LANGUAGE SITUATION IN THE CHAOSHAN COMMUNITY: A PILOT STUDY

Abstract

Chaoshan, located on the east coast of Guangdong Province in South China, is a region with profound cultural and linguistic distinctiveness. This pilot study investigates the language situation in the Chaoshan region, focusing on the city of Shantou. It addresses key sociolinguistic issues such as language policy, attitude, identity, and mutual intelligibility among varieties of Teochew. Prior research mainly concentrated on language shift and maintenance, but this study delves deeper to explore sociolinguistic peculiarities within sub-communities and mutual intelligibility issues [Lin, 1994, 2005, 2017; F. Chen, 2017; H. Chen, 2020; Huang & Fang, 2021]. Results from 142 participants highlight significant intra-community differences in language practices, attitude, and identity among the three sub-communities. The South Shore sub-community - Haojiang, Chaoyang and Chaonan Districts and its variety stand out in interactions with other sub-communities: Downtown and Chenghai, primarily in language practices, attitudes and identity. The study also provides insights into the mutual intelligibility among three Teochew varieties, revealing the complexity of the language situation.