Hong Kong Cantonese
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Hong Kong Cantonese (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 identified their language 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). While Hong Kong Cantonese inherits the characteristics of Standard Cantonese, there are slight differences between the pronunciation of the speakers in Hong Kong and that of the speakers in the rest of Guangdong, where Standard Cantonese is the lingua franca. Hong Kong Cantonese has also absorbed foreign vocabularies and developed large set of Hong Kong-specific vocabularies. These differences from Standard Cantonese is the result of British rule between 1841 and 1997, and 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 in Hong Kong spoke Hakka, Teochew, Tanka and mainly the Tung Kwun-Po On speech of Cantonese[citation needed], which is remarkably different from Standard Cantonese. Although the four language groups are mutually intelligible, they affected each other in the territory of Hong Kong. These factors also contribute to the formation of Hong Kong Cantonese.
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 were attracted to Hong Kong from the city of Guangzhou, the centre of Cantonese. Standard Cantonese became the dominant language in Hong Kong. The frequent migration between Hong Kong and other Cantonese spoken areas did not cease until the 1950s. During this period, the Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong was very close to that of Guangzhou.
Around the establishment of the People's Republic of China in mainland China in 1949, a large influx of refugees from various places in China rushed into Hong Kong. The British 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 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, became enforced and Cantonese language is discouraged. Indigenous vocabularies are replaced by written Chinese which is closed to Putonghua. In Hong Kong, Cantonese remains the medium of instruction, along with English language and written Chinese, in schools. 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 and merge one sound into another. Although that is often considered as substandard and is denounced as being "lazy sounds" (懶音), it is becoming more common and is influencing other Cantonese-speaking regions. Some research findings indicate that these changes also occurred in some Cantonese-speaking areas in the past. These are the observed shifts:
- Merging of /n/ initial into /l/ initial.
- Merging of /ŋ/ initial into null initial.
- Merging of /kw/ and /kʰw/ initial into /k/ and /kʰ/ when followed by /ɔː/.
- Merging of /ŋ/ ending into /n/ ending, eliminating contrast between these pairs of finals: /ɑːn/-/ɑːŋ/, /ɐn/-/ɐŋ/, and /ɔːn/-/ɔːŋ/.
- Merging of /k/ ending into /t/ ending 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/.
Contrary to popular opinion, some of these changes are not recent phenomena. 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).
Today in Hong Kong, people still make an effort to avoid those merges in serious broadcasts and in education. Many older people usually do not exhibit these shifts in their speech, but the majority of the younger generation does.[citation needed] Following 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/, despite the fact that /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 even affects the way some Hong Kong people speak other languages. This is especially evident in the pronunciation of certain English names: "Nicole" becomes lik col, and "Leonardo" becomes leo la do.
Prescriptivists who try to correct these "lazy sounds" often end up introducing hypercorrections. For instance, in an attempt to ensure that people continue to pronounce the initial /ŋ/, words that historically should have a null initial end up being pronounced with /ŋ/. One of the most prominent examples is the word 愛, meaning "love." Even though the standard pronunciation should be /ɔːi33/, it ends up being pronounced /ŋɔːi33/.
[edit] Loanwords
Life in Hong Kong is characterised by the blending of Asian (mainly southern Chinese) and Western influences, as well as the status of the city as a major international business centre. Influences from this territory are widespread in foreign cultures. As a results, many loanwords are created and exported to China, Taiwan and Singapore. Some of the loanwords are even more popular than their Chinese counterparts. At the same time, some new words created are vividly borrowed by other languages as well.
[edit] Imported loanwords
Selected loanword. [1]
[edit] 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/ | |
| 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 | SARS | 嚴重急性呼吸道症候群 |
[edit] 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 tʃœːŋ13/ | 車掌 | conductor (public transport) |
[edit] Exported loanwords
[edit] English
| English | Characters | Chinese IPA |
|---|---|---|
| chow mein | 炒麪 | /tʃʰɑːu35 miːn22/ |
| dim sum | 點心 | /tiːm35 sɑːm55/ |
| 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] 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] 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) |
