Hong Kong Cantonese
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Hong Kong Cantonese (traditional Chinese: 香港粵語 / 港式粵語 / 香港廣東話) is a variant of Cantonese, one of the spoken forms of the Chinese language, spoken in Hong Kong. Although people in Hong Kong largely identify their spoken dialect with the term "Cantonese" (廣東話), a variety of publications in mainland China describe the variant as Hong Kong speech (香港話) or Hong Kong dialect (香港方言). There are slight differences between the pronunciation used in Hong Kong Cantonese and that of the Cantonese spoken in the rest of Guangdong, where Standard Cantonese is a lingua franca. Over the years, Hong Kong Cantonese has also absorbed foreign vocabularies and developed a large set of Hong Kong-specific vocabularies. These differences from Standard Cantonese are the result of British rule between 1841 and 1997 as well as the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and the border closure thereafter.
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[edit] History
Before British colonisation, the inhabitants of Hong Kong mainly spoke the Tung Kwun-Po On (Dongguan-Bao'an) variant of Cantonese[citation needed], as well as Hakka, Teochew, and Tanka. These dialects are all remarkably different from Standard Cantonese.
After the British acquired Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories from the Qing in 1841 (officially 1842), 1860 and 1898, large numbers of merchants and workers came to Hong Kong from the city of Guangzhou, the centre of Cantonese. Standard Cantonese became the dominant spoken dialect in Hong Kong. The frequent migration between Hong Kong and other Cantonese-speaking areas did not cease until the 1950s. During this period, the Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong was very similar to that in Guangzhou.
Around 1949, the year that the People's Republic of China was established, Hong Kong saw a large influx of refugees from different areas of China. The British colonial government closed the border to halt the influx, but illegal immigration from mainland China into Hong Kong continued. Movement, communication, and relations between Hong Kong and mainland China became very limited, and consequently the evolution of Standard Cantonese in Hong Kong diverged from that in the rest of Guangdong. In mainland China, the use of Standard Mandarin, or Putonghua was enforced and Cantonese language was discouraged. Indigenous vocabularies were replaced by written Chinese, which is close to Putonghua. In Hong Kong, Cantonese remains the medium of instruction in schools, along with written English and Chinese. And because of the importance of English in Hong Kong and frequent communication with the Western world, there existed a large number of English loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese like "巴士" (/páːsǐː/), literately, "bus". Hong Kong people even started to incorporated English words into Cantonese sentences, for example, "咁都唔 make sense" (literately "it does not make sense."). Therefore, the vocabularies of Cantonese in Mainland China and Hong Kong differed.
Moreover, the pronunciation of Cantonese changed while the change did not occur in Mainland China or it took place gently. For example, merging of /n/ initial into /l/ initial and /ŋ/ initial into null initial were observed. Due to the limited communication between Hong Kong and Mainland China, these changes only had a limited effect in Mainland China at that time. As a result, the pronunciation of Cantonese between Hong Kong and Mainland China varied, and so native speakers may note the difference when listening to Hong Kong Cantonese and Mainland China Cantonese.
Alongside with the flourishing Cantonese opera, Hong Kong films, Cantopop and other aspects of Hong Kong-based Cantonese-language popular culture, Hong Kong Cantonese were exported to overseas Chinese communities as well.
[edit] Pronunciation
In modern-day Hong Kong, many younger native speakers are unable to distinguish between certain phoneme pairs, causing them to merge one sound into another. Although this is often considered substandard and is frequently denounced as "lazy sounds" (懶音), the phenomenon is becoming more widespread and is influencing other Cantonese-speaking regions. Contrary to popular opinion, some of these changes are not recent. The loss of the velar nasal (/ŋ/) was documented by Williams (1856), and the substitution of the liquid nasal (/l/) for the nasal initial (/n/) was documented by Cowles (1914).
Other observed shifts:
- Merging of /n/ initial into /l/ initial.
- Merging of /ŋ/ initial into null initial.
- Merging of /kʷ/ and /kʷʰ/ initials into /k/ and /kʰ/ when followed by /ɔː/. Note that /ʷ/ is the only glide (介音) in Cantonese.
- Merging of /ŋ/ coda into /n/ coda, eliminating contrast between these pairs of finals: /aːn/-/aːŋ/, /ɐn/-/ɐŋ/, and /ɔːn/-/ɔːŋ/.
- Merging of entering-tone (入聲) /k/ coda into /t/ coda analogously.
- Merging of the two syllabic nasals, /ŋ̩/ into /m̩/, eliminating the contrast of sounds between 吳 (surname Ng) and 唔 (not).
- Merging of some /tsʰ/ into /ts/.
Today in Hong Kong, people still make an effort to avoid these sound merges in serious broadcasts and in education. Older people often do not exhibit these shifts in their speech, but some do. With the sound changes, the name of Hong Kong's Hang Seng Bank (香港恆生銀行), /hœ́ːŋ kɔ̌ːŋ hɐ̏ŋ sɐ́ŋ ŋɐ̏n hɔ̏ːŋ/, becomes /hœ́ːn kɔ̌ːn hɐ̏n sɐ́n ɐ̏n hɔ̏ːn/, sounding like Hon' Kon' itchy body (痕身 /hɐ̏n sɐ́n/) bank. The name of the Cantonese language (廣東話, "Guangdong speech") itself should be /kʷɔ̌ːŋ tʊ́ŋ wǎː/, although /kɔ̌ːŋ tʊ́ŋ wǎː/ (sounding like "講東話": "speak eastern speech") and /kɔ̌ːn tʊ́ŋ wǎː/ (sounding like "趕東話" : "chase away eastern speech") are overwhelmingly popular.
The shift affects the way some Hong Kong people speak other languages as well. This is especially evident in the pronunciation of certain English names: "Nicole" becomes lik col, and "Leonardo" becomes leo la do. The mixing up of /n/ and /l/ also affects the choice of characters when the Cantonese media transliterate foreign names.
Prescriptivists who try to correct these "lazy sounds" often end up introducing hypercorrections. For instance, while attempting to ensure that people pronounce the initial /ŋ/, they would also mispronounce words that historically have a null initial as /ŋ/. One common example is that of the word 愛, meaning "love." Even though the standard pronunciation should be /ɔ̄ːi/, the word is often incorrectly pronounced as /ŋɔ̄ːi/.
In recent years, a number of Hong Kong secondary schools have tried to improve the situation by making the learning of Standard Cantonese Pinyin part of the school Chinese curriculum.
[edit] Loanwords
Life in Hong Kong is characterised by the blending of Asian (southern Chinese in particular) and Western cultures, as well as the city's position as a major international business centre. In turn, Hong Kong influences have also spread widely into other cultures. As a result, a large number of loanwords are created in Hong Kong and then exported to China, Taiwan and Singapore. Some of the loanwords have become even more popular than their Chinese counterparts, in Hong Kong as well as in their destination cultures.
[edit] Imported loanwords
Selected loanword. [1]
[edit] From English
| Characters | Cantonese IPA | English | English pronunciation | Formal Chinese Term |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 巴士 | /páːsǐː/ | bus | /bʌs/ | traditional Chinese: 公車; simplified Chinese: 公车 |
| 的士 | /tɪ́ksǐː/ | taxi | /ˈtæksi/ | traditional Chinese: 計程車; simplified Chinese: 计程车 (in Taiwan), or traditional Chinese: 出租車; simplified Chinese: 出租车 (in Mainland) |
| 朱古力 | /tsýːkúːlɪ́k/ | chocolate | /ˈtʃɒklɪt/ | Chinese: 巧克力, also a loanword |
| 三文治 | /sáːmmɐ̏ntsìː/ | sandwich | /ˈsænwɪdʒ/ | Chinese: 三明治 |
| 士多 | /sìːtɔ́ː/ | store (retail) | /stɔː/ | traditional Chinese: 店舖; simplified Chinese: 店铺-archaic, or Chinese: 商店 |
| 士多啤梨 | /sìːtɔ́ːpɛ́ːlěi/ | strawberry | /ˈstrɔːbəri/ | Chinese: 草莓 |
| 啤梨 | /pɛ́ːlěi/ | pear | /peər/ | Chinese: 梨子 |
| 沙士 | /sáːsǐː/ | SARS | traditional Chinese: 嚴重急性呼吸道症候群; simplified Chinese: 严重急性呼吸道症侯群 |
[edit] From Japanese
| Characters | Cantonese IPA | Japanese | English Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 卡拉OK | /kʰáːláːi'óukʰéi/ | カラオケ | karaoke |
| 老世 (usually miswritten as 老細) | /lo̗usɐ̄i/ | 世帶主 | boss |
[edit] From French
| Characters | Cantonese IPA | French | English Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 冷 | /láːŋ/ | laine | yarn |
| 梳乎厘 | /sɔ́ːfȕːlěi/ | soufflé | soufflé |
[edit] Exported loanwords
[edit] Into English
| English | Characters | Cantonese IPA |
|---|---|---|
| dim sum | 點心 | /tǐːmsɐ́m/ |
| kumquat | 金橘 | /kɐ́mkʷɐ́t/ |
| loquat | 蘆橘 | /lȍukʷɐ́t/ |
| wonton | 雲吞 | /wɐ̏ntʰɐ́n/ |
| bok choy | 白菜 | /pàːktsʰɔ̄ːi/ |
| ketchup | 茄汁 | /khe tsɐp/ |
[edit] Into Standard Mandarin
| Mandarin Characters | Mandarin Pinyin | Cantonese Characters | Cantonese IPA | English Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 買單 | mǎi dān | 埋單 | /mȁːitáːn/ | (used when calling for the bill at a restaurant) |
| 搭檔 | dā dàng | 拍檔 | /pʰāːktɔ̄ːŋ/ | partner |
| 打的 | dǎ dī | 搭的士 | /tāːptɪ́ksǐː/ | to ride a taxi |
| 無釐頭 | wú lí tóu | 無釐頭, corruption of 無來頭 | /mȍulȅitʰɐ̏u/ | nonsensical humor (see mo lei tau) |
| 亮仔 or 靚仔 | liàng zǎi | 靚仔 | /lɛ́ːŋtsɐ̌i/ | pretty boy |
| 拍拖 | pāi tuō | 拍拖 | /pʰāːktʰɔ́ː/ | to date; to court |
| 很正 | hěn zhèng | 好正 | /hǒutsɛ̄ːŋ/ | perfect; just right |
| 搞掂 or 搞定 | gǎo diàn or gǎo dìng | 搞掂 | /kǎːutìːm/ | to complete; completed (when used as an exclamation) |
[edit] Into Taiwanese Mandarin
| Taiwanese Mandarin Characters | Taiwanese Mandarin Pinyin | Cantonese Characters | Cantonese IPA | English Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 塞雷 猴塞雷 |
sāi léi hóu sāi léi |
犀利 好犀利 |
/sɐ́ilèi/ /hǒusɐ́ilèi/ |
great; powerful very great; very powerful |
[edit] Into Japanese
| Japanese Kana (Kanji) | Japanese Rōmaji | Cantonese Characters | Cantonese IPA | English Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ヤムチャ (飲茶) | yamucha | 飲茶 | /jɐ̌mtsʰȁː/ | to drink tea (yum cha) |
[edit] Incorporation of foreign language words into Cantonese sentence
Besides foreign loanwords, Hong Kong people are also used to incorporating words from foreign languages into Cantonese sentence without formally translating the words into Cantonese. For instance, "咁都唔 make sense", literally means "it does not make sense". Sometimes, the part of speech of the incorporated words are also changed, like "佢地好friend", translated into English as "they are very 'friend'", means "they are good friends". The word "friend" is changed from a noun into an adjective. In some examples, some new meanings of English words are even created. For example, "至yeah", literally "the most yeah", means "the trendiest". Originally, "yeah" means "yes" in English, but it means "trendy" when being incorporated into Hong Kong Cantonese.
When foreign words are used in Cantonese sentence, polysyllabic words and monosyllabic words tend to become disyllabic, and the second syllable is in the Upper Rising tone (the second tone). For example, "kon1 si2" (constitution）, "saek6 kiu1" (security) and "ka1 si2" (class). There are a few polysyllabic words become monosyllabic though, like "mon1" (monitor), literally means computer monitor. And some new Cantonese lexicons are created according to the morphology of Cantonese. For example, "laai1記" from the word "library". Most of the disyllabic words and some of the monosyllabic words are incorporated as their original pronunciation, with some minor changes according to the Cantonese phonology. For example, "bra" is pronounced as "ba1", omitting the "r" sound.
After a foreign word is used in Cantonese sentences, it can be used like other Cantonese words according to the syntactical rules of Cantonese. For instance, "sure" (肯定) can be used like "你su1唔su1 aa4?" (are you sure?) as if it were its Cantonese counterpart "你肯唔肯定?". In some circumstances, using English words is preferable because it can simplify sentences. For example, "呢D點心係for visitors咖" means "these dim sums are for visitors". If English has not been used, the sentence would become long and complex such as "呢D點心係準備畀與會客人嘅" and thus not preferable.
Hong Kong Cantonese speakers rationally know which words are from foreign language, but when they speak they just use these words like normal Cantonese vocabularies. Sometimes it is difficult to find equivalence of the English words in Cantonese, such as the “miss” in ”我miss咗架巴士”, meaing "I missed the bus". In the case of some technological terms, the problem is even more serious. Hong Kong people find it difficult to say “你用個mau1-si2 right-click嚟highlight個mon” (“You use the right-click of the mouse to highlight the monitor”) in pure Cantonese. It is because most of the people do not know the Cantonese expression of "mouse", "right-click", "highlight" and "monitor". This is also a headache of those linguists and Chinese teachers who advocate the use of pure Cantonese.
[edit] See also
- Cantonese profanity
- Chinese language
- List of Chinese dialects
- Spoken Chinese
- Bilingualism in Hong Kong
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Learn Chinese with Chinese Lyrics Now with Pinyin and sound files
- 分類:術語 - 香港網絡大典(in Big5 Chinese) Hong Kong slangs & jargons in the Encyclopedia of Virtual Communities in Hong Kong(Wikia)
