Hong Kong English

For more background on this topic, see Languages of Hong Kong.

See also: Hong Kong Cantonese

Hong Kong English (traditional Chinese: 港式英語, 港式英文, 香港英語, 香港英文) may refer to two different yet interrelated concepts. The first concept refers to the variation or dialect of the English language used in Hong Kong. The second concept refers to the accent and elements as a result of its use by Cantonese speakers.

For the first meaning, Hong Kong predominantly uses British spellings. Pronunciations and words are also predominantly British, although influences from Canadian and Australian English do exist as a result of large numbers of returnees. But there are also words not from the British Isles, such as 'chop', 'shroff', 'nullah' and 'godown'. These vocabularies are usually of Indian or Malay origins, following expansion of the British empire in the 19th century.

The second meaning, which is also called Cantonese English, in theory, refers to the accent and characteristics of English spoken by native Hong Kongers and other Cantonese speakers. Overall, it is primarily spoken by those whose first language is Cantonese. Therefore, although it is called as Hong Kong English, it is not only spoken in Hong Kong. People, such as people who come from Canton (now known as Guangzhou) who come from Cantonese-speaking regions or those whose first language is Cantonese, speak it. It is often considered, especially by the locals, as the Hong Kong variant of Chinglish.

Since many of the 'characteristics' in Hong Kong English are perceived as erroneous, the term is often used by locals as a disparagement rather than to describe a linguistic identity. The majority of Hong Kongers with English proficiency tend to follow British English, American English or a mixture of the two.

Background

English is one of the official languages in Hong Kong, and is used widely in the Government, academic circles, business and the courts. All road and government signs are bilingual and English is as equally valid as Chinese on legal and business standings.

In contrast to multi-cultural Singapore where English is the first language of 70% of ethnic Chinese and 25% of Malays and Indians, Hong Kong's population is 95% ethnic Chinese and is a predominantly Cantonese-speaking society. Most shops located in districts seldom visited by foreign visitors have signs in Chinese only, and, in locally owned enterprises, written communications are in English with all other work conducted in Chinese.

Under this backdrop most Hong Kongers regard English as a foreign language, used primarily for formal communications, particularly in writing. There is little exposure to the English language, this is increasingly even more so since the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong in 1997. Since that year, the government has been pushing very hard to make sure that government-funded Chinese-as-a-medium-of-instruction (CMI) schools use English only to teach English language as a subject, and not as the medium of instruction for other subjects; English-as-a-medium-of-instruction (EMI) schools are not subjected to such limitation. Only a handful of other government primary and secondary schools are now allowed to use English as the medium of instruction in Hong Kong such as the English Schools Foundation and Toher international schools (whereas many independent fee-charging schools continue to use the English as the medium of instruction). An educational reform in 2010 loosened this restriction on CMI schools. Nonetheless, being able to use English fluently is uncommon.

People with higher, past experience of living in English-speaking countries, or who constantly interact with Hong Kong's English-speaking expatriate communities, generally speak an acquired form of English. Accent and spelling preference may vary from person to person, depending on the people they have interacted with and the country they have studied in. For most ordinary local Hongkongers however, the English spoken is generally typical of foreign language learners: Cantonese-influenced pronunciation with some acquired Received Pronunciation characteristics, and with vocabularies and sentence structure generally more formal than those of native speakers. For instance, contractions and slang are not used, and many idioms are alien to Hongkongers as they do not pertain to English-speaking countries' cultures.

The falling English proficiency of local English teachers has come under criticism. In response, the Education Bureau has required English teachers without English language undergraduate degrees to submit to an assessment, called "LPAT", to ensure that their English was of sufficiently high calibre. Those failing LPAT are no longer permitted to teach English. Unless hired by the government, even native English speakers were to undergo LPAT screening. Few opted to retire to avoid the LPAT process, while others failed the test.

Spoken characteristics

Voicing of consonants

• Consonants in Cantonese are all voiceless except nasals and semivowels; as a result, [d], [z], and [dʒ] are pronounced [t] (unaspirated), [s], and [tʃ] (unaspirated).

Th

• There is a tendency for [θ] to undergo fronting and become [f], so through may be pronounced as [fɹu], and three may be [fɹi]. However, this is variable, so some speakers pronounce thin as [θɪn] while others pronounce it as [fin].
• [ð] tends to become unaspirated [t], so though is [tou] and there is [tɛ]. This is reported to be very widespread, so this is nearly always [tis], and brother is [ˈbɹata].

Devoicing of final consonants

• Most people confuse voiced and voiceless word-final stops, making bat and bad homonyms.

Sh

• Most people confuse [ʃ] and [s]; in Cantonese these sounds are allophonic. This condition does not appear on nearly all the younger, or even the middle-aged Hongkongers.

Tr

• Confusion of /tr/ and /tʃ/ often occurs, chain and train are pronounced [t͡sʰɪŋ].

R

• Like many places in Britain and the US, Hong Kong English is non-rhotic, which means [ɹ] is not pronounced except before a vowel. However, with the influence of American programmes shown in TV, young people in Hong Kong have started to pronounce the [ɹ] sound as in General American English.
• Some people pronounce [ɹ] as [w], except when followed by a consonant other than g or k; rain sounds like wing, and free like fee.
• Some people pronounce [ɹ] as [l] before o; road sounds like low, room like loom etc.

Wh

• "Wh" is read as [w], as in English English and most American dialects (not /hw/ as in Scottish English and some American dialects).

V

• Many Chinese people cannot pronounce [v] as native English speakers do because the [v] sound has no equivalent in Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese, and many other Chinese dialects; but, in the case of other Chinese dialects, such as Wu and Hakka dialects, there is an equivalent of the [v] sound; hence, speakers of those dialects have little difficulty pronouncing this sound. Some people read [v] as [w]. (e.g. "Vector" and "Aston Villa"; "Vince" is read as "Whince"; Louis Vuitton, unpronounceable to Chinese, is universally referred to as "LV", pronounced "E'llo-Wee")
• Other [v] becomes [w] or [f] mostly with a consensus yet no obvious pattern (e.g. [f] in "favour", second [v] in "Volvo" and either [f] or [w] in "develop", depending on the speaker).

N

• Often [n] is changed to [l]. This reflects current usage in Hong Kong Cantonese; many people in Hong Kong, particularly the younger generation, mix up the /n/ and /l/ sounds in English. In Cantonese the original correct pronunciation of, for example, 女 (Jyutping neoi5) meaning lady/female/woman is /nɵy˨˧/, but is almost always pronounced /lɵy˨˧/ in modern Hong Kong usage. Also, the correct pronunciation of 你 (you) is /nei˨˧/, but most people pronounce /lei˨˧/ in Hong Kong.)
• Nasals in English are stronger than in Cantonese.
• l-vocalisation is common: final "dark" l, *[ɫ], is often pronounced /u̯/, as in Polish, e.g. "bell" becomes [pɛu̯], and "milk" becomes [miu̯k]. This [u̯] is sometimes strengthened and becomes like [ou̯] (e.g. sale becomes [ˈsei̯.ou̯]).

J/G

• /dʒ/ is commonly pronounced as [t͡s]. It is less noticeable as there is no contrast in the initial position between /ts/ and /tʃ/ in both Cantonese and English. Many people also merge the sound /dr/ with /dʒ/.

ə

• A speaker of Hong Kong English differentiates the pronunciations of the words affect and effect, often emphasising the vowel, pronouncing affect as [aˈfɛk̚] and effect as [iˈfɛk̚] (or even [jiˈfɛk̚]).

ər

• Most people pronounce [a] instead of /ər/; "letter" is pronounced [ˈlɛtta], "locker" is pronounced [ˈlɔkka] etc.

ɜr

• The sound /ɜr/ becomes [œ]; "sir" is pronounced [sœ], "hurt" is pronounced [hœt̚] etc.

æ

• Merging /æ/ with /ɛ/; "man" and "men", "mass" and "mess", "guess" and "gas" are pronounced as the same way.

Z

• The letter "z" is generally pronounced [jiˈsɛt̚], a corrupted version (due to various of the above-mentioned reasons) of a very archaic pronunciation /ɪˈzæd/; the usual pronunciations, /zɛd/ (used in UK and most of the Commonwealth nations) and /ziː/ (used in USA), are not understood by some.

Intonation

• Multi-syllable words are often differently stressed. For example, while the word "latte" is pronounced /ˈlɑːteɪ/ in most variants of the English language, it is usually pronounced [laːˈtɛ] in Hong Kong English, with the second syllable stressed instead of the first.
• Omission of entire "r-" syllables in longer words; "difference" become [ˈtifɐns], and "temperature" becomes [ˈtʰɛmpʰit͡sʰœ], "friends" becomes [fɛns].
• Words beginning with unstressed syllables "con" are generally pronounced its stressed form [kʰɔn] with a lower pitch, e.g. "connection", "consent", "condition". Words beginning with stressed syllable "com-" e.g. "competition", "common" and "compromise" are pronounced [kʰɐm].
• The schwi tends to be pronounced as [ɛ] in final closed syllables; "ticket" is pronounced [ˈtʰɪkʰɛt̚˦], and "carpet" is pronounced [ˈkʰaːpʰɛt̚].

Lack of double consonantal endings

• Due to Cantonese phonology, many Hong Kongers have difficulty pronouncing double consonant endings, except when the second element is fricative. e.g. "think" as "thing", "swamp" as "swam", "send" and "sent" as "sen". "Sense" is unaffected.
• Finals like /-kt/ are reduced to [-k̚].

Lack of structure of diphthong+consonant

• In Cantonese, there is no structure of diphthong+consonant. As a result, /eɪn/ becomes [ɪŋ], /eɪm/ becomes [ɛm], /ɔɪn/ becomes [ɔn], /oʊn/ becomes [ʊŋ], and /aʊn/ becomes [aːŋ]. Many people pronounce -ake identically to ick, also -ane identically to -ing.
• For the case /aɪn/, /aɪt/ or /aɪk/, some speakers omit the ending consonant, resulting in /aɪ/.

Others

• When speaking English, many people tend to assign one of the six tones (or nine, if entering tones are included) of the Cantonese language to different words, giving it a Cantonese style. E.g. most Hong Kongers would pronounce "there" and "their" differently, giving a higher pitch to "there" (tone 1) and a lower pitch to "their" (tone 6).
• Exaggeration of certain final consonants, for example [s] to [si˩] and [d] sounds of the past-tense form of verbs to [tət̚˩]).
• Differences or omission in ending sounds, as the ending consonants are always voiceless and unreleased (glotallised) in Cantonese with the exceptions of [m], [n] and [ŋ], similar to Basel German)
• Pronouncing the silent [w], [h] or [l] sounds in words like Green-wich, Bon-ham, Chat-ham, Beck-ham, Kes-wick, and is reflected in the transliteration of the words, for example, Beckham is transliterated 碧咸 (pronounced [pɪk̚˥ haːm˩]).
• Gloucester Road is pronounced as Glou-ces-ter Road
• Cameron Road, as in David Cameron, is pronounced as Kam-ma-ron Road
• 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. The stop /p/ becomes [pʰ] and /b/ becomes [p]; /t/ becomes [tʰ] and /d/ becomes [t]; /k/ becomes [kʰ] and /ɡ/ becomes [k]; /tʃ/ becomes [tsʰ] and /dʒ/ becomes [ts] (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 [f] and [v] become [f]; both [z] and [s] become [s]; both [ʃ] and [ʒ] become [s]; the only exception might be that [θ] and [ð] are never confused, due to difficulty in pronouncing [θ] and [ð]: many pronounce [θ] as [f], and [ð] as [t].
• Confusion between homographs (words with the same spelling but different meanings), e.g. the noun "resume" (c.v.) and the verb "resume" (to continue).

Grammar

• Omitting articles like "the" and "a".
• Contractions such as "aren't" are almost never used, even in conversations, as English in Hong Kong is used largely for formal writing.
• Confusion with verb tenses and agreement of singular or plural nouns, as they have no direct equivalents in Chinese grammar (Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese). Or because that verb tenses are expressed using a preposition or exclamation words at the end of the sentence.
• Use of prepositions: "on", "in" and "at" are often interchangeable.
• Over the phone, "This is [John]" becomes "I am [John]", a direct translation.
• 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. For example: "She isn't pretty, is she?" might attract the answer "No" when the native Cantonese speaker means "I disagree, in my opinion she is pretty".
• "There is/are" becomes "there has/have", a direct translation.
• Plural forms: there are no plural forms in Chinese, so plural and singular forms tend to be confused.
• "Actually" (also "In fact") is used much more frequently in Hong Kong English than in standard English. The Cantonese equivalent, 其實 ("keih sat"), is used more frequently "actually" is used in standard English.
• Using "lend" and "borrow" interchangeably. e.g. "I will borrow you my car" (real meaning: "I will lend you my car"). In Chinese, the word 借 is commonly used for both meanings.
• Using "rent" and "let" interchangeably.
• Omitting -ed and -ing. e.g. "He is charm.", "I feel touch." (real meaning: "He is charming.", "I feel touched.")
• Using -ed and -ing interchangeably, e.g. "bored" and "boring". e.g. "I am so boring!" (real meaning: "I am so bored!"). In Chinese, the word 無聊 is commonly used for both meanings.
• Using "win" instead of "beat". e.g. "I win you in the race!" (real meaning: "I beat you in the race!"). In Chinese, the word 贏 is commonly used for both meanings.
• Using "hear" instead of "listen". e.g. "I hear the radio" (real meaning: "I listen to the radio"). In Chinese, the word 聽 is commonly used for both meanings.
• Using "look [at]" instead of "watch". e.g. "I look at the television." (real meaning: "I watch (or am watching) television"). In Chinese (Cantonese only), the word 睇 is commonly used for both meanings. In fact, 'watch' is only associated with wrist-watches, a noun.

Numbers

• 10,000: Numbers larger than ten thousand. In Chinese, 10 thousand is read as one myriad (萬), 100 thousand as 10 myriad, one million as 100 myriad. Even so, most people will not use the English word "myriad" so this type of English is hardly ever seen.
• Fractions: In Chinese, the denominator is read before the numerator, so "three over four" (or three fourth) may wrongly be taken as "four over three". In this example, three-fourths in Chinese is "四分之三", literally "out of four portions, three".
• Discounts: the Chinese way of saying 10% off is "90% of the original price". This is often written as 9折 (or 九折) which is understood to mean "discounted to 9/10 of the original price". When two digits are given the divisor is understood to be 100, e.g. 75折 (or 七五折) means 25% off.

American/ British spelling and word usage

This is the entrance of the shopping centre "New World Centre" in Hong Kong. Note the spelling of the word "Centre" (instead of the American English "Center") and also that it does not say "Mall", as in the US.

• Both British and American spellings are in common use, with the British variant predominating in official circles.
• When referring to the same thing, British vocabulary is more commonly used, for example: bin instead of garbage can; lift instead of elevator.

Variations

• end-word: In informal conversation like instant messengers, sentence-final particles or interjections of Cantonese origin such as ah, lah, law, mah and waw'—many of these being “flavouring particles”—are used at the ends of English sentences.
• "I've eaten dinner law" (“I've had dinner”—“law” /lɔː˧/ indicates a perfect and makes the sentence more informal)
• "I go lah, bye" (“I'm leaving, bye!”—“lah” /laː˧/ indicates intent and makes the sentence more informal)

Hong Kong vocabulary/expressions

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 'chop' 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
• 'Hong Kong foot' is a literal translation of the Chinese slang term "香港腳" for athlete's foot
• Hong Kongers colloquially use the term "sit-in" to refer to "academic auditing"
• A Tai-Pan (or 'taipan') is a term used in the early 20th century for a business executive of a large corporation.
• An amah is a term used in early 20th century for a live-in servant (from Macanese/Portuguese- ama nurse); now supplanted by "[domestic] helper"
• "Open the door, see the mountain" is a direct translation of the Chinese phrase "開門見山", which roughly means "go straight to the point" in a conversation
• A 'shroff' is a cashier in a hospital, a government office or a car park (parking garage).
• "Godown" is a warehouse From the Malay "gudang".
• A 'body check' is a medical checkup (medical examination), not a contact with an opponent from the front (due to literal translation from Chinese)
• "Outlook" is often (mis)understood as "appearance". The noun "look" or "appearance" ("表") in Cantonese is commonly preceded by the character for "outer" ("外")
• Jetso ("著數") is sometimes used to mean discount or special offer. Also means pecuniary advantage
• Nullah is a concrete-lined canal or an re-enforced creek bed used to contain run-off. Nullah entered the English language from Hindi. The word nullah is used almost exclusively in Hong Kong
• Lai see means red packet containing lucky money

See also

Linguistics

• Chinese Pidgin English
• Phonemic differentiation
• Regional accents of English speakers
• Chinglish
• Singlish
• Macanese Portuguese

Hong Kong

• Code-switching in Hong Kong
• Education in Hong Kong
• Hong Kong Cantonese
• Languages of Hong Kong

EL / Further reading

• Dictionary of Hong Kong English: Words from the Fragrant Harbor, a collection of unique local words and senses.
• Innovation in Interlanguage Phonology: Evidence from Hong Kong English – Part I, Hong Kong English, Dr. Tony T.N. Hung, Hong Kong Baptist University Language Centre
• Unit 2-1: LEXICAL FEATURES, Hong Kong English, Dr. Tony T.N. Hung, Hong Kong Baptist University Language Centre
• "Hong Kong’s English Teaching Conundrum", C.K. Lau, (Summer 2009) Hong Kong Journal
• 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)