Bilingualism in Hong Kong
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Hong Kong SAR is bilingual, as its residents speak English and Cantonese which are both official languages of Hong Kong under the Hong Kong Basic Law (Article 9) and the Official Languages Ordinance (Chapter 5).
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[edit] English as an official language
The British colonized Hong Kong in 1840 as a free port to serve as an entrepôt of the British Empire, so the British Authorities and businessmen would have spoken English. The white Hong Kongers (or Hongkongese) remained the ethnic and linguistic majority until the early 1900s when Chinese immigration began to outnumber the British. The British, who were still in control of the colony, continued to use English as an official language and added Chinese as an official language of the colony.
Following the handover of the colony, English is still used in law and business, and it is still taught in schools and spoken by over 30% of the population. The British have also left their language on place names within Hong Kong, particularly on Hong Kong Island, where the British made the largest impact.
[edit] Cantonese as an official language
Cantonese, the language spoken in Guangdong and other parts of Southern China eventually became an official language of Hong Kong when the Chinese population of the colony grew. Hong Kong's population reached 6.99 million in 2006, [1] of which approximately 95% are of Chinese descent, the majority of which are Cantonese, Hakka, and Teochew. Most Chinese Hong Kongers speak Cantonese at home and approximately 33% know English as a second language.
[edit] Other languages in Hong Kong
Hong Kong is home to a wide range of ethnicities, and substantial portions of Hong Kongers are neither native English nor Cantonese speakers. Japanese is the largest non-official language, with over 25,000 Japanese people in Hong Kong. Vietnamese refugees emigrated to Hong Kong and still speak Vietnamese as their first language.
There is a significant number of South Asians in Hong Kong. Signboards written in Hindi or Urdu are common in areas with South Asians, and languages such as Nepali, Sindhi and Punjabi are often heard on the streets of Hong Kong in addition to Urdu and Hindi. There are also two newspapers written in Nepalese in Hong Kong, The Everest and the Sunrise Weekly Hong Kong. In 2004, the Home Affairs Bureau and Metro Plus AM 1044 jointly launched radio shows Hong Kong-Pak Tonight in Urdu and Harmo Sagarmatha in Nepalese[2].
Arabic is used frequently among members of Muslim communities in Hong Kong, and it is quickly becoming a popular language to learn. [3].
[edit] See also
- Bilingualism in Canada
- English Language
- Cantonese
- Colonial Hong Kong
- Bilingual streetsign
- Culture of Hong Kong
- Literature of Hong Kong
- Demographics of Hong Kong
- Hong Kong English
- Chinglish
- Chinese Pidgin English
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ "Hong Kong Statistics - Population and Vital Events", Census and Statistics Department. Retrieved 2007-02-02
- ^ "Urdu and Nepali radio programmes to launch", Hong Kong Information Services Department. Retrieved on 2007-01-12.
- ^ 古蘭經及阿文新課程 (Qur'an and Arabic language class). Islam.org.hk (2006-04-03). Retrieved on 2007-01-12.
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