Options
Language choice and code-switching among Hong Kong's Hakka speakers
Author(s)
Date Issued
2015
ISSN
2199-4382
Citation
Global Chinese, 2015, vol. 1(1), pp. 57-83.
Description
pages 57-83
DOI 10.1515/glochi-2015-1003
Type
Peer Reviewed Journal Article
Abstract
This paper examines the language practices among speakers of Hakka
in Hong Kong, a minority Chinese variety still found in the territory. These
speakers were largely monolingual a few decades ago but are now primarily
bilingual in Hakka and Cantonese as the community shifts towards the latter,
the dominant societal language. To explore the process and dynamics of this
language shift, the present study adopted an ethnographic approach for observing
the actual bilingual behaviours of individuals and families in the community.
The informant sample comprised 32 speakers aged between 9 and 82 from
nine separate families across Hong Kong. Data was collected through a combination
of participant observation, informal interviews and conversational
exchanges in the informants’ homes. Examination of their patterns of language
choice and language use shows that most of the speakers use Cantonese-dominant
patterns, and are ‘shifters’ rather than ‘maintainers’ of the Hakka language;
the shift is clearly generation and age-related. The paper also illustrates how
bilingual speakers make use of code-switching between Hakka and Cantonese to
achieve various discourse purposes in their everyday conversations, suggesting
that even among the ‘language shifters’, Hakka remains an important linguistic
resource.
File(s)
Loading...
Name
S.Lee_GC2015v1n1.pdf
Size
837.18 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(not present)
(MD5):6f8d41fb2c64b9f4c468cf6301e503a2
Loading...
Availability at HKSYU Library
