Cultural Dimensions of Language and Communication

The informant, Karina Leung, is born and raised in Hong Kong. She is currently a university student who speaks three languages - Cantonese is her first language, whereas English and Mandarin are her second languages.

Family composition

Karina's parents are both Hong-Kong-born Chinese. Her mother is from Suzhou, the neighboring city of Shanghai. Apart from speaking Cantonese and English, she possesses limited Shanghainese proficiency which can be mainly observed in the family domain. Simple lexis, high-frequency verbs and pronouns, such as "儂喜歡吃點啥?" 'what do you like to eat?', are the basic phrases that her mother can understand but is unable to speak. Karina's grandmother, on the other hand, speaks fluent Shanghainese and Cantonese, as she grew up in Shanghai and migrated to Hong Kong in the 1960s. Karina's grandfather, though, does not speak Shanghainese. Therefore, Cantonese is the common language which is employed in Karina's maternal family. In addition, Karina's father cannot speak any Chinese ancestral language or dialect. His first language is Cantonese and can speak English and Mandarin. Karina points out that geographical proximity is a key factor of her loss of Shanghainese. Since she has closer relationship with her father's side of family and lives distant from her grandmother, interaction and communication are not frequent which limit the potential acquisition and exposure to Shanghainese.

Language shift

Reaching to Karina's generation (i.e. the third generation), Shanghainese is no longer used and becomes extinct in any of the domain. Karina expresses that Cantonese and English (with code-switching) are the dominant languages that she uses in daily conversations with her family and friends. There are no intention and motivation for her to acquire Shanghainese because 'there are no absolute necessity and social function to learn Shanghainese anymore. I would prefer to learn Spanish or any other foreign language if I were given a chance', says Karina. The rationale behind is the dominance of Cantonese and career prospect for mastering a third language. This echoes Austin and Sallabank's (2011) ideas that language shift may occur when the language, Shanghainese in this case, has fewer economic, social and cultural advantages. 

Attitude to language shift and preservation of Shanghainese

The complete shift from Shanghainese to Cantonese in the younger generation provokes our discussions on the possibility of reversing language shift. Karina explains that it is a pity that she cannot preserve her "home dialect". She is proud of her grandmother since she can speak fluent Shanghainese because 'it is what a true Shanghainese does'. An important point which is raised by Karina is that, when thinking about acquiring a new language, it is not always about its social functions, 'speaking or learning dialect embraces a kind of aesthetic value which enriches one's understanding of life and history'. Regarding reversing language shift, she is positive about that, as she shows great interests in acquiring Shanghainese. Her first approach is to learn the basic vocabulary, such as the names of Shanghainese food items and cuisine by going to Shanghainese restaurants with her family. Meanwhile, she believes that by communicating with her grandmother in Shanghainese, she can gradually acquire the home language.