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Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macao. As part of the larger group of Chinese varieties, Colloquial Cantonese in Hong Kong is a special system of spoken language used by locals in Hong Kong. Hong Kong-style colloquial Cantonese has evolved from the different cultural backgrounds from Guangdong province and Macao.
Contents
- Daily Conversation
- Abbreviation
- Martian Language
- Decrease in Language Proficiency
- Misunderstanding and Problematic Communication
- Destruction of the Normative Language and Lost of the Original Meaning of the Words
- References
Colloquial Cantonese has also been widely used on the Internet since the late 20th century. Thanks to the technological advancements, speakers can communicate with each other. The conversation style of online internet users has become more casual; as a result, more Hongkongers tend to simplify their conversation in the internet because of their focus on efficiency. This ultimately gives rise to the use of the unique internet conversation style in Hong Kong.
The origin of Cantonese can be traced back from Tang Dynasty to the An Lushan Revolt that made Cantonese a notable language. But what officially distinguished Hong Kong-style colloquial Cantonese came during the British colonial period: managed by the British government, Hong Kong was greatly influenced by the Western culture. English became the second official language. Blending Chinese culture with western culture, hybrid language became prevalent. The emergence of English in Chinese society contributed to the evolution of colloquial Cantonese.
Daily Conversation
The expressions and wordings in colloquial Cantonese are unique with various cultural implications in which the younger generation might have never gotten in touch with. Following are some of the examples:
Abbreviation
Hong Kong people emphasize on efficiency and speed. This habit occurs in their way of speaking as well, therefore abbreviations are commonly used in both daily and internet conversation.
It is typical for Hong Kong people to shorten some terms which are commonly use. There are some of the examples:
Martian Language
Martian Language is a kind of language that is commonly used in the internet. The younger generations tend to invent new words to replace the original expression. Since the words are of different structures and grammars when comparing to the Chinese or English words that we usually see, this kind of language is dubbed as "Martian Language." The term also carries the connotation that people of Earth won't understand them. There may be some words that have similar pronunciations but fewer strokes or informal loan words which are from English or Putonghua.
Similar pronunciation
Breaking down words
Netizens will break down the structure of one single Chinese character and extend it into two characters. As the Chinese characters are made up with many small parts such as radicals, therefore they can be broken down into the separate parts and typed in this way. Following are some examples:
Self-created emoticons
Self-created emoticon is commonly used in the internet for the netizens to better express their feelings or emotion without typing any sensible characters.
Internet users combine various symbols from the keyboard (@#$%^&*>/< etc.) to create emoticons. One of the most popular emoticon used by Hongkongers. It was originated from the emoji input code (a crown emoji will shown automatically after typing these characters) in the Hong Kong Golden Forum. This is an ironic emoticon as the central meaning of this emoji is to deride a person who did something stupid.
Informal Cantonese Phonetic Transcription
Due to convenience, internet or social media users like to type Cantonese pinyin which are not formalized rather than typing exactly Chinese characters. We need to memorise Chinese input method which is generally quite complex for beginners if they want to type any Chinese words on the internet. Therefore, this unformalized Cantonese pinyin input method is especially prevalent in Hong Kong where citizens are emphasize on efficiency. Some even turn this into a habit as typing this kind of unformalized pinyin is much simpler and convenient. The following examples contrast between the formal Cantonese pinyin and the informal Cantonese Phonetic Transcription :
Decrease in Language Proficiency
Some criticise the prolonged use of colloquial Cantonese leads to a drop in language proficiency. Using this new language frequently often results in a shrink in vocabulary, poor mastery in normative grammar and ultimately a significant loss in writing and speaking skills. Besides, including colloquial Cantonese in formal writings and speeches are more likely to create a disrespectful and unprofessional image to the audience.
Misunderstanding and Problematic Communication
Colloquial expressions are derived from social trends. There will be some people who cannot keep up with these trends, especially new immigrants, middle age and the elderly. Since they are possibly failed to make accurate interpretations, confusion often occurs. For instances, many post 80s employees are adapted to use trendy words like “orz” ( An emoticon of a person pounding his head on the floor in which “O”, “R”, “Z” represent the head, arms and legs respectively. It symbolizes someone admire a person with the utmost sincerity) and “神級” ( textual meaning: god level ; literal meaning: an incredibly great mastery in certain things) when they are communicating with the senior staffs but the seniors misunderstand this as an act of disrespect. The use of colloquial Cantonese does not necessarily bring convenience, but rather lead to ineffective communication. Misunderstanding of trendy expression will impose communication barrier. As a result, extra time is needed for explanation and lowering the communication efficiency and effectiveness.
Destruction of the Normative Language and Lost of the Original Meaning of the Words
In Chinese, each character, which has its own meaning and history, are mostly monosyllabic. While using colloquial Cantonese, new terms or words instead of original words are used due to ease and convenience . As a matter of fact, the abbreviations, martian languages and the informal Cantonese phonetic transcriptions do not hold any literal meaning on the characters themselves. For example, the word “靚" is compound ideographs and phono-semantic compound characters that comes from “a young lady uses blue color painting for making up”, which is why this word means “beautiful” People use “leng” and "令” to replace “靚". The meaning of “beautiful” does not exist in “Leng” and "令” literally. Therefore, the use of colloquial Cantonese changes the meaning of the word and there is a lost of the original meaning of the words.