Re: ng words

[sllee <sllee@asiawind.com>]

Dylan,

I agree with you on the loss of SOME "ng" sound in Cantonese. But
Cantonese also retains certain  "ng" sounds:

wo	ngo	ngai	I,me
yue	ngok	ngok	mountain range
niu	ngau	ngiu	cattle
yin	ngun	ngin	silver, money
(tau)	ngum	ngim	withdraw, take out

and so on. However, in Hong Kong Cantonese dialect, many of these "ng" 
sounds are degraded to a vowel start. The tragedy is it is losing
especially in the children who watch too much tv. Much of the change is
caused by the mispronunciation by tv "stars" from the north. 

SL Lee
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On Sat, 22 Nov 1997, Dylan W.H. Sung wrote:

> Dear S.L. Lee, 
> 
> If the wording was a little ambiguous, then taking a look 
> at the following examples will demonstrate my point.
> 
> M. r-/y- C. y-  H. ng-
> 
> Char	M.	C.	H.		E.
> 弱 	ruo	yeuk	ngiok4	weak feeble
> 人 	ren	yan	ngin2		person
> 任 	ren	yam	ngim4		office, duty, trust
> 肉 	rou	yuk	ngiuk5	meat
> 日 	ri	yat	ngit5		day, sun
> 入 	ru	yap	ngip5		enter
> 耳  	er	yi 	ngi3		ear
> 二 	er	yi	ngi4		two
> 讓 	yang	yeung	ngiong4	to yield, resign
> 熱 	re	yit	nget4		hot
> 驗 	yan	yim	ngiam4	to examine
> 女 	nu	nui	ngi3		woman
> 
> Regards
> Dylan.
>