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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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS)
2015
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| Online Access: | http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9030/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9030/1/Puah%20Yann%20Yann%20ft.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848836475073855488 |
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| author | Puah, Yann Yann |
| author_facet | Puah, Yann Yann |
| author_sort | Puah, Yann Yann |
| building | UNIMAS Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| 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. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-15T06:24:21Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | unimas-9030 |
| institution | Universiti Malaysia Sarawak |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-15T06:24:21Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | unimas-90302023-06-22T02:01:22Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9030/ Language attitudes towards own vernacular language and mandarin among Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching 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 NonPeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9030/1/Puah%20Yann%20Yann%20ft.pdf Puah, Yann Yann (2015) Language attitudes towards own vernacular language and mandarin among Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. |
| spellingShingle | P Philology. Linguistics Puah, Yann Yann Language attitudes towards own vernacular language and mandarin among Foochow and Hokkien speakers in Kuching |
| title | 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_short | 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 |
| topic | P Philology. Linguistics |
| url | http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9030/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9030/1/Puah%20Yann%20Yann%20ft.pdf |