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Colloquial Cantonese: The Complete Course for Beginners has been carefully developed by an experienced teacher to provide a step-by-step course to Cantonese as it is written and spoken today. Combining a clear, practical and accessible style with a methodical and thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Cantonese in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required. Colloquial Cantonese is exceptional; each unit presents a wealth of grammatical points that are reinforced with a wide range of exercises for regular practice. A full answer key, a grammar summary, bilingual glossaries and English translations of dialogues can be found at the back as well as useful vocabulary lists throughout. Key features include: A clear, user-friendly format designed to help learners progressively build up their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills Jargon-free, succinct and clearly structured explanations of grammar An extensive range of focused and dynamic supportive exercises Realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of narrative situations Helpful cultural points explaining the customs and features of life in Hong Kong　 An overview of the sounds of Cantonese Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Cantonese is an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses in Cantonese. Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills. . Dana Bourgerie is an Associate Professor of Chinese at Brigham Young University. Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Gaāujai Meeting People 2. Máaih-yéh Shopping 3. Sihou Interests and Leisure Activities 4. Sìhgaan Telling the Time 5. Ngoihbíu Physical Appearances 6. Gachìhn Prices 7. Fāan-gōng Commuting 8. Kéuihdeih jouh-gán mātyéh? What are they Doing? 9. Bōng ngóh jouh dī yéh Can You Help Me? 10. Hái bīndouh? Where is it? 11. Giu yéh sihk Ordering Food 12. Tīnhei The Weather 13. Yīfuhk The Clothes We Wear 14. Léuihhàhng gīngyihm Traveling Experiences 15. Dá-dihnwá On the Telephone Key to Exercises Cantonese–English Glossary English–Cantonese Glossary Further Reading Appendix Index of Grammatical Structures

COLLOQUIAL CANTONESE is easy to use and completely up to date! Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or class use, the course offers a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Cantonese. No prior knowledge of the language is required. What makes COLLOQUIAL CANTONESE your best choice in personal language learning? Interactive – lots of exercises for regular practice Clear – concise grammar notes Practical – useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide Complete – including answer key and reference section Whether you're a business traveller, or about to take up　a daring　challenge in　adventure tourism, you may be studying to teach or even looking forward to a holiday - if you'd like to　get up and running with Cantonese this rewarding course will take you from complete beginner to confidently putting your language skills to use in a wide range of everyday situations 　 The complete course comprises the book and audio materials. These are available to purchase separately in paperback, ebook, CD and MP3 format. The paperback and CDs can also be purchased together in the great-value Colloquials pack. Paperback: 978-0-415-47886-1 (please note this does not include the audio) CDs: 978-0-415-47888-5 eBook: 978-0-203-85476-1 (Please note this does not include the audio. Available to purchase separately from http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/) MP3s: 978-0-415-56970-5 (available to purchase separately from http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/) Pack: 978-0-415-47887-8 (paperback and CDs)

COLLOQUIAL CANTONESE is easy to use and completely up to date! Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or class use, the course offers a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Cantonese. No prior knowledge of the language is required. What makes COLLOQUIAL CANTONESE your best choice in personal language learning? Interactive – lots of exercises for regular practice Clear – concise grammar notes Practical – useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide Complete – including answer key and reference section Whether you're a business traveller, or about to take up　a daring　challenge in　adventure tourism, you may be studying to teach or even looking forward to a holiday - if you'd like to　get up and running with Cantonese this rewarding course will take you from complete beginner to confidently putting your language skills to use in a wide range of everyday situations 　 The complete course comprises the book and audio materials. These are available to purchase separately in paperback, ebook, CD and MP3 format. The paperback and CDs can also be purchased together in the great-value Colloquials pack. Paperback: 978-0-415-47886-1 (please note this does not include the audio) CDs: 978-0-415-47888-5 eBook: 978-0-203-85476-1 (Please note this does not include the audio. Available to purchase separately from http://ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/audio_viewbooks.aspx) MP3s: 978-0-415-56970-5 (available to purchase separately from http://ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/audio_viewbooks.aspx) Pack: 978-0-415-47887-8 (paperback and CDs) For the eBook and MP3 pack, please find instructions on how to access the supplementary content for this title in the Prelims section.

Most speech communities attempt to define a standard for their language. Implicit in any such attempt is the existence of non-standard elements or variation. Variation has often been described either as a result of dialect influence or as simply bad performance. Although much of the variation that exists in language has been characterized as arbitrary, in the last two decades a substantial body of literature has emerged suggesting that variation is patterned and meaningful. I argue in this thesis that variation is indeed central to language use. This study is concerned about the questions: What sort of variation is present within the sound system of a language? Is that variation linguistically or socially meaningful? What are the tendencies of a speech community as a whole concerning a given variable? In Cantonese Chinese, as in all languages there is variation in the way speakers use the language. In this thesis I analyze a set of these variables and consider how they are stratified socially in current Hong Kong speech. These variables are n-/1-, ng-/0- and k-/h- as they occur at the beginning of a syllable. This study investigates whether the variation in Cantonese as described above is meaningful by correlating non-linguistic variables with the usage of the three sociolinguistic variables. The primary non-linguistic variables discussed are gender, age, place of origin and speech register (formal speech, interview, impromptu conversation). In addition, the influence of word class (e.g., noun, verb, demonstrative, etc.) is briefly explored. The speaker's choices of variants are analyzed to see how they are affected by the independent social variables. The results of this study show females and younger speakers generally to tend toward the innovative forms. Impromptu speech is shown to correlate with the innovative forms as well. Lastly, word class is shown to be an important factor with respect to two of the three variables analyzed in this study. Implications of these results on theories of language change and variation are also discussed.