of Gia Ðịnh and two suburban districts of two other nearby provinces were combined to create Ho Chi Minh City, in honour of the late Communist leader Ho Chi Minh. At the time, the city covered an area of 1,295.5 square kilometres (500.2 sq mi) with eight districts and five rurals: Thủ Đức , Hóc Môn , Củ Chi , Bình Chánh , and Nhà Bè . Since 1978, administrative divisions in

7097-627: The emergent Chinese American enclaves in eastern Los Angeles County and other areas of the metropolitan region. Cantonese is the most common Chinese variety spoken among Chinese Canadians . According to the Canada 2016 census , there were 565,275 Canadian residents who reported Cantonese as their native language. Among the self-reported Cantonese speakers, 44% were born in Hong Kong, 27% were born in Guangdong Province in China, and 18% were Canadian-born. Cantonese-speakers can be found in every city with

7248-462: The partition of French Indochina , it became the capital of South Vietnam until it was captured by North Vietnam , who renamed the city after their former leader Hồ Chí Minh , though the former name is still widely used in informal usages. Beginning in the 1990s, the city underwent rapid expansion and modernization, which contributed to Vietnam's post-war economic recovery and helped revive its international trade hub status. Ho Chi Minh City has

7399-436: The 11th and 12th centuries. The most popular interpretation of the name, and one supported by former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk , suggests that the name means "forest city" or "forest kingdom"— prey meaning forest or jungle, and nôkôr being a Khmer word of Sanskrit origin meaning city or kingdom. The name Krŭng Prey Nôkôr ( Khmer : ក្រុងព្រៃនគរ ; "Prey Nôkôr City") is currently used to refer to Ho Chi Minh City in

7550-900: The 18th century rime dictionary Fenyun Cuoyao ( 分韻撮要 ; Fēnyùn Cuòyào ; Fan1 wan5 Cyut3 jiu3 ) and the 1828 Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect by the missionary Robert Morrison , were written in Guangzhou during this period of prosperity. After the First Opium War , centuries of maritime prohibitions ( 海禁 ; hǎijìn ; hoi2 gam3 ) ended. Large numbers of Cantonese people from the Pearl River Delta, especially merchants, subsequently migrated by boat to other parts of Guangdong and Guangxi. These migrants established enclaves of Cantonese in areas that primarily spoke other forms of Yue or even non-Sinitic languages such as Zhuang , for example in

7701-515: The 1960s, Saigon experienced economic downturn and high inflation, as it was completely dependent on U.S. aid and imports from other countries. As a result of widespread urbanisation, with the population reaching 3.3 million by 1970, the city was described by the USAID as being turned "into a huge slum". The city also suffered from "prostitutes, drug addicts, corrupt officials, beggars, orphans, and Americans with money", and according to Stanley Karnow , it

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7852-542: The 19th century. Later Chinese immigrants came from Hong Kong in two waves, first in the late 1960s to mid 1970s, and again in the 1980s to late 1990s on fears arising from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and impending handover to the People's Republic of China. Chinese-speaking immigrants from conflict zones in Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam, arrived as well, beginning in the mid-1970s and were also largely Cantonese-speaking. The overwhelming majority of Chinese speakers in

8003-777: The 2010 proposal put forth by Guangzhou Television , which called for an increase in Mandarin broadcasts at the expense of Cantonese programmes. This, however, resulted in protests in Guangzhou, which ultimately dissuaded the authorities from pursuing the proposal. Furthermore, there are reports of students being punished for speaking other Chinese languages at school, which has led to a reluctance among younger children to communicate in their native languages, including Cantonese. Such actions have further provoked Cantonese speakers to cherish their linguistic identity in contrast to migrants who have generally arrived from poorer areas of China and largely speak Mandarin or other Chinese languages. Due to

8154-480: The Australian Bureau of Statistics listed 336,410 and 263,673 speakers of Mandarin and Cantonese, respectively. By 2016, those numbers became 596,711 and 280,943. Spoken Chinese exhibits a multitude of regional and local varieties, many of which are mutually unintelligible . The majority of these varieties are not widely spoken outside of their native regions, although they may be encountered in other parts of

8305-510: The Cantonese authorities in the early In the 20th century, proponents of the regional uniqueness of their local language and the commercial importance of the region argued that Cantonese should be preserved. In contrast to other non-Mandarin Chinese varieties, Cantonese persists in a few state television and radio broadcasts today. Nevertheless, there have been recent efforts to reduce the use of Cantonese in China . The most notable of these has been

8456-471: The Cantonese made up the majority of the city's and province's Chinese Filipino residents, with some of them have residences in Metro Manila. They speak Cantonese and its dialects such as Taishanese at home or in their circles, though they also learned Hokkien —a community lingua franca and trade language among Chinese Filipinos—to interact with the majority of Chinese Filipinos for business purposes, even to

8607-618: The Chinatowns of San Francisco and Oakland , as well as the surrounding suburbs and metropolitan area, although since the late 2000s a concentration of Mandarin speakers has formed in Silicon Valley . In contrast, Southern California hosts a much larger Mandarin-speaking population, with Cantonese found in more historical Chinese communities such as that of Chinatown, Los Angeles , and older Chinese ethnoburbs such as San Gabriel , Rosemead , and Temple City . Mandarin predominates in much of

8758-469: The Chinese ( Hoa ) with 5.78%. Cholon – in District 5 and parts of Districts 6, 10, and 11 – is home to the largest Chinese community in Vietnam. The Hoa (Chinese) speak a number of varieties of Chinese , including Cantonese , Teochew (Chaozhou), Hokkien , Hainanese , and Hakka ; smaller numbers also speak Mandarin Chinese . Other ethnic minorities include Khmer with 0.34%, Cham with 0.1%, as well as

8909-546: The Chinese-run schools, colleges and universities currently employs Mandarin as the subject and medium of instruction for teaching Standard Chinese class subjects, often nearly replacing Hokkien and Cantonese, due to the mainland Chinese and Taiwanese influence in the country since the late 20th century. This also made Cantonese, Hokkien and other Chinese variants endangered languages in the country. However, there are efforts to preserve Cantonese Chinese culture and language in

9060-617: The Communist Party is ranked second in the city politics after the Secretary of the Communist Party, while chairman of the People's Committee is ranked third and the chairman of the People's Council is ranked fourth. Sub-division units Dec. 2003 Area (km ) Dec. 2008 Population as of census 1 October 2004 Population as of census 1 April 2009 Population 2010 Population 2011 Population 2015 Population/km 2011 The population of

9211-466: The Khmer kingdom—weakened as it was due to war with Thailand—and slowly Vietnamized the area. Upon capturing the city during the Cochinchina Campaign in 1859, the French officially westernized the city's traditional name into "Saigon" (French: Saïgon ). Since the time of original Vietnamese settlement, the informal name of Sài Gòn has remained in daily speech; apart from official matters, it

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9362-475: The Khmer language. Beginning in the 1620s, Prey Nôkôr was gradually settled by Vietnamese refugees fleeing the Trịnh–Nguyễn War further to the north. In 1623, Khmer King Chey Chettha II (1618–1628) allowed the Vietnamese to settle in the area, which they colloquially referred to as Sài Gòn , and to set up a custom house at Prey Nôkôr. The increasing waves of Vietnamese settlers which followed overwhelmed

9513-731: The Pacified Frontier", c. 1776), wherein Lê relates that, in 1674, Cambodian prince Ang Nan was installed as uparaja in 柴棍 (Sài Gòn) by Vietnamese forces. 柴棍 also appears later in Trịnh Hoài Đức's Gia Định thành thông chí (嘉定城通志 "Comprehensive Records about the Gia Định Citadel", c. 1820), Nam quốc địa dư giáo khoa thư (南國地輿教科書 "Textbook on the Geography of the Southern Country", 1908), etc. Adrien Launay, in

9664-409: The Philippines by volunteers within the Cantonese community to teach it to younger fellow Cantonese. Over a period of 150 years (from 1850 to the 2000s), Guangdong has been the place-of-origin for most Chinese emigrants to Western nations; one coastal county, Taishan (or Tóisàn, where the Sìyì or sei yap variety of Yue is spoken), alone may be the origin of the vast majority of Chinese immigrants to

9815-419: The Presidium of the National Assembly's meeting; Decides to rename Saigon-Gia Dinh City as Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City ( HCMC ; Vietnamese : Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh ), better known as Saigon ( Vietnamese : Sài Gòn ), is the most populous city in Vietnam , with a population of around 10 million in 2023. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which

9966-402: The Socialist Republic of Vietnam Considering the boundless love of the people of Saigon-Gia Dinh City for President Ho Chi Minh and their wish for the city to be named after him; Considering the long and difficult revolutionary struggle launched in Saigon-Gia Dinh City, with several glorious feats, deserves the honor of being named after President Ho Chi Minh; After discussing the suggestion of

10117-488: The Socialist Republic of Vietnam. "Hồ Chí Minh" was not his original name; he was born as Nguyễn Sinh Cung, and only began using the new name around 1940. This name, which he favoured throughout his later years, combines a common Vietnamese surname (Hồ, 胡 ) with a given name meaning "enlightened will" (from Sino-Vietnamese 志 明 ; Chí meaning 'will' (or spirit), and Minh meaning 'light'), in essence, meaning "bringer of light". The kingdom of Champa , though mainly based along

10268-569: The Thai Chinese commercial sector, it serves as a common language alongside Teochew or Thai. Chinese-language schools in Thailand have also traditionally been conducted in Cantonese. Furthermore, Cantonese serves as the lingua franca with other Chinese communities in the region. In Indonesia , Cantonese is locally known as Konghu and is one of the variants spoken by the Chinese Indonesian community, with speakers largely concentrated in certain major cities like Jakarta , Medan , Surabaya , Makassar , Semarang , Manado and Batam . However, it has

10419-460: The U.S. before 1965. As a result, Yue languages such as Cantonese and the closely related variety of Taishanese have been the major Chinese varieties traditionally spoken in the United States. In 2009, 458,840 Americans spoke Cantonese at home according to an American Community Survey. The Zhongshan variant of Cantonese, which originated from the western Pearl River Delta, is spoken by many Chinese immigrants in Hawaii, and some in San Francisco and

10570-457: The United Kingdom use Cantonese, with about 300,000 British people claiming it as their first language. This is largely due to the presence of British Hong Kongers and the fact that many British Chinese also have origins in the former British colonies in Southeast Asia of Singapore and Malaysia. Among the Chinese community in France , Cantonese is spoken by immigrants who fled the former French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) following

10721-462: The Vietnamese onto what were once Khmer lands, culminating in the creation of the unified State of Vietnam in 1949 and the associated cession of Cochinchina (known to the Khmers as Kampuchea Krom , or "Lower Cambodia ") to Vietnam has resulted in significant bitterness directed towards the Vietnamese on the part of the Khmers. As a result, many of those who consider themselves Khmer nationalists would refer to Ho Chi Minh City as Prey Nôkôr ,

10872-523: The Vietnamese source Phủ biên tạp lục (albeit written in literary Chinese) was the earliest extant one containing the local toponym's transcription; (2) 堤岸 has variant form 提岸 , thus suggesting that both were transcriptions of a local toponym and thus are cognates to, not originals of, Sài Gòn. Saigon is unlikely to be from 堤岸 since in "Textbook on the Geography of the Southern Country", it also lists Chợ Lớn as 𢄂𢀲 separate from 柴棍 Sài Gòn. The current official name, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh ,

11023-462: The adjacent areas, while Ho Chi Minh City refers to all of its urban and rural districts. The original toponym behind Sài Gòn, was attested earliest as 柴棍 , with two phonograms whose Sino-Vietnamese readings are sài and côn respectively, in Lê Quý Đôn's "Miscellaneous Chronicles of the Pacified Frontier" ( 撫邊雜錄 , Phủ biên tạp lục c. 1776), wherein Lê relates that, in 1674, Cambodian prince Ang Nan

11174-413: The appearance of the area's many waterways. On August 27, 1946, Viet Minh 's official newspaper Cứu Quốc (National Salvation) published the article Thành Phố SÀI-GÒN Từ Nay Sẽ Đổi Tên là thành phố HỒ-CHÍ-MINH ( Saigon City is Now Renamed Ho Chi Minh City ). This was the first time that proclaiming the city to be renamed after Hồ Chí Minh , the first leader of North Vietnam . On July 2, 1976, upon

11325-515: The area was a Cham settlement called Baigaur. The Cambodians then took over the Cham village of Baigaur and renamed it Prey Nokor, a small fishing village. Over time, under the control of the Vietnamese, it was officially renamed Gia Định ( 嘉 定 ) in 1698, a name that was retained until the time of the French conquest in the 1860s, when it adopted the name Sài Gòn , francized as Saïgon , although

11476-464: The area, remained until the 1690s, when Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh , a Vietnamese noble, was sent by the Nguyen rulers of Huế to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the Mekong Delta and its surroundings. This act formally detached the area from Cambodia, which found itself too weak to intervene due to its ongoing conflict with Thailand. Prey Nôkôr was officially renamed Gia Định ( chữ Hán : 嘉 定 ), and

11627-453: The area, thus detaching the area from Cambodia, which was not strong enough to intervene. He is often credited with the expansion of Saigon into a significant settlement. King Chey Chettha IV of Cambodia tried to stop the Vietnamese but was defeated by Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh in 1700. In February 1700, he invaded Cambodia from An Giang . In March, the Vietnamese expedition under Cảnh and a Chinese general Trần Thượng Xuyên (Chen Shangchuan) defeated

11778-578: The candidates for the etymology of Saigon. The Khmer etymology is considered to be the least likely candidate according to some linguists because of the complex onset of "Prey" as opposed to the simple onset of "Sài". Furthermore, there is voice distinction between the onsets of "kôr" and "gòn", not to mention syllabic syncope of the [no] in "Nôkôr" without the accompanying tone rise as normally occurs during monosyllabification in Southeast Asian tone languages (Thurgood, 1992; Thurgood and Li, 2002). However, if

11929-418: The chapter "Documents Historiques II: 1728 - 1771" of Histoire de la Mission de Cochinchine (1688−1823) , cites 1747 documents containing the toponyms: provincia Rai-gon (for Sài Gòn), Rai-gon thong (for *Sài Gòn thượng "Upper Saigon"), & Rai-gon-ha (for *Sài Gòn hạ "Lower Saigon"). It is probably a transcription of Khmer ព្រៃនគរ (Prey Nokôr), or Khmer ព្រៃគរ (Prey Kôr). This name may have originated from

12080-407: The city centre and 16 m (52 ft) for the suburb areas. It borders Tây Ninh Province and Bình Dương Province to the north, Đồng Nai Province and Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province to the east, Long An Province to the west, Tiền Giang Province and South China Sea to the south with a coast 15 km (9 mi) long. The city covers an area of 2,095 km (809 sq mi) or 0.63% of

12231-456: The city had 4,344,000 labourers, of whom 130,000 are over the labour age norm (in Vietnam, 60 for male and 55 for female workers). In 2009, GDP per capita reached $ 2,800, compared to the country's average level of $ 1,042. Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese , a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family . It originated in

12382-535: The city have been revised numerous times, most recently in 2020, when District 2 , District 9 , and Thủ Đức District were consolidated to form a municipal city . On 29 October 2002, 60 people died and 90 injured in the International Trade Center building fire in Ho Chi Minh City. Today, Ho Chi Minh City, along with its surrounding provinces, is described as "the manufacturing hub" of Vietnam, and "an attractive business hub". In terms of cost, it

12533-565: The city is referred to as 西 貢 , which is pronounced Sāigung in Cantonese and which 20th-century Vietnamese scholar Vương Hồng Sển  [ vi ] proposed to be a transcription of Vietnamese Sài Gòn; 西貢 is also pronounced Tây Cống in Sino-Vietnamese , Sai-kòng in Teochew, Xīgòng in Mandarin, etc. But 西貢 has never been written in Vietnamese records, only 柴棍 (Sài Gòn). French officer Francis Garnier proposes that Sài Gòn's etymology

12684-514: The city is the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council and consists of 105 members. The current chairwoman is Nguyễn Thị Lệ . The judiciary branch of the city is the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court. The current chief judge is Lê Thanh Phong . The executive committee of Communist Party of Ho Chi Minh City is the leading organ of the Communist Party in Ho Chi Minh City. The current secretary is Nguyễn Văn Nên . The permanent deputy secretary of

12835-421: The city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton ) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta . Cantonese is regarded as an integral and inextricable component of the cultural identity of its native speakers across a vast expanse of southeastern China , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in overseas communities . In mainland China , Cantonese is the lingua franca of the Chinese province of Guangdong (being

12986-409: The city was given the official name, Đô Thành Sài Gòn ("Capital City Saigon"). After the decree of 27 March 1959 came into effect, Saigon was divided into eight districts and 41 wards. In December 1966, two wards from old An Khánh Commune of Gia Định, were formed into District 1, then seceded shortly later to become District 9. In July 1969, District 10 and District 11 were founded, and by 1975,

13137-429: The city was still indicated as 嘉 定 on Vietnamese maps written in chữ Hán until at least 1891. The current name, Ho Chi Minh City, was given after reunification in 1976 to honour Ho Chi Minh . Even today, however, the informal name of Sài Gòn remains in daily speech. However, there is a technical difference between the two terms: Sài Gòn is commonly used to refer to the city centre in District 1 and

13288-563: The city's area consisted of eleven districts, Gia Định , Củ Chi District ( Hậu Nghĩa ), and Phú Hòa District ( Bình Dương ). Saigon served as the financial, industrial and transport centre of the Republic of Vietnam. In the late 1950s, with the U.S. providing nearly $ 2 billion in aid to the Diệm regime, the country's economy grew rapidly under capitalism ; by 1960, over half of South Vietnam's factories were located in Saigon. However, beginning in

13439-435: The city, as of the 1 October 2004 census, was 6,117,251 (of which 19 inner districts had 5,140,412 residents and 5 suburban districts had 976,839 inhabitants). In mid-2007, the city's population was 6,650,942 – with the 19 inner districts home to 5,564,975 residents and the five suburban districts containing 1,085,967 inhabitants. The result of the 2009 Census shows that the city's population was 7,162,864 people, about 8.34% of

13590-410: The city, in protest of the Diệm regime. On 1 November of the same year, Diệm was assassinated in Saigon, in a successful coup by Dương Văn Minh . During the 1968 Tet Offensive , communist forces launched a failed attempt to capture the city . Seven years later, on 30 April 1975, Saigon was captured , ending the Vietnam War with a victory for North Vietnam, and the city came under the control of

13741-479: The city. A once-in-100 year flood would cause 23% of the city to suffer flooding. The city has a tropical climate , specifically tropical savanna ( Aw ), with a high average humidity of 78–82%. The year is divided into two distinct seasons. The rainy season, with an average rainfall of about 1,800 mm (71 in) annually (about 150 rainy days per year), usually lasts from May to November. The dry season lasts from December to April. The average temperature

13892-457: The coast of the South China Sea , is known to have expanded west into the Mekong Delta. The Chams gave the city the name "Baigaur" (or "Bai Gaur"), which author Jacques Népote suggests may have been a simple adaptation of the Khmer name Prey Kôr ; conversely, author Nghia M. Vo implies that a Cham presence existed in the area prior to Khmer occupation, and that the name Baigaur was given to

14043-467: The conflicts and communist takeovers in the region during the 1970s. While a slight majority of ethnic Chinese from Indochina speak Teochew at home, knowledge of Cantonese is prevalent due to its historic prestige status in the region and is used for commercial and community purposes between the different Chinese variety groups. As in the United States, there is a divide between Cantonese-speakers and those speaking other mainland Chinese varieties. Cantonese

14194-405: The considerable overlap in vocabulary between Cantonese and Mandarin, as well as other varieties of Chinese , these Sinitic languages are not mutually intelligible. This is due to a combination of factors, including phonological differences and variations in grammar and vocabulary. Notably, there are instances where the sentence structure, particularly with regard to verb placement, differs between

14345-620: The different Chinese dialect groups. Many speakers reflect their exposure to Vietnamese with a Vietnamese accent or a tendency to code-switch between Cantonese and Vietnamese. In Malaysia , Cantonese is widely spoken among the Malaysian Chinese community in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding areas in the Klang Valley ( Petaling Jaya , Ampang , Putrajaya , Cheras , Selayang , Sungai Buloh , Puchong , Shah Alam , Kajang , Bangi , and Subang Jaya ). The language

14496-405: The early 1900s. Cantonese remained a dominant and influential language in southeastern China until the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and its promotion of Standard Mandarin Chinese as the sole official language of the nation throughout the last half of the 20th century, although its influence still remains strong within the region. While the Chinese government encourages

14647-458: The eastern Sabahan town of Sandakan as well as the towns of Kuantan , Raub , Bentong , Temerloh , Pekan , Jerantut as well as Cameron Highlands in Pahang state, and they are also found in other areas like Sarikei , Sarawak, and Mersing , Johor. Although Hokkien is the most natively spoken variety of Chinese and Mandarin is the medium of education at Chinese-language schools , Cantonese

14798-416: The ethnic Chinese population of the two territories largely originated from the 19th and 20th century immigration from Guangzhou and surrounding areas, making Cantonese the predominant Chinese language in the territories. On the mainland, Cantonese continued to serve as the lingua franca of Guangdong and Guangxi even after Mandarin was made the official language of the government by the Qing dynasty in

14949-467: The etymological source, such as in the morphism of "Gaur" into "Nôkôr" by analogy with the Sanskrit "Nagara" as well as in the imaginative but highly speculatory attributions given above alleging Sinitic etymologies in a Southeast Asian context. Further ethnolinguistic and historical linguistic studies on this subject are currently underway. (Lopez, 2011) The name of Prey Nôkôr, along with Cambodia's rule over

15100-706: The expense of other Chinese varieties. A little over 15% of Chinese households in Singapore speak Cantonese. Despite the government actively promoting SMC, the Cantonese-speaking Chinese community has been relatively successful in preserving its language from Mandarin compared with other dialect groups. Notably, all nationally produced non-Mandarin Chinese TV and radio programs were stopped after 1979. The prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew , then, also stopped giving speeches in Hokkien to prevent giving conflicting signals to

15251-405: The formal establishment of the modern-day Socialist Republic of Vietnam , the new government eventually renamed the city. The official name is now Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh ; Thành phố is the Vietnamese word for "city". In English , this is translated as Ho Chi Minh City ; in French it is translated as Hô-Chi-Minh-Ville (the circumflex and hyphens are sometimes omitted). Due to its length,

15402-438: The historical chronology given by Nghia M. Vo is corroborated by linguistic evidence as NPD (Normal Phonological Development) would lead to the Cham name of Bai Gaur being adopted into Vietnamese as "Sài Gòn". The nasalization of coda sonorants such as [r] to [n] is well established in Vietnamese, and serves as a strong indication of Vietnamese "Sài Gòn" and Khmer "Prey Nôkôr" as doublets of a Cham original. Analogy usually postdates

15553-528: The language is referred to as "Guangdong speech" or "Canton Province Speech" ( 廣東話 ; 广东话 ; Gwong2 dung1 waa2 ; Gwóngdùng wá ) or simply as "Chinese" ( 中文 ; Zung1 man2 ; Jùngmán ). During the Southern Song period, Guangzhou became the cultural center of the region. Cantonese emerged as the prestige variety of Yue Chinese when the port city of Guangzhou on the Pearl River Delta became

15704-425: The largest is Saigon River . As a municipality , Ho Chi Minh City consists of 16 urban districts , five rural districts , and one municipal city (sub-city). As the largest financial centre in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City has the highest gross regional domestic product out of all Vietnam provinces and municipalities, contributing around a quarter of the country's total GDP . Ho Chi Minh City's metropolitan area

15855-570: The largest port in China, with a trade network stretching as far as Arabia. Specifically, the mutually intelligible speech of the Sam Yap ( 三邑 ; Sānyì ; Sam1 jap1 ), the Three Counties of Guangzhou, namely the historical counties of Panyu ( 番禺 ), Nanhai ( 南海 ), and Shunde ( 顺德 ), came to be heralded as the standard. Cantonese was also used in the popular Yuè'ōu , Mùyú and Nányīn folksong genres, as well as Cantonese opera . Additionally,

16006-478: The linguistic history of Hong Kong and Macau , and the use of Cantonese in many established overseas Chinese communities, the use of Cantonese is quite widespread compared to the presence of its speakers residing in China. Cantonese is the predominant Chinese variety spoken in Hong Kong and Macau. In these areas, public discourse takes place almost exclusively in Cantonese, making it the only variety of Chinese other than Mandarin to be used as an official language in

16157-469: The main Cambodian army at Bích Đôi citadel, king Chey Chettha IV took flight while his nephew Ang Em surrendered to the invaders, as the Vietnamese marched onto and captured Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh . As a result, Saigon and Long An were officially and securely obtained by the Nguyễn, more Vietnamese settlers moved into the new conquered lands. In 1788, Nguyễn Ánh captured the city, and used it as

16308-568: The majority language of the Pearl River Delta ) and neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. It is also the dominant and co-official language of Hong Kong and Macau . Furthermore, Cantonese is widely spoken among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia (most notably in Vietnam and Malaysia , as well as in Singapore and Cambodia to a lesser extent) and the Western world, such as California . Despite

16459-450: The many Bombax ceiba ( kapok ) trees that the Khmer people had planted around Prey Nôkôr, and which can still be seen at Cây Mai temple and surrounding areas. Another explanation is that the etymological meaning "twigs" ( sài ) and "boles" ( gòn ) refers to the dense and tall forest that once existed around the city, a forest to which the Khmer name, Prey Nokor, already referred. In Chinese,

16610-399: The name a more Westernized look. In addition, both the names Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City appear within the official seal of the city. The etymology of Saigon is uncertain. The original toponym behind Sài Gòn, was attested earliest as 柴棍, with two phonograms whose Sino-Vietnamese readings are sài and côn respectively, in Lê Quý Đôn's Phủ biên tạp lục (撫邊雜錄 "Miscellaneous Chronicles of

16761-399: The name is often abbreviated or made into an acronym ; "Tp. HCM" and the acronym "TPHCM" are used interchangeably in the original Vietnamese , along with "HCM City" or "HCMC" in English and "HCMV" in French. As noted, the now-official name commemorates North Vietnamese leader Hồ Chí Minh , who, although deceased by the time of the Fall of Saigon , was instrumental in the establishment of

16912-542: The nation. Chinese-language schools in Cambodia are conducted in both Cantonese and Mandarin, but schools may be conducted exclusively in one Chinese variant or the other. While Thailand is home to the largest overseas Chinese community in the world, the vast majority of ethnic Chinese in the country speak Thai exclusively. Among Chinese-speaking Thai households, Cantonese is the fourth most-spoken Chinese variety after Teochew , Hakka and Hainanese . Nevertheless, within

17063-487: The official variety of Chinese in Hong Kong and Macau, both during and after the colonial period, under the policy of ' biliteracy and trilingualism ' ( Chinese : 兩文三語 ; pinyin : liǎngwén sānyǔ ; Jyutping : loeng3 man4 saam1 jyu5 ). Government and law still function predominantly in Cantonese in these jurisdictions, and officials speak Cantonese even at the most formal occasions. The official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in

17214-476: The people of the two countries could freely move back and forth. In exchange, Chey Chettha II gifted Prei Nokor to the Nguyễn lords . Vietnamese settlers began to migrate to the area of Saigon, Đồng Nai. Before that, the Funanese, Khmer, and Cham had lived there, scattered from time immemorial. The period from 1623 to 1698 is considered the period of the formation of later Saigon. In 1623, Lord Nguyen sent

17365-496: The people. Hong Kong (Cantonese) and Taiwanese dramas are unavailable in their untranslated form on free-to-air television, though drama series in non-Chinese languages are available in their original languages. Cantonese drama series on terrestrial TV channels are instead dubbed in Mandarin and broadcast without the original Cantonese audio and soundtrack. However, originals may be available through other sources like cable television and online videos. Furthermore, an offshoot of SMC

17516-612: The point of assimilating into their Fujianese neighbors, as well as Spanish , English and Philippine languages such as Tagalog / Filipino , Cebuano and Ilocano . Like the Fujianese, newer generations of Chinese Filipinos of Cantonese descent barely speak Cantonese or Hokkien as their second or third languages or none at all due to assimilation into the local Filipino population over the years, making Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages such as Cebuano and Ilocano as their first languages and English as second. Additionally, most of

17667-470: The population of Hong Kong and Macau arrived from Guangzhou and surrounding areas after they were ceded to Britain and Portugal , respectively. The influx of such migrants into Hong Kong established Cantonese as the main language of the city, supplanting local Yue Chinese varieties, which were closer to the dialects of neighboring Shenzhen and Dongguan , as well as the Hakka and Southern Min varieties of

17818-489: The port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China. Due to the city's long standing role as an important cultural center, Cantonese emerged as the prestige dialect of the Yue varieties of Chinese in the Southern Song dynasty and its usage spread around most of what is now the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi . Despite the cession of Hong Kong to Britain in 1842 and Macau to Portugal in 1887,

17969-769: The primary Chinese variety spoken. Socioeconomic statuses are also a factor. For example, in New York City, Cantonese still predominates in the city's older, traditional western portion of Chinatown in Manhattan and in Brooklyn's small new Chinatowns in Bensonhurst and Homecrest . The newly emerged Little Fuzhou eastern portion of Manhattan's Chinatown and Brooklyn's main large Chinatown in and around Sunset Park are mostly populated by Fuzhounese speakers , who often speak Mandarin as well. The Cantonese and Fuzhounese enclaves in New York City are more working class. However, due to

18120-436: The primary cultural center for New York City's Chinese population and are more middle class. While a number of more-established Taiwanese immigrants have learned Cantonese to foster relations with the traditional Cantonese-speaking Chinese American population, more recent arrivals and the larger number of mainland Chinese immigrants have largely continued to use Mandarin as the exclusive variety of Chinese. This has led to

18271-410: The provenance of the prestige accent of Cantonese: that of the district of Xiguan ( 西关 ; 西關 ; Xīguān ; Sai1 Gwaan1 ) in the west of Guangzhou. It is known for its distinctive use of an apical vowel ( /ɿ/ , or in more conventional IPA : /ź̩~ɯ~ɨ/ ) in some cases where modern Cantonese would use a /i/ final. Throughout the 19th century and continuing into the 1900s, the ancestors of most of

18422-554: The rapid gentrification of Manhattan's Chinatown and with NYC's Cantonese and Fuzhou populations now increasingly shifting to other Chinese enclaves in the Outer Boroughs of NYC , such as Brooklyn and Queens , but mainly in Brooklyn's newer Chinatowns, the Cantonese speaking population in NYC is now increasingly concentrated in Bensonhurst's Little Hong Kong/Guangdong and Homecrest's Little Hong Kong/Guangdong . The Fuzhou population of NYC

18573-537: The region was placed firmly under Vietnamese administrative control. With the city's capture by the French in 1859, the name Gia Định was discarded and replaced by the name "Saigon", which had always been the popular name. Most maps in Literary Sinitic were not updated to use the newer name until at least 1891, with the name of the city written as 嘉 定 until then. The origin of the name Gia Định has not been firmly established. One possible etymology may relate to

18724-477: The region. With subsequent waves of migration into Hong Kong, even as late as the 1950s, the proportion of Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong had not yet surpassed 50%; nonetheless, this figure has risen to above 90% since the 1970s. On the other hand, the indigenous variety of Yue Chinese in Macau had been close to that of Zhongshan , and this has had an effect on the tonal phonology of the Cantonese spoken in Macau. As

18875-549: The rest are the Saigonese who don't believe in God which is Atheism . The city is the economic center of Vietnam and accounts for a large proportion of the economy of Vietnam . Although the city takes up just 0.6% of the country's land area, it contains 8.34% of the population of Vietnam, 20.2% of its GDP, 27.9% of industrial output and 34.9% of the FDI projects in the country in 2005. In 2005,

19026-506: The rest of mainland China and Taiwan and most often speak Standard Mandarin (Putonghua) as their native language, although some may also speak their native local variety, such as Shanghainese , Hokkien , Fuzhounese , Hakka , etc. As a result, Mandarin is becoming more common among the Chinese American community. The increase of Mandarin-speaking communities has resulted in the rise of separate neighborhoods or enclaves segregated by

19177-432: The rise of Mandarin. The most popular romanization for learning Cantonese in the United States is Yale romanization . The majority of Chinese emigrants have traditionally originated from Guangdong and Guangxi, as well as Hong Kong and Macau (beginning in the latter half of the 20th century and before the handover ) and Southeast Asia, with Cantonese as their native language. However, more recent immigrants are arriving from

19328-522: The site of a small fishing village and area of forest. The first Vietnamese people crossed the sea to explore this land completely without the organisation of the Nguyễn Lords . Thanks to the marriage between Princess Nguyễn Phúc Ngọc Vạn - daughter of Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên - and the King of Cambodia  Chey Chettha II in 1620, the relationship between Vietnam and Cambodia became smooth, and

19479-509: The surface of Vietnam), extending up to Củ Chi District (12 mi or 19 km from the Cambodian border) and down to Cần Giờ on the Eastern Sea. The distance from the northernmost point (Phú Mỹ Hưng Commune, Củ Chi District ) to the southernmost one (Long Hòa Commune, Cần Giờ District) is 102 km (63 mi), and from the easternmost point ( Long Bình ward , District Nine) to the westernmost one (Bình Chánh Commune, Bình Chánh District)

19630-473: The toponyms: provincia Rai-gon, Rai-gon thong (for *Sài Gòn thượng "Upper Saigon"), & Rai-gon-ha (for *Sài Gòn hạ "Lower Saigon"). It is probably a transcription of Khmer ព្រៃនគរ (Prey Nokôr) , or Khmer ព្រៃគរ (Prey Kôr). The proposal that Sài Gòn is from non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 堤岸 (“embankment”, tai4 ngon6 , SV: đê ngạn) , the Cantonese name of Chợ Lớn , (e.g. by Vương Hồng Sển) has been critiqued as folk-etymological, as: (1)

19781-492: The total population of Vietnam, making it the highest population-concentrated city in the country. As of the end of 2012, the total population of the city was 7,750,900 people, an increase of 3.1% from 2011. As an administrative unit, its population is also the largest at the provincial level. According to the 2019 census, Ho Chi Minh City has a population of over 8.9 million within the city proper and over 21 million within its metropolitan area . The city's population

19932-565: The two predominant religions in Ho Chi Minh City. The largest is Buddhism as it has 1,164,930 followers followed by Catholicism with 745,283 followers, Caodaism with 31,633 followers, Protestantism with 27,016 followers, Islam with 6,580 followers, Hòa Hảo with 4,894 followers, Tịnh độ cư sĩ Phật hội Việt Nam with 1,387 followers, Hinduism with 395 followers, Đạo Tứ ấn hiếu nghĩa with 298 followers, Minh Sư Đạo with 283 followers, Baháʼí Faith with 192 followers, Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương with 89 followers, Minh Lý Đạo with 67 followers, and

20083-402: The two varieties. A noteworthy distinction between Cantonese and Mandarin is the manner in which the spoken word is written. Both languages can be recorded verbatim, yet a paucity of Cantonese speakers possess comprehensive knowledge of the written vocabulary. Consequently, a non-verbatim formalised written form is adopted, which bears resemblance to the written Standard Mandarin . However, it

20234-456: The use of Standard Mandarin rather than local varieties of Chinese in broadcasts, Cantonese enjoys a relatively higher standing than other Chinese languages, with its own media and usage in public transportation in Guangdong province. Furthermore, it is also a medium of instruction in select academic curricula, including some university elective courses and Chinese as a foreign language programs. The permitted usage of Cantonese in mainland China

20385-474: The village that would later come to be known as Prey Nokor. The area now known as Ho Chi Minh City was part of several historical empires connected to modern-day Cambodia , including Funan , Chenla and the Khmer Empire . Formal settlements by the Khmers likely date back to the 11th century. In comparison, the first Vietnamese presence in the area dates back to the late 15th century. The gradual encroachment of

20536-612: The war and historic landmarks in the city include the Independence Palace , Landmark 81 (tallest building in Vietnam), the War Remnants Museum , and Bến Thành Market . The city is also known for its narrow walkable alleys and bustling night life . Currently, Ho Chi Minh City is facing increasing threats of sea level rise and flooding as well as heavy strains on public infrastructures. The first known human habitation in

20687-555: The way the Yong–Xun Yue dialect of Nanning emerged. Many Cantonese migrants sailed overseas, bringing the Cantonese language with the overseas Chinese to Southeast Asia, North and South America, and Western Europe. Such enclaves of Cantonese are found in Chinatowns across many of these major cities outside China. During the late 19th century, the pedagogical work Cantonese made easy , written by James Dyer Ball in 1883, articulated

20838-454: The word passed directly from Cham into Vietnamese without a Khmer intermediary stage, the complex onset, apocope and voice distinctions would be eliminated. Furthermore, the [au]~[o] alternation is well established in Vietnamese, and is still active today. For example, "không" as /kʰəwŋ͡m˧˧/ or /xəwŋ͡m˧˧/ meaning "no" is not dialectal according to region, but is used in free variation throughout present day Ho Chi Minh City (Lopez, 2010). Therefore,

20989-400: The world. Additionally, numerous varieties possess both literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters for newer standard reading sounds. Since a 1909 decree of the Qing dynasty , the government of China has promoted Mandarin for use in education, the media, and official communications. However, the proclamation of Mandarin as the official national language was not fully accepted by

21140-460: The world. Because of their dominance in Chinese diaspora overseas, standard Cantonese and its dialect Taishanese are among the most common Chinese languages that one may encounter in the West. Increasingly since the 1997 handover , Cantonese has been used as a symbol of local identity in Hong Kong, largely through the development of democracy in the territory and desinicization practices to emphasise

21291-593: Was "a black-market city in the largest sense of the word". On 28 April 1955, the Vietnamese National Army launched an attack against Bình Xuyên military force in the city. The battle lasted until May, killing an estimated 500 people and leaving about 20,000 homeless. Ngô Đình Diệm then later turned on other paramilitary groups in Saigon, including the Hòa Hảo Buddhist reform movement. On 11 June 1963, Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burned himself in

21442-462: Was abandoned following massive public protests, the largest since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 . As a major economic center of China, there have been concerns that the use of Cantonese in Guangzhou is diminishing in favour of Mandarin, both through the continual influx of Mandarin-speaking migrants from impoverished areas and strict government policies. As a result, Cantonese is being given

21593-431: Was announced that District 2 , District 9 and Thủ Đức District would be consolidated and was approved by Standing Committee of the National Assembly . The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee is a 13-member executive branch of the city. The current chairman is Phan Văn Mãi . There are several vice chairmen and chairwomen on the committee with responsibility over various city departments. The legislative branch of

21744-480: Was built in 1836. In 1859, the citadel was destroyed by the French following the Battle of Kỳ Hòa . Initially called Gia Định, the Vietnamese city became Saigon in the 18th century. Ceded to France by the 1862 Treaty of Saigon , the city was planned by the French to transform into a large town for colonization. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, construction of various French-style buildings began, including

21895-430: Was first proclaimed in 1945, and later adopted in 1976. It is abbreviated as TP.HCM, and translated in English as Ho Chi Minh City , abbreviated as HCMC, and in French as Hô-Chi-Minh-Ville (the circumflex is sometimes omitted), abbreviated as HCMV. The name commemorates Ho Chi Minh , the first leader of North Vietnam . This name, though not his given name, was one he favored throughout his later years. It combines

22046-487: Was installed as uparaja in 柴棍 (Sài Gòn) by Vietnamese forces. 柴棍 also appears later in Trịnh Hoài Đức's "Comprehensive Records about the Gia Định Citadel" ( 嘉定城通志 , Gia Định thành thông chí , c. 1820), "Textbook on the Geography of the Southern Country" ( 南國地輿教科書 , Nam quốc địa dư giáo khoa thư , 1908), etc. Adrien Launay's Histoire de la Mission de Cochinchine (1688−1823), "Documents Historiques II: 1728 - 1771" (1924: 190 ) cites 1747 documents containing

22197-437: Was maintained in mass media, with films from the 1930s making prominent use of it. However, during this time many phonological changes can be detected, indicating the change from Early Cantonese to Modern Cantonese. In mainland China, Standard Mandarin has been heavily promoted as the medium of instruction in schools and as the official language, especially after the communist takeover in 1949. Meanwhile, Cantonese has remained

22348-540: Was often referred to in English as "the Canton dialect". However, "Cantonese" may also refer to the primary branch of Chinese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang ; this broader usage may be specified as " Yue speech " ( 粵語 ; 粤语 ; Jyut6 jyu5 ; Yuhtyúh ). In this article, "Cantonese" is used for Cantonese proper. Historically, speakers called this variety "Canton speech" ( 廣州話 ; 广州话 ; Gwong2 zau1 waa2 ; Gwóngjàu wá ), although this term

22499-487: Was ranked the 111th-most expensive major city in the world according to a 2020 survey of 209 cities. In terms of international connectedness, as of 2020, the city was classified as a "Beta" city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network . The city is located in the south-eastern region of Vietnam, 1,760 km (1,090 mi) south of Hanoi . The average elevation is 5 m (16 ft) above sea level for

22650-490: Was relaxed in the mid-1990s and 2000s, presence of Cantonese in Singapore has grown substantially. Forms of popular culture from Hong Kong, like television series , cinema and pop music have become popular in Singaporean society, and non-dubbed original versions of the media became widely available. Consequently, the number of non-Cantonese Chinese Singaporeans being able to understand or speak Cantonese to some varying extent

22801-516: Was the dominant Chinese language of the Chinese Australian community from the time the first ethnic Chinese settlers arrived in the 1850s until the mid-2000s, when a heavy increase in immigration from Mandarin-speakers largely from mainland China led to Mandarin surpassing Cantonese as the dominant Chinese dialect spoken. Cantonese is the third most-spoken language in Australia. In the 2011 census,

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