[
    {
        "id": 204962,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1965",
        "page_number": 70,
        "title": "RAS-1965",
        "content_text": "THE DIALECTS OF HONG KONG BOAT PEOPLE\n\n63\n\n10 In KS the zero final is found in syllables of only two types where an initial consonant occurs without a following vowel. These two types are /m2/ 'not' and several words /ng/, as in [ng6/ \"Ave.\n\n11 The semivowels are unnecessary in SC and many other Kwangtung Province dialects since there are no contrasts of the type /y/ versus /i/. The analysis here turns on factors which Hockett (1955, pp. 59-60) terms syllable juncture and a concomitant predictability of syllable boundaries. In most Cantonese dialects, with no atonic syllables, it is simplest to delimit the syllable to the domain of one tone and to analyse any difference between non-peak [y] and peak [i] as the allophonic variations of a single phoneme. Chao's decision to retain the semivowels may rest on requirements of his romanization system.\n\n12 This is a possible exception in a rime group predominantly /i/.\n\n13 There is evidence in KS, and some other Cantonese dialects such as Toishan, to suggest that syllables ending in -iek, -eng may be colloquial readings as opposed to literary readings in -ik, -ing/. For KS I did not turn up any double readings for the same word so this hypothesis remains to be tested, but in the speech of Toishan City we find contrast of the type /mieng3/ 'name', usually standing alone, and /men6/ for the same character in more formal compounds. The tone /3/ on the first example is a Toishan changed tone from the regular /6/. The Toishan contours are /3/ high rising and /6/ low level. Compare also SC.\n\n14 This is the only example I have of this syllable final and may well be a loan reading. I include it pending further investigation.\n\n15 /m2/ is a common negative in a number of southern Chinese dialects but it cannot be traced to a form in the ancient rime tables. In KS, as in SC, it is the only form in syllabic /m/.\n\n16 As an example of similarities, we have the forms developed by the loss of initial /ng/ before ho-k'ou finals giving readings such as KS /ui5/ \"outside\". Compare Tung Kun /wi/ cited by Yuan (1960, p. 204) and probably taken from Wang Li.\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY\n\nNote: These titles include only those items referred to in this paper. An excellent and possibly definitive bibliography on the Boat People, including some language data, see Ho Ko-en, 'A Study of the Boat People', Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. V. No. 1 and 2. Hong Kong 1959-60.\n\n1. Chao, Yuen Ren (1947). Cantonese Primer. Cambridge, Mass.\n\n2. (1951a), \"T'ai-shan Yu-Jiao Hsü-lun\" (Preface to Materials on the Toishan Dialect), Kuo-li Chung-yang-yen-chiu-yüan Li-shih-yü-yen yen-chiu-so Fuso-ch'ung Chi-nien-te-k'an (Bulletin of Academia Sinica, National Research Institute of History and Philology, Special Printing in Memory of Institute Director Fu). Taipei.\n\n3. (1951b). \"Tai-shan Yü-liao” (Materials on the Toishan Dialect), Kuo-li Chung-yang-yen-chiu-yüan Li-shih-yü-yen-yen-chiu-so Chi-k'an (Bull. of Academia Sinica, Nat. Res. Inst. of Hist. and Phil.), Vol. 23, Taipei.\n\n4. Egerod, Søren (1956). The Lungtu Dialect. Copenhagen.\n\n5. Hockett, Charles F. (1955). A Manual of Phonology. Baltimore, This book is Memoir 11 of the International Journal of American Linguistics.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 205205,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1966",
        "page_number": 161,
        "title": "RAS-1966",
        "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n155\n\ninto a sentence of his own. Of course this is not a criticism since such was the design of the compilers, but I offer it as a clarification of the nature of the work. This book is in fact a gigantic word list or vocabulary and as such it presents a maximum amount of material in a minimum of space. Any attempt to enlarge the definitions and to add examples would probably result in a multi-volume work selling at a considerably higher price.\n\nOn the whole this dictionary should prove a useful asset to anyone working from spoken Cantonese to English. My overall impression is favorable but the book raises in my mind several general questions concerning Cantonese lexicography which are worth discussing here. First, it seems to me high time that more dictionaries and grammars began to reflect the sound changes which have gained ascendancy in Standard Cantonese. I here refer specifically to the distinctions such as those between ch- and ts-, ch'- and ts'-, s- and sh-, -am and -om, sometimes -ek and -ik, etc. which are maintained in the orthography of this (and many other) dictionaries and grammars but which are not part of Standard Cantonese as spoken by the majority of the population of Canton and Hong Kong. Yuen Ren Chao (Cantonese Primer, 1947, pp. 18-9) notes that these distinctions are made by most of the \"foreign writers on Cantonese\" but that they are only a nuisance to the \"native teacher from Canton, since the pure dialect of Canton does not make such distinctions\". Nevertheless, Chao himself continues to use them on the grounds that they will help the student who later moves on to study Mandarin or certain other Cantonese subdialects.\n\nThere are dialects which keep these distinctions but Standard Cantonese is not one of them. Hong Kong has plenty of evidence of this orthography in many place names, but this shows up only in the English transliterations and a local born Chinese who reflects these spellings in his speech would be hard to find. To preserve these distinctions in a dictionary or grammar of Standard Cantonese is simply adding unnecessary time to the student's learning task and creating a point of potential confusion which would be very simple to avoid. For instance, if a student of Cantonese hears an unknown form which sounds to him like sik, he may find that he would have to look under the three dictionary entries of sik, sek, and shik in order to be certain that he had covered all the possibilities.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811",
        "rank": 0
    }
]