Standard Cantonese

Standard Cantonese is a variant of Cantonese, generally considered the prestige dialect. It is spoken natively in and around the cities of Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau in southern China. Standard Cantonese is the official Chinese spoken language of Hong Kong and Macau, and a prestige dialect and lingua franca in Guangdong province and some neighbouring areas. It is also spoken by many overseas Chinese, especially those of Cantonese descent, in Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, United States, Australia, Europe, and elsewhere. Traditionally, Cantonese was the lingua franca of overseas Chinese communities in the Western world, although that situation has changed with the increasing importance of Mandarin in the Chinese-speaking world as well as immigration from other provinces.

Loanwords

Life in Hong Kong is characterised by the blending of Asian (mainly south Chinese) and Western influences, as well as the status of the city as a major international business centre. Influences from this territory are widespread in foreign cultures. As a results, many loanwords are created and exported to China, Taiwan and Singapore. Some of the loanwords are even more popular than their Chinese counterparts. At the same time, some new words created are vividly borrowed to other languages as well.

Related Topics:
Asia - Chinese - Loanword - China - Taiwan - Singapore

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Imported loanwords

English

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• 巴士 (bus)
• 的士 (taxi)
• 拜拜 (bye bye)
• 朱古力 (chocolate)
• 三文治 (sandwich)

Japanese

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• ??OK (????)
• ?? (???)
• ?? (??)

Arab

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• ?? (Moormen)

Exported loanwords

English

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• chow mein (??)
• dim sum (??)
• kung fu (??)
• kumquat (??)
• wonton (??)
• bok choy (???
• kowtow (??)
• typhoon (?????)

Putonghua

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• ??? (???)
• ?? (??)
• ?? (??)

Guoyue

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• ??? (???)
• ??/?? (??)
• ?? (??)
• ?? (??)

Japanese

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• ヤムチャ (kanji:??) (??)