The Future of Cantonese: Language Decline

More and more languages go extinct every year. Some worry that this could be the future of Cantonese, which has been gradually pushed out by Mandarin as the dominant language of China. It might seem less convincing that Cantonese will die out due to the sheer number of Chinese people whose first language is Cantonese. However, the government has taken aggressive action against Cantonese by proposing new national policies which will enforce Mandarin as the first language in Chinese schools (www.edition.cnn.com).

The Role of Politicians in Saving a Language

Only a single generation ago, the original Welsh language of Wales in the United Kingdom was at risk of dying out completely. To prevent the further decline of Welsh, members of Cymdeithas, a Welsh language society, gathered to protect their native language and campaigned for the establishment of a public television station with Welsh-speaking programs. The pressure from these types of grassroots organizations forced politicians to favor Welsh over English as the official language of Wales. In 1993, a law was passed in Wales to permit equal access to Welsh and English for all public services. (www.edition.cnn.com) Today, the language is spoken by more than half of the people in Wales. The story of Welsh resurgence is one of tremendous effort from the politicians and participants of the pro-Welsh movement who were not only able to save their mother tongue but were also able to establish regulations to protect endangered languages. This shows that support from the government can revive a dying language.

The Dangers Approaching Cantonese

When I first came to China, I heard Cantonese almost everywhere. However, today, more than half of the population in China primarily speaks Mandarin, also known as Putonghua, instead of Cantonese. Language is far more vulnerable than people think, especially when people aren’t aware of their decline. They can even die out in a single generation. Earlier this year, a few schools in Hong Kong announced they’re dropping the traditional Chinese characters used in Hong Kong and Taiwan in favor of the simplified version used by the mainland Chinese. (www.scmp.com) This shocked the younger generations in Hong Kong. As a result, many Hong Kongers are taking it upon themselves to prevent their language’s demise. (www.asia.nikkei.com)

Although many Hong Kongers are fervent about preserving their mother tongue, the indisputable truth is that Cantonese is only a minority language. There are only 59 million Cantonese speakers around the world compared to the one billion Mandarin speakers (www.scmp.com). As Hong Kong’s economy is intimately tied with mainland China’s, the need for speaking Mandarin has risen drastically. The Chinese government and the supporters of the switch to Mandarin in Hong Kong claim that the replacement of Cantonese with Mandarin will increase the job opportunities of Hong Kongers overall. (www.asia.nikkei.com) Hongkongers fear that just like how English almost pushed out Welsh, Mandarin will completely replace Cantonese in China.

The Cause of a Language’s Decline

Most of the time, the cause of a language’s decline is the lack of its integration into the education system due to competition with more globally common languages. When Welsh was still under UNESCO’s list of endangered languages, around 95% of the students in Wales were educated in English. (www.edition.cnn.com) The demand for sharpening a person’s English writing and speaking skills has led to the decline of Welsh.

Since 2008, the Hong Kong government provided subsidies to the schools that teach Mandarin in Chinese language classes. As a result, 70% of the elementary schools in Hong Kong began to teach Mandarin as the first language. The policy may have caused students to lose the ability to read and write Cantonese properly. (www.asia.nikkei.com) Considering the political and economic realities in China, it’s inevitable that the younger generation will be more and more fluent in Mandarin over time. Extrapolating the trend, it can be determined that if there are no interventions, the future spells extinction for Cantonese.

I believe that teaching Mandarin as an additional language is helpful in many ways, but it shouldn’t replace Cantonese completely. The social organizations and the language blueprints from the Hong Kong government can improve the situation. We can advocate for the importance of Cantonese simply by showing interest in its preservation.G