Abstract:

Hongkong Chinese is a synthesis of social, regional and functional variations.It is based upon standard Chinese, and has been long multi-orientationally influenced by Cantonese, English and classical Chinese.Thus it has vivid Hongkong speciality and is a transitional written interlingua.This paper deals with the formation of "Hongkong Chinese", its character and its speciality, with focus on its variation means.The study of this field will shed light on issues like the mingling of and the interplay between Mandarin, the dialects and the foreign languages, colloquial language's impact on and penetration into written language, and the formation of language variations, etc.

Key words: Hongkong Chinese, language variation, variation means