Cantonese writing

[skylee]

I don't really support writing in Cantonese formally, mainly because it is difficult to do so (lack of standards etc) and not everyone understands it.

 

But yesterday I read a column on a free local newspaper and I actually enjoyed it. It can be found here.  And I will also paste it below as being a HK newspaper it can't be accessed in the Mainland.

 

The writer 王慧麟 Max Wong has a PhD from the Univ of London.  He has been writing this column for some time and his style has been consistent, funny, analytical and with some insight.  And he writes in Cantonese.  It is not vulgar at all.  But it is not easy for people to understand because - (a) the readers have to understand Cantonese; (b) he uses nicknames in his writing so the readers have to know who he is talking about (like 跳水皇后個老公跳水佬 refers to the husband of 伏明霞  ); (c ) he writes about the politics in Hong Kong so the readers have to know what is happening here.

 

In this particular article, the nicknames used include "好打得" (meaning - very strong/invincible), "強哥", "路福西" (meaning -  Lufsig - the name of a toy wolf sold at IKEA), "三人組" and “白鴿”.

 

See if you can understand it. 

 

上周四，一早起身刨資料，見到份份都係強哥之文章，真係噴晒早餐。文章之法律討論，表面睇俾佢嚇死，細心睇就知道佢之強辭奪理。Purposive approach以至「活的文件」之釋憲方式，實際上係幫助憲法走向更具彈性，更能與社會現實接軌的方法。睇完強哥解釋到45條係神聖不可侵犯，咁香江的憲法專家如戴教授不如退休算了。

 

政治就係咁樣。十八個區議會正副主席訪京時，上面接待之高官話政黨提名同埋公投違反基本法。不過，香江之媒體無乜點樣報道。某些人恐防香江人物聽唔明，於是又叫強哥整一篇「法律」文章來解釋，將呢兩樣嘢掃低。政府未到last minute，已經急不及待掃低其他方案。

 

政府推緊啲乜嘢？好打得1月26日響一個青年論壇(都有幾十個親中青年團體協辦搞嘅，當中一個叫「未來之星」，係當年筆者選舉對手做顧問之團體，專門安排大專傳理同學北上學習國情，係唔係洗腦？希望唔係啦)中發言，講咗一句嘢：諮詢至今聽到的意見多認為提委會人數應擴大到1,600至2,400人。即係話，佢好想大家響1,600至2,400人之中傾傾。但係，佢講完之後，泛民朋友都當耳邊風，響社會激唔到半寸浪。

 

或者好打得認為搞政改，同搞民生政策一樣，只要政府將個「叫價」調整去一個方向，政黨同社會團體會跟住個「價」走。但咁樣完全係射歪波。因為，普選噃，牽涉到政權，政權噃，執政呀，唔係一個津貼應唔應該加一、二百蚊嘅問題。政權問題既有現實之部分，亦有理念之部分，兩樣嘢之中，後者一樣緊要，而且係要同支持者交代，唔可以好似講津貼福利咁樣，變成一、兩百蚊嘅數字遊戲。民生事，可以變成一兩百蚊之爭論，政權事，唔係一兩個議席咁簡單。

 

好打得同埋強哥今次暴露出，原來路福西政府響政改呢方面，係無乜話事權。強哥講完，即係叫泛民唔使傾。好打得希望將討論變成增加提委人數之多寡，唔講程序之變更，又即係關多個閘。換言之，佢地講清楚俾你知，政府依家只能做嘅係提委會人數多寡而已。從好打得角度，呢個係現時實事求是的做法，但從泛民之角度，即係同你地三人組傾，係冇乜用，因為你地三人組依家之權限只係可以傾增加提委人員數目。既然係咁，除了白鴿內部少數溫和派人士會願意落疊之外，大部分泛民都唔願意同政改三人組傾。

 

自從政改啟動，全宇宙都知道係北京與泛民嘅事，談判桌上只有兩堆人，一堆響北京，一堆響香港之泛民，其他人只係做塘邊鶴，原本仲有少數泛民認為，可以借三人組同北京傾，爭取多些，依家既然三人組都只係可以講咁少嘢，如果我係泛民，唔好心存幻想，疊埋心水同北京傾可能仲實際，至於政改三人組，同佢地hea下算啦，係咪？

[Nathan Mao]

I understood maybe 60%.  Some sentences approached 100%.  I did learn a little bit about Cantonese grammar and word choice, tho.

[querido]

I'll remember your recommendation and I saved a link to it. Thank you.

[Takeshi]

Wow, I never thought I'd see the day where skylee would endorse a Cantonese writing. 

 

I don't really understand it myself, but I have no understanding of the current politics of HK so...

 

I definitely do like his writing style, and I suppose I sort of understand why even skylee would endorse his writings. It is indeed not vulgar at all (except for the last sentence). Cantonese words are used for sentence/grammatical functions that you simply can not use Mandarin words for (if you were to be speaking), but in all other cases, the text uses formal written chinese vocabulary that is compatible with both Mandarin or formal Cantonese speech. (Extensive use of 之 is the first thing that strikes me out and makes it sound a lot less vulgar than most written Cantonese. There are lots of other things like using 而已 instead of a more colloquial 嘅啫 etcetc.) There are a few times he uses slightly more colloquial expressions, but these are used for emphasis, similarily to how one would switch registers even in a formal English political speech.

 

It would definitely be cool if this was a more standard/accepted writing in Cantonese language spheres, but whatever, this is not my problem.