Contributed by Keith Tse
It is no secret that Hong Kong (HK) has a unique mix of languages in use that is a result of its inventory of languages and their distribution in everyday life and in society. As mentioned before, HK distinguishes itself, especially from mainland Cantonese-speaking cities and communities, in being a Cantonese-based society in which Cantonese is used 'from top to bottom', since it is Cantonese, rather than Mandarin, that is used in many formal contexts, which extends from its use in everyday life where it is the default choice for private, social and colloquial purposes. The former, which are classically defined by Ferguson (1959) as H(igh)-domains, comprise of many contexts in public life such as media, speeches, and education, while the latter, termed L(ow)-domains, typically belong to activities in the domicile, quotidian and private life. Not only does this make HK the epicentre of Cantonese in the world as it is one of a few Cantonese societies in the world which is also in a unique position of being able to export its many Cantonese cultural products abroad (e.g. Cantopop, Cantonese TV shows and movies, all of which serve as representative samples of Cantonese on the international stage), it has also created a unique form of multilingualism where HK Cantonese, the local sub-dialect of a major dialect (方言) in the Chinese-speaking world, has a more prominent and elevated sociolinguistic status in society that befits the sociopolitical status of HK as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) and an international financial hub.
Furthermore, taking into account that HK is historically a British colony and remains a global cosmopolis with a busy flow of visitors from all around the world, English continues to be a major variety in use in every facet of daily life. There are hence three main language varieties that inform language choice in HK: Cantonese, Mandarin and English, which form the basis of the official government policy since the 1997 handover, and as Cantonese is the default choice for most day-to-day interactions (formal and informal), the uses Mandarin and English are relatively restricted, as they are not the default for formal interaction or communication, as they are in the mainland (Mandarin) and in many ex-British colonies (e.g. India), but tend to be used only in specific contexts where they are deemed appropriate e.g. public discourse that makes references to foreign topics or addresses audiences from abroad or mainland China, school education where these are naturally used for teaching English and Mandarin as foreign languages, and media where topics dealing with mainland China and the West are mentioned, in addition to external exchanges with foreign visitors from the mainland and abroad which are also conducted in these languages to accommodate the visitors.
In Ferguson's classic model of diglossia, it may be appropriate to term English and Mandarin in HK as super-H(igh) in line with other societies that also have a designated language for a narrow range of functions such as Classical Arabic in Arab societies (which has been compared to Latin in Medieval Europe) which is used almost exclusively in education (specifically for the teaching of classical literature). In comparison to other diglossic Chinese societies where Mandarin is used as the official lingua franca which arches over the regional dialect, HK Cantonese constitutes an extra sociolinguistic layer (H-Cantonese) which comes below super-H varieties such as English and Mandarin in terms of formality. A comparison can be made with Tanzania, also a former British colony, where the local language (Swahili) and its vernaculars display degrees of formality and English remains a externally imposed super-H variety that is used for very specific purposes such as education (Abdulaziz Mkilifi (1972)). This triglossic or double overlapping diglossic situation (Fasold (1984:45)) where a local H variety comes between the local L variety and a super-H variety of foreign origin is highly reminiscent of HK, especially if we swap 'Swahili' with 'Cantonese' in the following diagram:
HK Cantonese, which refers both to the variety itself and HK people's native proficiency, is hence unique, since, in addition to its wide overseas distribution, native HK Cantonese speakers regularly use their local dialect for many traditionally H-domains that are usually rendered by the official language elsewhere (e.g. Mandarin in mainland China), and H-Cantonese may thus be considered a cultural and linguistic heritage that is unique to HK.
The use of Cantonese in the production of literary registers as found in public media, arts and education, in all of which HK-ers have been found to have a higher proficiency of their native dialect in comparison to mainland Cantonese speakers who regularly engage with these domains in Mandarin, places H-Cantonese in a unique position, as it is not only central but also pivotal to HK multilingualism where it interfaces with super-H varieties like English and Mandarin, as shown in the diagram above. As these come into contact in overlapping functions, they often result in language mixing, as seen in the form of HK English and HK Cantonese, both of which are known to be unique admixtures of both languages. The code-switching between Cantonese and Mandarin is also a complex and sophisticated phenomenon where HK Cantonese speakers have been shown to be capable of using both varieties in parallel and switch between them almost effortlessly like true bilinguals. This is especially striking as Mandarin represents not only a closely related, albeit external, variety to their native Cantonese but also the official variety of Chinese that underlies the written language, formal literature and literary registers widely used in everyday writing and education. Code-switching into Mandarin is thus not merely indicative of 'external/mainland' but also 'literary/written', which are opposed to corresponding functions of the Cantonese vernacular ('local/HK' and 'colloquial/spoken' respectively).
The level of Mandarin in HK is naturally lower than that in the mainland, since mainland speakers have a higher exposure to Mandarin which they regularly use for H-domains for which HK-ers use Cantonese. However, in order to raise the level of Mandarin in HK, it is not necessary to impose Mandarin in the various H-domains of HK society to the detriment of H-Cantonese. Rather, the high level of inter-dialectal code-switching between Cantonese and Mandarin yields many cognitive benefits associated with bilingualism, which can be achieved by maintaining H-Cantonese for formal, literary and written purposes and its interface with Mandarin where HK schoolchildren can be exposed to (literary) Mandarin through H-Cantonese. This is certainly possible given the many formal and linguistic correspondences between the two dialects.
It is curious and tragic that a variety like H-Cantonese which makes HK unique is in a precarious position, since it is much debated what to do with it, especially whether Cantonese should still be used for literary education in HK schools, like in Shanghai in the old days where local Wu dialects were taught in schools as part of the literary education. It is still widely debated at numerous schools whether Mandarin should replace Cantonese as the language of instruction and literary education (普教中). Mixed results aside, removing Cantonese as the formal language of education would do huge damage to the preservation and maintenance of H-Cantonese and to the cultural identity of HK.
H-Cantonese is a fascinating variety which lies at the core of the linguistic and cultural heritage of HK that makes it unique in the world, not only in the Chinese-speaking world as a unique society in which the local dialect has special sociolinguistic status in running 'from top to bottom' but also internationally as one of a group of triglossic/double overlapping diglossic societies where two/three language varieties are layered yielding a sophisticated form of bi/trilingualism. It would be a shame to see H-Cantonese fall out of favour in HK, and it is the present author's opinion that H-Cantonese be preserved as an indispensable cultural heritage of HK. Furthermore, the preservation of H-Cantonese in education can do wonders to improving the multilingual proficiency in HK, as it can provide a real competitor to external (super-H) varieties like English and Mandarin and foster a competitive generation of multilingual talents. All in all, H-Cantonese is an important linguistic variety that is culturally and linguistically significant in HK and elsewhere.