Hong Kong as a laboratory for language contact

As a meeting place between China and the West for more than one and a half centuries, Hong Kong has witnessed different modes of language contact. Under a high degree of EXTENSIVE CONTACT with each other, Cantonese has borrowed from English a large number of loan words, but no grammar. Given the INTENSIVE CONTACT with Cantonese in Hong Kong, Hakka and Southern Min have been under Cantonese influence regarding phonology, lexicon, and sentence structure. After undertaking language shift to Cantonese, speakers of other Chinese topolects may introduce some linguistic elements to the language. Putonghua and some South Asian languages have entered Hong Kong since its turnover to China. The former is in EXTENSIVE CONTACT with Cantonese, and the latter mainly SUPERFICIAL CONTACT