EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
EEVblog => EEVblog Specific => Topic started by: PsychoMaster on February 10, 2015, 10:50:59 am
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Hi I thought a subject which really bugs me might make a blogg and that is the Americans using the word "SODDERING". If you go around doing that you are likely to get arrested.Please let the poor souls know that the word has a letter "L" in it .
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So why do you guys pronounce the "L" in SOME words but not in others?
Even BrEnglish has words with "sllent-L". BFD :=\
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Any part of the world has different ways of pronouncing things, even different parts of the same country........ Have you lived under a rock all of your life ?
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Hi I thought a subject which really bugs me might make a blogg and that is the Americans using the word "SODDERING". If you go around doing that you are likely to get arrested.Please let the poor souls know that the word has a letter "L" in it .
The Yanks can call it anything they like, we'll just continue to make fun of them :-DD
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Hi I thought a subject which really bugs me might make a blogg and that is the Americans using the word "SODDERING". If you go around doing that you are likely to get arrested.Please let the poor souls know that the word has a letter "L" in it .
Of course, the non-jokey answer is that there's some interesting etymology behind the difference between the UK/AU/etc pronunciation and the US/NA pronunciation, and (arguably) "sodder" or "so-der" is the more original (and therefore more correct, according to some) pronunciation.
Mind you, that's not going to stop me laughing at people who leave the "l" out... :-DD
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I'll leave this in here :)
New Zealand Deck Advertisement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bg586-wl38#ws)
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I live in the USA, and I have wondered about this very subject. The English language is really messed up. WHY is the word small so big yet the word big is so small? It is confusing.
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I first came across this in 1990...
Multi-national personnel at North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters
near Paris found English to be an easy language ... until they tried to
pronounce it. To help them discard an array of accents, the verses below
were devised. After trying them, a Frenchman said he'd prefer six months at
hard labor to reading six lines aloud. Try them yourself.
ENGLISH IS TOUGH STUFF
======================
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!
-- Author Unknown
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I f they like well it,s up to them I suppose.But it's not English is it?
I managed to learn it and I,m not over bright.I bet that gets no surprises.
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Falcon,
I see your NZ deck and raise you an American deck.
enjoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ7Ue5emo6I (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ7Ue5emo6I)
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Any part of the world has different ways of pronouncing things, even different parts of the same country........ Have you lived under a rock all of your life ?
:-DD
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The Aluminium, Aluminum story is pretty funny.
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Or "soccer" vs. "football" story...
Everybody blames the Americans for using the word "soccer".
First, the word is actually British.
Second, the 'mericans are actually correct in using the word "soccer".
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I have a mate who works in forestry. He points out it's odd to chop a tree down then chop it up.
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Hi I thought a subject which really bugs me might make a blogg and that is the Americans using the word "SODDERING". If you go around doing that you are likely to get arrested.Please let the poor souls know that the word has a letter "L" in it .
Ahem ...
Solder
[sod-er] <-- Pronunciation
noun
1.
any of various alloys fused and applied to the joint between metal objects to unite them without heating the objects to the melting point.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/solder?s=t (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/solder?s=t)
solder
noun /sad·er/ <-- Pronunciation
a type of soft metal that is melted to join separate metal parts which are then permanently attached when the metal cools
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/american-english/solder (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/american-english/solder)
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I f they like well it,s up to them I suppose.But it's not English is it?
I managed to learn it and I,m not over bright.I bet that gets no surprises.
Who defines English? Do you know how languages work? It may shock you to learn that language varies over geological regions and time and is not a rigid thing set in stone. Solder comes from French, where it does not have an L sound. The English word didn't have an L sound either, as demonstrated by old British dictionaries from the 1800s, but eventually enough people starting pronouncing the L that it stuck. In a way, the British pronunciation is the corrupted one.
In reality it doesn't really matter, because regional dialects are an accepted part of language and are not "wrong".
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Ahem ...
[sod-er] <-- Pronunciation
noun /sad·er/ <-- Pronunciation]
:wtf:
I thought it was a minority of Americans what pronounced it this way. Perhaps not?
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Hi I thought a subject which really bugs me might make a blogg and that is the Americans using the word "SODDERING". If you go around doing that you are likely to get arrested.Please let the poor souls know that the word has a letter "L" in it .
How do you pronounce "should" or "could?" But I will pronounce the "L" in "Albert Park" when the 2015 Formula 1 season opens with the Grand Prix of Australia on March 15.
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Ahem ...
[sod-er] <-- Pronunciation
noun /sad·er/ <-- Pronunciation]
:wtf:
I thought it was a minority of Americans what pronounced it this way. Perhaps not?
No, the vast majority do not pronounce the L. To the point where I'd say "all" if I didn't know better...
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Salmon...
Sa-mon, or Sal-mon?
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Salmon...
Sa-mon, or Sal-mon?
"Fish"
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Salmon...
Sa-mon, or Sal-mon?
Do you mean Salman Rushdie? Famous author and fatwa target?
Or Solomon, 3rd king of Israel?
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I'm OK with soh'der, why not? Maybe it started in Boston?
What TRULY needs an explanation is "Worcestershire Sauce" being called Worster Sauce... :-//
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What boggles my mind is:
Tektronics
Techtronix
TekTronics
It's
Tektronix
It's right there on the front panel.
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I live in the USA, and I have wondered about this very subject. The English language is really messed up. WHY is the word small so big yet the word big is so small? It is confusing.
.. and we park in the driveway and drive in the parkway.
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I remember Bush used to pronounce "nuclear" like "nu-que-ler"
Drove me mad listening to him say that. :(
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What boggles my mind is:
Tektronics
Techtronix
TekTronics
It's
Tektronix
It's right there on the front panel.
Great, more keywords for my ebay deals watchlist. ;)
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This discussion reminded me of a Top Gear episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26hOn4KYjyA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26hOn4KYjyA)
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This discussion reminded me of a Top Gear episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26hOn4KYjyA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26hOn4KYjyA)
Priceless :-DD :-DD :-DD :-DD
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I live in the USA, and I have wondered about this very subject. The English language is really messed up. WHY is the word small so big yet the word big is so small? It is confusing.
.. and we park in the driveway and drive in the parkway.
Abbreviation is quite long too.
And we send shipments by car and cargo by boat.
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This discussion reminded me of a Top Gear episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26hOn4KYjyA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26hOn4KYjyA)
Years ago, I flew to Corinth, Mississippi to buy a motorcycle and ride it back to Boston. It was several hours before I could understand what people were saying :)
I can understand people from almost anywhere - but two places in this country are an exception. Louisiana (the closer to the bayou, the harder to understand) and West Texas. I have a friend in Midland and he has to speak really slowly for me to understand a word he's saying.
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A brand of braid changed the way I pronounce it. I started saying SOL-der when I noticed the spelling on the roll and it didn't look quite right. Before that I never thought of it. (see photo).
So this American says it your way, cause another American spelled it the other way. :wtf:
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A brand of braid changed the way I pronounce it. I started saying SOL-der when I noticed the spelling on the roll and it didn't look quite right. Before that I never thought of it. (see photo).
So this American says it your way, cause another American spelled it the other way. :wtf:
That's a registered trademark, not to be confused with spelling since you couldn't trademark "solder wick" because it's a description.
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"Ass hole" sounds a lot more refined than "arse hole".
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in the USA the L is silent
just like the silent P in swimming
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in the USA the L is silent
just like the silent P in swimming
My ex-wife's uncle had a sign on a wall near the pool. It said "See our 'ool'. Notice that there is no 'P' in it. Please keep it that way." ;D
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"Ass hole" sounds a lot more refined than "arse hole".
But an"arse" rolls off the tongue with more gusto and feel than an "ass."
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"Ass hole" sounds a lot more refined than "arse hole".
But an"arse" rolls off the tongue with more gusto and feel than an "ass."
Especially when done Father Jack style.
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I'm OK with soh'der, why not? Maybe it started in Boston?
What TRULY needs an explanation is "Worcestershire Sauce" being called Worster Sauce... :-//
It's not that baffling. It was invented in Worcester, which (despite being a city) is the county town of Worcestershire. Sometimes it's called Worcestershire sauce, and sometimes Worcester sauce.
As for why Worcester is pronounced "Wooster", the contraction is fairly common in England. Two other county towns (also cities) are Gloucester (pronounced "Gloster") and Leicester (pronounced "Lester"), and other towns include Bicester (pronounced "Bister"), and Alcester (pronounced "Alster").
And it's not just us Brits doing it. There are cities called Worcester, Gloucester and Leicester in Massachusetts - all pronounced like their English namesakes.
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I have a friend/client that continually pronounces "solder" like the word "soldier", except he drops the "I"!!! :-DD
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I'm OK with soh'der, why not? Maybe it started in Boston?
What TRULY needs an explanation is "Worcestershire Sauce" being called Worster Sauce... :-//
It's not that baffling. It was invented in Worcester, which (despite being a city) is the county town of Worcestershire. Sometimes it's called Worcestershire sauce, and sometimes Worcester sauce.
As for why Worcester is pronounced "Wooster", the contraction is fairly common in England. Two other county towns (also cities) are Gloucester (pronounced "Gloster") and Leicester (pronounced "Lester"), and other towns include Bicester (pronounced "Bister"), and Alcester (pronounced "Alster").
And it's not just us Brits doing it. There are cities called Worcester, Gloucester and Leicester in Massachusetts - all pronounced like their English namesakes.
Cirencester => Sissister, Alnwick => Annick etc etc
Around Bristol, the natives traditionally add an 'l' onto words end in a vowel, perhaps because that was the pronounciation of the earlier written name "Brigstowe". Thus if somebody says "I have an ideal", you don't congratulate them, you ask them what the idea is.
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I always found it mildly annoying that the official postal abbreviation for Gloucestershire is Glos. rather than, say, Gloucs.
Never mind place names, I'd like to challenge the colonials to pronounce names like Cholmondeley, Featherstonhaugh, Dalziel, Menzies, Mainwaring, Beauchamp, Wodehouse.
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So I am an American and I don't pronounce the l in solder. But I pronounce solder differently than I would pronounce sodder. Some ears can't hear the difference, but it is there.
There are regional variations in pronunciation and usage, but we should probably try something to limit those differences or we will end up with something like what happened to Latin. (French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian and so on). TV and radio seem to be a big part of that something, with the internet chipping in quite a bit.
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On my latest PLCA video someone took me to task on my pronunciation of Cache ::)
Add it to the list along with Solder, Aluminium, Bode, Via etc
By far the worst complainers have been for Bode, because it's a persons name they claim you have to say "correctly" otherwise it's an insult. Little do they know there isn't even an exact official consensus on that either :palm:
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Little do they know there isn't even an exact official consensus on that either :palm:
If only the Know-It-Alls knew how much they actually DON'T know!!!! :-DD
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I always found it mildly annoying that the official postal abbreviation for Gloucestershire is Glos. rather than, say, Gloucs.
Never mind place names, I'd like to challenge the colonials to pronounce names like Cholmondeley, Featherstonhaugh, Dalziel, Menzies, Mainwaring, Beauchamp, Wodehouse.
We had a Prime Minister in Oz for many years called Bob Menzies,
Aussies being Aussies,we all pronounced it as it was spelt.
Bob got a "bee in his bonnet" about the correct spelling being "Mingas".
He was immediately dubbed "Ming the Merciless" & we never heard another word about the"correct pronunciation".
Lots of Fanshaws in the Phone book---not many "Featherstonhaughs"!
Mainwaring is pronounced as it is spelt by everybody I have run into ,including people with that name,as is Dalziel.
We had another "Polly" named St John,who wanted his Parliamentary colleagues to call him "Sinjin",but that very quickly died out.
How is Wodehouse pronounced in the "Old Dart?"
And why,oh why, is the abbreviation for Hampshire ,"Hants"?
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Mainwaring is pronounced as it is spelt by everybody I have run into
I know "Dad's Army" has been shown in Oz, because a number of missing episodes were returned to the BBC from there. Presumably not recently, though?
And why,oh why, is the abbreviation for Hampshire ,"Hants"?
You can blame (http://www3.hants.gov.uk/abouthnt) William the Conqueror:
The abbreviated form is derived from the Old English Hantum plus Scir (meaning a district governed from the settlement now known as Southampton) and the Anglo-Saxons called it Hamtunschire. At the time of the Domesday Book (1086) this was compressed to Hantescire.
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Mainwaring is pronounced as it is spelt by everybody I have run into
I know "Dad's Army" has been shown in Oz, because a number of missing episodes were returned to the BBC from there. Presumably not recently, though?
And why,oh why, is the abbreviation for Hampshire ,"Hants"?
You can blame (http://www3.hants.gov.uk/abouthnt) William the Conqueror:
The abbreviated form is derived from the Old English Hantum plus Scir (meaning a district governed from the settlement now known as Southampton) and the Anglo-Saxons called it Hamtunschire. At the time of the Domesday Book (1086) this was compressed to Hantescire.
I meant real people---Captain Mainwaring doesn't count!!
Neither does Dalziel in "Dalziel & Pascoe".
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I don't care, the fact it is the English Language says it all, we spell it and use it as we want too, if you want to steal it and butcher it about feel free but do not whine or moan at us for correcting you on it.
English belongs to the English. it aint called the American language by the Oxford English dictionary printers is it now.
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Place names in the UK are always a pain for tourists (and often to people from other parts of the UK!) - few are pronounced the way they are spelt (or, if you prefer, "spelled" ;) ).
Mind you, the US gets its own back sometimes: Kansas and Arkansas anyone?
All part of life's rich tapestry :-+
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If you really want an argument about the english go pick one with a yorkshireman about whether it is east riding, east yorkshire, humberside or whatever it is called these days, my step father is from there and he does my head in about it all :wtf:.Then try to understand their use of the English language. I can't understand a word most of them say.
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I don't care, the fact it is the English Language says it all, we spell it and use it as we want too, if you want to steal it and butcher it about feel free but do not whine or moan at us for correcting you on it.
English belongs to the English. it aint called the American language by the Oxford English dictionary printers is it now.
But you are from Wales,Look you, bach! ;D
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Place names in the UK are always a pain for tourists (and often to people from other parts of the UK!) - few are pronounced the way they are spelt (or, if you prefer, "spelled" ;) ).
Mind you, the US gets its own back sometimes: Kansas and Arkansas anyone?
All part of life's rich tapestry :-+
People from the Eastern States of Australia freak out West Australians by pronouncing our towns of Derby
& Albany as "Darby" & "Orlbany"!
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But you are from Wales,Look you, bach! ;D
my bio father was welsh, I am an Englishman in a foreign land :( , erm yeah, HELPPPPPP......
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Place names in the UK are always a pain for tourists (and often to people from other parts of the UK!) - few are pronounced the way they are spelt (or, if you prefer, "spelled" ;) ).
Mind you, the US gets its own back sometimes: Kansas and Arkansas anyone?
All part of life's rich tapestry :-+
"Happisburgh" is one of my favourite ones for confusing people.
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It does make me giggle when the Brits pronounce routing/router as "rooting/rooter".
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It does make me giggle when the Brits pronounce routing/router as "rooting/rooter".
The"rowting" & "rowter"pronunciation are Americanisms which were picked up in this country because "they didn't sound rude". ::)
I don't know why Americans use them,because "rooting for your team" does not have the vulgar connotations it has in Oz.
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Perhaps because one of us poor colonists thought the "ou" in route should be pronounced like the one in bough, not the one in through. ;)
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I'm all for diversity and inclusiveness in English. It is the closest thing we have to a world language. But somehow we have to keep it one language. Otherwise, in 50 or 100 or how ever many years we will have 15 percent of the world speaking Changlish, 5 percent speaking North American English, 10 percent speaking Spanglish, 3 percent speaking Euro English, 1 percent speaking English English and none of them able to talk to each other. We know it happened to Latin, and from my limited knowledge it appears to have happened to Chinese. At the current time the differences in English are mostly amusing and seldom interfere with communication so lets keep it that way.
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Chinese is the most spoken language followed by Spanish.
I don't know about if Chinese has problems with dialects, but in Spanish other than some local slang and common words that can be insulting on other countries we have no problems communicating at all.
Also I have no problems communicating in English no matter how inconsistent it can be at times.
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I have had to learn quite a few BrEnglish words and phrases and idioms since joining international forums like this one.
For example, the word "redundant" has very different meanings in BrEnglish vs. AmEnglish.
But then there are the more understandable differences like screen=shield or earth=ground, etc.
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Chinese is the most spoken language followed by Spanish.
Not exactly.
Mandarin has the most speakers at 1.1 billion
But English is not far behind at 1.0 billion
And Spanish comes in at 3rd place with 500 million.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers
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I have had to learn quite a few BrEnglish words and phrases and idioms since joining international forums like this one.
For example, the word "redundant" has very different meanings in BrEnglish vs. AmEnglish.
It does?
I thought it meant the same thing in both the UK and the USA - more than is necessary, or surplus to requirements.
Redundancy as a term applied to people who are deemed to be unnecessary and whose employment is consequently terminated has legal significance in the UK, but the meaning is essentially the same.
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Yes, I should have said "very different default/common usage".
I have never heard anyone speaking AmEnglish use the word "redundant" for surplus equipment or excess workforce.
When people speaking BrEnglish use the word "redundant" 90% of the time they seem to be referring to excess workforce, layoffs, unemployment benefits, etc. Or at least that is my perception from my (admittedly narrow) view of the world.
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Chinese is the most spoken language followed by Spanish.
Not exactly.
Mandarin has the most speakers at 1.1 billion
But English is not far behind at 1.0 billion
And Spanish comes in at 3rd place with 500 million.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers
I was referring to native speakers but yeah if you consider 2nd languages English is 2nd.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers
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Native speakers do better with dialects. Maybe you native Spanish speakers do fine with dialects but I with limited Spanish, am thrown for a loop by many dialects. Not so much the vocabulary, but the syncopation and rhythms. Same thing is true with my rudimentary German. I am sure that works both ways. I understand many forms of spoken English pretty well, but would challenge a non-native speaker to understand people from the Big Thicket region of Texas, or a full blown speaker of Ebonics.
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I lived in TX for over 10 years before moving to Chicago, had no troubles at all, even in East TX or North Louisiana. No problems in Tennessee either nor in New England.
Then again, I'm not sure where Clarkson from TopGear was when he encountered some strange English dialect that no one could understand. I'll say I would have trouble in there myself, but so would 99.99% of native English speakers :)
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Chinese is the most spoken language followed by Spanish.
Not exactly.
Mandarin has the most speakers at 1.1 billion
But English is not far behind at 1.0 billion
And Spanish comes in at 3rd place with 500 million.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers
If we use the generic word "Chinese",Cantonese probably puts Chinese languages in front.
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Why does it matter? Almost 20% of the world can speak English, so flavors/dialects/accents do exist, and vary region by region.
IMHO it is not a bad thing at all, since a very strict grammar and vocabulary system will render it hard to learn, and don't forget why we need languages -- to communicate.
As long as it is understandable and not creating ambiguity, why bother correcting it?
I'm an OCD person, I do not like typos, but the only hands I can control is mines. I won't bother correcting the others' misspellings at all.
The biggest and most extremely confusing issue of English is the total lack of a pronunciation standard.
It's not just small variations like in Spanish (we just need to learn a few words and get used to small pronunciation and rhythm differences, and only total dumbasses are really unable to get used to that, most of the people unable to understand it are (closet or not) racists with a poor excuse ), but in English the pronunciation can change A LOT!
I find English to be very practical for written communication, but a pain in the ass for spoken communication.
English needs a standard or at least an official international pronunciation system for everyone. I would use something like australian or north uk English, easier to understand for non-natives.
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Chinese is the most spoken language followed by Spanish.
Not exactly.
Mandarin has the most speakers at 1.1 billion
But English is not far behind at 1.0 billion
And Spanish comes in at 3rd place with 500 million.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers
I was referring to native speakers but yeah if you consider 2nd languages English is 2nd.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers
Those native speaker numbers downplay the number of speakers of Mandarin and English quite a lot. They seem to be based on picking one language per person. A family in China who predominantly speak Cantonese at home, but are fluent in Mandarin, and speak it much of the day outside the home, are not counted as native Mandarin speakers. A family in India who might speak Hindi at home, but speak fluent English most of the day outside the home are not counted as native English speakers. For huge numbers of people around the world being truly bilingual is a normal part of life in their community.
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If we use the generic word "Chinese",Cantonese probably puts Chinese languages in front.
Would you like to bundle all the Romance languages together as well? That would make for a pretty large number, and be about as meaningful as bundling Cantonese with Mandarin.
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I'll thought that being a tonal language it will be less susceptible to accents, but it makes sense that it actually makes it more different.