Written Cantonese: The Growth of a Written Chinese Vernacular

(Abstract)

Don Snow

Cantonese is the only dialect of Chinese which has developed a widely known and used written form. Written Cantonese is a history of how the written form of Cantonese has developed over the last several centuries, with particular focus on its development in Hong Kong in recent decades.

The sheer amount of material which has been published in Cantonese, and the length of time over which it has been published, is in and of itself sufficient to demand more attention than it has yet received. Since the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), hundreds of inexpensive editions of books of verse using Cantonese have been published, and in the early twentieth century these dialect texts were joined by Cantonese opera scripts, published as popular reading material. However, it is only in recent decades that texts written entirely in Cantonese have found a wide audience. Since the end of World War II, written Cantonese has come to be used in virtually every one of Hong Kong's major Chinese-language newspapers, and it has become an even more important part of Hong Kong culture through its increasing use in newspaper and magazine articles, certain kinds of paperback books, and advertising. Written Cantonese examines this development in the broader context of the phenomenon of diglossia, and also of the patterns by which spoken vernaculars have developed written forms in other societies. Furthermore, it explores the factors that have driven this move of Cantonese into the realm of written language, and argues that association with the vitality of Hong Kong's distinct local culture and an increasing sense of Hong Kong identity are important engines driving this growth in use of Cantonese in writing and publishing.

(From a book by Professor Don Snow which will be published by Hong Kong University Press; courtesy of the author)