Abstract
The diachronic transmission of language from the perspective of historical linguistics reflects the language reality across times and generations. The key clue of the formation and development of Macao local words lies in the lexical features inherited from ancient Chinese words. Through the study of 39 Macao local words with the heritage of ancient Chinese, some features in the meaning and usage of the words are found: some words are the direct heritage of ancient Chinese words in both of meaning and usage; some are indirectly derived—while the original meaning has been retained, the form has been altered; the original form of some words has been kept, but a change has been taken place in the meaning; some words—which have been applying the meanings of ancient Chinese here in Macao, have developed new meanings in other Cantonese dialects. Such local words reflect the compatible coexistence and mutual influence among ancient Chinese, Cantonese dialect and modern Mandarin in the history of vocabulary development in Macao.
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