Questions tagged [cantonese]
The Chinese language of Southern China and Hongkong.
7
questions
1
vote
0answers
29 views
Connection between “wiseguy” and the Cantonese slang 古惑仔
"Wiseguy" can mean a made man in the mafia or a smart ass who acts like they are smarter than others. What I find interesting is that the Cantonese/Chinese slang term 古惑仔(Gu Wac Zai) has ...
1
vote
0answers
28 views
Causative classes in Cantonese
Recently me and WavesWashSands had a conversation about Cantonese and it's causatives. zing2, gaau2, tam3, gik1, haak3 etc. A lot of these look like they are just based on classes of moods.
But are ...
0
votes
1answer
229 views
Which Chinese Romanisation system is most intelligible to English speakers?
This may be a difficult question, because I've heard that pronunciation can vary greatly even within Chinese-speaking countries. I'm also not really aware of when Mandarin or Cantonese would be used; ...
5
votes
1answer
6k views
Difference between pitch and intensity
I would like to understand what is the difference in lignuistic betwen pitch and intensity.
On the picture (taken from native HK speaker), I have a Cantonese sentence.
Nei5 Jiu3 Caa4 Maa3 ?
...
4
votes
2answers
679 views
Are the unreleased stops in cantonese discernable by listening?
Background-Info:
In contrast to mandarin Chinese, which can only have a few consonants at the and of a syllable, e.g. man, mang, Cantonese syllables can contain p,t,k at their end.
Nevertheless, ...
3
votes
0answers
86 views
How is tone assigned to loanwords borrowed from non-tonal languages? [duplicate]
In a tonal language like Cantonese, how is stress assigned to loanwords (from languages which don't have a tone distinction)?
For example, Hong Kong Cantonese has various words borrowed from English, ...
15
votes
4answers
7k views
How do tones work in music sung in tonal languages, such as Cantonese or Mandarin Chinese?
I have not yet studied tonal languages, so it might be understandable, but when I listen to Chinese music, for example, I'm unable to perceive tones. This makes me think they are partially or ...
