Yidan
As a big fan of Hong Kong TV dramas, movies and songs, I always admire people from Guangdong province where Cantonese is a major lingua franca. They understand Hong Kong Cantonese dramas without subtitles, sing Cantonese songs and communicate with people from Hong Kong without any barrier. According to Norman, Cantonese is considered the prestige variety of Yue Chinese variants, based on the dialect of Guangzhou City (Canto) and the surrounding areas including Guangdong and Guangxi province, Hong Kong and Macau (p.215, 1988). However, a question has always lingered in my mind: is there any difference between Hong Kong Cantonese and Guangzhou Cantonese? After research and observation, I find that there are mainly two differences to help distinguish Hong Kong and Guangzhou Cantonese.
Firstly, in terms of phonology, compared to Guangzhou Cantonese, lazy sound is more prevalent in Hong Kong Cantonese. It refers to the general tendency among the younger generation of HK to merge some contrasting consonants, specifically /n/ initial into /l/ initial, /ŋ/ initial into null initial (To, Mcleod & Cheung, 2015). For example, the standard pronunciation of “你” ( meaning you) is (nei5), but people in Hong Kong say (lei5). In GZ, the similar phenomenon of lazy sound is occurring but to a lesser degree. Moreover, with the merging of high-falling and high level tones, there are six tones in Hong Kong Cantonese but seven in Guangzhou.
In addition to the phonological difference, code-switching is a major difference which helps people to identify HK and GZ Cantonese speakers. Since Hong Kong used to be A British colony for over 150 years and now is still more or less influenced by British culture, people from Hong Kong mix English and Cantonese from their daily conversation to workplace communication. Conversely, in Guangzhou Cantonese, people barely use English in conversation since it gives people a feeling of showing off. Based on my observation, it’s very normal in Hong Kong to use English to replace Cantonese nouns and verbs.
e.g. Can I joinyou guys for lunch?
HK Cantonese:
我可唔可以join你地食lunch啊？
[ngo5 ho2 m4 ho2 yi5 joinnei5 dei6 sik6luncha1]
GZ Cantonese:
我可唔可以同埋你地食中午饭啊？
[ngo5 ho2 m4 ho2 yi5 tung4 maai4 nei5 dei6 sik6 jung1 ng5 faan6 a1]
e.g. What you did earlier was really hurtful. Say sorryimmediately!
HK Cantonese:
你頭先好hurt人呀，你快啲say sorry啦。
[nei5 tau4 sin1 hou2 hurtyan4 a3，nei5 faai3 dim2 say sorryla1]
GZ Cantonese:
你头先令人好伤心呀，你快点道歉啦。
[nei5 tau4 sin1 ling6 yan4 hou2 seung1 sam1 a3，nei5 faai3 dim2 dou6 hip3 la1]
Moreover, it’s also quite easy to distinguish HK and GZ Cantonese based on the choice of words since Hong Kong Cantonese is peppered with many loanwords imported from English. However, in Guangzhou Cantonese, people use the Chinese counterparts. For instance, in Hong Kong Cantonese, 士多啤梨(si6 do1 be1 lei2) is transliterated from English strawberry. In Chinese, strawberry is 草莓(cao3 mei2) and it’s pronounced (cou2 mui4) in Cantonese. In Hong Kong, people only use 士多啤梨 while Cantonese speakers from mainland China use 草莓.
In a nutshell, HK Cantonese and GZ Cantonese can partly be distinguished by the pronunciation, but most of the time by the words they use since people in Hong Kong make an extensive use of English.
And I found an interesting comment on this topic on the internet by chance. It says the best analogy of Guangzhou Cantonese vs Hong Kong Cantonese is the difference between Canadian English and American English (more specifically, fairly neutral West Coast / California accents). The differences are very subtle in terms of pronunciation and word choice. This analogy remains doubtful and debatable, but at least it gives people a general understanding of to what extent HK and GZ Cantonese differ. And for me this analogy makes sense in a way that non native speakers are not able to tell the difference.
References:
Carol K. S. To, Sharynne Mcleod & Pamela S. P. Cheung (2015) Phonetic variations and sound changes in Hong Kong Cantonese: Diachronic review, synchronic study and implications for speech sound assessment, Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 29:5, 333-353
Norman, Jerry (1988) Chinese, Cambridge Language Survey.Cambridge University Press. P.215
What a perfect reading treat for someone just back from Hong Kong whose main exposure to Chinese has been through Mandarin! This was fascinating, and the analogy with varieties of North American English is very helpful. I have heard that Cantonese is very difficult to learn because of all the tones (you refer to six…I bet there are more). But is it, really? I liked the sound of it a lot.