Page:The China Review, Or, Notes and Queries on the Far East, Volume 22 1RZBAQAAMAAJ.pdf/89

 Scope of present article.

The present article is simply an attempt to give a general idea of the Höng Shán dialect and its points of difference when compared with the Cantonese of Canton city. As the writer has already said:&mdash;

In lieu therefore of any fuller account of this interesting and important dialect of the Cantonese, the following pages may be acceptable.

Geographical.

The Hong Shán district consists of the land lying between the main estuary of the Canton River and one of the numerous channels by which the West River pursues its southern course into the sea. A glance at the map shows it to be made up of a number of large islands and numerous small ones, separated in a geographical point of view, but from a commercial stand point joined together by almost countless waterways, natural and artificial, large and small. To the north, lie the Shun Tak and P'ún Yü districts; to the east, on the other side of the Bocca Tigris, the Tung Kwún district and lower down, on the eastern shores of Lintin Bay, the San On district. Its western neighbour is the San Wúí district from which it is separated more or less by the network of channels by means of which the mighty West River discharges the greater part of its water into the sea. The Höng Shán district stretches its southermost boundaries into the sea itself.

Antiquity.

The highest antiquity to which some of the families in the Höng Shán district can claim is an ability to trace up their descent to the Sung dynasty, perhaps some of their ancestors coming in the train of the ill-fated princes, a portion of whose followers settled after the disaster at Ngaí Mún in the neighbouring district and gave, according to one opinion, a distinctive and peculiar character to the San Ning speech. The village of Tung Ngon (東岸) is said to be the oldest village in the Höng Shán district, being founded in the time of the Sung dynasty. It would be very interesting to trace the sources from which the earlier influx of the present inhabitants took place. That different currents of immigration from the neighbouring districts have had their share in the formation of the present population during more recent times, is known as family tradition, and registries give proof of these facts.

Population.

It is always interesting to form some idea of the number of people who speak a given language or dialect; but it is generally nothing better than a rough guess that can be made when we are dealing with the Chinese.

The Chinese in the Portuguese colony of Macao according to returns made in 1879 numbered 63,532. We cannot be far wrong if we take three-quarters of these Chinese as natives of Höng Shán.

A Chinese estimate puts the number of Höng Shán people in Hongkong as about 10,000 more or less. They are compradores, boys, house and godown coolies, and agents for, or dealers in, Californian goods principally, though they are engaged in many other trades and callings. It is difficult to give exact figures with regard to the population, of the whole district of Höng Shán,