Prominently represented by the "Weitou people" (圍頭人) – the Hau (侯), Tang (鄧), Pang (彭), Liu (廖), and Man (文) – these indigenous Punti inhabitants were afforded additional privileges in land ownership enshrined in the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory and the Basic Law of Hong Kong.

When used to designate a language, "Punti" is equivalent to the Standard Cantonese mainly used in Guangzhou (formerly Canton), Hong Kong and Macau.

"Punti" became a word often used in the legal system of Hong Kong and other official settings; when a defendant chooses to use Punti in court, he/she elects to use Cantonese as the language of the proceedings instead of English.

Despite the reference to Punti, in this context the word means nothing more than "Cantonese Chinese" as a spoken language, particularly Hong Kong dialect; there are political and practical reasons for not using the term "Cantonese Chinese".

[2] Modern use of the demonym Punti is promoted by the Hong Kong Museum of History, which maintains an extensive collection of Punti artefacts.