GnuDoyng

Yesterday, my Malaysian friend William Lau sent me an email asking about the status quo of Foochowese in Foochow. He couldn’t understand why Foochowese has become a “forgotten dialect” in its place of origin, while it is still widely spoken amongst oversea Foochow descents. Well, I’d like to briefly share my understanding, though perhaps not very objective, with all my friends interested in this topic.

There are 6 main reasons accounting for this phenomenon (ordered according to importance):

1. Cultural identification: Foochow citizens generally identify themselves as Chinese, and most of them take it for granted that a Chinese should speak his national language only, and that all other regional dialects should be abandoned. These people, even including my parents, have willingly given up teaching their children to speak the local language.
2. Language policy: Mandarin is the only official language in China, so the use of Foochowese is discouraged in media, education and other formal occasions. Therefore, most highly educated people only speak Mandarin as their daily language.
3. Low degree of mutual intelligibility: Foochowese is not mutually intelligible even within its many varieties. In order to communicate with people from other regions, Foochowese speakers would have to learn Mandarin.
4. Population structure: The second half of the 20^th century has witnessed a large immigration into Foochow, which greatly altered the structure of its population. This local language, which is archaic and full of seemingly irregular changes, is indeed difficult for newcomers. Therefore, they and their offspring only speak Mandarin.
5. Lack of self-confidence: Even the Foochowese speakers themselves find this language uncivilized, let alone those who don’t speak it. Such self-contempt can be attributed to the relatively lower economic status of Foochow (in contrast with those of Amoy, Canton, and Shanghai).
6. Lack of written form: Having been evolving separately for thousands of years, Foochowese is basically an oral language and lacks its unified written form. Although it does have a Chinese character writing system and a romanization scheme, they may be too abstruse to master.

Still something I should clarify:

1. The decline of Foochowese takes place merely within downtown Foochow, whereas in the suburban and rural areas, Foochowese is still the daily language, living up to its name “平話” (Bàng-uâ).
2. In linguistic principle, Foochowese is a de facto independent language, and so are hundreds of other southern Chinese languages. The official term “方言”  (dialect) misleads people to underestimate their significance.

I strongly suggest you read these articles: 1, 2, 3 and 4, which will help you understand more profoundly how a language and its culture fall out of favor. Well of course, any further questions and discussions are welcome!