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

Wang, Xiaomei and Yeoh, Yin Yin (2023) The restructuring of a speech community on a foreign land: the Tianjiners in Sabah, Malaysia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 44 (6). pp. 467-480. ISSN 0143-4632, DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2020.1832100.

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

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.

Item Type: Article
Funders: Chinese National Funding of Social Sciences (19ZDA311), Xiamen University Malaysia (XMUMRF/2018-C1/IART/0001)
Uncontrolled Keywords: Speech community; Tianjin dialect; linguistic evolution; Sabah
Subjects: P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences > Institute of China Studies
Depositing User: Ms. Juhaida Abd Rahim
Date Deposited: 26 May 2025 03:29
Last Modified: 26 May 2025 03:29
URI: http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/51063

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item