Hokkien is dying? how about cantonese?

Discussions on the Hokkien (Minnan) language.
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Wei

Hokkien is dying? how about cantonese?

Post by Wei »

hi all,

it's becoming a trend, ppl in penang... no matter where his/her ancestor originated, he will know how to speak hokkien. i am not a hokkien, but i do speak fluent hokkien.on the other hand, ppl in kuala lumpur will automatically speak cantonese due to the environment.

this is caused by the history : many cantonese came to SE asia and work as tin miner 100 years ago. hence, u can see ppl in Ipoh and kuala lumpur (which were famous of it's tin mining industry) speak cantonese. Many fujianese came to Malaysia and worked as fishermen. hence, u can see almost the whole northern malaysian chinese, Klang (somewhere near KL, and southern Malaysian chinese speak hokkien (most of southern malaysian speak mandarin more nowadays, maybe they r not aware of retaining their mother tongue, forgetting their roots)

Some ppl will think that hokkien is dying. but i how about cantonese? I do feel that ppl that understand cantonese is getting more (due to Hongkong TV series). anyway, i dun think that more and more ppl r using it. i dun think that cantonese will be a live language when nobody speaks but only understand it. do u feel that Cantonese is also DYING in Kuala Lumpur? when u walk on the road in Kuala lumpur, try to observe what language do the parents of KL speak to their children? it's MANDARIN!!! what will happen to cantonese after 50 years? ppl juz understand but dun wanna use it... can we still consider cantonese as a live language?!

Another IMPORTANT thing is that : the satelite TV in malaysia (ASTRO) is starting to air other dialect programmes(other than cantonese) such as hokkien language documentaries. i hope they can air more interesting programmes in other dialects other than mandarin, hokkien and cantonese.

I dun think that hokkien dialect will die in Northern Malaysia. (I am a penangite, currently staying in penang). everyone speaks that. if u dunno how to speak, u will be isolated by other 1,300,000 ppl in Penang. and i observed that some Cantonese family speak hokkien at home rather than cantonese.

i still DO feel that, other chinese dialect should be liven up such as hainanese,cantonese,teochew,fuchew,hakka. (coz hokkien really dominates the whole northern malaysia from Perlis,Kedah,Penang and Northern Perak)

wei
from penang
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