In February,2014, Education Bureau in Hong Kong released an
article which stated that Cantonese was not an official language but a Chinese
dialect. This led to a number of responses from the netizens in Hong Kong. A
fierce resentment was aroused as some Hong Kong’s netizens perceived this as
degrading the status of Cantonese.
The following text is a typical defense
for Cantonese which has some bilingual features. This is a comic excerpted from
Passion Times Hong Kong(熱血時報), a local press and online
radio which promote social movement in Hong Kong.
The
comic includes cool Cantonese slangs(廣東話潮語) which most
of them are created by Hong Kong’s internet forums like Hong Kong Golden Forum(香港高登).For example, the term “小學鷄”(Meaning: those
who are naive or not professional in doing something). The comic characters are
also the production of online forum. This comic is a piece of work included in
the comics series “神獸漫畫” which is originated in Hong
Kong Golden Forum.
The comic is written Cantonese. Some words
cannot be used in formal writing in Chinese.
Picture
|
Cantonese
|
Translation
|
Example of written Cantonese
|
1
|
- 你班小學雞，連基本功都未練好! 談何撐粵語呢?
- 有冇背熟「九聲訣」先?
|
- You such a chick who do not possess elementary skill, how can you defend for Cantoneses?
- Have you recite The Book of 9 Sounds |
- 你班小學雞，連基本功都未練好! 談何撐粵語呢?
- 有冇背熟「九聲訣」先? |
3
|
冇錯!粵語之精妙，在於其九聲抑揚頓挫既音調，以{Si}音為例，九聲口訣就唸作：
|
That’s right! Cantonese is ingenious
that it has 9 variations of the modulation in tone. Take the sound "Si" for example, the 9 sounds should be pronounced as...
|
冇錯!粵語之精妙，在於其九聲抑揚頓挫既音調，以{Si}音為例，九聲口訣就唸作：
|
5
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唔好再難記尐!
|
How can it be that difficult?
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唔好再難記尐!
尐(di1)
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6
|
雞仔，睇你骨格精奇，捍衞粵語、維護世界和平o既任務就交畀你啦! 只要你有咗呢本《 九音真經》，要記熟九聲其實唔難! 看招!
|
Chick, you are such strong
and nimble. The responsibility for defending Cantonese and maintaining world
peace should be given to you. As long as you have this book, GauJamZanGing. (Gau2Jam1Zan1Ging1), and
you have memorize all the 9 sounds, it would not be difficult. Watch my
tricks!
|
雞仔，睇你骨格精奇，捍衞粵語、維護世界和平o既任務就交畀你啦! 只要你有咗呢本《 九音真經》，要記熟九聲其實唔難! 看招!
|
Also, the six scenario at the bottom of the comic have both the
written Cantonese and the Jyutping(粵拼/ Romanization for
Cantonese). This is an attempt that the author want to influence those who
cannot speak Cantonese to learn Cantonese.
The comics also has some Western features.
For instance, at the last picture of the comic, the bird’s hand is wearing a
glove which is the “LIKE” symbol of Facebook. Since Facebook is popular in Hong
Kong which shows that Hong Kong is under the influence of the West. At the
right hand bottom corner, the name of the press is shown in English which shows
that the press hope to increase its authenticity by naming itself as The Times
of Hong Kong. As The Times is a press in
UK which may have effects on its readers.
Reference
Thank you for sharing. ^_^
ReplyDeleteThe comic is very funny. Also, thanks for the translation and analysis of the bilingual features. However, I believe the feature of Jyutping is not only “an attempt that the author want(s) to influence those who cannot speak Cantonese to learn Cantonese”, but it can also be a feature that helps local people to learn the nine tones of Cantonese. As we all know Cantonese features Sandhi Tone (口語變調) , just like 匿(nik6) and 處(cyu3) are pronounced as匿(nei1) and 處(syu3) in the comic.
By Irene