Abstract
Having collected a large number of loan words in Hong Kong Cantonese, this paper makes a three-dimensioned comparative study of them. Specifically, it compares it (1) with foreign language (mainly English) in order to trace the origin of the loan words and how they blend into Chinese. Secondly, (2) with Shanghai dialect aiming at showing the different ways of word borrowing, and (3) with Putonghua to observe the characteristics and tendency of development of the loan words. Based on the above comparative study, it makes further analysis of the problems in the loan words in Hong Kong Cantonese and advances two fundamental concepts of “broad loan words” and “narrow loan words”. The paper generalizes eight categories of loan words, namely: transliterated borrowings, semi-transliterated and semi-translated borrowings, transliterated borrowings with a Chinese morpheme, transliterated and free translated borrowings, loan blend words, form borrowings, free translated borrowings and finally, literally translated borrowings.
| Keywords: | Hong Kong dialect; free-translated words; literally translated words |
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