Li Peng
Hong Kong is a diverse city where different languages and cultures converge and sometimes conflict with each other. I would like to bring two interesting discussion points in terms of Cantonese and English in Hong Kong, which relate to the language vs. dialect debate, and British English vs. American English respectively.
A few weeks ago in our class, we took a glance at the case of mutual intelligibility between Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese. I will come straight to the point, in my opinion, Cantonese is a dialect under the Chinese subfamily (Huang & Liao, 2017). We cannot deny that people in Hong Kong and mainland China can both understand each other through writing, using the traditional characters or the simplified characters, for instance, sending an e-mail or texting with others. When Hong Kong people travel in mainland China, they can read the signs, and vice versa. Thus, based on the mutual intelligibility criteria at least in terms of the written form, Cantonese and Mandarin are different dialects of the same language, Chinese.
However, many dialects in China share this same situation: we speak and write in different ways. In other words, what we are speaking is not reflected word for word in what we actually we write down. For example, in Mandarin the writing of umbrella is “雨伞”, which is called “yǔsǎn”, while in Hong Kong the character is slightly different with the form of “(雨)傘” but with a totally different pronunciation of “(jyu5) ze1”. This is a good example of how what we write is mutually intelligible but we share no similarities in phonetics. Actually, Hong Kong people do have a word corresponding to “(jyu5) ze1”, which is “(雨)遮”, but they seldom use it as teachers are likely to teach the formal written forms rather than the actual words we speak in our daily lives. As a result, people tend to learn these characters informally, when texting with friends or by reading colloquial handouts, etc. I would be very happy to answer you if you want to discuss this further and know why.
Another interesting case in Hong Kong is the usage of British English and American English. Because of Hong Kong’s British colonial history, we (but perhaps it is just me) take it for granted that Hong Kong people speak and write in a British way. To my surprise, however, this is not always the case, and sometimes they use both British and American styles in the same place. Take a look at the picture of public signs at Austin Station of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system in Hong Kong. The signs “exit” and “way out” appear side by side, while the former is the American style, the latter is the British way. Also, my friend from Hong Kong told me that they were likely to pronounce in a more British way one or two decades ago, but now they tend to pronounce with a more “r-ful” sound (still not as heavy as the Americans). These are wonderful examples of people using different styles of English in Hong Kong, aren’t they?
If you can read in Chinese, you are very welcome to see the relevant article with the link https://www.orangenews.hk/features/details.jhtml?recommendId=138043. I also find that Google Translate does a fair job in translating this article, so you’re encouraged to read it as well with the translation tool. I have also attached the link of a video in which some non-native speakers of Cantonese try to pretend to be the native speakers and see whether others would be able to identify them. It is a pity that the video on YouTube does not have the English subtitles.
- Do people in your country or region speak and write in a different way? Can you share some examples of how the differences are?
- Do you know any other places using British English and American English simultaneously? You are welcome to tell your anecdotes.
References:
Huang, B. R., & Liao, X. D. (Eds.). (2017). 现代汉语 [Contemporary Chinese] (6th ed.). Higher Education Press.
Van Herk, G. (2018). What is sociolinguistics? (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Son, Inc.
Video link: 非粤语区人伪装粤语区人, 会被发现吗？Real VS Fake
