RAS-1970 — Page 115

RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 All AI Reviewed

110

K. M. A. BARNETT

has to be a special particle to take care of the general aspect of nouns of all classes. In Cantonese this particle is the word DHE, pronounced always with the short "flat" i which Turkish writes without a dot, and is spelt I in English words like SIT. There is no real character for the word, and unfortunately many of those who hold themselves out as "teachers" without first properly learning what they profess to teach, confuse this particle with DHI (meaning "a small quantity of") which has the other vowel which English usually writes EE, and then they write them both with the unsuitable made-up character having XAO on the left and DHEK on the right70.

There is another indicator of the "general" state of nouns. When governed by a noun or pronoun in the possessive case, "particular" nouns have the possessive pronoun or noun prefixed directly; "general" nouns either have the particle DHE, just described, or the possessive particle GEA, never both. As GEA is not used thus before the "particular” noun, which includes any demonstrative pronoun or numeral, you see that GEA also can denote that the noun following it is "general" (I am sorry that Radio Hong Kong's Cantonese classes mis-teach this idiom). Thus my car (or sewing machine) is NGOR-GAA-CHEAH72 or NGOR-NHIGAA-CHEAH73. My two cars (or sewing machines) is NGOR-LREOR-NGGAA-CHEAH. My cars and sewing machines in the generality would be either NGOR-DHE-CHEAH15 or NGOR-GEA-CHEAH6 which may be thus distinguished: class "my things", sub-class "cars or sewing machines" use NGOR-DHE. Class "cars and sewing machines" sub-class "mine" use NGOR-GEA.

But you will find this usage is pretty flexible, except that you'll never find both GEA and DHE.

Similarly the GEA that winds up a relative clause drops off before the "particular" noun which follows it.

Although I did not wish to get bogged down in details of pronunciation, it is worth looking at the pattern of stresses when phrases of this description are used in Cantonese. In English we

70啲 74 **** 75 我啲車

72 我架車 73 我呢架車 76 我嘅車

71 4

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110 K. M. A. BARNETT has to be a special particle to take care of the general aspect of nouns of all classes. In Cantonese this particle is the word DHE, pronounced always with the short "flat" i which Turkish writes without a dot, and is spelt I in English words like SIT. There is no real character for the word, and unfortunately many of those who hold themselves out as "teachers" without first properly learning what they profess to teach, confuse this particle with DHI (meaning "a small quantity of") which has the other vowel which English usually writes EE, and then they write them both with the unsuitable made-up character having XAO on the left and DHEK on the right70. There is another indicator of the "general" state of nouns. When governed by a noun or pronoun in the possessive case, "particular" nouns have the possessive pronoun or noun prefixed directly; "general" nouns either have the particle DHE, just described, or the possessive particle GEA, never both. As GEA is not used thus before the "particular” noun, which includes any demonstrative pronoun or numeral, you see that GEA also can denote that the noun following it is "general" (I am sorry that Radio Hong Kong's Cantonese classes mis-teach this idiom). Thus my car (or sewing machine) is NGOR-GAA-CHEAH72 or NGOR-NHIGAA-CHEAH73. My two cars (or sewing machines) is NGOR-LREOR-NGGAA-CHEAH. My cars and sewing machines in the generality would be either NGOR-DHE-CHEAH15 or NGOR-GEA-CHEAH6 which may be thus distinguished: class "my things", sub-class "cars or sewing machines" use NGOR-DHE. Class "cars and sewing machines" sub-class "mine" use NGOR-GEA. But you will find this usage is pretty flexible, except that you'll never find both GEA and DHE. Similarly the GEA that winds up a relative clause drops off before the "particular" noun which follows it. Although I did not wish to get bogged down in details of pronunciation, it is worth looking at the pattern of stresses when phrases of this description are used in Cantonese. In English we 70啲 74 **** 75 我啲車 72 我架車 73 我呢架車 76 我嘅車 71 4

Baseline (Original)

110 K. M. A. BARNETT has to be a special particle to take care of the general aspect of nouns of all classes. In Cantonese this particle is the word DHE, pronounced always with the short "flat" i which Turkish writes without a dot, and is spelt I in English words like SIT. There is no real character for the word, and unfortunately many of those who hold themselves out as "teachers" without first properly learning what they profess to teach, confuse this particle with DHI (meaning "a small quantity of") which has the other vowel which English usually writes EE, and then they write them both with the unsuitable made-up character having XAO on the left and DHEK on the right70. There is another indicator of the "general" state of nouns. When governed by a noun or pronoun in the possessive case, "particular" nouns have the possessive pronoun or noun prefixed directly; "general" nouns either have the particle DHE, just described, or the possessive particle GEA", never both. As GEA is not used thus before the "particular” noun, which includes any demonstrative pronoun or numeral, you see that GEA also can denote that the noun following it is "general" (I am sorry that Radio Hong Kong's Cantonese classes mis-teach this idiom). Thus my car (or sewing machine) is NGRORGAA-CHEAH72 or NGROR-NHIGAACHEAH73. My two cars (or sewing machines) is NGROR-LREORNGGAA-CHEAH. My cars and sewing machines in the generality would be either NGORDHE-CHEAH15 or NGRORGEA-CHEAH6 which may be thus distinguished: class "my things", sub-class "cars or sewing machines" use NGRORDHE. Class "cars and sewing machines" sub-class "mine" use NGRORGEA. But you will find this usage is pretty flexible, except that you'll never find both GEA and DHE. Similarly the GEA that winds up a relative clause drops off before the "particular" noun which follows it. Although I did not wish to get bogged down in details of pronunciation, it is worth looking at the pattern of stresses when phrases of this description are used in Cantonese. In English we 71 4 70啲 74 **** 75 我啲車 72 我架車 73 我呢架車 76 我嘅車

2026-05-12 18:12:58 · Baseline

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110

K. M. A. BARNETT

There is another indicator of the "general" state of nouns. When governed by a noun or pronoun in the possessive case, "particular" nouns have the possessive pronoun or noun prefixed directly; "general" nouns either have the particle DHE, just described, or the possessive particle GEA", never both. As GEA is not used thus before the "particular” noun, which includes any demonstrative pronoun or numeral, you see that GEA also can denote that the noun following it is "general" (I am sorry that Radio Hong Kong's Cantonese classes mis-teach this idiom). Thus my car (or sewing machine) is NGRORGAA-CHEAH72 or NGROR-NHIGAACHEAH73. My two cars (or sewing machines) is NGROR-LREORNGGAA-CHEAH. My cars and sewing machines in the generality would be either NGORDHE-CHEAH15 or NGRORGEA-CHEAH6 which may be thus distinguished: class "my things", sub-class "cars or sewing machines" use NGRORDHE. Class "cars and sewing machines" sub-class "mine" use NGRORGEA.

But you will find this usage is pretty flexible, except that you'll never find both GEA and DHE.

Similarly the GEA that winds up a relative clause drops off before the "particular" noun which follows it.

Although I did not wish to get bogged down in details of pronunciation, it is worth looking at the pattern of stresses when phrases of this description are used in Cantonese. In English we

71 4

70啲 74 **** 75 我啲車

72 我架車 73 我呢架車 76 我嘅車

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