22
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
Subsequent migrations have brought Cantonese from many districts of Kwangtung, and throughout the principal islands they are the majority community. The earliest families in Yuen Long District speak a form of the Namtao dialect, an offshoot of Tungkwun, not very easy for city Cantonese to follow, but city Cantonese (Punyü dialect) is the lingua franca of all the New Territories market towns, regardless of whether the particular area is predominantly Cantonese or Hakka.
The Hakka (this is their own word for themselves, and is explained as meaning strangers) began to enter this region at about the same time as the first Cantonese, or even before. The Cantonese were the more successful settlers, however, and in the areas where both groups live side by side the Hakka are always found upstream, along foothills, and in general on the worse land. At an early stage they seem to have become dependants or serfs of the powerful Cantonese families. The balance was restored later by heavy immigration from the East River districts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the Hakka are now almost exclusive possessors of the Shataukok, Saikung and Hang Hau peninsulas, and of the foothills of Taimoshan. They are the majority com- munity in Taipo, Shatin and Tsun Wan, and on the islands of Tsing I and Ma Wan.
The origin of the Hakka is unknown. They have contradictory traditions pointing to both a northern and a southern origin, and while the greatest numbers of them are found in eastern Kwangtung, there are many in Kiangsi and some in Szechuan and Taiwan. In the New Territories there are certain villages which show indications of being of non- Chinese origin; such villages are invariably Hakka-speaking. Both Cantonese and Hakka are languages of the Yueh group, presenting features characteristic of the standard speech of the early T'ang dynasty (seventh century), and Hakka, while closely resembling Cantonese in most respects, preserves a few even earlier characteristics.
In Kwangtung for many centuries there was strife between Cantonese and Hakka, culminating in a war in the early nineteenth century which required the intervention of the Manchu Government. They are now at peace. Formerly there was no intermarriage between them, but now Cantonese villagers have Hakka wives (seldom the reverse) and some villages are peacefully shared between the two groups. Except in the most remote areas, most Hakka can speak Cantonese.