The restructuring of a speech community on a foreign land: the Tianjiners in Sabah, Malaysia

• Autores: Xiaomei Wang, Yin Yin Yeoh
• Localización: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, ISSN 0143-4632, Vol. 44, Nº. 6, 2023, págs. 467-480
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper focuses on the linguistic evolution of the Tianjin speech community in Sabah, Malaysia. From the perspective of restructuring of speech community, the paper integrates both micro and macro levels of language change into the analysis. Several methods were adopted in this study. Interviews were conducted with community leaders and various families. Besides, an ethnographic approach is taken to observe language use in different activities within the community. In total, 17 Tianjiners were interviewed who were from four generations (G3, G4, G5, and G6) and several community activities were participated. Despite all the social changes within the community, the Tianjin people (also known as northern Chinese) still manifest a strong group identity which differentiate themselves from southern Chinese, such as Hakka in Sabah. The strong group identification goes well with its diversity, which is one of the characteristics of the Tianjin speech community.