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Singapore Teochew as a heritage language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2021

Cher Leng Lee  and
Chiew Pheng Phua
Cher Leng Lee*
Affiliation:
Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore, AS8 Level 5, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore119260
Chiew Pheng Phua*
Affiliation:
Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore, AS8 Level 5, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore119260
*
E-mail: chsleecl@nus.edu.sg, chspcp@nus.edu.sg
E-mail: chsleecl@nus.edu.sg, chspcp@nus.edu.sg
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Abstract

Situated in Southeast Asia, Singapore’s sociolinguistic situation has undergone several changes due to active language planning policies, with English and Mandarin becoming the two socio-politically majority languages in Singapore society. Over time, this has led to the restricted usage of various non-Mandarin dialects, including Teochew, both in public settings and within the home. This paper examines how Teochew, a heritage language in Singapore, has been affected in its vocabulary usage in apparent time. The data was collected from 41 Teochew male and female speakers aged 12–86 years. This paper contributes theoretically by showing the properties of a heritage language, Singapore Teochew, in an environment with multiple shifts of several major languages in Southeast Asia, instead of the more common situation of one major language shift.

Keywords

dialectheritage languageHokkienSingaporeTeochew
Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 44 , Special Issue 2: Special Issue on Heritage languages & Bilingualism , October 2021 , pp. 155 - 181
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Nordic Association of Linguistics

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