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Mother tongue

 

The article, written by a former official of the central government’s State Language Commission  (國家語言文字工作委員會) stated that the city’s official language should be one commonly used by the Han people, which was Mandarin, instead of its “mother dialect” Cantonese. 

該文章是由前國家語言文字工作委員會委員撰寫，表明香港的官方語言應該是漢人最普遍使用的語言，即是普通話，而不是「母語方言」廣東話。

mother dialect / mother tongue母語

 

1. tongue

舌頭

e.g. Betty’s tongue is hanging out. Betty垂涎三尺。

 

語言

e.g. one's native or mother tongue 母語

 

說話方式

e.g. John has a caustic tongue. John說話尖刻。

 

Idioms:

have/speak with a forked tongue 滿口謊言

= To speak deceitfully; prevaricate or lie.

bite/hold (one's) tongue（令自己／他人）保持沉默

= To be or keep silent.

loosen (someone's) tongue （令某人）暢所欲言

= To cause (someone) to speak freely or carelessly or to divulge information.

on the tip of (one's) tongue 講到口唇邊

= On the verge of being recalled or expressed.

 

During her question and answer session at Legco, Lam would not be drawn when lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun, of the social welfare constituency, asked her what her mother tongue was. “We are speaking Cantonese every day, so this is a non-issue,” she said.

在立法會答問大會期間，當被社福界議員邵家臻問及她的母語是什麼時，林鄭回答：「我哋而家日日都係講緊廣東話，所以呢個根本唔係一個問題，it's a non-issue.」

 

2. non-issue = a topic of little or no importance.一個唔重要的問題

e.g. I believe the topic is a non-issue.

 

Issue (n.)

1.     問題

a major educational issue 重大的教育問題

security issue 安全問題

 

1. 子女

to die without issue 死後無子嗣

 

2. 發行 (n.)/(v.)

There are issues of food and blankets to the refugees. （那裡）有發給難民們的食品和毛毯。

 

3. 分發; 發放; 發出

to issue sth. to sb., to issue sb. with sth. 把某物發給某人

e.g. The refugees were issued with food and blankets. 

 

4. 發布; 發出; 發表

 

It goes without saying that Cantonese is the mother tongue of Hong Kong Chinese. [Editorial]

 

It goes without saying that = obviously不言而喻，不證自明，不用說

e.g. It goes without saying that you'll be paid for the extra hours you work.

不用說，你加班是有報酬的。

 

Hong Kong should continue its tradition of “bi-literacy and tri-lingualism”, which promotes competence in reading and writing Chinese and English, as well as fluency in Cantonese, Mandarin and English

香港應該延續「兩文三語」的傳統，推廣中、英讀寫能力，以及流暢地使用廣東話、普通話和英文的能力。

 

bi-literacy and tri-lingualism (taught in English in News before)　 兩文三語

 

competence (n.) 能力 = competency

to have the competence to do sth. 有做某事的能力

 

e.g. The language policy of biliteracy is to promote Hong Kong people’s competence in reading and writing in two languages.

 

e.g. language or linguistic competence 語言能力

 

competent (adj.) 有能力的

e.g. Hong Kong people should be competent in both Chinese and English. 

 

   
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