Hong Kong English
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Hong Kong English is a variety of the
English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
native to
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
. The variant is either a learner interlanguage or emergent variant, primarily a result of Hong Kong's British overseas territory history and the influence of native
Hong Kong Cantonese Hong Kong Cantonese is a dialect of the Cantonese language of the Sino-Tibetan family. Although Hongkongers refer to the language as "''Cantonese''" (), publications in mainland China describe the variant as ''Hong Kong dialect'' (), due t ...
speakers.


Background

English is one of two
official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
s in Hong Kong – the other being Chinese (
Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...
), and is used in
academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
,
business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...
and the
courts A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
, as well as in most
Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
materials. Major businesses routinely issue important material in both Chinese and English, and all road and government signs are bilingual. Since the
Handover In cellular telecommunications, handover, or handoff, is the process of transferring an ongoing call or data session from one channel connected to the core network to another channel. In satellite communications it is the process of transfe ...
, English in Hong Kong remains primarily a second language, in contrast to Singapore where English has been shifting toward being a first language. The falling English proficiency of local English language teachers has come under criticism. The proportion of the Hong Kong population who report using English (that is, all forms) as their "usual spoken language" increased from 2.8% in 2006 to 4.3% in 2016, while 51.1%, 63.5% and 65.6% respectively, reported being able to speak, write and read the language.


Status

The existence of Hong Kong English, as a distinct variety of the English language, is still a matter of debate among many scholars.


Evidence suggesting variant established

In the literature examining the existence of Hong Kong English as a distinct variety, scholars have sought evidence of expression of the variant which may be classified according to the following criteria: * Standard and recognisable accent; research has demonstrated the existence of, and local preference for, a local Hong Kong English accent * Distinctive vocabulary; local media, such as
newspapers A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...
, clearly show a shared common vocabulary used among English speakers in Hong Kong * History; a continuous link can be drawn between Hong Kong English and early pidgin forms used to communicate between traders in Canton before the establishment of Hong Kong as a colony. * Literature using the variant; there is a growing corpus of literature produced in English which is meant for local consumption. * Reference works; reference texts describing Hong Kong English are beginning to emerge, such as ''A Dictionary of Hong Kong English: Words from the Fragrant Harbor'' Using these criteria, scholars have said that Hong Kong English possesses the attributes of a distinct variety. Hong Kong English is also featured as a separate entity in the Oxford Guide to World English, under the sub-heading of "East Asia". Hong Kong English is also included as a separate variety of English within the International Corpus of English, with a dedicated local research team collecting data to describe the usage of English in Hong Kong.


Evidence suggesting variant not established

It has also been argued that there is no such thing as Hong Kong English and the predominance of recent works discuss Hong Kong phonology in terms of erroneous deviation from varieties such as British and American English. In one co-authored work describing a study conducted of five Hong Kong speakers of English, it was concluded, controversially, as they conceded, that HKE was at most an emergent variety and perhaps no more than a "learner interlanguage". In the Dynamic Model of Postcolonial Englishes, it has been classified as in the third phase, that of Nativisation, but more recently it has been shown that many young people are happy to identify themselves as speakers of Hong Kong English, so it may be regarded as progressing into the fourth phase, that of Endonormative Stabilisation. Furthermore, by the criteria identified in the above section, scholars have noted that there is very little literature produced in English which is meant for local consumption.


Intelligibility and recognition

It has been demonstrated that English spoken in Hong Kong is highly intelligible to listeners from elsewhere, which helps explain why an increasing number of people are happy to be identified as speakers of this variety. However, it has been noted that language use is highly politicised and compartmentalised in Hong Kong, where the two official languages are seen as having different and distinct uses. Indeed, it has been argued that even English language teachers in Hong Kong would refuse to acknowledge the local variant of English within a classroom setting, opting instead for more "standard" variations. It has been argued that the lack of recognition of Hong Kong English as a variety on par with other Asian varieties, such as
Indian English Indian English (IE) is a group of English dialects spoken in the republic of India and among the Indian diaspora. English is used by the Indian government for communication, along with Hindi, as enshrined in the Constitution of India. E ...
or
Singaporean English Singapore English (SgE, SE, en-SG) (similar and related to British English) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Singapore. In Singapore, English is spoken in two main forms: Singaporean Standard English (indistinguisha ...
, is due to a lack of research.


Pronunciation

As a result of the colonial legacy, the pronunciation of Hong Kong English was assumed to be originally based on British English, However, nowadays, there are new features of pronunciation derived from American English, and the influence of American English has emerged. Furthermore, there seem to be some innovative developments that are unique to Hong Kong English, such as a split in the realisation of /v/ as or Some of the more salient features are listed below.


Segments

* tends to be so ''this'' is is * /ə/ tends to be so ''whether'' is . * /v/ may be or , so ''event'' may have while ''even'' has It seems that occurs at the start of a stressed syllable while occurs at the start of an unstressed syllable. * There is alternation between and and the same speaker may alternate with words such as ''light'' and ''night'', and both ''loud'' and ''number'' may have either or at the start. * Words with final /s/ add long vowel / i:/, such as Joyce ʒɔɪspronunciation becomes Joysee ʒɔɪsi: * In final consonant clusters, just as with many other varieties of English, there is a tendency for simplification, so the plosive at the end of words such as ''think'' and ''camp'' is often omitted. Deletion of coronal plosives /t/ and /d/ from word-final clusters has been reported to occur in about 76% of tokens, though this frequency is a little less if the function words ''and'' and ''just'' are excluded from the analysis. *
L-vocalisation ''L''-vocalization, in linguistics, is a process by which a lateral approximant sound such as , or, perhaps more often, velarized , is replaced by a vowel or a semivowel. Types There are two types of ''l''-vocalization: * A labiovelar approxi ...
is common, so dark /l/ in the coda of a syllable is often pronounced as , and ''fill'' may be while ''tell'' is , just as in London English (Cockney). After back rounded vowels /l/ is often omitted, so ''school'' is and ''wall'' is . * Like many accents in Britain, Hong Kong English is
non-rhotic Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
, so is only pronounced before a vowel. However, with the growing influence of American English and Canadian English, many young people in Hong Kong now pronounce the in the coda of a syllable. * There is often little distinction between the non-close front vowels, and , so ''bat'' and ''bet'' may be pronounced the same (with ). * Long and short vowels are generally merged, particularly involving the close vowels and (so ''heat'' and ''hit'' are both pronounced with a short tense ) as well as and (so ''pull'' and ''pool'' are the same). * Vowel reduction is often avoided in function words, so a full vowel occurs in words such as ''and'' and ''to'' as well as the first syllable of content words such as ''accept'' and ''patrol''.


Intonation

* Multi-
syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
words are often differently stressed. For example, while the word "
latte Caffè latte (), often shortened to just latte () in English, is a coffee beverage of Italian origin made with espresso and steamed milk. Variants include the chocolate-flavored mocha or replacing the coffee with another beverage base such as ma ...
" is pronounced in most variants of the English language, it is usually pronounced in Hong Kong English, with the second syllable stressed instead of the first. * Omission of entire "r-" syllables in longer words; "difference" becomes , and "temperature" becomes . * Words beginning with unstressed syllables "con" are generally pronounced its stressed form with a lower pitch, e.g. "connection", "consent", "condition". Words beginning with stressed syllable "com-" e.g. "competition", "common" and "compromise" are pronounced . * The
schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
tends to be pronounced as in final closed syllables; "ticket" is pronounced , and "carpet" is pronounced . * The suffix -age is generally pronounced ; "message" is pronounced , "package" is pronounced etc. * There is less vowel reduction in unstressed syllables, and some variation in the placement of stress. For example, ''chocolate'' may be pronounced , as distinct from in other varieties of English. * Compared to other varieties of English, there is less difference between stressed and unstressed syllables. In most varieties of English, unstressed syllables are reduced, taking less time. This difference is smaller in Hong Kong English.


Others

*In Cantonese, there is no structure of diphthong+consonant. As a result, becomes , becomes , becomes , becomes , becomes , becomes , becomes , becomes etc. ** For the case , or , the ending consonant is generally omitted, resulting in . * Many Chinese will speak a foreign language with the same characteristic monosyllabic staccato of spoken Chinese, with varying degrees of the natural liaisons between syllables that natives employ. In a similar vein, they often pronounce syllables as if words were transliterated into Cantonese: "Cameron" is pronounced as based on its transliteration; "basic" is pronounced as . * Exaggeration of certain final consonants, for example to and sounds of the past-tense form of verbs to . * Differences or omission in ending sounds, as the ending
consonants In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
are always
voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
and unreleased ( glottalised) in Cantonese with the exceptions of , and , similar to
Basel German Basel German or Baseldytsch (Standard German: ''Baseldeutsch'') is the dialect of the city of Basel, Switzerland. The dialect of Basel forms a Low Alemannic linguistic exclave in the High Alemannic region. Phonetics and phonology Consonants ...
* Pronouncing the silent , sounds in words like "Green-wich", "Bon-ham", "Chat-ham", "Beck-ham" are often reflected in the transliteration of the words, for example, Beckham is transliterated (pronounced ). * Merging the contrast of
voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
/
voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer ...
consonants with aspirated/
unaspirated In linguistics, a tenuis consonant ( or ) is an obstruent that is voiceless, unaspirated and unglottalized. In other words, it has the "plain" phonation of with a voice onset time close to zero (a zero-VOT consonant), as Spanish ''p, t, ch ...
if any contrast exists in Cantonese. This is because English voiceless consonants are most often aspirated, whereas the voiced ones are always unaspirated. The stop becomes and becomes ; becomes and becomes ; becomes and becomes ; becomes and becomes (except when preceded by s, where the English consonants are unaspirated). * Merging voiceless/voiced consonants into voiceless if there is no contrast in aspirated/unaspirated in Cantonese. Both and become ; both and become ; both and become ; the only exception might be that and are never confused, due to difficulty in pronouncing and : many pronounce as , and as . * Confusion between homographs (words with the same spelling but different meanings), e.g. the noun "resume" (a CV) and the verb "resume" (to continue).


American/British spelling and word usage

* Both
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
and
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
spellings are in common use, although the British variant predominates in official circles, and remains to be the officially taught form in education. * However, Hong Kong has significant American influence in its treatment of abbreviations and initialisms: the full point is expected in shortened titles (Mr., Ms., Dr., St.), and government honours also retain the full point in post-nominals ( G.B.M., G.B.S.), whereas British English no longer uses the full point. * When referring to the same thing, British vocabulary is more commonly used, for example: ''rubbish bin'' instead of ''garbage/trash can''; ''lift'' instead of ''elevator''; ''mobile phone'' instead of ''cell phone''; ''estate agent'' instead of ''real estate broker''.


Hong Kong vocabulary/expressions

Some words and phrases widely understood in Hong Kong are rare or unheard of elsewhere. These often derive from Chinese,
Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The ''Oxford English ...
, or Portuguese/ Macanese. * A is a seal or stamp, e.g. a "Company chop" is the seal or stamp of a corporation (it actually originates from colonial Indian English.) It is now used in some other Commonwealth countries as a non-official term. * A ''
Tai-Pan A tai-pan (,Andrew J. Moody, "Transmission Languages and Source Languages of Chinese Borrowings in English", ''American Speech'', Vol. 71, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp. 414-415. literally "top class"汉英词典 — ''A Chinese-English Dictionary' ...
'' (or 'taipan'; ) is a term used in the early 20th century for a business executive of a large corporation. * An '' amah'' () is a term used in the early 20th century for a live-in servant (from Macanese/Portuguese- ''ama'' nurse); now supplanted by " omestic/nowiki> helper" * A 'shroff' is a cashier, in a hospital, a government office or a car park (parking garage). * "Godown" is a
warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...
From the Malay "gudang". The ultimate origins were traced to the Indian subcontinent. *''
Nullah A nullah or nala ( Hindustani or "nallah" in Punjabi) is an 'arm of the sea', stream, or watercourse, a steep narrow valley. Like the wadi of the Arabs, the nullah is characteristic of mountainous or hilly country where there is little rainfall. ...
'' is a concrete or stone-lined canal or a reinforced creek bed used to contain run-off. ''Nullah'' entered the English language from Hindi. * ''Jetso'' ("") is sometimes used to mean ''discount'' or ''special offer''. * '
Add oil "Add oil" is a Hong Kong English expression used as an encouragement and support to a person. Derived from the Chinese phrase ''Jiayou (cheer), Gayau'' (or ''Jiayou''; ), the expression is calque, literally translated from the Cantonese phrase. I ...
', direct translation of the Chinese (), an exclamatory entreaty of encouragement. The usage became popularised by the
Umbrella Movement The Umbrella Movement () was a political movement that emerged during the Hong Kong democracy protests of 2014. Its name arose from the use of umbrellas as a tool for passive resistance to the Hong Kong Police's use of pepper spray to dispe ...
. * ''Lai see'' a transliteration of the Cantonese term (), also referred to as " red envelopes", or "red packets", or by the Mandarin term (), for red envelopes bearing auspicious Chinese phrases or characters containing money and handed out as gifts, particularly during the Lunar New Year festival. People often read souvenir wrongly as soften-near. In 2015
University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...
professor Lisa Lim stated that some of the words, by that year, had declined in usage.


See also

*
Chinese Pidgin English Chinese Pidgin English (also called Chinese Coastal English or Pigeon English; ) is a pidgin language lexically based on English, but influenced by a Chinese substratum. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, there was also Chinese Pidgin Eng ...
*
Phonemic differentiation In historical linguistics, phonological change is any sound change that alters the distribution of phonemes in a language. In other words, a language develops a new system of oppositions among its phonemes. Old contrasts may disappear, new one ...
*
Regional accents of English Spoken English shows great variation across regions where it is the predominant language. For example, the United Kingdom has the largest variation of accents of any country in the world, and therefore no single "British accent" exists. This ar ...
*
Chinglish Chinglish is slang for spoken or written English language that is either influenced by a Chinese language, or is poorly translated. In Hong Kong, Macau, Guangdong and Guangxi, the term "Chinglish" refers mainly to Cantonese-influenced English. ...
*
Singlish Singlish (a portmanteau of ''Singapore'' and ''English'') is an English-based creole language spoken in Singapore. Singlish arose out of a situation of prolonged language contact between speakers of many different languages in Singapore, inc ...
*
Macanese Portuguese Macanese Portuguese ( pt, português macaense) is a Portuguese dialect spoken in Macau, where Portuguese is co-official with Cantonese. Macanese Portuguese is spoken, to some degree either natively or as a second language, by roughly 1% of the ...
*
Code-switching in Hong Kong Code-switching is a type of linguistic behaviour that juxtaposes "passages of speech belonging to two different grammatical systems or sub-systems, within the same exchange". Code-switching in Hong Kong mainly concerns two grammatical systems: ...
* Education in Hong Kong *
Hong Kong Cantonese Hong Kong Cantonese is a dialect of the Cantonese language of the Sino-Tibetan family. Although Hongkongers refer to the language as "''Cantonese''" (), publications in mainland China describe the variant as ''Hong Kong dialect'' (), due t ...
*
Languages of Hong Kong The Basic Law of Hong Kong states that English and Chinese are the two official languages of Hong Kong. During the British colonial era, English was the sole official language until 1978 but has remained a strong second language in Hong Kong. ...


References


External links

*Caryn Yeo, (23 Feb 2009)
"Hong Kong's English, Cantonese conundrum"
''The Straits Times''
"The cat got your mother tongue? – The Brits make a linguistic comeback"
''The Economist'' (12 June 2008) {{English dialects by continent
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
Dialects of English City colloquials