Portuguese was brought to Hong Kong by way of Macau. The Ming government allowed the Portuguese to set up a trading post in Macau in 1557.¹ The Portuguese administered Macau, which was under Chinese rule, until 1887, after which it became a Portuguese colony in the Treat of Peking. Macau was returned to Chinese rule in 1999.

After the British colonized Hong Kong in 1841, many Portuguese who had settled in Macau migrated to Hong Kong due to a worsening economy in Macau.¹ The murder of Joao Maria Ferreira do Amaral in 1849 and the typhoon of 1874, led to more Portuguese-Macanese settlers in Hong Kong.¹

Portuguese settlers in Hong Kong primarily worked as bank clerks, accountants, and interpreters for firms like Jardine, Matheson and Co., and the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation.¹

The Portuguese settled mainly in Kowloon, particularly in Soares Avenue in Ho Man Tin. The settlers established the Club Lusitano in 1866.¹

One of the most prominent Portuguese families in Hong Kong was the Braga family; J. P. Braga, who are born in Hong Kong in 1871, helped develop Kowloon and New Territories and was involved in both the Hong Kong Engineering and Construction Company (HKECC) and the CLP.1. He worked closely with the Kadoorie family to invest in the development of the New Territories, including to supply electricity to the New Territories.¹

The Braga Circuit in The Kadoorie Estate is named after J. P. Braga.¹

In the 1931 Hong Kong Population Census, 2,789 Portuguese nationals were registered in Hong Kong.²

In the 1961 Hong Kong Population Census, 1,521,715 Hong Kong residents, of 48.62% of the population, had Canton, Macau or adjacent places as their place of origin; in 1966, this was 1,778,820, or 47.96% of the population. In 1971, 2,072,083 Hong Kong residents had Canton, Macau, and adjacent places as their place or origin, which was 52.63% of the population. In 1981, this was 2,455,749, 49.24% of the population.²

In 1961, 877 Hong Kong residents stated they spoke Portuguese as their usual language.²

There are fewer speakers of Portuguese remaining in Hong Kong, and Macau. In Macau, only 18,680 people speak Portuguese, of which 3,680 are first language users; Macau’s total population is 680,000. The ethnic Portuguese population of Macau is 11,700.3 Portuguese and Chinese are official languages of Macau. Cantonese is the most widely spoken language in Macau.

Portuguese is the official language of Portugal, Macau, Angola, Brazil, East Timor, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome, and Principe. It is ranked 5^th globally by number of native speakers.⁴

There are two main varieties of Portuguese: European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese.

There is no record of the first French people in Hong Kong, but the official France-Hong Kong bilateral relations can be traced back to the Second Opium War (1856-1860). In 1856, a French missionary, Father Auguste Chapdelaine, was executed by Chinese authorities in Guangxi Province. The French Empire joined with the British navy and prompted the Second Opium War, which caused the colonization of Kowloon Peninsula. As reported by the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong, the first Consul of France in Hong Kong was appointed in 1862.¹

The French established two congregations early in their settlement in Hong Kong: The Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres and the Paris Society of Foreign Missions. The Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres eventually led to the creation of a school, an orphanage, a hospice, and a hospital.²

French merchants and investors also settled in Hong Kong, with the establishment of a Hong Kong branch of The Comptoir d’Escompte de Paris in 1862. The opening of a branch of the Banque de l’Indochine in 1894 established the French presence in Hong Kong by opening up commercial trade between Asia and France.²

Hong Kong currently has the largest French expat community in Asia, with over 20,000 French nationals living in Hong Kong.². There are currently more than 800 French companies operating in Hong Kong.³

French is widely spoken globally, with more than 62,400,000 first language users in France and 77,177,210 first language globally in countries including Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Canada. There are over 274,000,000 first and second language users of French globally.⁴

French is the official language of France. It is the most significant Romance language globally, having served as the official language of more than 25 countries, primarily due to French colonialism.⁵ This includes Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, and many African nations including Congo, Ivory Coast, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, among others.⁵

There are numerous varieties of French around the world; within France, there are regional dialects, including Central, Northern, Eastern, Western, Southwestern French.⁵ Canadian French is quite distinctive from the French spoken in France.⁵

French is a SVO language and has grammatical gender (feminine/masculine).⁴

French has 20 consonants: /p t k b d g m n ɲ f s ʃ v z ʒ l r j w ɥ/. The consonant /r/ has several pronunciations: as a voiced uvular fricative, approximant, uvular trill, alveolar trill, alveolar tap. /n t d/ are laminal dental-alveolars.⁶

French has 15 vowels: /i e ɛ a y ø œu o ɔ ɑ ɛ̃ œ̃ ɑ̃ õ/, with four of these vowels nasalized /ɛ̃ œ̃ ɑ̃ õ/.⁵ Nasalisation occurs in words with a vowel + n or m in spelling.⁶

German merchants participated in trade with the Canton region of China starting in the 18^th Century. The settlement of German merchants in Canton later brought missionaries to this region of China. The German language was likely brought to Hong Kong after the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, by missionaries who saw an opportunity to bring to spread Christianity from their established bases in coastal China, south to Canton and subsequently Hong Kong, which had become a British colony in 1841.¹

According to the lists of foreign residents on China coast, such as The Chinese Repository, the first person that was identified as a German in Hong Kong appeared in 1845 following the changes in borders of German states and other associated nations. There were more foreigners with German sounding settling in Hong Kong after the 1880s.¹

In the 1860s, political turmoil in China led to many German merchants to relocate to Hong Kong, as they saw Hong Kong as a major trading port in Asia. This led to a growth in the German community in Hong Kong, and the establishment of a number of German owned companies, some of which still exist in Hong Kong today: Jebsen & Co (est. 1894), a branch of the Deutsch Bank called the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank (est. 1889). The Club Germania, a social club for members of large German firms, was established in 1859.^1,2

When World War I broke out in 1914, Germans were considered enemy aliens and all Germans in Hong Kong were sent to internment camps first in Stonecutter’s Bay and later in Hung Hom Bay.¹

The Hong Kong census shows a steady increase in the number of German residents in Hong Kong from 1871 (170 German residents) until 1906 (237), after which numbers appear to decline.^1,2

Currently, there are around 6000 German speakers from Germany, Switzerland, Austria living in Hong Kong.³

There are more than 134,624,400 users of German worldwide, including in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden. There are over 80,600,00 users in Germany, with 72,300,000 first language speakers and 8,300,000 second language users in Germany.⁴

German is an official and most widely used language in four countries in Europe: Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg. it is also an official language in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.⁵. It is spoken as a mother tongue/first language in 42 countries.

It is part of the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family along with English and Dutch.

Standard German is called Hochdeutsch or High German. Other varieties of German include Swiss German, spoken in Switzerland; Pennsylvania Dutch/German, spoken in the USA. Low German (also called Plattdeutsch or Niederdeutsch) is a dialect of German spoken in Northern Germany and parts of the Netherlands. It differs from High German primarily in the sound system.⁶ Yiddish developed from High German.⁶

German has a front, central and back tense and lax vowels. The 10 lax vowels are as follows /ɪ ɛ ʏ œ ə ɐ a ʊ ɔ ɑ/. The 6 tense vowels are / i e y ø u o/.⁷

German has a voicing contrasts in stops and fricatives, with a range of consonants depending on the dialect: /p b t d p k ʔ f v s z ʃ ʒ ç ʝ x ɣ χʁ h m ɱ n ɲ ŋ ʋ l r j ʀ/.⁷

It is a stressed-timed language.⁴

German follows SVO word order. German has four cases for nouns, pronouns and adjectives and three genders (neuter, feminine, masculine).⁴

Irish people have been present in Hong Kong from the beginning of the colonial era. The first governor of Hong Kong, Sir Henry Pottinger, was Irish and 9 governors in the period up to Irish independence in 1922 can lay claim to Irish citizenship.^1,2 These governors are as follows: Sir Henry Pottinger, Sir Hercules Robinson, Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, Sir Arthur Kennedy, Sir John Pope Hennessy, Sir George Bowen, Sir William Des Voeux, Sir Henry Arthur Blake, Sir Francis Henry May.

Pottinger, Caine, Robinson, MacDonnell, Kennedy, Hennessy, Bowen, Des Voeux roads on Hong Kong Island are named after former Hong Kong governors from Ireland.

Currently there are around 5,000 Irish citizens in Hong Kong.² However, the exact number of the Irish community is not stated in the Hong Kong Population By-Census.

According to the 2016 Irish census, over 1.7 million people in Ireland indicated that they speak Irish; however, it should be noted that the census does not distinguish between native and second language speakers of the language.³ Apart from Ireland, Irish is spoken by small communities in the United States and Australia.

Nowadays, Irish has become an endangered language since people living in the majority of places in Ireland no longer speak it as their native language.⁴

1. Vowels in Irish appear in word initial and final positions but rarely on their own⁵
2. Irish is a stress-timed language⁵
3. Inventory of consonants⁵
   Stops: /p/, /pj/, /b/, /bj/, /t/, /tj/, /d/, /dj/, /k/, /kj/, /g/, /gj/
   Fricatives: /f/, /fj/, /v/, /vj/, /s/, /sj/, /x/, /xj/, /ɣ/, /ɣj/, /h/
   Nasals: /m/, /mj/, /n/, /nj/
   Liquids: /l/, /lj/, /r/, /rj/
   

1. Short vowels: /ɪ ɛ a ʌ/
   
2. Short unstressed vowel: /ə/
   
3. Long vowels: /iː, eː, ɑː, oː, uː/
   
4. Diphthongs: /ai, au, iə, uə/
   

1. There are five declensions of singular nouns⁶
2. There are ten declensions of plural nouns⁶
3. The emphatic case of personal pronouns⁶
4. The grammatical gender of pronouns do not necessarily correspond to the biological sex of referents⁶
5. Adjectives have declensions for case and number⁶
6. Irish is a VSO language⁷
7. Blurred distinction in tenses of copula⁷

From 1841 to 1997, Hong Kong was a British colony. As Scotland is part of the British empire, since the 19^th century Scottish people have settled in Hong Kong. Scots made important contributions to Hong Kong in commerce, politics, trade, science, and literature. Notable Scots who helped develop Hong Kong include:

William Jardine, who with James Matheson, founded Jardine, Matheson, and Co. in Guangzhou in 1832; Jardines is one of Hong Kong’s most well-known institutions, and is still controlled by descendants of the Jardine family.¹

James Legge, the first translator of Confucius and other classic Chinese texts. He also served as editor of the ‘Chinese Serial’, which was the first newspaper in Chinese in Hong Kong.¹

James Haldane Steward Lockhart, for whom Lockhart Road in Wan Chai is named, was a noted sinologist who served as a British colonial official in Hong Kong and China for more than 40 years, arriving in Hong Kong in 1879. ²

Sir Thomas Sutherland, who founded the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation – HSBC.¹

Sir James Cantlie, a Scottish physician who served as Dean of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese. One of his students was Sun Yat-sen.¹

Sir Robert Brown Black, the first Scot to become Governor of Hong Kong, serving from 1958-1964; he also served as Governor of Singapore, from 1955-1957. Sir Black helped establish The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1963.²

David Clive Wilson, who helped draft the Sino-Joint Declaration; he was Governor of Hong Kong from 1987-1992; Hong Kong’s Wilson Trail is named after David Clive Wilson.¹

Sir John James Cowperthwaite, who served as Financial Secretary in Hong Kong from 1961-1971. It was his financial policies that helped change Hong Kong into a global financial centre.¹

Murray MacLehose, who served as Hong Kong governor from 1971-1982, the longest term of office for Hong Kong’s governors. He instituted a number of social reforms, including making Chinese an official language in Hong Kong in 1974, and creating the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC). It was during his time as governor that the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) was constructed.¹ The MacLehose Trail, a 100 kilometer hiking trail in the New Territories, is named after him.

There are 57,400 speakers of Scottish Gaelic in the United Kingdom, with a total of 60,130 users worldwide.⁴ It is primarily spoken in Scotland, in the Highlands and the Western Isles and in Inverness, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. There are also speakers of Scottish Gaelic in Canada (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island) and in Australia and New Zealand.⁵

Scottish Gaelic is classified as an indigenous language in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.⁵ It is an official language in Scotland, as of the 2005 Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act. It is classified as definitely endangered by UNESCO.

From 1841 to 1997, Hong Kong was a British colony. As Scotland is part of the British empire, since the 19^th century Scottish people have settled in Hong Kong. Scots made important contributions to Hong Kong in commerce, politics, trade, science, and literature. Notable Scots who helped develop Hong Kong include:

William Jardine, who with James Matheson, founded Jardine, Matheson, and Co. in Guangzhou in 1832; Jardines is one of Hong Kong’s most well-known institutions, and is still controlled by descendants of the Jardine family.¹

James Legge, the first translator of Confucius and other classic Chinese texts. He also served as editor of the ‘Chinese Serial’, which was the first newspaper in Chinese in Hong Kong.¹

James Haldane Steward Lockhart, for whom Lockhart Road in Wan Chai is named, was a noted sinologist who served as a British colonial official in Hong Kong and China for more than 40 years, arriving in Hong Kong in 1879. ²

Sir Thomas Sutherland, who founded the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation – HSBC.¹

Sir James Cantlie, a Scottish physician who served as Dean of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese. One of his students was Sun Yat-sen.¹

Sir Robert Brown Black, the first Scot to become Governor of Hong Kong, serving from 1958-1964; he also served as Governor of Singapore, from 1955-1957. Sir Black helped establish The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1963.²

David Clive Wilson, who helped draft the Sino-Joint Declaration; he was Governor of Hong Kong from 1987-1992; Hong Kong’s Wilson Trail is named after David Clive Wilson.¹

Sir John James Cowperthwaite, who served as Financial Secretary in Hong Kong from 1961-1971. It was his financial policies that helped change Hong Kong into a global financial centre.¹

Murray MacLehose, who served as Hong Kong governor from 1971-1982, the longest term of office for Hong Kong’s governors. He instituted a number of social reforms, including making Chinese an official language in Hong Kong in 1974, and creating the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC). It was during his time as governor that the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) was constructed.¹ The MacLehose Trail, a 100 kilometer hiking trail in the New Territories, is named after him.

1. Scottish Vowel Length Rule: “in stressed syllable vowels before /r, v, ð, z, ʒ/, before another vowel and before a morpheme boundary are long. In other environments the vowels are generally short. Diphthongs also vary in their quality according to the rule, for example sight has a raised onset while size has a lowered and lengthened one.” (p. 277)⁵
2. Vowels of cow, now, house pronounced with a close rounded back monophthong, instead of a diphthong⁷
3. GOOSE [y] rather than [uː]⁸
4. Devoiced /r/ in syllable-final position⁵
5. FLEECE-KIT merger⁵
6. Glottalization⁵
7. Voiceless velar fricative /x/⁵

Doric: varieties of Scots in north-east Scotland
8. Retention of velar stops before nasals in syllable onsets: knock with /kn-/, gnaw with /gn-/⁵
9. /ʍ/ as [f] (whit /fit/ ‘what’)⁵
10. Initial /w/ before /r/ as [v] (wrath as [vraθ])⁵
11. Use of [d] for /ð/ in intervocalic, pre-rhotic position: brother [bridər], father [fadər] ⁵

Ulster Scots
12. Retroflex /r/⁵
13. Vocalized syllable-final /l/⁵
14. Deletion of intervocalic /-ð-/: Northern [nɒːəɹn] Ireland)⁵
15. High central vowel /ʉ/⁵
16. Variation in the TRAP lexical set⁵