Money. Money. Money. Must Be Funny.

Hong Kong English/Cantonese (XXXII)

Money “ambassadors” and money “diseases”

It is a truth universally acknowledged, I believe, that every single Hongkonger in possession of some money must be in want of more.

In southern China, especially Cantonese-speaking regions, people connect water and money in their culture. Therefore, there are an ocean of money-related Cantonese vocabulary that has “water” (水). But it would be too much for me if we dive into this trench today.

Instead, I would like to talk about some money-related phrases that looks/sounds like an ailment.

But before that, I need to introduce you two Japanese names: Nagami Nagasaki and Yoshimi Nagasaki. These two people share the same kanji, 長崎良美. As Japanese kanji are just Chinese words (though some of them are Japanese creation), we can pronounce the Japanese kanji using Chinese pronunciation.

Poor Nagasakis, their names are pronounced as coeng4 kei4 loeng4 mei5 in Cantonese and it shares the pronunciation with 長期糧尾 (“always at the bottom of the budget from salary”, or “not having enough to spend before the next salary comes for long”).

And so Nagami and Yoshimi Nagasaki are how Hongkongers name someone who are always unable to spend money, including themselves, even soon after they receive their salaries.

But it seems that Nagami and Yoshimi are prone to some “diseases” owing to their lack of money.

In Hong Kong, we say that these people have caught a “money cold” (發錢寒, Jyutping: faat3 cin2 [note 1]hon4). It sounds like somebody has caught a cold because they haven’t got enough money and so money is their only remedy.

You may get chills, and don’t feel pretty comfortable when you have the money cold. Your monthly prescription of money (i.e. your salary) may be your only solution. It means that you are pretty obsessed with money.

But if you are suddenly in short of money, you may have caught an “acute money cold” (急性發錢寒, Jyutping…

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