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this is a follow up question regarding Cantonese Pronunciation. Previous question here.
Does anyone know how people from Guangdong, who would speak Cantonese at home but be taught in Mandarin at school, read in Cantonese? Would they know that 给 is pronounced as KAP or would they just read it as BEI?
Well, 俾 is BEI, and 给 is KAP in Cantonese pronunciation. In fact, 俾 and 给 also can be pronounced in Mandarin: 俾 is something like BI, I guess, and of course 给 is GEI.
So, they won't get confused, because they would certainly be taught that both words contain the same meaning but with a different pronunciation. In fact, I think 俾 is sort of like an unofficial word, which people usually use in texts/chats, and 给 is the official one. If you noticed, songs usually use 给 instead of 俾 :)
給 will never be pronounced bei2. There can't be any confusion here. At least not in the minds of Cantonese speakers.
The reason you are confused is because you seem to assume that the only difference between Mandarin and Cantonese is a few odd sinograms here and there. There's more to it than this. These are two Chinese languages with differences that span grammar, vocabulary, and of course phonology. Why use 給, which is a "foreign", ie a non-Cantonese word, if you are writing in Cantonese, where you have 俾 and 畀?
Cantonese is often used, in a written form, by the government, public announcement and in advertising, at least in HK, when they want to make sure they reach the larger public. I see it every day in the streets, and in government buildings. It is also used online and in texting -- and there's also Cantonese poetry.
