Language attitudes towards own vernacular language and mandarin among Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching

The aim of this study was to examine language choice patterns in various domains and the attitudes of Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching, Sarawak towards own vernacular language and Mandarin. The specific objectives of this research include language use of Foochow and Hokkien speakers in nin...

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Main Author:	Puah, Yann Yann
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2015
Subjects:	P Philology Linguistics
Online Access:	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9030/1/Puah%20Yann%20Yann%20ft.pdf
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id	my-unimas-ir.9030
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-unimas-ir.90302023-06-22T02:01:22Z Language attitudes towards own vernacular language and mandarin among Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching 2015 Puah, Yann Yann P Philology. Linguistics The aim of this study was to examine language choice patterns in various domains and the attitudes of Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching, Sarawak towards own vernacular language and Mandarin. The specific objectives of this research include language use of Foochow and Hokkien speakers in nine domains, the reasons of their language choices as well as status of language and its speakers. To find out whether the Foochow and Hokkien speakers’ attitudes towards Mandarin and their vernacular language are influenced by sociodemographic variables, gender, age and socio-economic status are the three variables included in this study. Matched-guise technique, survey and interview were used for data collection and 444 Chinese speakers were involved in this study. The findings showed that Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin were used in more formal situations, such as in formal transaction, religion, government, education, employment and media domains while vernacular languages or Mandarin were spoken during informal transactions and in the friendship domain. The participants’ language use patterns at home were due to three factors: intermarriage, desire for intergenerational transmission of vernacular language, and children’s education whereas ethnicity of the interactants and formality of the situations were the other two factors that influenced the participants’ language choice outside home. As matched guise technique was used to elicit the language attitudes of a large number of participants indirectly, the paired t-tests results indicated that both Foochow and Hokkien participants showed positive attitudes towards Mandarin speakers. This was similar to the iii participants’ self-reported data where they rated Mandarin as having higher status and more usage than their vernacular language. When comparing the results for Foochow and Hokkien speakers, Hokkien has higher prestige than Foochow in Kuching, Sarawak due to the institutional support it receives. In this study, the functions of Hokkien are similar to Mandarin, not only for the Hokkien people but also for other Chinese sub-groups. Hence, Hokkien is considered as High language while Foochow is considered as Low language in Kuching for the Chinese speech community. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2015 Thesis http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9030/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9030/1/Puah%20Yann%20Yann%20ft.pdf text en validuser masters Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Centre for Language Studies
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
collection	UNIMAS Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	P Philology Linguistics
spellingShingle	P Philology Linguistics Puah, Yann Yann Language attitudes towards own vernacular language and mandarin among Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching
description	The aim of this study was to examine language choice patterns in various domains and the attitudes of Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching, Sarawak towards own vernacular language and Mandarin. The specific objectives of this research include language use of Foochow and Hokkien speakers in nine domains, the reasons of their language choices as well as status of language and its speakers. To find out whether the Foochow and Hokkien speakers’ attitudes towards Mandarin and their vernacular language are influenced by sociodemographic variables, gender, age and socio-economic status are the three variables included in this study. Matched-guise technique, survey and interview were used for data collection and 444 Chinese speakers were involved in this study. The findings showed that Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin were used in more formal situations, such as in formal transaction, religion, government, education, employment and media domains while vernacular languages or Mandarin were spoken during informal transactions and in the friendship domain. The participants’ language use patterns at home were due to three factors: intermarriage, desire for intergenerational transmission of vernacular language, and children’s education whereas ethnicity of the interactants and formality of the situations were the other two factors that influenced the participants’ language choice outside home. As matched guise technique was used to elicit the language attitudes of a large number of participants indirectly, the paired t-tests results indicated that both Foochow and Hokkien participants showed positive attitudes towards Mandarin speakers. This was similar to the iii participants’ self-reported data where they rated Mandarin as having higher status and more usage than their vernacular language. When comparing the results for Foochow and Hokkien speakers, Hokkien has higher prestige than Foochow in Kuching, Sarawak due to the institutional support it receives. In this study, the functions of Hokkien are similar to Mandarin, not only for the Hokkien people but also for other Chinese sub-groups. Hence, Hokkien is considered as High language while Foochow is considered as Low language in Kuching for the Chinese speech community.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Puah, Yann Yann
author_facet	Puah, Yann Yann
author_sort	Puah, Yann Yann
title	Language attitudes towards own vernacular language and mandarin among Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching
title_short	Language attitudes towards own vernacular language and mandarin among Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching
title_full	Language attitudes towards own vernacular language and mandarin among Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching
title_fullStr	Language attitudes towards own vernacular language and mandarin among Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching
title_full_unstemmed	Language attitudes towards own vernacular language and mandarin among Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching
title_sort	language attitudes towards own vernacular language and mandarin among foochow and hokkien speakers in kuching
granting_institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
granting_department	Centre for Language Studies
publishDate	2015
url	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9030/1/Puah%20Yann%20Yann%20ft.pdf
_version_	1783728000823459840

Language attitudes towards own vernacular language and mandarin among Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching

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