Chineseness and Cantonese tones in post-1997 Hong Kong

Abstract

This article explores the ideological selection of linguistic features as emblems. Building on the notion of raciolinguistic enregisterment, it examines why the Cantonese tone system, rather than some other linguistic feature, has lately transformed into an emblem of the Han race, Chineseness, and Hongkongers. Three characteristics of Cantonese tones facilitate this transformation: their multifaceted nature, their indexical expansiveness, and the ‘storiability’ of their indexical meanings. The indexical linkages that Cantonese tones evoke fit into a myth of Cantonese superiority, which speaks to many Hongkongers' anxiety resulting from the recent rise of mainland China and the concomitant decline of their city.