Because Cantonese has nine tones and six tones, it is a fusion and reorganization of Yayan in the northern Central Plains (ancient Henan dialect) and Nanyue dialect in the south of the Lingnan (ancient Cantonese). It is a language that retains more elements of ancient Chinese. A dialect, Cantonese not only retains a large number of ancient Chinese vocabulary and grammar, but also retains the pronunciation and tones of ancient Chinese.
Related introduction:
Old Chinese in the Middle Ages had the entering tone, and the pronunciation of the entering tone was short. In Mandarin, the entry tone has completely disappeared, but in Cantonese it is still intact, such as "十". Cantonese is a southern dialect that is relatively close to ancient Chinese, especially medieval Chinese. For example, it has many monosyllabic words, which are similar to expressions in ancient Chinese. While there are many words with the word "子" in Mandarin, there are very few words ending in "子" in Cantonese.
Extended information
Related background:
Cantonese is not the only "living fossil" of ancient Chinese. Many dialects in southern China retain the genes of ancient Chinese. . Although Cantonese has the most complete preservation of the entering tone, in Wu dialect, the ancient voiced tone is the most complete.
Most of the words in Wu and Fujian are monosyllabic words similar to ancient Chinese, such as "eyes", which is called "eyes" in the Fujian dialect, and "stand" in the Wu dialect. Some ancient poems do not rhyme when read in Mandarin, but they rhyme well in Wu dialect.
Different dialects in the South record different periods like the rings of a tree. "Wu dialect has the pronunciation of the early period, while Cantonese has the pronunciation of the next era. Through horizontal comparison, we can also get the historical sequence.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Cantonese
Baidu Encyclopedia-Old Chinese