Chinese as a Lingua Franca in Greater China

Bibliographic Data

ID24220855
AuthorsDavid C S Li (0000-0002-8427-0424)
Year2006
Volume26
Publication date2006-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnnual Review of Applied Linguistics (BOOK_SERIES)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0267-1905 • E-ISSN: 1471-6356
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0267190506000080
OpenAlexW2151634866
LanguageEN
Citations received54
References cited10

This discussion provides current perspectives on the use of Chinese as a lingua franca among the Han peoples of greater China. As a national lingua franca, Mandarin Chinese or pŭtōnghuąChinese morpho-syllables intended to be read in pŭtōnghuą or Mandarin are represented in pìnyīn; those which are meant to be read in Cantonese are represented in Jyutping () with two numbers in superscript indicating the tone contour (Fan et al., 1997). is unsurpassed in terms of the number of speakers. It is however not yet widely spoken in many dialect areas of China. This is why the promotion of pŭtōnghuą among dialect speakers continues to be an important part of the language policy and planning of the People's Republic. In Taiwan, as a result of some four decades of hegemonic enforcement of the National Language Movement until 1987, an absolute majority of the Taiwanese can understand and speak Mandarin, but Southern Min continues to be commonly used in the southern parts of the island, partly because for many Taiwanese, language choice is closely bound up with national and ethnolinguistic identity. In the two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong, and Macao, Cantonese continues to serve as a lingua franca among the Chinese there. It is the only dialect which has attained a level of prestige that rivals that of the standard national language, and which has evolved written forms of its own that are commonly used in informal genres of media discourses.

Cantonese · ethnolinguistic identity · Greater China · Hong Kong · language choice · Language ideology · Language planning · Language policy · Macau · Mandarin Chinese · Southern Min · Taiwan · Taiwanese language · Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies · Linguistic research and analysis · Multilingual Education and Policy

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