Lanuage in Hong Kong (Cantonese)

Do you know most Hongkongers speak Cantonese as their native language?
…No, I am not stating the obvious. Lots of foreigners seem to think we speak Mandarin.
I remember that one time, I saw a foreign reporter from some TV station interviewing a Hongkonger, and the reporter introduced himself in Mandarin…
Good lord! You have no idea how hard I try not to smack him in the head and…
Er, that sounds barbaric, doesn’t it?
Anyway, what I want to say is, we speak Cantonese, Hong Kong Cantonese to be exact.

And Cantonese is not just “some dialect”. It has a really rich history background and its origin can be dated back to around BC 203.
Cantonese retains lots of ancient Chinese words like 幾時 (when), 食 (eat), 飲 (drink) and老豆 (father). And some linguists suggested that the grammar and pronunciation of Cantonese is so unique that it may have been affected by some Southeast Asian language, like Thai.

Cantonese is a tonal language, which means the tone affect the words’ meaning. And unlike Mandarin, which only has 4 tones, Cantonese is crazier, since it has 9 tones (technically 6, it’s a long story, academic story)! Let’s say:
衣 (ji1 - clothes)
倚 (ji2 - rely; lean on)
意 (ji3 - meaning)
而 (ji4 - but; as of)
已 (ji5 - already)
義 (ji6 - righteousness)
They all have the same pronunciation of “ji”, but given different intonation, they become 6 different words!

Although Cantonese follow the standard “modifier + noun” pattern like Chinese and English, there are exceptions where modifiers come after the noun, like:
狗公 (“dog” “male”, instead of “male dog”)
雀仔 (“bird” “little”, instead of “little bird”)
This is madness? No, this is Cantonese. And let me show you something more insane.

出面好大風呀 (ceot1 min6 hou2 dai6 fung1 aa1)
出面風好大呀 (ceot1 min6 fung1 hou2 dai6 aa1)
好大風呀出面 (hou2 dai6 fung1 aa1 ceot1 min6)
風好大呀出面 (fung1 hou2 dai6 aa1 ceot1 min6)

These 4 sentences are made up of the same words but completely different sentence structures.
However, they are all grammatically correct and have only 1 meaning: it’s windy outside.
Look scary and ridiculous to the foreign learners, huh?

Oh, let me teach you this one sentence.
When you travel in Hong Kong (or Macau, or Guangzhou, or wherever the people speak Cantonese), tell the people:

我識廣東話。 (ngo5 sik1 gwong2 dung1 waa2 – I know Cantonese)
唔好諗住呃我。(ng4 hou2 nam2 zyu6 ngak1 ngo5 – Don’t think you can trick me)

That should be enough to drive the scammers away.
What? Cantonese swear words?
Well…maybe next time?

#Hongkong #Cantonese #Language #Hongkongers