Dennis HK Cantonese
Professional Teacher
Hong Kong Cantonese is really different from Guangdong (Canton) Cantonese

As the two regions run in different social systems, the vocabularies are different as well.

Let me show you some of the examples:

1. Power Bank

Guangdong: 充電寶 chung1 dihn6 bou2

Hong Kong: 尿袋 niuh6 doi2

2. Mouse

Guangdong: 鼠標 syu2 biu1

Hong Kong: 滑鼠 waahk6 syu2

3. Monitor

Guangdong:屏幕 bihng4 mohk6

Hong Kong: 螢幕 yihng4 mohk6/ 芒 mon1


In financial sectors and IT industry, Hong Kongers prefer copy the English words directly and Guangdong citizens prefer copy from Mandarin. So, sending a email, printing a A4 size picture would be different.

Guangdong:發郵件畀我 faat3 yau4 gin2 bei2 ngoh5

Hong Kong: send封email畀我 send fung1 email bei2 ngoh5

Guangdong:打印一張A4相 da2-yan3 yat1 jeung A sei4 seung2

Hong Kong: print張A4相 print jeung1 A four seung2



Oct 23, 2018 1:34 AM
Comments · 5
2

We can accept both standard pronunciation and Cantonese-style pronunciation. And most of people would prefer skipping the ending sounds. So ngoh5 我print  would be read as ngoh5 prin.


For your second question, as most of people in Hong Kong are used to using English(although with Cantonese-style). It is quite strange to translate into Chinese characters.

Furthermore, Hong Kong is writing traditional Chinese, so for those terms we will probably follow the Taiwanese Chinese words rather than mainland Chinese words. For example, in Taiwanese Chinese print is 列印liht6-yan3, in mainland Chinese it is 打印 da2-yan3.

And also email in Taiwanese is 電郵dihn6-yauh4, in mainland it would be 郵箱yauh4-seung1. In Hong Kong, most of people would used the Taiwanese Chinese translation when we can use Chinese word only.


October 23, 2018
1
Well said Dennis! This is the most interesting part of HK Cantonese when the east meets the west - blended English and Cantonese in the sentences.

And Phil, I think we usually pronounce original English tones in the middle of Cantonese sentence, unless we completely change such English words to Canton Chinese words then words would carry tones.

E.g.: I want to take taxi. 
我想  take taxi (original English pronunciations)
我想  搭的士 (daap3 dik1 si2) --> have Cantonese tones 
October 24, 2018
1
Mostly, the English words sound the first tone in Cantonese. But in some cases it would be sounded the second tone, especially for the ending sound "s", for example, case is sounded as cei1 si2, tips becomes tip1 si2.
October 23, 2018
Thanks, Dennis. That last point is particularly useful to know. One thing — I still don’t understand what tones are used when pronouncing English words in the middle of a Cantonese sentence. I imagine if one used the wrong tone, an English word might accidentally sound like another word in Cantonese. 

October 23, 2018
Hi, Dennis, nice post. This may be a little off-topic, but how are English loan words actually pronounced? For example, “send” and “print” end in two consonants (“print” also begins in a cluster), which doesn’t occur in Cantonese, and “email” has a final L. Do people really pronounce these words as in English in the middle of a Cantonese sentence? Is it necessary to add vowels or remove consonants? What about the tones — just say everything in 3rd tone? Can English words be transliterated into Chinese characters based on Cantonese pronunciation?

October 23, 2018
Dennis HK Cantonese
Language Skills
Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Hokkien), Chinese (Taiwanese), Czech, English, Other, Thai, Vietnamese
Learning Language
Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Taiwanese), Czech, English, Other, Thai, Vietnamese