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 the 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 variant of Cantonese[citation needed], as well as Hakka, Teochew, and Tanka. These dialects are all remarkably different from Standard Cantonese. However, they are all also mutually intelligible and have influenced each other through their use in Hong Kong. These factors also contribute to the formation of Hong Kong 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. Cantonese opera, Hong Kong films, Cantopop and other aspects of Hong Kong-based Cantonese-language popular culture flourished, and were exported to Overseas Chinese communities.
[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 /kʰw/ initials into /k/ and /kʰ/ when followed by /ɔː/. Note that /w/ is the only glide (Chinese: 介音) in Cantonese.
- Merging of /ŋ/ coda into /n/ coda, eliminating contrast between these pairs of finals: /ɑːn/-/ɑːŋ/, /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 五 (five) 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), /hœːŋ55 kɔːŋ35 hɐŋ11 ʃɐŋ55 ŋɐn11 hɔːŋ11/, becomes /hœːn55 kɔːn35 hɐn11 ʃɐn55 ɐn11 hɔːn11/, sounding like Hon' Kon' itchy body (痕身 /hɐn11 ʃɐn55/) bank. The name of the Cantonese language (廣東話, "Guangdong speech") itself should be /kʷɔːŋ35 tʊŋ55 wɑː35/, although /kɔːŋ35 tʊŋ55 wɑː35/ (sounding like "講東話": "speak eastern speech") and /kɔːn35 tʊŋ55 wɑː35/ (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 /ɔːi33/, the word is often incorrectly pronounced as /ŋɔːi33/.
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 pronunciation | English | English pronunciation | Formal Chinese Term |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 巴士 | /pɑː55 siː35/ | bus | /bʌs/ | 公車 |
| 的士 | /tɪk55 siː35/ | taxi | /ˈtæksi/ | 計程車 |
| 拜拜 | /pɑːi55 pɑːi33/ | bye bye | /baɪ/ | 再見 |
| 朱古力 | /tsyː55 kuː55 lɪk55/ | chocolate | /ˈtʃɒklɪt/ | 巧克力 |
| 三文治 | /sɑːm55 mɐn11 tʃiː22/ | sandwich | /ˈsænwɪdʒ/ | 三明治 |
| 士多 | /siː22 tɔː55/ | store (retail) | /stɔːr/ | 店舖 or 商店 |
| 士多啤梨 | /siː22 tɔː55 pɛː55 lei35/ | strawberry | /ˈstrɔːbəri/ | 草莓 |
| 啤梨 | /pɛː55 lei35/ | pear | /peər/ | 梨子 |
| 沙士 | /sɑː55 siː35/ | SARS | 嚴重急性呼吸道症候群 |
[edit] From Japanese
| Characters | Cantonese IPA | Japanese | English Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 卡拉OK | /kʰɑː55 lɑːi55 ou55 kʰei55/ | カラオケ | karaoke |
| 老世 (usually miswritten as 老細) | /lou13 sɐi33/ | 世帶主 | boss |
| 車長 | /tʃʰɛː55 tʃœːŋ35/ | 車掌 | conductor (public transport) |
[edit] Exported loanwords
[edit] Into English
| English | Characters | Chinese IPA |
|---|---|---|
| chow mein | 炒麪 | /tʃʰɑːu35 miːn22/ |
| dim sum | 點心 | /tiːm35 sɐm55/ |
| kumquat | 柑橘 | /kɐm55 kʷɐt55/ |
| loquat | 蘆橘 | /lou11 kʷɐt55/ |
| wonton | 雲吞 | /wɐn11 tʰɐn55/ |
| bok choy | 白菜 | /pɑːk22 tʃʰɔːi33/ |
| kung fu | 功夫 | /kʊŋ55 fuː55/ |
[edit] Into Standard Mandarin
| Mandarin Characters | Mandarin IPA | Cantonese Characters | Cantonese IPA | English Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 買單 | mǎi dān | 埋單 | /mɑːi11 tɑːn55/ | (used when calling for the bill at a restaurant) |
| 搭檔 | dā dàng | 拍檔 | /pʰɑːk33 tɔːŋ33/ | partner |
| 打的 | dǎ dī | 搭的士 | /tɑːp33 tɪk55 ʃiː35/ | to ride a taxi |
| 無釐頭 | wú lí tóu | 無釐頭, corruption of 無來頭 | /mou11 lei11 tɐu11/ | nonsensical humor (see mo lei tau) |
| 亮仔 or 靚仔 | liàng zǎi | 靚仔 | /lɛːŋ55 tʃɐi35/ | pretty boy |
| 拍拖 | pāi tuō | 拍拖 | /pʰɑːk33 tʰɔː55/ | to date; to court |
| 很正 | hěn zhèng | 好正 | /hou35 tʃɛːŋ33/ | perfect; just right |
| 搞掂 or 搞定 | gǎo diàn or gǎo dìng | 搞掂 | /kɑːu35 tiːm22/ | to complete; completed (when used as an exclamation) |
[edit] Into Japanese
| Japanese Kana (Kanji) | Japanese Rōmaji | Cantonese Characters | Cantonese IPA | English Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ヤムチャ (喫茶) | yamucha | 飲茶 | /jɐm35 tʃʰɑː11/ | to drink tea (yum cha) |
