Malaysian Cantonese is not uniform throughout the country, with variation between individuals and areas. It is mutually intelligible with Cantonese spoken in both Hong Kong and Guangzhou in Mainland China but has distinct differences in vocabulary and pronunciation which make it unique.
Green indicates areas where Minnan (Including Hokkien & Teochew) predominates; Orange indicates areas where Cantonese predominates; Light blue indicates areas where Hakka predominates; Purple indicates areas where multiple languages predominate.
Due to its predominance in the capital city, Cantonese is highly influential in local Chinese-language media and is used in commerce by Malaysian Chinese.[9][10] As a result, Cantonese is widely understood and spoken with varying fluency by Chinese throughout Malaysia, regardless of their language group. This is in spite of Hokkien being the most widely spoken variety and Mandarin being the medium of education at Chinese-language schools. The widespread influence of Cantonese is also due in large part to the popularity of Hong Kong media, particularly TVB dramas.
Phonological Differences
A sizeable portion of Malaysian Cantonese speakers, including native speakers, are not of Cantonese ancestry, with many belonging to different ancestral language groups such as Hakka, Hokkien and Teochew. The historical and continued influence of their original language has produced variation and change in the pronunciation of particular sounds in Malaysian Cantonese when compared to "standard" Cantonese.[11] Depending on their ancestral origin and educational background, some speakers may not exhibit the unique characteristics described below.
Many Malaysians have difficulty with the ⟨eu⟩ sound and will substitute it with other sounds where it occurs. Often these changes brings the pronunciation of most words in line with their Hakka pronunciation, and for many words their Hokkien pronunciations as well.
Words that end with ⟨-eung⟩ & ⟨-euk⟩ (pronounced [œːŋ] & [œːk̚] in standard Cantonese) such as 香 hēung, 兩 léuhng, 想 séung and 著 jeuk, 腳 geuk, 約 yeuk may be pronounced as [iɔŋ] & [iɔk̚], which by local spelling conventions may be written as ⟨-iong/-eong⟩ & ⟨-iok/-eok⟩ respectively, e.g. 香 hīong, 兩 líohng, 想 síong and 著 jiok, 腳 giok, 約 yok.[11] This change brings the pronunciation of most words in line with their Hakka pronunciation, and for many words their Hokkien pronunciations as well.
Words with final ⟨-eun⟩ & ⟨-eut⟩ (pronounced [ɵn] & [ɵt̚] in "Standard" Cantonese) such as 春 chēun and 出 chēut may be pronounced as ⟨-un⟩ [uːn] & ⟨-ut⟩ [uːt̚] respectively.
Words with final ⟨-eui⟩ (pronounced [ɵy] in "Standard" Cantonese) such as 水 séui and 去 heui may be pronounced as ⟨-oi⟩ [ɔːy], ⟨-ui⟩ [uːy] or even ⟨-ei⟩ [ei] depending on the word.
Many Malaysians also have difficulty with the ⟨yu⟩ sound (pronounced as [yː] in "Standard" Cantonese) which occurs in words such as 豬 jyū, 算 syun, 血 hyut. This sound may be substituted with [iː] which in the case of some words may involve palatalisation of the preceding initial [◌ʲiː].
Some speakers, particularly non-native speakers may not differentiate the long and short vowels, such as ⟨aa⟩ [aː] and ⟨a⟩ [ɐ].
Due to the influence of Hong Kong media, Malaysian Cantonese is also affected by so-called "Lazy Sounds" (懶音 láahn yām) though to a much lesser degree than Hong Kong Cantonese.
Many younger and middle-aged speakers pronounce some ⟨n-⟩ initial words with an ⟨l-⟩ initial. For many, this process is not complete, with the initial ⟨n-/l-⟩ distinction maintained for other words. e.g. 你 néih → léih.
Generally, the ⟨ng-⟩ initial has been maintained, unlike in Hong Kong where it is being increasingly dropped and replaced with the null initial. Instead, among some speakers, Malaysian Cantonese exhibits the addition of the ⟨ng-⟩ initial for some words that originally have a null initial. This also occurs in Hong Kong Cantonese as a form of hypercorrection of "Lazy Sounds", e.g. 亞 a → nga.
Some speakers have lost labialisation of the ⟨gw-⟩ & ⟨kw-⟩ initials, instead pronouncing them as ⟨g-⟩ & ⟨k-⟩, e.g. 國 kwok → kok.
Vocabulary Differences
Malaysian Cantonese is in contact with many other Chinese languages such as Hakka, Hokkien and Teochew as well other languages such as Malay and English.[11] As a result, it has absorbed many loanwords and expressions that may not be found in Cantonese spoken elsewhere. Malaysian Cantonese also preserves some vocabulary that would be considered old-fashioned or unusual in Hong Kong but may be preserved in other Cantonese speaking areas such as Guangzhou.[12] Not all of the examples below are used throughout Malaysia, with differences in vocabulary between different Cantonese speaking areas such as Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and Sandakan. There may also be differences based on the speaker's educational background and native dialect.
Use of 愛/唔愛 oi/mh oi instead of 要/唔要 yiu/mh yiu to refer to "want/don't want", also meaning "love/like". Also used in Guangzhou and is similar to the character's usage in Hakka.
More common use of 曉 híu to mean "to be able to/to know how to", whereas 會 wúi/識 sīk would be more commonly used in Hong Kong. Also used in Guangzhou and is similar to the character's usage to Hakka.
Use of 冇 móuh at the end of sentences to create questions, e.g. 你愛食飯冇? néih oi sihk faahn móuh?, "Do you want to eat?"
Some expressions have under gone a change in meaning such as 仆街 pūk gāai, literally "fall on the street" which is commonly used in Malaysia to mean "broke/bankrupt" and is not considered a profanity unlike in Hong Kong where it is used to mean "drop dead/go to hell".[13]
Some English educated speakers may use 十千 sahp chīn instead of 萬 maahn to express 10,000, e.g. 14,000 might be expressed as 十四千 sahp sei chīn instead of 一萬四 yāt maahn sei.
Use of expressions which would sound outdated to speakers in Hong Kong, e.g. 冇相干 móuh sēung gōn to mean "never mind/it doesn't matter", whereas 冇所謂 móuh só waih/唔緊要 mh gān yiu would be more commonly used in Hong Kong. Some of these expressions are still in current use in Guangzhou.
Word order, particularly the placement of certain grammatical particles may differ, e.g. 食飯咗 sihk faahn jó instead of 食咗飯 sihk jó faahn for "have eaten."
Unique expression's such as 我幫你講 ngóh bōng néih góng to mean "I'm telling you" where 我同你講 ngóh tùhng néih góng/我話你知 ngóh wah néih jī would be used in Hong Kong.
Malaysian Cantonese is also characterised by the extensive use of sentence ending particles, to an even greater extent than occurs in Hong Kong Cantonese.
Loanwords
Malaysian
Meaning
Hong Kong
Note
擺 báai
Number of times
次 chi
From Hokkien pai (擺)
蘇嗎 soū/sū mā
All
全部 chyùn bouh
From Malay semua, many potential pronunciations e.g. sū mūa
^《马来西亚的三个汉语方言》中之 吉隆坡广东话阅谭 (PDF) (in Simplified Chinese). New Era University College. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
^"Table for 2.... Or more: Kwong Sai (GuangXi) Stuffed Tofu 广西酿豆腐 - Heritage Week # 2". 24 August 2011.
^"Kalim-Travel Journal: Betong, Thailand". 20 July 2009.
^"Table for 2.... Or more: Guangxi Style Steamed Chicken 广西白切鸡 - MFF Pahang #5". 7 December 2012.
^Ember, Melvin; Ember, Carol R.; Skoggard, Ian (30 November 2004). Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. Volume I: Overviews and Topics; Volume II: Diaspora Communities. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN9780306483219 – via Google Books.
^Leitner, Gerhard; Hashim, Azirah; Wolf, Hans-Georg (11 January 2016). Communicating with Asia: The Future of English as a Global Language. Cambridge University Press. ISBN9781107062610 – via Google Books.
^Gin, Ooi Keat (11 May 2009). Historical Dictionary of Malaysia. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810863057 – via Google Books.
^Malaysian Cantonese Archived May 27, 2014, at archive.today
^Tze Wei Sim, Why are the Native Languages of the Chinese Malaysians in Decline. Journal of Taiwanese Vernacular, p. 74, 2012
^ abcWee Kek Koon (2018-11-01). "Why Cantonese spoken in Malaysia sounds different to Hong Kong Cantonese, and no it's not 'wrong'". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2018-11-25.
^Wee Kek Koon (2017-04-20). "Southeast Asian Cantonese – why Hongkongers should not ridicule it". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2018-11-25.
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This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Malaysian Cantonese news newspapers books scholar JSTOR November 2018 Learn how and when to remove this template message Malaysian Cantonese Chinese 馬來西亞廣東話 Cantonese Yale Mahloihsaia Gwongdungwa is a local variety of Cantonese spoken in Malaysia It is the lingua franca among Chinese throughout much of the central portion of Peninsular Malaysia being spoken in the capital Kuala Lumpur Perak Kinta Valley Batang Padang Muallim Hulu Perak Kuala Kangsar Bagan Datoh Hilir Perak and Perak Tengah Pahang Selangor and Negeri Sembilan it is also widely understood to varying degrees by many Chinese throughout the country regardless of their ancestral language Malaysian Cantonese馬來西亞廣東話 Mahloihsaia GwongdungwaNative toMalaysiaRegionPerak Pahang Negeri Sembilan Klang Valley Sabak Bernam Sarikei SandakanEthnicityMalaysian ChineseLanguage familySino Tibetan SiniticYueYuehaiCantoneseMalaysian CantoneseWriting systemChinese Characters Written Cantonese Language codesISO 639 3 Linguist Listyue yue yue canGlottologNoneMalaysian CantoneseTraditional Chinese馬來西亞廣東話Cantonese YaleMahloihsaia GwongdungwaTranscriptionsStandard MandarinHanyu PinyinMǎlaixiya GuangdōnghuaYue CantoneseYale RomanizationMahloihsaia GwongdungwaJyutpingMaa5loi4sai1aa3 Gwong2dung1waa2Southern MinHokkien POJMa lai se a Kng tang ōa Ma lai se a Kng tang ōeTai loMa lai se a Kng tang ua Ma lai se a Kng tang ueAlternative nameTraditional Chinese馬來西亞廣府話Cantonese YaleMahloihsaia GwongfuwaTranscriptionsStandard MandarinHanyu PinyinMǎlaixiya GuǎngfǔhuaYue CantoneseYale RomanizationMahloihsaia GwongfuwaJyutpingMaa5loi4sai1aa3 Gwong2dung2waa2Southern MinHokkien POJMa lai se a Kong hu ōa Ma lai se a Kong hu ōeTai loMa lai se a Kong hu ua Ma lai se a Kong hu ueMalay nameMalayBahasa Kantonis Bahasa KonghuMalaysian Cantonese is not uniform throughout the country with variation between individuals and areas It is mutually intelligible with Cantonese spoken in both Hong Kong and Guangzhou in Mainland China but has distinct differences in vocabulary and pronunciation which make it unique Contents 1 Geographic spread 2 Phonological Differences 3 Vocabulary Differences 4 See also 5 ReferencesGeographic spread Edit Green indicates areas where Minnan Including Hokkien amp Teochew predominates Orange indicates areas where Cantonese predominates Light blue indicates areas where Hakka predominates Purple indicates areas where multiple languages predominate Cantonese is widely spoken amongst Malaysian Chinese in the capital Kuala Lumpur 1 and throughout much of the surrounding Klang Valley Petaling Jaya Ampang Cheras Selayang Sungai Buloh Puchong Shah Alam Kajang Bangi and Subang Jaya excluding Klang itself where Hokkien predominates It is also widely spoken in the town of Sekinchan in the Sabak Bernam district of northern Selangor It is also used or widely spoken in northeast and central areas as well as parts of southern Perak especially in the state capital Ipoh and the surrounding towns of the Kinta Valley region Gopeng Batu Gajah and Kampar as well as the towns of Tapah and Bidor in the Batang Padang district of southern Perak and to a lesser extent in the districts of Kuala Kangsar Perak Tengah Hilir Perak Bagan Datoh Muallim and Hulu Perak Cantonese of Kwongsai origins 2 3 4 In Pahang it is spoken in the state capital town of Kuantan and also widely found or spoken amongst the local Chinese populace in other districts such as Raub Maran Jerantut Bentong Rompin Kuala Lipis Bera Pekan Temerloh and Cameron Highlands 5 6 Cantonese is also spoken throughout most of Negeri Sembilan particularly in the state capital Seremban 7 It is widely spoken in Sandakan Sabah and Cantonese speakers can also be found in other areas such as Segamat Johor Keningau Sabah Sarikei Sarawak Batu Pahat Johor Miri Sarawak and Mersing Johor 8 Due to its predominance in the capital city Cantonese is highly influential in local Chinese language media and is used in commerce by Malaysian Chinese 9 10 As a result Cantonese is widely understood and spoken with varying fluency by Chinese throughout Malaysia regardless of their language group This is in spite of Hokkien being the most widely spoken variety and Mandarin being the medium of education at Chinese language schools The widespread influence of Cantonese is also due in large part to the popularity of Hong Kong media particularly TVB dramas Phonological Differences EditA sizeable portion of Malaysian Cantonese speakers including native speakers are not of Cantonese ancestry with many belonging to different ancestral language groups such as Hakka Hokkien and Teochew The historical and continued influence of their original language has produced variation and change in the pronunciation of particular sounds in Malaysian Cantonese when compared to standard Cantonese 11 Depending on their ancestral origin and educational background some speakers may not exhibit the unique characteristics described below Many Malaysians have difficulty with the eu sound and will substitute it with other sounds where it occurs Often these changes brings the pronunciation of most words in line with their Hakka pronunciation and for many words their Hokkien pronunciations as well Words that end with eung amp euk pronounced œːŋ amp œːk in standard Cantonese such as 香 heung 兩 leuhng 想 seung and 著 jeuk 腳 geuk 約 yeuk may be pronounced as iɔŋ amp iɔk which by local spelling conventions may be written as iong eong amp iok eok respectively e g 香 hiong 兩 liohng 想 siong and 著 jiok 腳 giok 約 yok 11 This change brings the pronunciation of most words in line with their Hakka pronunciation and for many words their Hokkien pronunciations as well Words with final eun amp eut pronounced ɵn amp ɵt in Standard Cantonese such as 春 cheun and 出 cheut may be pronounced as un uːn amp ut uːt respectively Words with final eui pronounced ɵy in Standard Cantonese such as 水 seui and 去 heui may be pronounced as oi ɔːy ui uːy or even ei ei depending on the word Many Malaysians also have difficulty with the yu sound pronounced as yː in Standard Cantonese which occurs in words such as 豬 jyu 算 syun 血 hyut This sound may be substituted with iː which in the case of some words may involve palatalisation of the preceding initial ʲiː Some speakers particularly non native speakers may not differentiate the long and short vowels such as aa aː and a ɐ Due to the influence of Hong Kong media Malaysian Cantonese is also affected by so called Lazy Sounds 懶音 laahn yam though to a much lesser degree than Hong Kong Cantonese Many younger and middle aged speakers pronounce some n initial words with an l initial For many this process is not complete with the initial n l distinction maintained for other words e g 你 neih leih Generally the ng initial has been maintained unlike in Hong Kong where it is being increasingly dropped and replaced with the null initial Instead among some speakers Malaysian Cantonese exhibits the addition of the ng initial for some words that originally have a null initial This also occurs in Hong Kong Cantonese as a form of hypercorrection of Lazy Sounds e g 亞 a nga Some speakers have lost labialisation of the gw amp kw initials instead pronouncing them as g amp k e g 國 kwok kok Vocabulary Differences EditMalaysian Cantonese is in contact with many other Chinese languages such as Hakka Hokkien and Teochew as well other languages such as Malay and English 11 As a result it has absorbed many loanwords and expressions that may not be found in Cantonese spoken elsewhere Malaysian Cantonese also preserves some vocabulary that would be considered old fashioned or unusual in Hong Kong but may be preserved in other Cantonese speaking areas such as Guangzhou 12 Not all of the examples below are used throughout Malaysia with differences in vocabulary between different Cantonese speaking areas such as Ipoh Kuala Lumpur and Sandakan There may also be differences based on the speaker s educational background and native dialect Use of 愛 唔愛 oi mh oi instead of 要 唔要 yiu mh yiu to refer to want don t want also meaning love like Also used in Guangzhou and is similar to the character s usage in Hakka More common use of 曉 hiu to mean to be able to to know how to whereas 會 wui 識 sik would be more commonly used in Hong Kong Also used in Guangzhou and is similar to the character s usage to Hakka Use of 冇 mouh at the end of sentences to create questions e g 你愛食飯冇 neih oi sihk faahn mouh Do you want to eat Some expressions have under gone a change in meaning such as 仆街 puk gaai literally fall on the street which is commonly used in Malaysia to mean broke bankrupt and is not considered a profanity unlike in Hong Kong where it is used to mean drop dead go to hell 13 Some English educated speakers may use 十千 sahp chin instead of 萬 maahn to express 10 000 e g 14 000 might be expressed as 十四千 sahp sei chin instead of 一萬四 yat maahn sei Use of expressions which would sound outdated to speakers in Hong Kong e g 冇相干 mouh seung gōn to mean never mind it doesn t matter whereas 冇所謂 mouh so waih 唔緊要 mh gan yiu would be more commonly used in Hong Kong Some of these expressions are still in current use in Guangzhou Word order particularly the placement of certain grammatical particles may differ e g 食飯咗 sihk faahn jo instead of 食咗飯 sihk jo faahn for have eaten Unique expression s such as 我幫你講 ngoh bōng neih gong to mean I m telling you where 我同你講 ngoh tuhng neih gong 我話你知 ngoh wah neih ji would be used in Hong Kong Malaysian Cantonese is also characterised by the extensive use of sentence ending particles to an even greater extent than occurs in Hong Kong Cantonese Loanwords Malaysian Meaning Hong Kong Note擺 baai Number of times 次 chi From Hokkien pai 擺 蘇嗎 sou su ma All 全部 chyun bouh From Malay semua many potential pronunciations e g su mua巴剎 ba saat Market Wet Market 街市 gaai sih From Malay pasar originally from Persian bazaar馬打 ma da Police 警察 ging chaat From Malay mata mata馬打寮 ma da liuh Police Station 警署 14 ging chyuh扮𠮨 baan naai Clever 聰明 chung mihng 叻 lek From Malay pandai千猜 chin chaai Whatever Casually 是但 sih daahn Also used in Malay Cincai and in Hokkien軋爪 gaat jaau To Annoy 煩 faahn From Malay kacauSinang sin naang Easy 容易 yuhng yih From Malay senangLoti lo di Bread 麵包 mihn baau From Malay roti originally from Tamil SanskritKopi go bi Coffee 咖啡 ga fe From Malay Kopi鐳 lui leui Money 錢 chihn From Malay duit or Hokkien lui 鐳 箍 kau Units of Currency Ringgit Dollar 蚊 man Related to Hokkien khoo 箍 黃梨 wohng laai Pineapple 菠蘿 bō loh Pronunciation differs based on Hokkien弓蕉 gung jiu Banana 香蕉 heung jiu落水 lohk seui Raining 落雨 lohk yuh From Hakka撩 liuh To play 玩 waahn Derived from Hakka 尞啦啦 la la Clam 蛤 gaap啦啦仔 la la jai Urban punk MK仔 MK jai水草 seui chou Drinking straw 飲管 yam gun跳飛機 tiu fei gei Illegal immigration 非法移民 fei faat yih mahn書館 syu gun 學堂 hohk tohng School 學校 hohk haauh堂 唐 tohng Classifier for vehicles e g cars 架 ga e g 2 Cars 兩堂車 leuhng liohng tohng che Malaysia 兩架車 leuhng ga che Hong Kong 腳車 geuk giok che Bicycle 單車 daan che摩哆 mo dō Motorcycle 電單車 dihn daan che From English motorcycle三萬 saam maahn Fine Penalty 罰款 faht fun From English summons and Malay saman泵質 bung jat Punctured 爆胎 baau tōi From English punctured禮申 laih san Licence 車牌 che paaih From English licence多籠 Do Long Beg Please 求下 Kao Har From Malay Tolong啲飲 Di yum Keep Quiet 收聲 sau1 seng1 From Malay Diam呔也 Tai ya Tyre 輪胎 Leun tai From English Tyre撚屎撚樣 lan si lan yong Arrogant and Uptight 巴閉 好串 ba bai hou qun From Hakka lin si lin yong浸水 zham sui Flood 水浸 sui zham From Hakka chim sui好類 hou lui Very Dumb 好蠢 Hou cun From Hakka how lui龍根 Long Kang Drain 坑渠 haang1 keoi4 From Malay Longkang插電 or Charge 電cap din or Charge din Recharge Battery 叉電 caa din 充電 chong din From Hakka not sure From English Charge雪茶 Kuala Lumpur syut3 caa4 茶雪 Ipoh caa4 syuut3 Chinese Tea 中國茶 zhong gwok caa大撚戇 tai lan ngong Doing very stupid things 亂咁做嘢 leun gam zou ye From Hakka tai lin ngong eg referring to someone for being dense doing at their workSee also EditMalaysian Chinese Cantonese people CantoneseReferences Edit 马来西亚的三个汉语方言 中之 吉隆坡广东话阅谭 PDF in Simplified Chinese New Era University College Retrieved 29 January 2018 Table for 2 Or more Kwong Sai GuangXi Stuffed Tofu 广西酿豆腐 Heritage Week 2 24 August 2011 Kalim Travel Journal Betong Thailand 20 July 2009 Table for 2 Or more Guangxi Style Steamed Chicken 广西白切鸡 MFF Pahang 5 7 December 2012 Ember Melvin Ember Carol R Skoggard Ian 30 November 2004 Encyclopedia of Diasporas Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World Volume I Overviews and Topics Volume II Diaspora Communities Springer Science amp Business Media ISBN 9780306483219 via Google Books Leitner Gerhard Hashim Azirah Wolf Hans Georg 11 January 2016 Communicating with Asia The Future of English as a Global Language Cambridge University Press ISBN 9781107062610 via Google Books Gin Ooi Keat 11 May 2009 Historical Dictionary of Malaysia Scarecrow Press ISBN 9780810863057 via Google Books Astro AEC Behind the Dialect Groups Year 2012 Malaysian Cantonese Archived May 27 2014 at archive today Tze Wei Sim Why are the Native Languages of the Chinese Malaysians in Decline Journal of Taiwanese Vernacular p 74 2012 a b c Wee Kek Koon 2018 11 01 Why Cantonese spoken in Malaysia sounds different to Hong Kong Cantonese and no it s not wrong South China Morning Post Retrieved 2018 11 25 Wee Kek Koon 2017 04 20 Southeast Asian Cantonese why Hongkongers should not ridicule it South China Morning Post Retrieved 2018 11 25 仆街 Puk1 gaai1 pu1 jie1 go to hell Profanity CantoDict 联络我们 香港警务处 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Malaysian Cantonese amp oldid 1132078129, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
