Cantonese-English is spoken in Hong Kong and Macau where Cantonese is one of the official languages and most of the locally born residents learn English as a second language. Cantonese speakers have also migrated around the world, particularly to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK, and the USA. Language-transfer depends on language dominance and environment. Besides having differences in consonants and vowels, Cantonese is a syllable-timed tone language while English is a stress-timed intonation language. English uses an alphabetic script while Chinese uses characters (traditional or simplified scripts). Studies on bilingual children’s speech acquisition of Cantonese and English reported similar developmental patterns to monolingual speakers of the languages, but with evidence of cross-linguistic transfer. There have only been a few studies on speech sound disorders in Cantonese-English, no specifically designed speech assessments, and one intervention study that compared articulation and phonology approaches.

Key words:
English, Cantonese, bilingual, multilingual, communication, speech, language, children’s development, interdisciplinary, international communities, assessment, intervention

Book chapter:
To, C., K. S., Cheung, P., & McLeod, S. (2025). English + Cantonese speech development. In S. McLeod (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press.

Language overview presentation:

• To, C., K. S., Cheung, P., & McLeod, S. (forthcoming). English + Cantonese: Multilingual children’s speech development. Charles Sturt University, Australia. https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/languages

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
• SDG 4: Quality Education
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
• SDG 17: Partnerships to Achieve the Goals