1. Language Maintenance and Shift
Sociolinguistics
Chapter 3
Language Maintenance and Shift

2. Lesson 2 Language variation
Different styles
Different pronunciation
Different vocabulary
Different grammar
Different dialects
Different languages

3. Lesson 2 Language variation
Participants
Setting
Topic
Function

4. Lesson 3 Language Choice in Multilingual Communities
Communicative repertoire
Diglossia
Code-switching and code-mixing

5. Learning Objectives Language shift Language death and language loss
Factors contributing to language shift
Language maintenance
Language revival

6. Language shift
The process by which one language displaces another in the linguistic repertoire of a community.

7. Language shift Migrant minorities Non-migrant communities
Migrant majorities

8. 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?

9. Usual languages in Hong Kong
1996
2001
2006
2011
No. %
Cantonese
88.7
89.2
90.8
89.5
Putonghua
65 892
1.1
55 410
0.9
60 859
94 399
1.4
Other Chinese Dialects
5.8
5.5
4.4
4.0
English
3.1
3.2
2.8
3.5
Others
73 879
1.3
79 197
1.2
72 217
1.6
Total
100.0
100

10. 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

12. 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

13. Social changes 1960s poor refugee community
1960s to 1990s provision of housing, health care, and education by the late colonial government

14. Demographic changes Increase in population: 1945 600,000
,000
million
million
million
million
million
million

15. 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 per day.

16. Linguistic consequences
More children than ever before were able to get an education
Differences in dialect backgrounds of children were removed through the effects of schooling ↓
Dialect levelling or accent levelling

17. 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:
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;
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
the place of birth of the children and the varieties they use when communicating with the grandparents, with the parents, and with each other.

18. Language death
Language death occurs when a language is no longer spoken naturally anywhere in the world.
Exercise 3

19. Factor contributing to language shift
Economic, social and political factors
Demographic factors Exercise 4
Attitudes and values Exercise 5

20. 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

21. 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

22. Language revival Welsh in Wales Maori in New Zealand Hebrew in Israel
Exercise 7