Hong Kong Cantonese

Hong Kong Cantonese
香港粵語; 港式廣東話; 香港話
Native to	Hong Kong, Macau and some Overseas Communities
Region	Pearl River Delta
Ethnicity	Hong Kong people Macanese people
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Yue Yuehai Cantonese Hong Kong Cantonese
Writing system	Written Cantonese Cantonese Braille
Official status
Official language in	Hong Kong  Macau
Regulated by	Official Language Division Civil Service Bureau Government of Hong Kong
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
ISO 639-6	xgng
Linguist list	yue-yue
	yue-can
Glottolog	None
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	香港粵語
Simplified Chinese	香港粤语
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xiānggǎng yuèyǔ Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Hēung góng yuht yúh Jyutping Hoeng1 gong2 jyut6 jyu5
Hong Kong-style Cantonese
Traditional Chinese	港式粵語
Transcriptions Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Góng sīk yuht yúh Jyutping Gong2 sik1 jyut6 jyu5
Hong Kong-Guangdong dialect
Traditional Chinese	香港廣東話
Transcriptions Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Hēung góng gwóng dūng wá Jyutping Hoeng1 gong2 gwong2 dung1 waa2
Hong Kong-Guangzhou dialect
Traditional Chinese	香港廣州話
Transcriptions Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Hēung góng gwóng jāu wá Jyutping Hoeng1 gong2 gwong2 zau1 waa2

Hong Kong Cantonese (Chinese: 香港粵語) is a dialect of the Cantonese language commonly spoken in Hong Kong, as well as Macau. Although the Hong Kong people largely identify this variant of Chinese with the term "Cantonese" (廣東話), a variety of publications in Mainland China describe the variant as Hong Kong speech (香港話).

There are slight differences between the pronunciation used in Hong Kong Cantonese and that of the Cantonese spoken in the neighbouring Chinese province of Guangdong, where Cantonese (based on the Guangzhou dialect) is a main lingua franca.

Over the years, Hong Kong Cantonese has also absorbed foreign terminology and developed a large set of Hong Kong-specific terms. These differences from the Guangzhou dialect are the result of British rule between 1841 and 1997, as well as the closure of the Hong Kong-China border immediately after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Before the arrival of British settlers in 1842, the inhabitants of Hong Kong mainly spoke the Dongguan-Bao'an (Tungkun–Po'on) and Tanka dialects of Yue, as well as Hakka and Teochew. These languages and dialects are all remarkably different from Guangzhou Cantonese.

After the British acquired Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories from the Qing between 1841 (officially 1842) and 1898, large numbers of merchants and workers came to Hong Kong from the city of Canton, the main center of Cantonese. Cantonese became the dominant spoken language in Hong Kong. The frequent migration between Hong Kong and mainland Cantonese-speaking areas did not cease up until 1949, when the Communists took over Mainland China. During this period, the Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong was very similar to that in Canton.