This is where I expect to get ripped apart by those who majored in linguistics, but here goes.

Well I will not rip you "apart",out of respect,as my Major was in English Literature, so unless we were discussing the merits of say, Shakespeare, then I may do.Maybe someone who is a major in linguistics can add something to this fluid and interesting discussion?

Now this is where it gets interesting (following the Dongbei comment) in that the phonology is based on the Beijing dialect but, as China is a huge country, the vocabulary comes from the varieties of Mandarin we can hear across northern, central and south-western China.

I was merely asking about the "err" sound, for an interesting take on how Chinese carry that across to English pronunciation, have a look at this, he gets frustrated with the way they pronounce his first name, but he seems to get it when they mention shakespeare. I found it hilarious, the first time I saw it, talk about looking confused, hahahah:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPA6-E0b15k

30 seconds mark.

he cultural identity, distinctiveness and regional pride issues as I mentioned before need
to be considered here. Provincial capital speech like Guangzhou speech will be different
and that’s the way they want it. The Chinese diaspora refer to their “language” as
"Guangdong speech" so your driver was stating that he was not from Beijing,
and therefore culturally different, by his speech acts.

I am sure that is the way they want it, guang dong hua, as you say is their local speech. I am merely asking is it a dialect, or can it be classified as another language entirely? My understanding is, much like the guangdong people themselves (not recent migrants to guangdong) they are ethnically related to northern vietnamese people. Turnoi has discussed this before also.

Thanks for your reply.