User:Graphemecluster/Hong Kong English

This page shows Hong Kong English phonology, i.e. phonetic realization of phonemes in English by people who have Hong Kong Cantonese as their mother tongue.

Some contents are removed due to update in 2021.

Structure

A syllable of Hong Kong English is in the form (F)(C)V(C)(F)+Tone where F are any of the fricative [f, s, ɕ, t͡ɕ˭, t͡ɕʰ].

The first C can be any consonants below while the second C may only be one of [j, w, m, n, ŋ, p̚, t̚, k̚] or a fricative above.

Tone

This is the main feature of Hong Kong English.

Hong Kong English is a tonal language.

Hong Kong English has two tones (High, Low) phonemically and three tones (High, Low, Extra-low) allophonically.

TBD

Consonants

In word initial, /v/ is mostly pronounced [w], except for a few words like very [fɛ́ːwìː]. In the medial of a word, /v/ is mostly pronounced [w] for high tone and [f] for low tone (See the tone section above).

Some of the younger generations have developed the phoneme /ɹ/ for English, and they are able to pronounce /ɹ/ as [ɹ].

/b, p, d, t, g, k, x/ are elided before unreleased stops, after nasal consonants and diphthongs, and between any two other consonants.

/p, t, k/ are unaspirated [p˭, t˭, k˭] after /s/.

[ʃ], [t͡ʃʰ] and [t͡ʃ˭] are palatal [ɕ, t͡ɕʰ, t͡ɕ˭] for a portion of people.

/ɹ/ may be pronounced [w], and /l/ and /ɹ/ may be elided when they act as a part of consonant clusters.

/l/ and /n/ are mixed for a protion of people.

Possible realizations of consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		[m]	[n]		[ŋ]
Plosive	Unaspirated	[p˭]	[t˭]	[t͡ɕ˭]	[k˭]
	Aspirated	[pʰ]	[tʰ]	[t͡ɕʰ]	[kʰ]
Fricative		[f]	[s]	[ɕ]	[h]
Approximant			[l]	[j]	[w]

([h] is glottal and [t͡ɕ˭] and [t͡ɕʰ] are affricate.)

Individual phonemes and their realizations

Some sequences below may not occur in English, e.g. initial /ŋ/ and /x/.

Phoneme	Realizations
	Non-final	Final
/h/	[h]	elided
/ɹ/	[w]
/l/	[l]	[w]
/n/	[n]	[n] or [ŋ]
/ŋ/	[ŋ]
/b/	[p˭]	[p̚]
/p/	[pʰ]
/d/	[t˭]	[t̚] or [k̚] or [ʔ]
/t/	[tʰ]
/g/	[k˭]
/k/	[kʰ]
/x/	[h]
/v/	[w] or [f]	[f]
/ð/	[t˭]
/ʃ/	[ʃ] or [s]
/ʒ/
/t͡ʃ/	[t͡ʃʰ] or [t͡sʰ]
/d͡ʒ/	[t͡ʃ˭] or [t͡s˭]
/f/	[f]
/θ/
/s/	[s]
/z/
/m/	[m]
/j/	[j]
/w/	[w]

Vowels

In the following, [ɐ] is transcribed [ʌ]. The actual pronunciation may be as high as [ɜ] but not as back as [ʌ].

According to the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong, [ɪ] and [ʊ] are merged to [e] and [o] respectively.

[ʌ] may also be pronounced [aː] or [œː] for the phoneme /ə/ (but not /ʌ/).

[ɵ] and [y] are not included despite their presence in Cantonese. Note that [y] may be used as an echo-vowel after

Vowels are not necessary lengthened despite the presence of the symbol “ː”.

[i̯] and [u̯] are treated as [j] and [w] respectively.

Possible realizations of vowels

	Front		Central	Back
	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	[iː]			[uː]
Close-mid	[e]			[o]
Open-mid	[ɛː]	[œː]	[ʌ]	[ɔː]
Open			[aː]

Standard Lexical Sets

The following table shows the pronunciation of each diaphoneme in Hong Kong English.

Keyword	RP	GA	HK	Example words
PRICE	aɪ̯		[aːj]	arrive, high, try, buy
			[ʌj]	ripe, write, height
MOUTH	aʊ̯		[aːw]	loud, crowd, cow
			[ʌw]	out, house, mouth
LETTER	ə	ɚ	[ʌ]	paper, metre, calendar, figure
STRUT	ʌ			cup, suck, budge, pulse, trunk, blood
FLEECE	iː	i	[iː]	creep, speak, leave, feel, key, people
HAPPY	ɪ			copy, scampi, taxi, committee, hockey
KIT				ship, bridge, milk, myth, busy
			[e]	sick, kick, king, singing
FACE	eɪ̯			cake, steak, eight
			[ej]	raid, day
			[ɛː]	name, tape, veil
DRESS	e	ɛ		step, neck, edge, shelf, friend, ready
TRAP	æ			tap, back, badge, scalp, hand, cancel
BATH	ɑː	æ		dance, sample
			[aː]	staff, ask
PALM		ɑ		psalm, father, bra, spa, lager
START		ɑ˞		far, sharp, bark, carve, farm, heart
COMMA	ə			catalpa, quota, vodka
NURSE	ɜː	ɝː	[œː]	hurt, lurk, urge, burst, jerk, term
LOT	ɒ	ɑ	[ɔː]	stop, sock, dodge, romp, possible, quality
CLOTH		ɔ		cough, broth, cross, long
THOUGHT	ɔː			taught, sauce, hawk, jaw, broad
FORCE		o˞		four, wore, sport, porch, borne, story
NORTH		ɔ˞		for, war, short, scorch, born, warm
CHOICE	ɔɪ̯			join, coin
			[ɔːj]	adroit, noise, toy, royal
GOAT	əʊ̯	o	[ow]	know, so, roll
			[o]	soap, joke, home
FOOT	ʊ			look, cook
			[uː]	put, bush, full, good, wolf
GOOSE	ʉː	ʉ		loop, shoot, tomb
	jʉː	jʉ	[iːw]	mute, huge, view
CURE	ʊə̯	ʊ˞	[uː.ʌ]	poor, tour, plural, jury
	jʊə̯	jʊ˞	[iːw.ʌ]	pure, cure
NEAR	ɪə̯	ɪ˞	[iː.ʌ]	beer, sincere, fear, beard, serum
SQUARE	ɛə̯	ɛ˞	[ɛː.ʌ]	care, fair, pear, where, scarce, vary