Attitudes towards Chinese Mandarin dialect use

With over 1 billion speakers, the Chinese language is a growing linguistic force. Some argue that the term ‘Chinese language’ shouldn’t exist, because it is an umbrella term that represents hundreds of different Chinese dialects (which flourished in different regions traditionally). Attempts at standardizing the Chinese language have been made for over “3,000 years” (Zhou, 2012, p. 2), and were finalized in the mid-20^th Century when the national standard became Mandarin. The recent national standardization of the Chinese language has simplified both the spoken and written languages in an effort to promote mutual intelligibility within the nation and with the rest of the world.

There have been many sociolinguistic changes (Sociolinguistic change is basically the idea that the way someone speaks can affect social aspects of their life, like social class or gender differences) brought about by the recent standardization of Mandarin a cross the Peoples Republic of China. A primary example of this sociolinguistic change is reflected in the attitudes towards dialect use. Regional dialects that have influenced the national standard in Taiwan, Guangzhou, and Xining (Dede, 2006; Kalmar, 1987; Kubler, 1985; Li, 1985; Wei, 2013) are viewed as unprofessional in China, and in some cases can be viewed as being indicative of an individual’s inadequacy to integrate into society (Wei, 2013). Put simply, if you speak the Mandarin standard the way it was intended to be spoken, the more desirable/professional you can become in Chinese society (Zhang, 2005). Though there is a national sociolinguistic pressure to speak Mandarin in the People’s Republic of China, many cultural groups have chosen instead to mold Mandarin into a lingual form that preserves their cultural heritage.

Bibliography:

Dede, Keith. (2006). Standard Chinese and the Xining dialect: the rise of an interdialectal standard. Journal of Asian Pacific communication, 16(2), 319-334.

Gu, S. (2012). A cultural history of the Chinese language. Jefferson, MO: McFarland & Company.

Kalmar, Ivan, Yong, Zhong, Hong, Xiao. (1987). Language attitudes in Guangzhou, China. Language in Society, 16(4), 499-508. Retrieved from JSTOR.

Kubler, Cornelius C. (1985). The influence of southern Min on the Mandarin of Taiwan. Anthropological Linguistics, 27(2), 156-176. Retrieved from JSTOR.

Li, David Chen-ching. (1985). Problems and trends of standardization of Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan. Anthropological Linguistics, 27(2), 122-140. Retrieved from JSTOR.

Wei, Jennifer M. (2013). Perspectives on marked language choices and uses in Taiwan. Taiwan journal of linguistics, 11(2), 067-082.

Zhang, Qing. (2005). A Chinese yuppie in Beijing: phonological variation and the construction of a new professional identity. Language in Society, 34(3), 431-466.

Zhou, Minglang. (2012). The contact between Putonghua (modern standard Chinese) and minority languages in China. International journal of the sociology of Language, 215, 1-16.