Canton's orginial name?

[LUNN]

Its Guangzhou now but what was it prior to Canton?

[HKG-YUL]

Guangzhou has always been known as "Guangzhou" in Chinese. The reason there are two English names is the difference in its translation. Canton is actually a translation from Cantonese pronunciation of the province of Guangdong (where Guangzhou is) by British (I believe) back in the early days of trading (like how they spelled out "Hong Kong" from Cantonese as well). Guangzhou, on the other hand, is the official Mandarin translation (using Pinyin system, with Roman alphabets I think) of the name of the city of, well, Guangzhou. The names using Pinyin system are now what is official being implemented by Chinese government (like Beijing now instead of Pekin).

This is some basic that I know, hope it answers you.

[avro_arrow_25206]

HKG-YUL did a great job with the answer.

Technically speaking though Canton is not equal to Guangzhou.
Guangzhou is a CITY located in the PROVINCE of Canton (Guangdong).

[LUNN]

Thanks, I also noticed that 'g' is silent in Beijin, Pyonyan etc. true?

[HKG-YUL]

Thanks, I also noticed that 'g' is silent in Beijin, Pyonyan etc. true?

I'm not sure about correctly pronouncing Pyongyang, because that's Korean, so it's not exactly the same.

But you do pronounce the 'g' in Beijing (just like any typical 'ing' sound in English). Skipping the 'g' would give a totally different word in Chinese. For example, Tianjin doesn't expressly have no 'g' sound, as it's written. 'jing' and 'jin' are 2 completely different words/characters in Chinese.