A2
定係 — or, in a question
How Cantonese offers a choice with 定係 and lists possibilities with 或者, and why a 定係 question takes no 呀 as a question marker.
The same division Mandarin makes between 还是 and 或者, with different words: 定係 in a question, 或者 in a statement.
你飲茶定係咖啡？
Nei5 jam2 caa4 ding6hai6 gaa3fe1?
Tea or coffee?
茶或者咖啡都得。
Caa4 waak6ze2 gaa3fe1 dou1 dak1.
Tea or coffee, either’s fine.
定係 often shortens to 定 in speech, and both are ordinary.
你去定我去？
Nei5 heoi3 ding6 ngo5 heoi3?
Are you going, or am I?
Notice the verb repeats on both sides — Cantonese does not gap the way English does in are you going or am I.
你飲茶或者咖啡？
你飲茶定係咖啡？
或者 lists options without asking anyone to choose. With a question mark it lands as you drink tea or coffee, I suppose? rather than as an offer.
No question particle
The choice is the question, so it needs no 呀 doing question duty — the same one-marker rule as everywhere else. 呀 may still appear, softening rather than asking.
定 also means “settled”
Outside questions, 定 is fixed, decided, steady — 講定, agreed in advance; 諗定, thought through beforehand. It is a common and useful word in its own right, and its question use grew from the sense of settling between alternatives.
我哋講定聽日見。
Ngo5dei6 gong2ding6 ting1jat6 gin3.
We agreed to meet tomorrow.