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Language maintenance and language shift in the Teochew Chinese community
Author
Ng, Julia Lee Hoon
Supervisor
Saravanan, Vanithamani
Abstract
Singapore is a unique multilingual community that is characterised by massive language shifts away from a multiplicity of languages affecting all ethnic groups, where a major shift towards English as the lingua franca across ethnic groups and a parallel shift from Chinese "dialects" towards Mandarin among the Chinese population is witnessed. The Teochew Chimese community, in essence, represents a microscopic reflection of this language shift to Mandarin and English at the expense of its mother tongue, Teochew.
This study on language shift in the Teochew Chinese community seeks to identify the language choice and language ability patterns of a sample of 72 speakers from 17 families, to ascertain the extent of language maintenance and language shift withim the community. The status, institutional, subcultural and sociocultural factors influencing language shift are also examined. An integrated methodology which sees the coalescence of the quantitative macro-societal and qualitative micro-interactional approaches is adopted for this study, which includes the use of extensive participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and a questionaire.
The results indicate that a rapid intergenerational shift proceeding from dominant Teochew monolingualism in the grandparent generation to a transitional bilingualisdtrilingualism (ie. in Teochew, Mandarin andlor English) in the parent generation, and finally to a largely dominant English and Mandarin bilingualism in the child generation has taken place in the community in the various domains discussed. The findings are also suggestive of the increasing prominence of English among the child generation speakers, giving rise to English-knowing bilingualism. The consequences of language shift is to have been to produce speakers with different levels of linguistic ability in English and Teochew, where a sharp disparity and incongruity is noted between the two, as exemplified in the language ability scores. Some of the cultural implications of language shift pertaining to language attitudes and identity, and the transmission of culture are also examined in the study.
This study on language shift in the Teochew Chinese community seeks to identify the language choice and language ability patterns of a sample of 72 speakers from 17 families, to ascertain the extent of language maintenance and language shift withim the community. The status, institutional, subcultural and sociocultural factors influencing language shift are also examined. An integrated methodology which sees the coalescence of the quantitative macro-societal and qualitative micro-interactional approaches is adopted for this study, which includes the use of extensive participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and a questionaire.
The results indicate that a rapid intergenerational shift proceeding from dominant Teochew monolingualism in the grandparent generation to a transitional bilingualisdtrilingualism (ie. in Teochew, Mandarin andlor English) in the parent generation, and finally to a largely dominant English and Mandarin bilingualism in the child generation has taken place in the community in the various domains discussed. The findings are also suggestive of the increasing prominence of English among the child generation speakers, giving rise to English-knowing bilingualism. The consequences of language shift is to have been to produce speakers with different levels of linguistic ability in English and Teochew, where a sharp disparity and incongruity is noted between the two, as exemplified in the language ability scores. Some of the cultural implications of language shift pertaining to language attitudes and identity, and the transmission of culture are also examined in the study.
Date Issued
1996
Call Number
P41 Ng
Date Submitted
1996