It is difficult to generalise in a country as diverse as Malaysia - in KL and Ipoh, Cantonese is very healthy due to cultural exports of Hong Kong; in Sabah, Hakka thrives despite the lack of anything similar; in Penang, Hokkien still holds on as a lingua franca, though it suffers from a lack of formal teaching and is at risk particularly amongst the young Chinese-educated; JB and Malacca are most like Singapore in that Teochew and Hokkien have ceased to be lingua francae. I can't speak for Foochow in Sitiawan or Sibu, or Hakka in other parts of East Malaysia.FutureSpy wrote:BTW, I've seem a few movies from Malay recently, and I should say I'm very disappointed at the small space given to languages other than Malay and Mandarin. Not sure if it reflects current sociolinguistics in Malaysia, but I guess Hokkien is in a much worse state in Singapore, yet it's still present in many Singaporean movies. Is it a matter of pride or something? (although I'm yet to find a Singaporean who doesn't look down or is indifferent at Hokkien)
As you may know, in most Malaysian towns, there is usually one predominant dialect, and other dialects, e.g. Hakka in Penang, tend to disappear. There is no Chinese dialect that would be understood across Malaysia other than Mandarin. Hokkien (of the Northern and Southern Malayan varieties) is the largest by population; however, due to the economic dominance of KL, Cantonese is regularly used in radio advertisements broadcast across Malaysia and Hokkien is not.