Language loss and dialect leveling in Hong Kong

by Jeanie Chan

In recent decades, Hong Kong society has seen a trend of moving away from minority ‘home dialects’ such as Hakka and Chiu Chau towards Cantonese, reflecting the process of language shift. One significant example is that in the early twentieth century, the Hakka people were a clear majority in the northern New Territories, accounting for around 54% of the population. This proves that Hakka was an important indigenous language of Hong Kong alongside Cantonese in the past. But in the past fifty years, it has been continuously disappearing and breaking down. Indeed, the Hakka community is facing the process of language loss. We describe this phenomenon as ‘a dialect murders another dialect’ as Cantonese is murdering the old tongues. The marginal dialects are no longer being spoken because young people regard it as ‘useless’ and ‘an obstacle to acquiring Hong Kong identity’. 

In many societies, including Hong Kong, the process of language shift and language loss take place over three generations, particularly for immigrant families. For example: in a Hakka family in Hong Kong: 

1. The grandparents habitually speak the Hakka dialect to each other and to the next generation, i.e. the parents; 
2. The parents often speak Hakka to the grandparents, but usually speak Cantonese to each other and their children
3. The children normally speak Cantonese at home and school, and while they may be able to understand part of their grandparents’ language, but they are usually unable to speak Hakka. 

The eventual result of such a progress is language death which means no one in the speech community (Hong Kong) uses that variety anymore. Another reason language shift has occurred so rapidly in Hong Kong are the psychological tendency and the spread of education, which we will discuss along with dialect levelling. 

In linguistics, dialect levelling refers to the reduction or elimination of marked differences between dialects over time^[1]. This means that speakers of other dialects tend to use the prestigious and standard dialect and, as a consequence, the language diversity will be reduced. 

According to Hong Kong Population 2019 (Demographics, Maps, Graphs)^[2], it classified Hong Kong people into the following seven distinct categories. 

1. Cantonese people 
2. Hakka people [Mandarin VS Cantonese VS Hakka]    Listen here
3. Chiu Chau people [Teochew], including Fukien [Hokkien or Minnan language] and Hoklos [Hokkien]  Listen here
4. Tankas or boat people   Listen here    
5. Shanghainese and other northerners (non-Southern Chinese) Listen here
6. Westerners  
7. South Asians, such as Indians and Pakistanis 

Although there are a number of varieties of Chinese in Hong Kong society, Hong Kong Cantonese has emerged as the dominant spoken language in Hong Kong. In addition, as relations between people in Hong Kong and mainland China have been relatively tense since the early 2000s, Cantonese becomes a major distinction between Hong Kong and Mainland China. Due to the psychological tendency to merge into the community and strengthen the local Hong Kong identity, immigrants (especially youngsters) tend to speak like other Hong Kong people. They are generally keen to adopt the speech of the community (Cantonese) as it is an important way of not being considered as an outsider and protecting themselves from being bullied in schools and workplace. This is the process of the dialect levelling through which Hong Kong immigrants adapt their speech to Hong Kong Cantonese, conforming to the norms of Hong Kong society gradually. 

Apart from the psychological tendency mentioned, educational development in Hong Kong has also facilitated the process of dialect levelling. Education in Hong Kong has been free, and school has been compulsory between ages 6 to 15 (primary and junior secondary schools) since the 1970s. This has enabled children from poorer families and immigrant families to receive education. Linguistically, there has had two major consequences: first, more children have been able to learn English at schools and second, youngsters from minority dialect backgrounds have been educated in Cantonese, the major medium of instruction in the classroom. As a result, even though they are from Chiu Chau, Fukien, Hakka and Shanghainese backgrounds, they lost their dialects quickly.     

In conclusion, knowledge of minority ‘home dialects’ tends to correlate strongly with age as older generations in Hong Kong families maintain minority dialects continuously. For children, with universal primary and secondary education, those from minority language families’ background have been socialized through the local schools to acquire ‘Hong Kong Cantonese’. 

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^[1] https://www.thoughtco.com/dialect-leveling-speech-1690387

^[2] http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/hong-kong-population/