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