Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Simple definition of Hong Kong dialect

I simply describe and define what Hong Kong dialect (香港話) is here. In fact, Hong Kong dialect is a mutation which evolves from the Cantonese. It is a special language that is spoken (or written) by the Hong Kong people. Hong Kong dialect is different from the traditional Cantonese. There are several differences. Firstly, obviously, in our Hong Kong dialect, we have lots of “original English words” inside. Secondly, the rate of metabolism is very fast. The birth rate and death rate of new Chinese characters are higher. Thirdly, Hong Kong dialect is open for all culture. Always, the Hong Kong characters are westernized or orientalized (absorbed from the Japanese words).

The Hong Kong dialect may be come and evolved from the following places:
1) Ancient Chinese;
2) dialect in the Guangdong district;
3) dialect from other province (such as Shanghaiese);
4) foreign language (such as English and Japanese);
5) written Chinese;
6) ballads, songs;
7) professional words & phrases;
8) motto;
9) tag line (a two-part common expression whose last part is omitted);
10) pet phrases, platitudes;
11) foul language;
12) the argot/ code words of the gangland;
13) the words/ phrases from the Buddhism & Taoism;
14) phrases from life and entertainment (mass media);
15) place name or people’s name.

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