Hong Kong English

Despite the Handover of Hong Kong in 1997, English has remained one of two official languages in the territory — the other being Chinese — 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. However, English in Hong Kong has primarily remained a second language and is in decline, in contrast to its economic rival Singapore, where English has shifted toward being a first language and after being properly established and institutionalised for decades. The falling English proficiency of local English language teachers since the transition to Chinese control has come under criticism, and new generations of Hongkongers are increasingly not fluent in English. That said, the proportion of the Hong Kong population who report using English (that is, all forms depending on fluency) 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. ==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 an established variant In 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 a local preference for, a local Hong Kong English accent. • Distinctive vocabulary; local media, such as newspapers, clearly show a shared common vocabulary used among English speakers in Hong Kong. • 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. • Literature using the variant; there is a growing corpus of literature produced in English which is meant for local consumption. • 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. 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. Evidence suggesting the variant is not established It has also been argued that Hong Kong English is not an established variant of English 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". In the Dynamic Model of Postcolonial Englishes, it has been classified as in the third phase, that of Nativisation, 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. 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. However, language use remains highly politicised and compartmentalised within the territory, where the two official languages are often viewed as having distinct and separate functional roles. Even among educators, there is a noted resistance toward acknowledging a localised "Hong Kong English" within a classroom setting, with many teachers opting instead for "standard" variations like American English or British English. This denial of a unique local variety is compounded by a historical lack of dedicated research compared to other established Asian varieties. As many Hongkongers deny the existence of a unique variety, Hong Kong English has struggled to achieve the same level of formal recognition or parity seen in other regional varieties of English. ==Pronunciation==

As a result of the colonial legacy, the pronunciation of Hong Kong English was assumed to be originally based on British English. However, there are also new features of pronunciation derived from American English, Furthermore, there seem to be developments that are unique to Hong Kong English, such as a split in the realisation of /v/ as [f] or [w]. Some of the more salient features are listed below. Segments • tends to be , so this is , • tends to be , so whether is . • may be or , so event may have while even has . It seems that occurs at the start of a stressed syllable while occurs at the start of an unstressed syllable. • L-vocalisation is common, so dark in the coda of a syllable is often pronounced as , and fill may be while tell is , just as in London English (Cockney). • 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. Others • In Cantonese, there is no structure of diphthong+consonant. As a result, becomes , becomes , becomes , becomes , becomes , becomes , becomes , becomes etc. • For the case , or , the ending consonant is generally omitted, resulting in . • 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 based on its transliteration; basic is pronounced as . • Exaggeration of certain final consonants, for example to and sounds of the past-tense form of verbs to . • Differences or omission in ending sounds, as the ending consonants are always voiceless and unreleased (glottalised) in Cantonese with the exceptions of , and , similar to Basel German. • Pronouncing the silent , 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 (pronounced ). • 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 stays as but becomes ; stays as but becomes ; stays as but becomes ; becomes and becomes (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 and become ; both and become ; both and become ; the only exception might be that and are never confused, due to difficulty in pronouncing and : many pronounce as , and as . • 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. • 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 (Mr, Ms, Dr, St). • British vocabulary is more commonly used, for example: rubbish bin instead of garbage/trash can; lift instead of elevator; mobile phone instead of cell phone; estate agent instead of real estate broker. ==Hong Kong vocabulary/expressions==

Some words and phrases widely understood and used in Hong Kong are rare or unheard of elsewhere. These often derive from Chinese, Anglo-Indian, or Portuguese/Macanese origins. • A 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. • 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 the early 20th century for a live-in servant (from Macanese/Portuguese 'nurse'); now supplanted by Foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong|[domestic] helper. • A shroff is a cashier, in a hospital, a government office or a car park (parking garage). • A godown is a warehouse. The term is thought to originate from the Malay word . The ultimate origins were traced to the Indian subcontinent. • A 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. • Jetso ("") is sometimes used to mean discount or special offer. • 'Add oil', direct translation of the Chinese (), an exclamatory entreaty of encouragement. The usage became popularised by the Umbrella Movement. • Lai see, a transliteration of the Cantonese term (), also referred to as "red envelopes", or "red packets", or by the Mandarin term (), for red envelopes bearing auspicious Chinese phrases or characters containing money and handed out as gifts, particularly during the Lunar New Year festival. In 2015, University of Hong Kong professor Lisa Lim stated that some of the words, by that year, had declined in usage. ==See also==