Punti
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The Punti (Chinese: 本地; Cantonese IPA: [pʊn35 teɪ33], Jyutping: bun2 dei3; Mandarin Pinyin: Běn Dì), a rough transliteration of the Cantonese term for "original locality," refers to the Cantonese-speaking populations of southern China, namely, Guangdong province. They are contrasted with another Han Chinese linguistic group, the Hakka, which settled in the area after the Punti peoples and follow different cultural traditions.
History
- Main article: Hong Kong during Imperial China
The Mongolian conquest of the Song Dynasty pushed even more Han Chinese refugees into the area including the descendants of the Chinese patriotic leader Wen Tianxiang. The "Great Five Clans" — the Hau (候), Tang (鄧), Pang (彭), Liu (廖), and Man (文) — were among the earliest recorded familial settlers of Hong Kong. Despite the immigration and light development of agriculture, the area was still relatively barren and had to rely on salt, pearl and fishery trades.
Main article: Punti-Hakka Clan Wars From 1854 to 1867 there were a series of battles between the Punti and Hakka peoples, concentrated mainlly in the Couty of Taishan.
Usage in Hong Kong
Punti has become a commonly used word in Hong Kong law courts and other authorities such as the police; it is a transliteration of Cantonese 'Boon Dei' meaning 'local'. When a defendant is using 'Punti' in court, that means he elects to use Cantonese as the language in trial instead of English. Despite the reference of "Punti" in this context means nothing much more than "Cantonese" as a spoken language, there are political and practical reasons of not using direct reference to the word "Cantonese".
Practically, "Cantonese" can be used to mean all the dialects in the /Guangdong/ (/Canton/) province. And the Cantonese spoken in /Guangzhou/ (/Canton/) are actually a bit different both in accent and vocabulary than that in Hong Kong.
Nonetheless, the difference is becoming less significance as the /Guangdong/ province is becoming more and more influenced by Hong Kong culture and linguistic, thanks to the wide Hong Kong television coverage in Southern China. Further, the influx of immigrants and visitors from Guangdong also means their use of vocabularies finds its way to daily Hong Kong usage.
Politically, of course, the former /colonial government/ wish to maintain Hong Kong's sense of independence and do not wish to tacitly admit its common root with /Guangdong/ or Southern China in its courts and other authorities.