Edward speaks Hong Kong Cantonese, a variety of Cantonese in the Sino-Tibetan languages family. Similar to Cantonese in Macau. Related to other Sinitic languages such as Mandarin, Wu Chinese, and Jin Chinese.

Hong Kong Cantonese, which is native to the semi-autonomous Hong Kong, is a variety of the broader Cantonese language which is spoken throughout southeastern China. Cantonese is in the Yue group of the Sino-Tibetan language family, which contains most of the widespread languages spoken in China and the surrounding areas. This language originated in the city of Guangzhou, and is spoken by more than 60 million people in China alone. Hong Kong Cantonese specifically was influenced in vocabulary and its idioms by British English during Britain’s 1841-1997 rule, so it differs from mainland Cantonese.

Loanwords to Hong Kong Cantonese mostly came from English, but over a century of heavy trading made Hong Kong a hub for commerce, and other languages such as Japanese and French also left their mark. Code switching between Hong Kong Cantonese and English is common, since both are official languages in the special administrative region. Cantonese uses traditional Chinese characters, and romanization efforts have failed to become widely successful.

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