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poster in Written Cantonese and English is a sign of an officially Bilingual and a Multicultural Hong Kong.]] Chinese and English are both Official languages of Hong Kong under the Hong Kong Basic Law (Article 9) and the Official Languages Ordinance (Chapter 5). English was declared the primary language in former Colonial Hong Kong for more than 130 years. Chinese was standardized in 1974 due to the large population ratio of Chinese speakers to English speakers in the territory. In March 1987 , the Official Languages Ordinance was amended to require all new legislation to be enacted in both English and Chinese. In 1990 , the Basic Law declared English's co-official language status with Chinese after The 1997 Handover . Since the handover, the government of . The Civil Service Bureau of Hong Kong monitors the implementation of the government's language policy at the civil level. The Department Of Justice monitor and provision laws at the legislative level. The Education And Manpower Bureau monitors at the educational level. The majority of the population in Hong Kong are descendants of migrants from Mainland China . Smaller minority groups include Expatriate s and descendants of expatriates from countries such as India , Nepal , United Kingdom and the Philippines . The assortment of languages found are a direct correlation to the diversity in population. CHINESE Spoken Cantonese See Also: Hong Kong Cantonese The majority of the population in Hong Kong speak Cantonese , a Chinese Spoken Variant originating from Guangdong province. It is the main dialect used in education, broadcasting, government administration, legislature and judiciary as well as in daily social communication. China has numerous regional and local variants of spoken Chinese, many of which are mutually unintelligible. Most are only used in their own native areas, but some, particularly the various languages and dialects of Guangdong and Fujian , have spread to other areas by emigration from those provinces. In the Western Districts of Hong Kong, Toisanese and Teochiu are common. In Yuen Long and Kam Tin , Hakka is common. Other forms like Waitau Wah are mostly associated with the elderly aged groups living in Walled Villages . The Tanka people from the fishing Village s is another group having their own variation of Cantonese. Spoken Mandarin Since the 1950s, ''Putonghua/Guoyu'' (普通話/國語), or Mandarin has been used as the ''de facto'' language in government, education, and the media, throughout much of mainland China and Taiwan. Many Chinese are thus able to understand and speak Mandarin in addition to their own native dialects. As a result most Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong's neighbouring province of Guangdong are bilingual in Mandarin and Cantonese. However, Mandarin is still not widely used in Hong Kong due to historical reasons. At the time of the widespread introduction of Mandarin in mainland China and Taiwan, Hong Kong was a British colony where English and Cantonese were the most widely used languages in Hong Kong. Cantonese was and continues to be used in education, the media, and in daily life. After the 1997 handover, Hong Kong developed a closer Economic Tie with the rest of China. As a result, the Hong Kong government has urged its citizens to acquire Mandarin skills. It became a core subject in many primary schools beginning in 1998 , and was also integrated into the HKCEE examinations in 2000 . The government of Hong Kong has publicly encouraged students to be "biliterate and trilingual," {Link without Title} thus adding Mandarin to the required arsenal of languages. Mandarin has also become an important asset in career advancements for adults. The usage of Mandarin in Hong Kong is also spreading to public service announcements, particularly on the metro and buses. Written Chinese Hong Kong uses standard modern Written Chinese , it is mainly based on the Mandarin dialects and is the standard formal written language for all Chinese speakers, however it is different from spoken Cantonese in grammar and vocabuary. There is also a writing system based on the vocabulary and grammar of spoken Cantonese, in which people write the way they speak. Written Cantonese is gaining popularity in newspapers and magazines for quotations, but such writings are often unreadable to people outside Hong Kong or Macau. It is also considered non-standard by many notably educators. Some have credited this system to the challenges standard Chinese writing system have faced in pop cultures of the past. Traditional Chinese Character s are widely used, and is the ''de facto'' writing standard in Hong Kong. However Simplified Chinese Character s are becoming more frequently used in Hong Kong from posters, leaflets, flyers and signs in the tourist areas, to students using the simplified form in time-constrained exams. ENGLISH English is the major working language in Hong Kong, and is widely used in commercial activities and legal matters. Although the sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred to the PRC by the United Kingdom in 1997, English remains one of the Official Language s of Hong Kong as enshrined in the Basic Law . For most of the population who are ethnicly Chinese, it is a second language acquired from school education, taught since the Kindergarten level. About 25% of Secondary School s use English from Form 1 to Form 3 in all subjects except Chinese language and Chinese history. The percentage of English used is increased starting with Form 4. On average, a person from Hong Kong who speaks English, often does so with an Accent , like many other speakers of English as a second language. Code-Switching between Cantonese and English Many Hong Kong citizens Use Both Cantonese And English in the same sentence when speaking. For example, "唓，都唔 make sense!" ("Ugh, that makes no sense!"). The code-switching can freely mix English words and Chinese grammar, for instance "你 Un 唔 Un ?" ("Do you understand?") (not a common use) which follows the Chinese grammar syntax 'verb - 唔 - verb' to ask "Do you verb?". Notice also the shortening of 'understand' to 'un' since most Cantonese verbs are single syllables. Some code-switched words are used so often that they have become Loanword s in CantoneseChan, Mimi and Helen Kwok (1982). ''A Study of Lexical Borrowing from English in Hong Kong Cantonese''. Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong., for example,
Transliterations in Hong Kong after 1997 Before 1997, Cantonese pronunciation was the basis for , formerly 聖地牙哥 (sing3 dei6 ngaa4 go1), has become 聖迭戈 (sing3 dit6 gwo1). In some cases the Mandarin-based transliteration sounds far from the original when pronounced in Cantonese. For example, Wal-Mart is transliterated as 沃爾瑪 ( Pinyin : wòěrmǎ); when pronounced in Cantonese, the name becomes ''juk1 ji5 maa5''. OTHER EUROPEAN LANGUAGES French restaurant in Hong Kong; the French masculine singular article ''le'' has been added to the names of the dishes.]] In Hong Kong, French is the 3rd most studied foreign language behind English and Japanese. Many institutions in Hong Kong, like Alliance Française , provide French courses. The language is included as a subject in the HKCEE , but not in HKALE with accordance to British International General Certificate Of Secondary Education 's (IGCSE) standards. The IGCSE French syllabus used by the University Of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate (UCLES) is adopted in the examination. The only French book store, Librairie Parentheses , in Hong Kong is located on Wellington Street , Central .http://www3.oag.com/Cities/Detail?city=86&cat=28&item=132544 Librairie Parentheses, "only French bookstore" Real Estate developers in Hong Kong often give their buildings French names, such as ''Bel-Air'', ''Les Saisons'' and ''Belle Mer''. This kind of Foreign Branding is also used in Boutique s and Restaurant s. An example is Yucca De Lac in Ma Liu Shui . Sometimes only French elements such as Article s and Preposition s are added to the name, as in the case of the restaurant chain Café De Coral . Similar mixing of English and French can be seen on the menu of Délifrance , a French-style restaurant chain in Hong Kong. German , Hong Kong. Note that the name of the restaurant, as well as the words on the cup pad, are in German.]] The exact number of . The latter one also offers an European Studies degree course of German Stream, Bachelor of Social Science in European Studies (German Stream), in parallel with the French stream. OTHER EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES Japanese There are more than 25,000 . (in Japanese ) . The character 站, replaced by 駅 in the name, also appears, serving as a footnote.]] Japanese culture, including Anime , Manga , Sushi and Pop Music , has been popular in Hong Kong for decades. Sometimes Hong Kongers replace Chinese Characters with Japanese words. For example, Aji Ichiban , a snack and candy chain, uses the Hiragana の (no) in place of the Chinese character 之 (zi1), rendering their name as 優の良品. Another example would be the use of the Japanese Kanji 駅 (eki) to substitute 站 (zaam6 "station"), as in Nu Front (東角駅), a shopping mall for Hong Kong youngsters in Causeway Bay . There are also some private estates named with the kanji 駅. These loanwords are pronounced by Hong Kongers as if they were their Chinese counterparts (i.e. の as 之, and 駅 as 站). The Japanese Kanji 駅 is actually the Shinjitai of the Chinese character 驛 (jik6). However, 驛 refers to posts for horses in ancient times, and, in modern Chinese, has been replaced by 站, which refers to stops for vehicles. Some people pronounce 駅 as if it were the Chinese character 尺 (cek3), according to the folk wisdom '' You Bian Du Bian '', an often false rule for reading unknown characters. Korean : taedanhaeyo, "it's great"), in one of their commercials in 2005. Vietnamese Vietnamese is used in Hong Kong among Ethnic Chinese From Vietnam who had initially settled in Vietnam then relocated to Hong Kong. Vietnamese Refugees who left their home during the Vietnam War is another group. The Vietnamese-language broadcasts made by the Hong Kong government in 1988 announced that Hong Kong was going to receive no more Vietnamese refugees. It has since become part of the Collective Memory of many Hong Kongers living in that era. The beginning words, " Bắt đầu Từ Nay ", which mean "from now on", are probably the only Vietnamese phrase that most non-Vietnamese in Hong Kong know. The phrase ''Bắt đầu từ nay'' was then used by some locals to disparagingly refer to the Vietnamese people. SOUTHEAST ASIAN LANGUAGES Tagalog Tagalog and other Philippine Languages are used by Filipinos In Hong Kong , most of whom are employed as Foreign Domestic Worker s. There is a long-standing practice with "No littering" signs written in Tagalog as well as Chinese and English. Newspapers and magazines in Tagalog can also be easily bought in Central, Hong Kong . There are also a small number of Church es in Hong Kong that have Masses or Services in Tagalog, for example the afternoon masses provided by the St. John's Cathedral in Central. Indonesian Indonesian is the common language for the significant number of Indonesians Working In Hong Kong , though Javanese is also widely spoken. Most are domestic workers; on their days off, they often gather at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to socialize and the language can be heard2. Thai '' and '' Tom-Yum-Goong '' starring Tony Jaa . SOUTH ASIAN LANGUAGES There is a significant number of South Asians In Hong Kong . Signboards written in Hindi or Urdu can be seen, and conversation in South Asian languages including Nepali , Sindhi and Punjabi , as well as Urdu and Hindi, can be heard. There are two newspapers in Napalese in Hong Kong, ''The Everest'' and the ''Sunrise Weekly Hong Kong''. In 2004, the Home Affairs Bureau and Metro Plus AM 1044 jointly launched radio shows ''Hong Kong-Pak Tonight'' in Urdu and ''Harmo Sagarmatha'' in Nepalese 3. MIDDLE EASTERN LANGUAGES Arabic Arabic is used frequently among members of Muslim communities in Hong Kong. The University Of Hong Kong is presently the only tertiary institution in Hong Kong offering Arabic-language courses4. Some Islamic organisations do teach the language as well, but the current status can best be described as up-and-coming5. SEE ALSO REFERENCES BIBLIOGRAPHY
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