Hong Kong English

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Hong Kong English or Honglish<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> is a variety of the English language native to Hong Kong. The variant is either a learner interlanguage or emergent variant, primarily a result of Hong Kong's British colonial history and the influence of native Hong Kong Cantonese speakers.

Background

English is one of two official languages in Hong Kong – the other being Cantonese – and is used in academia, business and the courts, as well as in most government materials. Major businesses routinely issue important material in both Chinese and English, and all road and government signs are bilingual.<ref name="Eoyang">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Since the Handover, 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref name="2016CensusTable">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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<ref name="Pang01">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Hung01">Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Distinctive vocabulary; local media, such as newspapers, clearly show a shared common vocabulary used among English speakers in Hong Kong<ref name="Benson01">Template:Cite journal</ref>
• 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.<ref name="Bolton01">Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Literature using the variant; there is a growing corpus of literature produced in English which is meant for local consumption.<ref name="BoltonLim">Template:Cite journal</ref>
• 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<ref name="DictHKEng">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Pang01" />

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".<ref name="WongMLY01">Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref name="ICE01">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Evidence suggesting variant not established

It has also been argued that there is no such thing as Hong Kong English<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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".<ref name="SWC">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp In the Dynamic Model of Postcolonial Englishes, it has been classified as in the third phase, that of Nativisation,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref name="Pang01" />

Intelligibility and recognition

It has been demonstrated that English spoken in Hong Kong is highly intelligible to listeners from elsewhere,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> which helps explain why an increasing number of people are happy to be identified as speakers of this variety.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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,<ref name="Pang01" /> 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 or Singapore English, is due to a lack of research.<ref name="WongMLY01" />

Pronunciation

As a result of the colonial legacy, the pronunciation of Hong Kong English was assumed to be originally based on British English.<ref name="Hung2012">Template:Cite book</ref> However, nowadays, there are new features of pronunciation derived from American English,<ref name="SWC" /> and the influence of American English has emerged.<ref name="Chan2013">Template:Cite journal</ref> 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 [f] or [w].<ref name="Hung2007">Template:Cite book</ref> Some of the more salient features are listed below.

Segments

• Template:Ipa tends to be Template:Ipa, so this is Template:Ipa,<ref name="Hung2012" /><ref name="Sewell2009">Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Template:Ipa tends to be Template:Ipa, so whether is Template:Ipa.<ref name="DWK2008">Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Template:Ipa may be Template:Ipa or Template:Ipa, so event may have Template:Ipa while even has Template:Ipa. It seems that Template:Ipa occurs at the start of a stressed syllable while Template:Ipa occurs at the start of an unstressed syllable.<ref name="Hung2007" />
• There is alternation between [l] and [n], and the same speaker may alternate with words such as light and night, and both loud and number may have either Template:Ipa or Template:Ipa at the start.<ref name="Hung2007" />
• Words with final Template:Ipa add long vowel Template:Ipa; Joyce Template:Ipa, for instance, becomes Joysee Template:Ipa.
• 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 Template:Ipa and Template:Ipa 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• L-vocalisation is common, so dark Template:Ipa in the coda of a syllable is often pronounced as Template:IPA, and fill may be Template:IPA while tell is Template:IPA, just as in London English (Cockney).<ref name="Hung2012" /> After back rounded vowels Template:Ipa is often omitted, so school is Template:IPA and wall is Template:IPA.<ref name="DWK2008" />
• Like many accents in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, Hong Kong English is non-rhotic, so Template:Ipa is only pronounced before a vowel. However, with the growing influence of American English, many young people in Hong Kong now pronounce the Template:Ipa in the coda of a syllable.<ref name="Chan2013" />
• There is often little distinction between the non-close front vowels, Template:IPA and Template:IPA, so bat and bet may be pronounced the same (with Template:IPA).<ref name="Hung2012" />
• Long and short vowels are generally merged, particularly involving the close vowels Template:IPA and Template:IPA (so heat and hit are both pronounced Template:IPA with a short tense Template:IPA) as well as Template:IPA and Template:IPA (so pull and pool are the same).<ref name="Hung2012" />
• 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.<ref name="DWK2008" />

Intonation

• Multi-syllable words are often differently stressed. For example, while the word latte is pronounced Template:IPAc-en in most variants of the English language, it is usually pronounced Template:Ipa in Hong Kong English, with the second syllable stressed instead of the first.
• Omission of entire "r-" syllables in longer words; difference becomes Template:Ipa, and temperature becomes Template:Ipa.
• Words beginning with the unstressed syllable con- are generally pronounced with its stressed form Template:Ipa with a lower pitch, e.g. connection, consent, condition. Words beginning with the stressed syllable com- e.g. competition, common and compromise are pronounced Template:Ipa.
• The schwa tends to be pronounced as Template:Ipa in final closed syllables; ticket is pronounced Template:Ipa, and carpet is pronounced Template:Ipa.
• The suffix -age is generally pronounced Template:Ipa; message is pronounced Template:Ipa, package is pronounced Template:Ipa etc.
• There is less vowel reduction in unstressed syllables, and some variation in the placement of stress. For example, chocolate may be pronounced Template:IPAc-en, as distinct from Template:IPAc-en in other varieties of English.<ref name="Sewell">Template:Cite book</ref>
• 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Others

• In Cantonese, there is no structure of diphthong+consonant. As a result, Template:IPA becomes Template:Ipa, Template:IPA becomes Template:Ipa, Template:IPA becomes Template:Ipa, Template:IPA becomes Template:Ipa, Template:IPA becomes Template:Ipa, Template:IPA becomes Template:Ipa, Template:IPA becomes Template:Ipa, Template:IPA becomes Template:Ipa etc.
  • For the case Template:IPA, Template:IPA or Template:IPA, the ending consonant is generally omitted, resulting in Template:IPA.
• 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 Template:IPA based on its transliteration; basic is pronounced as Template:IPA.
• Exaggeration of certain final consonants, for example Template:Ipa to Template:Ipa and Template:Ipa sounds of the past-tense form of verbs to Template:Ipa.
• Differences or omission in ending sounds, as the ending consonants are always voiceless and unreleased (glottalised) in Cantonese with the exceptions of Template:Ipa, Template:Ipa and Template:Ipa, similar to Basel German.
• Pronouncing the silent Template:Ipa, Template:Ipa 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 Template:Linktext (pronounced Template:Ipa).
• Merging the contrast of voiceless/voiced consonants with aspirated/unaspirated if any contrast exists in Cantonese. This is because English voiceless consonants are most often aspirated, whereas the voiced ones are always unaspirated and devoiced. The stop Template:IPA stays as Template:Ipa but Template:IPA becomes Template:Ipa; Template:IPA stays as Template:Ipa but Template:IPA becomes Template:Ipa; Template:IPA stays as Template:Ipa but Template:IPA becomes Template:Ipa; Template:IPA becomes Template:Ipa and Template:IPA becomes Template:Ipa (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 Template:Ipa and Template:Ipa become Template:Ipa; both Template:Ipa and Template:Ipa become Template:Ipa; both Template:Ipa and Template:Ipa become Template:Ipa; the only exception might be that Template:Ipa and Template:Ipa are never confused, due to difficulty in pronouncing Template:Ipa and Template:Ipa: many pronounce Template:Ipa as Template:Ipa, and Template:Ipa as Template:Ipa.
• 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 and American spellings are in common use, although the British variant predominates in official circles, and remains 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<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> instead of elevator; mobile phone instead of cell phone; estate agent<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> instead of real estate broker.

Hong Kong vocabulary/expressions

File:Nullah Road HK.jpg

Nullah Road, Mong Kok

Some words and phrases widely understood in Hong Kong are rare or unheard of elsewhere. These often derive from Chinese, Anglo-Indian, or Portuguese/Macanese.

• A Template:Lang 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• A Tai-Pan (or taipan; Template:Zh) is a term used in the early 20th century for a business executive of a large corporation.
• An amah (Template:Zh) is a term used in the early 20th century for a live-in servant (from Macanese/Portuguese Template:Lang 'nurse'); now supplanted by [domestic] helper.
• A shroff is a cashier, in a hospital, a government office or a car park (parking garage).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Godown is a warehouse. From the Malay Template:Lang.<ref>Cassell Giant Paperback Dictionary, 1994</ref> The ultimate origins were traced to the Indian subcontinent.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Nullah is a concrete or stone-lined canal or a reinforced creek bed used to contain run-off. Nullah entered the English language from Hindi.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Jetso ("Template:Linktext") is sometimes used to mean discount or special offer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 'Add oil', direct translation of the Chinese Template:Linktext (Template:Zh), an exclamatory entreaty of encouragement. The usage became popularised by the Umbrella Movement.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Lai see, a transliteration of the Cantonese term (Template:Zh), also referred to as "red envelopes", or "red packets", or by the Mandarin term Template:Linktext (Template:Zh), for red envelopes bearing auspicious Chinese phrases or characters containing money and handed out as gifts, particularly during the Lunar New Year festival.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2015 University of Hong Kong professor Lisa Lim stated that some of the words, by that year, had declined in usage.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See also

• Chinese Pidgin English
• Phonemic differentiation
• Regional accents of English
• Chinglish
• Singlish
• Macanese Portuguese
• Code-switching in Hong Kong
• Education in Hong Kong
• Hong Kong Cantonese
• Languages of Hong Kong
• Hong Kong English pop
• Commonwealth English

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)