Hong Kong English

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Hong Kong English refers to the accent and characteristics of English spoken by Hongkongers. Contrary to Indian or Australian, Hong Kong people tend to think that English with local influence is inferior, mistaken, irregular.

1 Background
2 Spoken characteristics
- 2.1 R
- 2.2 V
- 2.3 th
- 2.4 N/L
- 2.5 J/G
- 2.6 æ/ɛ
- 2.7 Z
- 2.8 Intonation
- 2.9 Others
3 Grammar
4 See also

[edit] Background

English is one of the official languages in Hong Kong, but most local ethnic Chinese, making up more than 95% of population, speak it as a second language, taught through school education. Cantonese is overwhelmingly the tongue spoken in everyday life.

After the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong in 1997, although English remains the official language, only a handful of primary schools and secondary schools are allowed to take English as the medium of instruction under new government policy. However, English is widely used in universities, business and courts.

Contrary to Singaporean or Australian, the general public tend to see Hong Kong English as a mistaken variant of language. People with higher education generally speak an acquired form of English modelled on British English, with American influences, but proficiency also depends on the individual language environments.

Some people criticise the language proficiency of some local non-native English teachers. In response, the local education bureau required English teachers without English language undergraduate degrees to pass an assessment called the "LPAT" to ensure that their English is of a sufficiently high standard, and those who did not pass the assessment would not be able to teach English any more. This included English teachers who are native speakers, except for those hired by the government. A high number of native English speakers have failed the test. Such assessment screened quite a number of in-service English teachers, and some of them decided to retire instead.

[edit] Spoken characteristics

[edit] R

Like British English, Hong Kong English is non-rhotic, which means 'r' is not pronounced except before a vowel.
'wh' read as 'w', as in British English.
Beginning 'r' read as 'w' sound. (the word 'read' is a good example.)
'r' in other positions may be read as 'w' or 'l' . (eg. 'error' as E-WA, the famous 'flied lice' and 'frame', respectively.)
'r' and 'l' in positions other than the beginning are also often confused. . .eg. Breakfast becomes BLEG-FUSS for some; 'bleach' and 'breach' both become 'beach'

[edit] V

Beginning 'v' read as 'w' sound. (eg. 'Vector' and 'Aston Villa')
Other 'v' becomes 'w' or 'f' mostly with a consensus yet no obvious pattern. (eg. 'f' in 'favour', second 'v' in 'Volvo' and either 'f' or 'w' in 'develop' depending on the speaker.)

[edit] th

'th' read as 'd' (as in them) or 'f' (as in thick) sound. ('th' sound is not used in Cantonese)

[edit] N/L

'n' and 'l' is interchangable.
l-vocalization is common: ending 'l' (IPA: [ɫ]) often pronounced as 'w', as in Polish, e.g. "bell" --> /bew/, "milk" --> /mjwk/. This /w/ is sometimes strengthened and becomes like /o/ (e.g., sale becomes SAY-o)

[edit] J/G

Beginning 'j' and soft 'g' read as 'dz' (e.g., Gigi pronounced as "zhi-zhi").

[edit] æ/ɛ

Merging of /æ/ and /ɛ/ to /ɛ/. eg. 'bad' and 'bed', 'mass' and 'mess'.

[edit] Z

The letter “z” is generally pronounced as [jiˈsɛt̚], a corrupted version (due to various of the above-mentioned reasons) of a very archaic pronunciation /ɪˈzæd/; the correct pronunciations, /zɛd/ and /zi:/, are not understood by some.

[edit] Intonation

Multi-syllable words are often differently stressed. e.g. "Edu'cation" may be pronounced as "'Ed 'cation" since Chinese is tonal and largely monosyllabic.
Stressed 'I' sounds (ie. pronouncing "impossible" (ehm-pos-ii-bul) as ii-m-pos-ii-bol and "impulsive" (im-pul-si-ff) as 'iim-pul-sii-ff')
Omission of entire syllables in longer words. ('Difference' become DIFF-ENS, 'temperature' becomes TEM-PI-CHUR.)
Words beginning with unstressed syllables 'con' are generally pronounced as its stressed form /kawn/ with a lower pitch, e.g. 'connection', 'consent', 'condition'. Words beginning with stressed syllable 'com-' e.g. 'competition', 'common' and 'compromise' are pronounced as /kahm/.

[edit] Others

Exaggeration of certain final consonants, for example 's' (to /si/) and 'd' sounds of past-tense form of verbs (to [tət̚]).
Differences or omission in ending sounds. (as the ending consonants are always voiceless and unreleased (glotallized) in Cantonese with the exception of 'm', 'n' and 'ng', similar to Basel German)
Producing the 'w', 'h' or 'l' sounds in words like Greenwich, Bonham, Beckham, Salisbury. This is reflected in the transliteration of the words, for example, Beckham is transliterated as 碧咸 (pronounced as /bik-ha:m/).
Merging the contrast of voiceless / voiced consonants with aspirated / unaspirated if there is any contrast exists in Cantonese. The stop [p] becomes [pʰ] and [b] becomes [p]; [t] becomes [tʰ] and [d] becomes [t]; [k] becomes [kʰ] and [g] becomes [k].
Merging voiceless / voiced consonants into voiceless if no contrast in aspirated / unaspirated in Cantonese. Both [f] and [v] become [f]; both [z] and [s] become [s]; both [tʃ] and [dʒ] become [tʃ] ; both [ʃ] and [ʒ] become [ʃ]; both [θ] and [ð] become [θ] ( difficulty in pronouncing [θ] too).

[edit] Grammar

omit articles like "the" and "a".
Confusion with verb tenses and agreement of singular or plural nouns, as they have no direct equivalence in Cantonese grammar
use of prepositions: "on", "in" and "at" are often interchangable.
Yes/ No confusion: In Cantonese, "yes" represents an agreement, "no" represents a disagreement, whilst in English "yes" represents a positive answer, "no" represents a negative answer.
"There is/are" becomes "there has/have", a direct translation.

[edit] Nouns

Referring to female as "he" and "him" as their Cantonese equivalents are genderless
Plural forms: no plural forms in Chinese.

[edit] Numbers

10,000: Numbers larger than ten thousand. In Chinese, 10 thousand is read as one myriad, 100 thousand as 10 myriad, one million as 100 myriad.
Fractions: "three over four" may wrongly be taken as "four over three".
Discount: the Chinese way of saying 10% off is "90% discount".

[edit] American/ British

Image:The Center Central.jpg

Both British and American spellings are used.
When refering the same thing, British vocab is more commonly used. E.g. Rubbish Bin, instead of Garbage can.

[edit] Variant

end-word: In informal conversation like instant messengers, final particles or interjections of Cantonese origin such as ar, la, lu, ma and wor'—many of these being “flavouring particles”—are used at the ends of English sentences.
"I've eaten dinner lu" (“I've had dinner”—“lu” /lu₃₃/ indicates a perfect aspect and makes the sentence more informal)
"I go la/lah, bye" (“I'm leaving, bye!”—“la” /la₃₃/ indicates intent and makes the sentence more informal)