In Hong Kong, the Chinese language is an official language along with the English language, as guaranteed by the Hong Kong Basic Law. Cantonese is the common form of spoken Chinese used in daily life. Traditional Chinese characters have always been used as the standard character set in Hong Kong since Imperial China era till the present day. This article discusses the simplifications performed on written Chinese that could be found in informal communications in Hong Kong. The debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been ongoing for some time.
Background information
editThe Communist Government of the People's Republic of China has been promoting the use of simplified Chinese characters in mainland China since their inception in 1949, and adopted the character set as the standard writing system of PRC from 1956 onwards. Nevertheless, since Hong Kong was a British crown colony before 1997, and was granted high degree of autonomy after 1997, simplified Chinese character has never been officially recognised in Hong Kong. Traditional Chinese character has always been used as the standard character set in Hong Kong since Imperial China era till the present day.
Like other written languages, informal written communication sometimes develops into its own method of writing such as shorthand. In Hong Kong, the proliferation of local restaurants (especially cha chaan tengs) has pushed a shorthand system used by waiters and waitress. English words or other symbols are sometimes used as substitutes for complex characters. Since the above practice is not officially regulated, the method of simplification varies from person to person, and may be incomprehensible to other Chinese readers.
Types of simplification
edit- The simplification can be done by replacing a complicated traditional Chinese character with another simpler traditional Chinese character that has a similar pronunciation in Cantonese Chinese.
- The simplification is often done by using English letters to make up a "word" that sounds like the Chinese word.
- The simplification can also be done by incorporating regulation simplified Chinese characters into text made up of traditional Chinese characters.
Examples of simplifications
edit| Chinese character | Simplified replacement | Meaning in English | Correct meaning of simplified replacement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 菜 | 才 | vegetable | talent; merely |
| 凍 | 冬 | cold | winter |
| 檸 | 0 | lemon | (the number zero) |
| 蜜 | 勿 | honey | do not (imperative), prohibited |
| 茶 | T | tea | (the Roman letter T) |
| 糕 | 羔 | cake or pastry | young lamb |
| 豆 | 斗 | bean | an obsolete unit in traditional Chinese character, the simplified Chinese character for "compete" |
| 奶 | 乃 | milk | really, indeed, after all |
| 椰 | 也 | coconut | also |
| 醬 | 丈 | any jam-like or paste-like food, thick sauce | a Chinese traditional length unit |
| 河 | 可 | Shahe fen | allowed |
| 魷 | 尤 | squid | especially, particularly |
| 蛋 | 旦 | egg | dawn, morning, day |
| 麪 | 面, 丏 | noodle | 面 = face, surface; 丏 = parapet, invisible |
| 𦟌 | 展 | muscle | open, unfold, stretch, extend |
| 飯 | 反 | rice | reverse, opposite, contrary, against |
| 餐 | 歺 | meal | vicious, depraved, bad |
| 屎 | 矢 | faeces | arrow, dart, vow, swear |
See also
editCategory:Languages of Hong Kong
 | This Hong Kong–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |