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A prominent example of cultural integration in everyday life in British Hong Kong, was the use of British English as a common second language, and also the sole official language of the colony until 1974, when Chinese was accorded co-official status. [66]
During the British colonial era, English was the sole official language until 1978.Today, the Basic Law of Hong Kong states that English and Chinese are the two official languages of Hong Kong. [1]
Hong Kong was established as a colony of the British Empire after the Qing dynasty ceded Hong Kong Island in 1841–1842 as a consequence of losing the First Opium War. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and was further extended when the United Kingdom obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898.
In 1974 Chinese was declared as another official language of Hong Kong through the Official Languages Ordinance.The ordinance does not specify any particular variety of Chinese although majority of Hong Kong residents have Cantonese, the language of Canton (now called Guangzhou), as their mother tongue and this is considered the de facto official variety used by the government.
The Official Languages Ordinance is an ordinance of Hong Kong enacted for the purpose of specifying the status and use of official languages of the territory. Both Chinese and English are declared official languages with equal status in the ordinance, and are to be used in communication between the government and members of the public. [2]
Official language A language designated as having a unique legal status in the state: typically, the language used in a nation's legislative bodies, and often, official government business. Regional language A language designated as having official status limited to a specific area, administrative division, or territory of the state.
The official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. [23] The Chinese language has many different varieties , of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government ...
Hong Kong English or Honglish [citation needed] is a variety of the English language native to Hong Kong. The variant is either a learner interlanguage or emergent variant, primarily a result of Hong Kong's British colonial history and the influence of native Hong Kong Cantonese speakers.