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Sociolinguistics
Chapter 3
Language Maintenance and Shift
Lesson 2 Language variation
1. Different styles
2. Different pronunciation
3. Different vocabulary
4. Different grammar
5. Different dialects
6. Different languages
Lesson 2 Language variation
1. Participants
2. Setting
3. Topic
4. Function
Lesson 3 Language Choice in Multilingual Communities
Communicative repertoire Diglossia Code-switching and code-mixing
Learning Objectives
Language shift Language death and language loss Factors contributing to language shift Language maintenance Language revival
Language shift
The process by which one language displaces another in the linguistic repertoire of a community.
Language shift
Migrant minorities Non-migrant communities Migrant majorities
Chinese dialects in Hong Kong
98% of Hong Kong people are ethnically Chinese.
Most people in Hong Kong speak Cantonese.
What about the numbers of people speaking other Chinese dialects?
Usual languages in Hong Kong
Usual Language 1996 2001 2006 2011
No. % No. % No. % No. %
Cantonese 5 196 240
88.7 5 726 972
89.2 6 030 960
90.8 6 095 213
89.5
Putonghua 65 892 1.1 55 410 0.9 60 859 0.9 94 399 1.4
Other Chinese Dialects
340 222
5.8 352 562
5.5 289 027 4.4 273 745 4.0
English 184 308
3.1 203 598
3.2 187 281 2.8 238 288 3.5
Others 73 879 1.3 79 197 1.2 72 217 1.1 106 788 1.6
Total 5 860 541
100.0 6 417 739
100.0 6 640 344
100.0 6 808 433
100
Language Shift
Case of Hakka in Hong Kong
1911 Largest linguistic minority
15.1% of total population in Hong Kong
47% of total population in NT
54% of total population in northern district of NT
Example of language shift
In a Hakka family:
1 Grandparents speak Hakka
2 Parents speak Hakka to grandparents, speak Cantonese to children
3 Children speak Cantonese
Social changes
1960s poor refugee community
1960s to 1990s provision of housing, health care, and
education by the late colonial government
Demographic changes
Increase in population:
1945 600,000
1961 3.1 million
1971 3.9 million
1981 5.1 million
1991 6.2 million
2001 6.8 million
2011 7.0 million
Demographic changes
1) Before 1980, there were a lot of illegal immigrants because of the ‘touchbase’ policy.
2) From late 1970s onward, legal immigrants arrived in Hong Kong at a rate of 75-150 per day.
Linguistic consequences
1) More children than ever before were able to get an education
2) Differences in dialect backgrounds of children were removed through the effects of schooling
↓
Dialect levelling or accent levelling
Activity
Make short notes on your own family, or describe a family you know that has three generations living in Hong Kong. Cover the following points:
1. the place of birth of the grandparents, the varieties they usually use when communicating with each other, and other varieties they use to speak to other family members;
2. the place of birth of the parents and the varieties they use when communicating with the grandparents, with each other and with the children; and
3. the place of birth of the children and the varieties they use when communicating with the grandparents, with the parents, and with each other.
Language death
Language death occurs when a language is no longer spoken naturally anywhere in the world.
Exercise 3
Factor contributing to language shift
Economic, social and political factors Demographic factors Exercise 4 Attitudes and values Exercise 5
Language maintenance
Symbol of a minority group’s identity Families from the minority group live
near each other Degree and frequency of contact with
the homeland
Language maintenance
Steps minority groups take to maintain a language:
Extended families Use of the minority language in schools Institutional support (e.g. education, law
and administration, the media)
Exercise 6
Language revival
Welsh in Wales Maori in New Zealand Hebrew in Israel
Exercise 7