How to say good wishes in Cantonese?

[Kenny同志]

Enjoy, folks.

 

Edit: Sorry Roddy. I just wanted to share this video. I didn't know this two-word post would appear in the middle of the homepage. Feel free to delete it or move it to where appropriate. Thanks.

[Angelina]

Kenny,祝你心想事成!

新年快乐 is anglicized, right?

What NOT to say

特首梁振英今日發表農曆新年賀辭，賀辭全文如下：

農曆新年又到了。新的一年，我們除舊迎新，送走馬年，迎接羊年。

十二生肖代表十二種不同性格。羊給人的感覺是溫馴、和善的群體動物。

過去一年，香港經歷風風雨雨，社會出現不少分歧和矛盾。我希望在新的一年，大家都能夠有羊的特質，包容共濟，為香港未來的發展共同努力，為香港的前途一起打拼。

新一年是羊年，我們祝各位市民身體健康，喜氣洋洋，家庭和睦，一團和氣！

[Kenny同志]

謝謝妳，Angelina。我祝妳健健康康，平平安安，事事順心，越長越靚！: )

 

Speaking of 新年快樂, it follows Chinese grammar rules so I wouldn't say it is anglicised but I don't think Chinese ancients would use it as a new year greeting.   

 

It and other similar greetings/wishes, for example, 生日快樂, 中秋快樂, may have borrowed something from the English construction 'Happy X'. They sound a bit foreign to me.

[Kenny同志]

英國駐香港及澳門總領事2014年新春賀辭

 

Here's the speech for 2015.

英國駐香港及澳門總領事2015年新春賀辭

[Angelina]

So it does not go against Chinese grammar, but it was modelled after "happy X"

[Kenny同志]

So it does not go against Chinese grammar, but it was modelled after "happy X" 

I think so.

[Hofmann]

Just random but I heard her say /kɐs˥sɪŋ˥/ for 吉星 and an almost /tɕʊŋ˥nei˩˧/ for 祝你. Reminds me of Korean.

[Angelina]

She got talented people write this speech for her, whereas he ...

 

结果： '新年快乐'

[dwq]

祝各位福星高照、身體健康！

I'm sure the nicknamed 狼英 would be very happy if all Hong Kong people would just be sheep.

As for the video, it's good although I'm not sure whether she's not following the script and repeatedly saying 笑口長(coeng4)開 or just mispronounced 常(soeng4). 笑口常開 is the more common version. And 利是逗來 is not used with 祝你.

[Angelina]

I only noticed how his 'Cantonese' has been influenced by Mandarin. Her Cantonese is real, she might be faking it, but at least she is trying to speak it. She is also trying to imitate facial expressions.

[skylee]

I think the video in #1 is nice enough. Thank you Kenny for posting it. Two things seem weird, though. The first is that 祝你 does not go with 利是逗来. The second is the girl's pronunciation of "au", be it 有 or 逗 or 口. She is very consistent. Her pronunciation is way a bit too long （PS - her "a" in 闔 is also too long), which makes her Cantonese sound foreign. Mine is quite short. But perhaps I am the one who has an accent. Who knows.

Happy Chinese New Year.

PS - Where I live, we tend to say 馬到功成 instead of 馬到成功.

PPS - My new year greeting sent to my friends this year was "祝你龍精虎猛，心想事成。"

PS3 - I am so tired of 狼英 that I don't want to hear about him. He is the main reason of the 禮崩樂壞 of the HK government. His hoping that HK people would be more like sheep is bad.

[Kenny同志]

It's good to see a native speaker comment on the video. Thanks Skylee. 

[陳德聰]

Skylee it's not just you. I felt her speaking sounded weird in ways I could not put into words, and it seemed like some of the sayings were not ones that I felt were particularly "Cantonese".

 

I also think maybe she was reading a script so naturally the captions on screen don't match her speech:

笑口常開 where she said 笑口ceong4開 and 學業有成 where she explained as 學業 + 成功, but I feel like I say 學業進步.

 

I only ever say 利是逗來 after saying 恭喜發財 because they rhyme and it amuses me.

[dwq]

You guys have very good ears. I didn't notice some of the things you mentioned, perhaps wasn't listening hard enough, but after you pointed them out, I go back and check and it's exactly as you described. I tried to replicate her pronunciation and it seems that she might be trying too hard to speak clearly that some sounds become too long.

True, I think 事業有成 and 學業進步 are more common than 學業有成.