Cantonese: Since the Nineteenth Century
Thanks to dedicated efforts of early missionaries, pedagogues, and linguists, we can trace back the evolution of modern Cantonese—one of the most spoken dialects in China, Southeast Asia, and globally—while differences in sounds, words, and grammar distinguish the old from contemporary speech today.

Not much was recorded in official documents or gazetteers about the early history of Hong Kong where Cantonese is its most popular dialect. The knowledge of Cantonese is likewise quite limited except for occasional mentions of its culture and customs in writings here and there. For a long time, Cantonese was deemed a local dialect enjoying little prestige among the intellectuals. Its language and its origin remained much of a mystery until the mid-twentieth century when scholars started to accord it with increasing attention.

In Cantonese: Since the 19th Century, Cheung offers profound insights to some thirty firsthand century-old materials, with findings that will be useful for ongoing efforts to trace the development of a language that has gone through many rounds of incredible and, at times dramatic, changes during the last two hundred years.
1140614835
Cantonese: Since the Nineteenth Century
Thanks to dedicated efforts of early missionaries, pedagogues, and linguists, we can trace back the evolution of modern Cantonese—one of the most spoken dialects in China, Southeast Asia, and globally—while differences in sounds, words, and grammar distinguish the old from contemporary speech today.

Not much was recorded in official documents or gazetteers about the early history of Hong Kong where Cantonese is its most popular dialect. The knowledge of Cantonese is likewise quite limited except for occasional mentions of its culture and customs in writings here and there. For a long time, Cantonese was deemed a local dialect enjoying little prestige among the intellectuals. Its language and its origin remained much of a mystery until the mid-twentieth century when scholars started to accord it with increasing attention.

In Cantonese: Since the 19th Century, Cheung offers profound insights to some thirty firsthand century-old materials, with findings that will be useful for ongoing efforts to trace the development of a language that has gone through many rounds of incredible and, at times dramatic, changes during the last two hundred years.
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Cantonese: Since the Nineteenth Century

Cantonese: Since the Nineteenth Century

by Hung-nin Samual Cheung
Cantonese: Since the Nineteenth Century

Cantonese: Since the Nineteenth Century

by Hung-nin Samual Cheung

Hardcover

$55.00 
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Overview

Thanks to dedicated efforts of early missionaries, pedagogues, and linguists, we can trace back the evolution of modern Cantonese—one of the most spoken dialects in China, Southeast Asia, and globally—while differences in sounds, words, and grammar distinguish the old from contemporary speech today.

Not much was recorded in official documents or gazetteers about the early history of Hong Kong where Cantonese is its most popular dialect. The knowledge of Cantonese is likewise quite limited except for occasional mentions of its culture and customs in writings here and there. For a long time, Cantonese was deemed a local dialect enjoying little prestige among the intellectuals. Its language and its origin remained much of a mystery until the mid-twentieth century when scholars started to accord it with increasing attention.

In Cantonese: Since the 19th Century, Cheung offers profound insights to some thirty firsthand century-old materials, with findings that will be useful for ongoing efforts to trace the development of a language that has gone through many rounds of incredible and, at times dramatic, changes during the last two hundred years.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9789882372535
Publisher: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press
Publication date: 12/26/2023
Pages: 384
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Hung-nin Samuel Cheung is professor emeritus of East Asian languages and cultures at the University of California, Berkeley, and of Chinese language and literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His previous CUHK Press books include A Grammar of Cantonese as Spoken in Hong Kong (in Chinese, 2007) and A Practical Chinese Grammar (1994), one of the most acclaimed language textbooks in the English-speaking world.

Table of Contents

Foreword

One Language, Two Systems: A Phonological Study of Two Cantonese Language Manuals of 1888

Completing the Completive: Reconstructing Early Cantonese Grammar

The Interrogative Construction: (Re-)Constructing Early Cantonese Grammar

Naming the City: Language Complexity in the Making of a 1866 Map of Hong Kong

Cantonese Phonology as Reconstructed from Popular Songs

The Pretransitive in Cantonese

Terms of Address in Cantonese

A Study of Xiehouyu Expressions in Cantonese
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