ABSTRACT
Hong Kong’s Cantonese–English bilingual speakers have borrowed hundreds of English words into the Cantonese lexicon, thus expanding and enriching the language. The English alphabet has also been integrated into the Chinese/Cantonese writing system and supplements the Chinese characters which are inadequate for fully transcribing Cantonese speech. English letters are pronounced with Cantonese syllables by bilingual speakers who employ the Canto-alphabet as a syllabary and spelling system for writing English loanwords and also romanizing some otherwise ‘unwritable’ indigenous Cantonese words. The combination of the Canto-alphabet with Chinese characters has produced the Cantonese mixed script. Colloquial Cantonese words and English loanwords are written with the Canto-alphabet in six ways: (1) ad hoc romanizations transcribe the pronunciations of colloquial Cantonese morphosyllables; (2) single English letters transcribe colloquial Cantonese monomorphosyllables; (3) single English letters transcribe the initial consonants of colloquial Cantonese morphosyllables; (4) single English letters transcribe English loanword syllables that are typically shortened forms of longer words or phrases; (5) loanwords retain their original English spellings but are pronounced with Cantonese morphosyllables; (6) original spellings of English loanwords are first shortened and then pronounced with Cantonese morphosyllables. Students of Cantonese familiar with Roman alphabets can readily learn to read the Cantonese mixed script.
