What are some of the common and foreign expressions that have seeped into the American consciousness? I've been hearing Basta a lot lately on social media, which means enough in Italian. Do you like w

Casey

Professional Teacher

What are some of the common and foreign expressions that have seeped into the American consciousness?

I've been hearing Basta a lot lately on social media, which means enough in Italian.

Do you like when people insert foreign words or expression into your language?

Any others?

May 11, 2018 10:38 PM

English loanwords are very common in Hong Kong Cantonese. Sometimes people don't even remember the original Cantonese word. Interestingly, many loanwords are pronounced in a quasi-Cantonese way. For example, "friend" is pronounced as "fren" and "brake" is pronounced as "bric" even though there is no "R" sound in pure Cantonese. We usually drop the ending sound of the loanwords. Sometimes we just adopt part of an English word. For example, we say "mon" to mean the monitor of a computer.

May 12, 2018

Phil , I think it's both.

I believe in Hong Kong, English is still being used in court proceedings , and in subway announcements.

May 12, 2018

BTW, “basta” has the same meaning in Spanish and Portuguese, so it’s not so clear which language English got it from. Perhaps all three, depending on the region.

Casey: When you mention mixing English into Cantonese, is that due to the British influence in Hong Kong, or are you referring to the large Cantonese community in Canada? Or both?

May 12, 2018

I also speak Cantonese, and yes , we mix a lot of English in our language. I don't know how I feel about it, I think it makes languages more interesting sometimes.

May 11, 2018