Language Heritage: A Discussion on Families’ Effects Based on Cases of Yue-Dialects Spoken Region
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DOI: 10.23977/ETSS2020016
Corresponding Author
Jinqian Liang
ABSTRACT
Globalization as a trend fosters the migration of people from different areas and cultures and thus making more than one language being used in an area usual. Language inherits, and preservations of weak languages in these areas were studied, only a few were family-based. However, the situations that Yue dialects, also known as Cantonese dialects, encounter are atypical, as Yue dialects were originally the predominant languages that were used in the Pearl River Delta, while nowadays, Mandarin has taken place. Family-based preservation of Cantonese, which places more attention on a micro and individual level, has not been carefully discussed and considering the relatively unfavored policy, maybe the most effective potential approach of the dilemma. Using statistical methods, assisting by selective face-to-face interviews, strong correlations between family language usage and children’s language level are revealed. With those conclusions, discussions on the possible specific family-based programs of weak language preservation are made.
KEYWORDS
Cantonese, language preservation, family-based, Yue dialects