懶音 Lazy Sound

I find that anyone who can have words come out of their mouths can become a singer or artist in Hong Kong these days. The problem is 懶(laan) 音(yam) lazy sound. 懶音 is formed when people do not pronounce the sound of the consonant or they do not use the tongue to pronounce the correct enunciation of the consonant. For example: 選(suen) 港(gong) 姐(je) vs. 選(suen) 趕(gon) 姐(je), 你(nei) vs. 理(lei), 我(ngoh) vs. or, 牛(ngau) vs. ow, etc.

Empero Entertainment Group (EEG) has the most 懶音 so-called singers ever. Like Yumiko Cheng, Deep Ng, Isabella Leung, Kenny Kwan, and Boy'Z (or should I say Sun Boy'Z). All of them have 懶音 when they speak, not to mention when they sing. It seems to me that people just recite exactly what singers sing now. Take for example Twins' song "你講你愛我". In the song, the lyrics go "你講,你講你愛我". A male contestant who went on TVB's "Minutes to Fame" sang "你趕你趕你愛我" [講(gong) vs. 趕(gon)]. Hacken Lee had to 'ding' him and correct his pronunciation. Even after the correction, the contestant continued to sing it incorrectly. It was hopeless.

I find that most of the 懶音 come from words with the "N" sounding words. For example, 五吳伍誤 pronounced as "ng" but people with 懶音 will say "m".

For me, it helps if you use English pinyin to read the Chinese characters. In 5 years time, I no longer need to use pinyin to read Chinese because I can recognize the characters. I can read 90%+ of the Chinese characters, but I can't write as well yet. To type Chinese characters, I use a program called "NJStar Chinese WP". All I do is type the pinyin word in, and characters with the similar sound will pop up, and all I have to do is find the correct character which I am looking for.