Why Is Foochowese Forgotten?
July 28, 2006Yesterday, 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):
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Population structure: The second half of the 20th 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
Hi Gnu Doyng,
I revisited your site “Wishing Upon A Star…” just now and was surprised that you mentioned me.
It was nice that you explained through your blog on the ‘vanishing’ Foochow language at its place of origin so that it could be shared with others.
Point no. 1 is a factor in Sibu, Malaysia too. There is just not enough ‘loyalty’ to the language.
Point no. 3 was a surprised because I thought most migrants would be from nearby towns and villages, which are Foochow-speaking areas too.
Point no. 4 sees some reversal of fortune in the state of Sarawak (where Sibu lies). The earliest Chinese immigrants were Min Nan traders and the dominant language was Hockien/ Teochew in urban areas, including Sibu. In recent history, Foochow has overtaken them economically and the Foochow has now migrated from Sibu to other cities/ towns, snapping up business premises and houses, thus driving up prices of homes in these cities and towns. People of other dialect groups are now very envious of the successful Foochow (and angry with them for causing prices to go up). Unfortunately, the Foochow language does not follow these migrants from Sibu and spread to other cities/ towns.
Comment by William Lua — October 29, 2006 @ 2:35 pm
Well said there, gnudoyng. It’s a sad fact many Foochowese are letting the Foochow to vapourise. In Malaysia, youngsters who speak Foochow are also decreasing, due to government effort of speak Mandarin, despite many still say that they are Foochow.
To many youngsters, Foochow lacks many new terms and hard to learn as it has many irregularities. Unsuere about point 3 (as not a China citizen) but agrees rest of the points.
However, if Foochowese are in economy, then Foochow may survive as more will pick up the language.
That’s just my 2 cents.
Comment by Visitor — November 1, 2006 @ 3:36 pm
The decline of Foochow as a spoken language is a concern close to heart. After reading what you have written, it seems that you have - to a certain extent- some knowledge or training in sociolinguistics. Your analysis of the current state of the Foochow language is well summed up.
I live in New Zealand, and I still make the occasional trips back to my hometown (Bintangor, Sarawak, MALAYSIA) where Foochow is the main Chinese ‘dialect’ in use but I have noticed that Foochow youths -especially those who are products Chinese Language (Mandarin) Primary Schools- have almost no sense of pride in this rather unique branch of the Chinese Language.
Of course Foochow is not the only victim of Mandarinization. Penang Hokkien is another example to the extent that there are people out who make conscious efforts to revive or revitalize the use of Penang Hokkien by actively publishing books. I reckon, similar efforts should be undertaken to address the issue of decline in the context of Foochow.
The uniqueness and inpenetrability of Foochow is even acknowledged by one western scholar of the Chinese Language, Daniel Kane. Let’s do something about our beloved tongue. It will be a shame if it is allowed to die a natural death!
Comment by Oliver Loi — November 5, 2008 @ 7:24 pm