Grazer Lingui sti sche Studien 89 (Frühjah r 2018); S. 63-88.0 01:10.25364/04.45 :2018.89.4

Intergenerational transmissionof the ethnic language:Hakka stops at Gen X

Su-Hie Ting

Faculty 01Language and Communication, Universiti MalaysiaSara wa k, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, shting@unimas.my

Abs t r act. The study investigat ed tb e in ter generation al tran sm issionof the Hak ka lan guage in Sar aw ak , an East Malaysian sta te locat edon Borneo Island . The spec ific aspec ts studied wer e tb e lan gu age forfamil y communica tion and att itudes towards Hakka. For lan gu agecho ice patterns across ge ne ra tions , the case study involv ed two Hak ­ka families spa nning five to six ge ne ra tions (to ta lling 94 and 54 fa rni­Iy member s) and dat a we re collec ted tbrough in terviews. For att itu­des towards Hakka vis-a-vis Mandarin, tb e mat ch ed guise techniquewas employe d. The lan gu age cho ice results sho wc d th at Hakka w asthe on ly lan gu age for family communica tion in th e firs t three to fourge ne ra tions , sta r ting fro m th e patriar ch who migr at ed fro rn China toSara wa k. In bot h families, th e ge ne ra tion pr esently in th eir thir tiesand forties no lon ger use Hakka for communica tion with th eirspo use and cb ildre n, altho ug h th ey can speak Hakka. The main fac­tor caus ing th e sb ift away fro m Hakka in these families is mixedmarriages and residence in non-H akka dominant co mmunities in ur ­ban centre s. The resul ts on lan gu age att it ud es sho w th at non-prefe­rence for Hakka is not due to negat ive att itudes. The 23 Hakka parti­cipa nts w ho respo nded to tbe sernan tic differen tial sca le eva luatedHakka speake rs as positively as Mandarin speake rs on 14 tr ait s. Th efindings indi cat e, how ever , that tb e int er gen er ati on al tr an smi ssion ofth e Hakka lan gu age stops at Gen er ation X and is not passed on toth eir childre n.

Keywords. Hakka, Malaysia, min ority lan gu age, lan gu age loss

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1. Introduction

Su- Hie Tin g

111e inter est in the langu age sh ift situa tio n of the Hakka co m m un ityin Ch inese diaspora in vario us par ts of th e w orld is cIearl y ex p ressedin this qu ot e fr om Liu Zinfad in "Save the H ak ka Langu age":

When 99% of Hakka par ents in Hong Kong do not wan t toteach th eir chi ldre n Hakka an d as th e langu age h as no sta nd ingin th e socie ty , I see no cha nce of survival for Hakk a in 30years ' time. (cited in Chi n , 2008, p. 61)

Chi n (2008) refer s to Hakka as her so u l langu age, despite beingim mersed in th e Eng lis h langu age since yo ung. 111e survival of th eH akka langu age in Malaysia is not as th reat ened as tha t in H ongKong (see also Lau, 2005). However , th er e are indicati ons th at Hakkam ay be di splaced by Mandarin or othe r Ch inese di alect s in ce r ta inparts of Malaysia, Fo r exam ple , T ing and Cha ng 's (2008) s tudy of anextended Hakka fa mil y in Kuc hi ng, Sa rawak co m prisi ng 62 m ember sspann ing five gen era tions revea led an emerge nce of a supra-Chi neseide n tity h in ged to the use of Mandarin as th e fir st langu age. Hakkah ad become irrelevant to so me member s of th e yo unge r gen era tionin th eir teens and tw enties who we re born in mi xed -marriage fa mi ­lies w her e one of th e ir par ents, usually thei r mot h er , was not H akka.

111e pr esent study in vesti gat ed th e inter gen er ati on al tr ansrn is­s ion of th e Hakka langu age in Sa rawak, an Eas t Malaysia n s ta te loca ­te d on Bo rneo Island adjacen t to another Ma laysian state (Sabah) andKal im antan of In donesia . 111e specific aspects studie d were th e lan ­guage fo r family co m m uni ca tion, and a tt itudes towards Hakka . Th iss tudy suggests th at th e inter gen er ati on al tr ansmission of th e Hakkalangu age s to ps a t Gene ra tio n X and is not passed on to th eir chi l­dren .

111e inter gener a tiona l tr ansmission of th e ethn ic langu age is cru ­cia l for th e maintenance of the langu age in fu ture ge ne ra tions in th efa m ily. 111e lit erature has sho w n th e role of th e mother tongu e,m ixed marriage anci rural/urban locality of res idence in ex p la ini ng ash ift fro m Ch inese di alect s to Ma ndarin or Englis h amo ng th e Chi­nese co mmuni ty in Malaysia. For the Th ai -H ainanese and Can to nesefamil ies in Ku ala Lumpur (Kow , 2003 ; Kuang , 2002) , H okkien fa rn i­lies in Penang (Low, Nich ol as, & W ales, 20 10) and T eoch ew familiesin Kuching (Ting & Sim, 2015), mi xed marriage is a fac to r which

Intergenerational transmission of the ethnic language 65

pushes out Chines e dial ects. However , in Foochow families, the non ­tran smi ssion of the Foochow dialect is happening eve n in familieswhe re both par ents are Fooch ow wh ether 0 1' not th ey are livin g intr adition ally Foochow-dominant area s (Ting , 2006 ; Ting & Hung,2008; Ting & Mah adhir, 2009). Resear cher s (e.g., Holm es 1992;Spolsky, 1998) ha ve identified pride in th e ethnic lan gu age, soc ialnetwork and rural locality as facto rs slowing down lan gu age shift.From th eir survey, Puah and Ting (2016) concluded th at lan gu ageshift may be slowe r in eth nic groups which hold on to th e patrimon yview such as the Hokkien in Sar aw ak compa red to th e Fooch ow whobelieve in th e paterni ty dim en sion of the relation ship between lan ­guage and ethnicity (Fishma n, 1977)1. 1hese are micro fac tor s con­nect ed to th e family situa tion compare d to macro fac tor s dealing

.with the vita lity of th e ethnic langu age in the speech community.Ethnoling uistic vitality is defined as the vit alit y which makes "a

gro up likely to beh ave as a disti nctive and active collec tive en tity inintergr oup situa tions" (Giles , Taylor , & Bourhis, 1977, p. 308) and ca nbe assessed from th ree struc tural fact ors. A gro up with high ethno­lingui sti c vit ality is on e with (1) numerica] dominan ce and distribu­tion of th e ethnic group, (2) high soc iohisto rica l presti ge, soc ial andeco no mic and lan guage sta tus , and (3) institution al sup po rt in educa­tion al , politi cal, religiou s, eco no mic, cultural and mass medi a institu­tion s (Giles et al., 1977). 1he cho ice of lan gu age for family corn-

Fishman (1977) conce ptua lised th e three dimen sion s of ethnicityas comprising pat ernity, patrimon y and ph en om en ology. First , inth e pat ernity dim en sion of the lan gu age-ethnici ty link, lan gu age"is not eve n merel y an ethnic symbol in and of itself. It is flesh ofth e flesh and blood of the blood" (p. 19). In othe r w ord s, lan gu ageis treat ed as a birth-ascribed cha rac teristic and the pr edi spositi onto speak one's ethnic langu age is in herited. In th e patrimonydimensio n, lan guage is learned beh aviour used to express ethnicgroup memb ership. Lan guage is a symbol of ethnic identity, anda part icul ar lan gu age is int ention ally used in social inter action sto mark eth nic identity. From the phenomen ological per specti ve,any th ing can becom e sy mbolic of ethnicity such as lan gu age,cuisine , dr ess and ph ysical features (Fishman, 1977, pp . 20-2 4).Any symbo l can convey ethnic identi ty dep ending on th e beliefs,expec ta tions and aspira tions of individuals with respect to th eirethnic gro up memb ership.

66 Su-Hie Ting

municati on can be influen ced by the ethnolinguistic vitality of theethnic Ian gu age. TI1e Hakk a in Sarawa k is an int eresting case to stu­dy lan guage maintenan ce and shift because the int ergen erati onaltrans mission of Hakk a stops with Generation X wh o are in their for ­ties and fifties. To facilita te comprehe ns ion of the lan guage situa tionof th e Ha kka in Sarawak, soc iocultura l background inform ation onthe Hakk a in Eas t Malays ia is describ ed next.

Fig. 1. Map showing the places in China where the forefa thers of theChinese people of Sabah came from (Source: Special Opera tionsResea rch Office 1996).

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2. Sociocultural background of Hakka inEast Malaysia

TI1is sec tion begin s with th e histori cal backgr ound of th e Hakk a inSabah before movin g on to the Hakk a in Sarawa k. Sabah is a neigh ­bour ing sta te whe re the Hakk a is the dominant Chinese dialectgroup compared to Sarawak whe re the Hakk a popu lati on is similar

Int ergenerati onal tran smission of the ethnic lan guage 67

to the Foochow. The Hakk a vari eti es include Hoppu, Kayin g, Tappu,Hw eilai, Hw eichow and Lufeng (Fang, 2004).

The migrati on of Hakka from China dates back to the 18th cen tu­ry. Their origin al place of residen ce was Zhongyu an in China , andth ey initi ally migrated southwa rds to avo id war and natural calami­ties. Possibly the Hakk a received their nam e Hakk a or "guests" be ­cause they were cons idered gues ts in southe rn provin ces like Fujian ,Guangdong and Guan gxi (Zha ng, 2002). Figure 1 shows th e places inChina wh ere the forefath ers of the Chinese people of Sabah camefrom. Later in the mid -19th century, there was an influ x of Hakkasett lers in Singapore, North Born eo (presently Sabah ), West Borneo(presently Kalimantan Borneo). In due course , th ey mov ed to Bau ,Simanggang and Engkili districts in Sarawak and to Sabah (Zha ng ,2002).

Today , Hakk a accounts for 60 perc ent of the Chinese populationin Sabah (TI1e Borneo Post , 2017). Much is known about th e Hakk a inSabah because of the int erest of early scho lars in the history of theChinese in Sabah . Zhan g (2007) described the Hakk as of Sabah as ha ­ving a "fanatical enthus iasm for educa tion" altho ugh the immi gr antswere farmers (p. 50). Those with some educa tion turned their homesand shops int o centres of educa tion. TI1e legacy left by th e Hakk a im ­migrants wh o were conc ern ed with education are Chinese-mediumschoo ls set up by community groups and Eng lish-medium schoo lsset up by Christian missionari es from the Roman Cat ho lic Churc h,the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and th e Basel Mis sio­nar y Society (Wo ng , 2005). Wong (2005) noted th at th e ChristianHakk as were more open to English education, and th eir bett er gras pof English en abled them to work in govern me nt departments andhold white-collar jobs - until the introduction of Malay as th e me­dium of instruction in 1970. In the 1921 cen sus, Hakk a was the lar ­gest Chinese dialect group with a population of 18,000 whi ch repre­sen ted 47.82 percent of the total Chinese population in Sabah(Zha ng , 2002). Bein g the majority Chinese dialect group, Hakk a wasthe most spaken dialect in Sabah and th e Cha rtered Company go ­vern ment even gave a bonus to European officials who could spe akHakk a (Zha ng , 2002). At that time, lessons were conduc ted in Hakk aand most of the speakers were un able to teach in Mandarin. Theseschoo ls closed during the ] apan ese Occupation. Zhan g (2002) furtherreport ed that it was only after World War II that Mandarin was pr o-

68 Su-Hie Tin g

mot ed as a commo n Chinese lan gu age to int egr at e the Chinese dia ­lect gro ups and thi s pr ovid ed a mean s to tr an scend dialect com mu­nali sm . In th e 1991 cens us, th e Hakka comprised 56.8 per cent of th eChinese po pula tio n in Sabah, and acco unted for abo ut 50 per cent ofth e pr ofession s from ph armacist s to acco unta n ts (Zha ng , 2002). Byth e ea rly 20th cen tury, th e Hakka had gai ne d a foo tho ld in corn­merce, ind us try and trad e. In terms of ethno linguis tic vita lity , th eHakka in Sabah has numeri cal stre ng th, and Hakka peopl e have agood socio-econo mic status , which confers a high sta tus on th e Hak ­ka dialect rel ati ve to othe r Chinese dialects in Sabah.

In co mpa riso n to Sabah , less has been writte n abou t the Hakkain Sara wa k. 1her e is liter ature on th e marri age of Hakka women (e.g.Cha i, 2006; 2007; 2008) but hardly any lit er ature is ava ilable on th elan gu age situa tion of th e Sara wak Hakka (e.g., Ting & Cha ng , 2008).In Sara wa k, th e Hakka are mostl y found in th e Kuching division ofSarawak. 1he Hakka w ho migr at ed fro m differ ent parts of Kw an g ­tung prov ince forme d sepa ra te associatio ns: P'u- i Associa tion forth ose fro m Tap 'u Hsien and th e Kiaying Associa tio n for th ose fro mth e Kiayi ng perfect ur e (T' ien, 1953). In Sarawak th e Hakka se ttle ddown in Bau, a gold-mining se tt leme n t. They we re pr ot ect ed by th ekongsi, an orga n ised economic, soc ial and po litical body eq uivalentto a govern men t (Hwang, 2002). 1he second wave of Hakka immi ­gra nts in 1900 ve ntured in to agr icul tural ac tivi ties at Sun ga i Maong,Matang, Stampin , Arang Road , Batu Kitan g, an d Mile 10 to 12 of theKuc hing/Seria n Road (Fang, 2004). The Hakka also planted cas hcrops , mai nly peppe r and gambier (Chew, 1990). How ever , th e majo­rit y of th e Hakka took up cas h-cropping , and tod ay man y are stillagriculturalis ts in th e Kuching and Sama ra ha n Division s, with asma lle r number in th e Sri Ama n and Mir i areas. Due to th eir ea rlyac tiv ities , th e Hakka are associa ted with rurallivin g and farming.

1he Hakka is curre ntly not the majority Chinese dialect gro up inSa ra wa k. In th e 1947 cens us , th e Hakka populati on was th e lar gestChinese dial ect group with a populati on of 45,409 which represented31.28 per cent of th e Chi nese populati on in Sara wak, followed closelyby th e Fooch ow with 28.90 per cent (T' ien, 1997). In lat er years, th eFooc how populati on caug h t up . The lat est po pula tion cens us whichpr ovided a breakdown of th e populati on of th e Chinese dialect gro upwa s th at of 2010. Amo ng th e Chi nese in Sarawak, th e Foochow is th elarges t group (37.47%), followed by th e Hakka (31.54%), Hokkien

Int ergenerational tran smission of the ethnic lan guage 69

(13.66%) , Teochew (6.34%), Cantone se (3.91%), Henghua (2.40%), andHainan (1.30%) (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2014). Ihe Hakk aare also lar gely restricted to the Kuching district of Sar aw ak. Ihere ­fore, Hakk a is mostly spoken within the Hakka community and it isuncommon for other Chinese dialect groups to learn Hakk a, unlessthey grow up with Hakk a peopl e 01' int erm arry with them and con ­tinue to live in Hakka-dominated areas. Che w (1990) describ ed th ecoexisten ce of the Hakka kongsi with its Land Dayak neighb oursthrou gh int erm arriage and a mixed community had evolved ove rtim e. (The Land Dayak is anothe r referen ce for the Bidayuh" peopl eof Sar aw ak, one of the indi genous groups wh o histori cally also occ u­pied the Kuching distri ct of Sarawa k.) At the pr esent time , the Hakkahave settled down in cities , hold pr ofession al jo bs and live amo ngnon -Hakk as . In terms of ethno ling uistic vita lity , th e Hakk a con stitu­te almos t one- third of the Chinese populati on in Sarawa k but in ur ­ban areas , the Hakka do not have numeri cal strength. In addi tion ,they are also not well-distributed through out Sar awak since th e Hak ­ka populati on is lar gely restricted to the subur ban and rural par ts ofKuching. Their lan gu age does not enjoy high social sta tus becau sethe lack of soc iohisto rical pr estige attache d to fanning (similar towh at is experienced by the Foochow in Sarawa k). Furthermore, thenumber of Hakk a amo ng th e professions and comme rce had beenrelati vely sma ll.

3. Method of study

3.1. Participants

The case study involved tw o Hakk a families livin g in urb an Kuching(referred to as Cha ng and Liaw in thi s pap er). The ances tors of bothfamili es had migrat ed from China and se tt led down as farmers in th erural area of Kuching, the capital city of Sar awak. They have a hu geextended famil y, some of wh om have moved out of Sara wa k to livein Sabah and West Malaysia becau se of marriage, studies and work.The dat a on the lan gu age for famil y communication in th e Cha ngand Liaw famili es were obtained throu gh tw o consultan ts , both ofwhom were former students of the resear cher.

70 Su-Hie Ting

The Cha ng famil y comprising 94 memb ers has reach ed the fifthge ne ra tio n since their ances tors migrated from China in 1925. TI1eywork ed as plantation work ers at Mile 24, Kuching. TI1ey had fourchildren (Genera tion 2), and th e extended famil y selected for thi sstudy is that of the eldes t son (G2Ivl1, referred to as "Chang pa­tri ar ch" in thi s paper ). TI1 e Cha ng patriar ch passed away in ea rly2018 and his wife had passed away mu ch ea rlier in 1998. The Cha ngpatriar ch had eight childre n (Gene ra tion 3 comprising five sons andthree dau ghters ). Initi ally the extended famil y lived together at theirplantati on but in 1955, th e Cha ng patri arch set up a nursery in Mua­ra Tu an g, a suburban area of Kuching. Muar a Tuan g is a Hakk a do ­min ant area. His first and fourth sons as weil as his eldes t dau ghtermoved to the same residential area in an urb an area of Kuching. TI1eseco nd and third dau ghter s of the Chang family had moved to Sabahand Au stralia respectiv ely. Onl y the second and YO UJ1gest sons arestill living with th eir father at th e plantati on . TI1e Cha ng famil y meetat least five tim es a yea r for famil y events and are in frequ ent tele­pho ne contac t. Some eve n visit their patriar ch at least twi ce a month.TI1e lan gu age use of Gene ra tion 4 was reported in Ting and Cha ng(2008) wh o had obse rved the emerge nce of Man darin at thi s point.Ta ble 1 shows th e mixed marriage in th e Cha ng family.

TI1e Liaw famil y comprising 54 members has reac he d the sixthge neration since the genera tion that migrat ed from China and se ttleddown in Matang, Kuching. TI1e first tw o genera tions were farme rsand had passed away at the tim e of the study. TI1e th ird gene ra tio ngrandfather is referred to as the Liaw patriar ch in thi s paper (G3M 1in Appendix 2). He passed away in 2011 at 77 yea rs old (born in1934). From farming, he moved to welding, TI1e matriar ch lives inMat an g, wh ere th e first ge ne ra tion of the Liaw family first sett led.TI1C Liaw patriar ch had eight childre n (Gene ration 4 comprisin g foursons and four daughter s). TI1e eldes t and youngest dau ghter s hadpassed away at the tim e of the study, and the famil y of th e seco ndyo ungest dau ghter lives in Per ak. Tw o memb ers of Gene ra tion 5 areworking in Kuala Lumpur but th e rest of the ex tended famil y live inva rio us parts of Kuching. TI1e study focused on lan gu age use in thesix ge nera tions of th e Liaw famil y.

For the matched guise technique, the study inv olved 22 Hakk apa rticipa n ts (9 male, 13 female). TI1e se lection criteria includedHakka par entage (eithe r par ent) and ability to under stand and spea k

Intergenerational transmission of the ethnic language 71

Hakka. Twelve of them had Hakka father s and mother s, tw o partici­pants had Hakka mot her s and six had Hakka father s. The ave rageage of th e participants was 30 (22-5 4 years old). Mos t of th e par tici­pants had Form Six education (13) and th e rest had Form Three (1),Form Five (5) and degr ee (3). Most of th em went to Chinese primar yschool and Malay seconda ry schooI. On a sca le of seven, th e partici­pa nts rat ed th eir Manda rin and Hakka proficien cy as 4.03 and 4.86resp ectively (1 for "very poor " and 7 for "excellen t").

3.2. Data collection and analysis procedures

Two sources of da ta were obta ined in the pr esent study to exa m inelan guage use and langu age att itudes via a structured in ter view andthe mat ched guise technique respectiv ely.

In this study, stru ctured int erviews wer e co nduc ted to elicit th eco ns ultants' rep orts of th e language for family communica tion inth eir ex tended family. Eng lish was used for th e inter views. In th ecase of th e Cha ng fam ily, th e initial dat a wer e obta ine d in 2008 byth e resear cher 's former stude n t and thi s was updat ed throu gh atelephon e ca ll to her in 20 18. Ther e was litt le cha nge in th e da ta onlan gu age for family communication, apa r t from th e addi tio n of newmem ber s to th e famil y throu gh births and marriages. In th e case ofth e Liaw fam ily, th e interview was conducted in th e resear ch er 'shou se in the pr esen ce of her mother and her eIde r sis ter. W he n shewas not sure of the lan gu age for family com munica tio n in her fami­lies of her aunts and un cles, she referred to her mother. TI1ey alsopr ovid ed othe r demogr aphic informati on on th eir family member s,including age, occupation and place of resid en ce.

For th e matched guise tech nique, the sema n tic differ ential scalecomprised 12 eva lua tive traits. TI1e sca le was formul at ed fro m inter ­view s with 11 Hakka participan ts who we re asked to list th e charac­teristics of Hak ka people. TI1e 11 participants ran ged in age from th etw enties to th e sixties , and th eir occ upa tions included hawker s, tai ­lor s, clerks, teacher s, sho p ow ne rs , and studen ts . These eva lua tivetraits were elicited from int er view s with Hakka particip ants in Ku ­ch ing rather than th e liter ature becau se th e tr ait s are "likely to behighl y culture bound" (McKenz ie 2007, p. 80) and also becau se suchliter ature was not ava ilable. In it ially 18 traits wer e identified fromth e int erview s but afte r th e distincti ven ess of th e tr ait s wer e studied,

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12 tr ait s w er e se lec ted. The bip olar tr ait s placed in th e sema n tic diffe ­rential sca le wer e: friendliness, helpfulness, se lf-re liance , ge ntleness ,fuss iness, ton e, humility, w ealth, thriftiness, loudness, skin colour,and dili gen ce. Learning from th e experience of Puah and Ting (201 5)

who employe d th e mat ch ed guise technique to study th e att itudes ofFooch ow and Hokkien , th e negative end of th e bip olar pair wasexpressed usin g "no t" (e.g., unfriendly , unhelpful) rather th an "less"to show th e clear abse nce of th e tr ait. In ad dition to th e 12 tra its, tw ogeneral evalua tive item s were included for ove ra ll impression s (Ve rybad-very good imp ression) and possibl e or igin of speake r (rur al-ur­ban ). In th is study, a seven-poin t sca le was chosen to ob ta in finer re­su lts (Osgoo d 1957; Swarte 20 11) becau se resear ch er s who employeda five-point se ma ntic differ ential sca le found th at th e ex tre me num ­ber s wer e usu ally not chose n (Gilliland, 2006; Karahan , 2007; Mich eli ,200 1). In the presen t study, a bilingua l sca le was prep ar ed with Eng ­lish and Chine se wo rds placed side by side for use in th e Hakka corn ­munity as they are m ost ly Chinese -educated.

Pot en tial pa rticipan ts for th e mat ched guise techniqu e we reide n tifie d throu gh Face boo k and social contac ts. They we re informe dof th e purpose of th e study, and inv ited to particip at e in the study.1110se willing to be involved wer e as ked to sign a conse n t form andto pr ovid e per son al particul ar s such as age, educatio na l level , occ u­pati on , par ents ' e thnic gro up, pr oficien cy in Mandarin and Hakka.

In th e mat ch ed guise technique, Hakka particip ants we re aske dto listen to recor dings of Hak ka and Mandarin speake rs and markth e tra it tha t ap plied to th e speake r. The recording was abo u t a re ­coun t of an acci den t. Four recordings we re played to th e pa rtic i­pa nts : Female spe aker of Ma nda rin, fema le spea ke r of Hakka, malespeaker of Ma nda rin , and male speake r of Hakka. In effect, th erewe re on ly tw o spea ke rs: a fem ale speake r wh o was as ke d to recountth e in cid ent in Mandarin and also in Hakka, ancl a male speake r whodid th e same . The speake rs w er e not given a scr ipt to ret ain th espon taneity of natural speech. The mat ch ed guise technique has beencr iticised for th e ar tificia lity (Edwards , 1982) as we Il as decon textua­lise d nature of recorded speech to th e ex te n t th at reading skillsrather th an lan gu age att itudes may be judged (Faso ld, 1984; Garre tt ,20 10). The recor din gs we re played two times in a qu iet place such ashornes and offices so th at particip ants could hear th e vo ices clearl y.

Inter gen er ation al tr an smi ssion of th e e thn ic lan gu age 73

Loureir o-Rodrigu ez, Boggess and Goldsmith (2013) also played th erecordings tw o tim es.

For th e analysis, the evalua tions of the tr aits (on a sca le of 1 to 7)wer e keyed into Excel shee ts and me an s and sta nda rd deviati on swer e ca lcu lated to find out differ en ces between eva lua tio ns of Hakkaand Ma nda r in speake rs, as w eil as th e ge nde r effec t. T-t est s of diffe ­ren ce wer e run to find out if th er e were significa n t differ en ces du e tolan gu age and ge nder of speake rs.

4. Results

1his section pr esents the results on the language for family corn mu ­nic ation in tw o exte nded Hakka families and th e pr eliminar ymatched guise results on att itudes towards Hakka and Mandarin. 111emat ched guise results are based on a small sampie size. Althou gh thi shas limitati on s, at least th e results give an indicati on of att itudestow ards th e Hakka lan gu age.

4.1. Language for family communication intwo extended Hakka families

In the Cha ng family, Gene ra tions 1 and 2 used Hakka as th e lan ­guage for family communica tio n. 111e gra ndfa the r in Ge ne ra tio n 2(G2fvl1) is referred to as th e Cha ng patriar ch and he had eigh t chi l­dr en . Tabl e 1 shows th at other lan gu ages sta r ted to eme rge in h isch ildre ri 's gene ra tion, referred to as Gen er ati on 3 in th is pap er. 111eyare now in their forti es to sixties . In this pap er , Ge ne ra tion 3 is re fer ­red to as aun ts and uncles from th e persp ecti ve of th e co ns ulta n t inGen eration 4. 111e use of these fami ly address term s also mak es iteas ier for readers to un derst an d than using G3F1 (to refer to Aunt 1)or G3Ivl1 (to refer to Uncle 1) and so on. 111e analys is of fami ly lan ­guage use will fOCl.IS on married couples with ch ildre n.

Table 1. Lan gu age spo ken to children by Gene ra tions 3 to 4 inCha ng family (Abbrevia tions: G = ge ne ra tion; MD = Mandarin, EN =

Eng lish, HK = Hakka/Keji a, HO = Hokkien /Fuji an ; hu sb. = hu sband;AUS = Au stralia)

G3 Uncle , & Hakka w ife (70s , Kuch in g) IvlD4 G4 Dau ghter & Ca n tonese husb. (40s , Kuching) E T

74 Su- Hie Tin g

4 G5 Son (11)4 G4 Son & Hakk a wife (40, Kuching) lvlD , EN

4 G5 Daught er (7); Son (4)G3 Aun t, & Hakk a hu sb . (70s, Kuching) HK

4 G4 Dau ght cr , & Foochow hu sb . (50, Kuching) MD4 G5 Dau ghter . (17); Daugh ter, (15)

4 G4 Daught er , & ChaoAn Husb. (40s, Kuch ing) l\ilD

4 G4 Se n , (40s, Kuch ing)4 G5 Dau ghter , (7); Son 1 (5); Dau ght er 2 (4)

4 G4 Dau ghter , (40s, Kuching)4 G4 Son, & Foochow wife (40s, Kuchin g) lvlD, EN

4 G5 Son (15)4 G4 Sen, & Taiwan Hokkien wife (40, Kuch ing) ["lD , EN

4 G5 Dau ghter (14)G3 Unclc, & Hakka w ife (60s, Kuchi ng) HK > [" lD

4 G4 Hak ka so n , & Hakka wife (40s , Kuchi ng) MD4 G5 Son , (17); Daughter 1 (13); Daught er , (13)

4 G4 Dau ght er, & Hokkien hu sb. (40s, KL) MD4 G5 Da ughte r (15); Sen , (11); Son, (4)

4 G4 Daught er , & Hokkien hu sb. (40, Kuch ing) MD4 G5 Dau ghter . (10); Dau ghter, (8); Son , (7); Son, (5)

4 G4 Daughter , & Hokkien husb . (30s , Kuch ing) MD4 G5 Daughter , (5); Daughter , (4)

4 G4 Dau ghter, (30s, Kuch ing)G3 Unc le, & Hen g Hu a wife (60s, Kuchi ng) ["lD

4 G4 Dau gh ter , & China Chinese hu sb. (30s, AUS) EN, ["lD4 G5 Daughter (4); Son (3)

4 G4 Dau ghter , & Taiwan Hokkien hu sb. (30s, MDAu stralia)

4 G4 Dau ghter , anel Hakka hu sband (30s, Aus tra lia) [\ilD4 G5 Dau ghter (0.5)

4 G4 Son , (20s, Australia)G3 Uncle, and Cantonese wi fe (60s, Kuching) l\ilD , EN

4 G4 Son & China Chinese wife (30s, AUS) l\ilD , EN4 G5 Son (3)

4 G4 Daught er & j oh or hu sb. (30s, Austr alia) ENG3 Unc le, & Hokkien w ife (50s , Kuchi ng) HO

4 G4 Dau ght er , (20s, Kuching)4 G4 Son , (20, Kuchin g)4 G4 Dau ghter , (12, Kuch ing)

G3 Aun t, & Hokkien hu sb. (50s, Sabah) MD4 G4 Dau ghter . (30s, Sabah)4 G4 Se n , & Hokk ien wi fe (30s, Sabah) l"lD

In tergenera tional transm iss ion of the et h nic lan guage 75

MDMDEN

~ G4

G3~ G4

t, G5 Son (11); Da ughte r (2)Dau gh ter , & Hokkien husb. (30, Sab ah )Aunt, & Hakk a husb. (50s , AUS)Son & Hong Kong Ca n tonese wife (30s , AUS)

t, G5 Son , (7); Son, (4)t, G4 Da ughter & Aust ralian Chinese h usb. (20s, AUS)

In Gene ra tion 3 of Cha ng famil y, four out of eigh t mem ber s are mar ­ried to Hakka spo use s but only Uncle 2 and Aunt 1 used Hakka as alan gu age for famil y communica tio n. The fac to rs fos ter ing th e Hakka­spea king se tt ing in th e family of Aunt 1 could be th e Hakka-H akkamarriage, primar y school educa tio n and th eir rural localit y. The firs tdau ghter and her hu sband ow ned a rubber factor y at the 16th Mile,Kuching wh ere th ere were large number s of Hakka spea ke rs. Theyhad six ch ildren (Gene ra tion 4), three of w ho m had tertiar y educa­tion in New Zealand. Most of th eir childre n were in volved in man a ­ging th e rubb er factory altho ug h th ey we re livin g in an ur ban hou ­sing area in Kuching. TI1e par ents spo ke to the chi ldre n in Hakkasince th ey we re young becau se the par ents feit th at Hakka was th eirlanguage and th ey could express th emselves better in Hakka. The ab ­sence of Manda rin in th e family was du e to the ir lack of profic iencyin the language as th ey had minimal forma l education.

Mandarin is a mor e prevalent lang uage for family communica­tio n among Gene ra tion 4, th e cousi ns of th e consul ta n t w ho ra nge inage fro m th e twenties to the fifties . Mandarin is th e lan gu age for fa ­mil y communicat ion in Uncle i ' s family (altho ugh he has a Hakkawife) as we Il as for Uncle 3, Uncle 4, Aunt 2 and Aunt 3. Aunt 2 ismarried to a Hokki en hu sban d but since th ey live in Saba h whe reHokkien is not spo ken mu ch , it is expec ted th at th ey wo uld use Man­darin for family communication. TI1e only one using Hokkien as th efamil y lan gu age is Uncle 5 wh o has a Hokkien wife and th ey live inKuching. The only one usin g Hakka for fam ily communica tion isUncle 2 who has a Hakk a wife and th ey live in Kuch ing. He is in th efamil y busin ess of running th e nursery with his father.

With non e of Gene ra tion 4 speaking Hakka, it is clear th at profi ­ciency in Hakk a sto ps at th eir ge ne ra tion. Tabl e 1 shows th at Ge ne­ration 4 who are married (with or witho ut children) all speak Ma n da­rin and Hokkien with their children (Gene ration 5). Hakka is no tused at all beca use th eir pa ren ts alrea dy did not speak Hakk a wi ththem. In the Cha ng family, the Hakka lan gu age has been pushed out

76 Su- Hie Ting

by th e time they reached Gener ation 5. Generation 4 who are in theirtw enties to forties can still und erstand Hakka, eve n if they do notspea k th e lan gu age. However , Hakk a is not in the lingui sti c reper ­toir e of Gene ra tion 5 of the Cha ng famil y.

The factor s bringin g about th e use of Mandarin as a hom e lan­guage among Gene ra tion 4 members are int ermarriage with othe rChinese sub-g roups or lü gher education (Uncle 3 and Uncle 4),coupled with residen ce in non -Hakk a dominant areas in urb an Ku ­ching (Uncle 3), Sabah (Aunt 2) or Au stralia (Aunt 3). 1hese factors,a ided by th eir Ch inese educa tiona l backgr ound, made Mandarin aconvenient cho ice. The use of Mand arin for com municative efficien­cy in th e famil y is a pot ent factor pushing out the use of their respec­tive Chinese lan gu ages, thereby cha nging the lingu ist ic lan dscape ofth e fami ly.

HK

HK

HK

H K

4 G54 G5

G44 G54 G54 G5

G44 G54 G54 G54 G5

Table 2. Lan guage spo ken to children by Generations 4 to 6 in Liawfamily (Abbre viations: G = gene ration, n.d . = now divorc ed; IvlD =Mandarin, EN = English , HK = Hakka/Kejia, HO = Hokk ien /Fujian ,TEO =Teochew , BI = Bidayuh, Ml, = Malay; hu sb. = hu sband; AUS =Aus tra lia , SGP =Singapo re , KL = Kuala Lumpur; * =deceased)

G4 A u n t 1* & T EO h u sb . (60s , Singapo re) HO4 G5 T EO da ughter 1 & HO hu sb. (40s, SGP) HO

4 G6 Sa n (2+) ; Dau ghter (2+) (tw ins)4 G5 T EO so n 1 (30s , SG P)

G4 Uncle 1 and HK wife (60s , Ku ching)4 G5 H K son 1 (30s , Singapo re)4 G5 H K daught e r 1 & Hen g Hua husb. (40s , Ku ch in g) HO

4 G6 Sa n 1 (13)4 G5 HK daughter 2 & Ha kk a hu sb . (30s , Kuch ing)

Dau ghter (1 m onth)HK daugh ter 3 (30, KL)HK daughter 4 (30, Ku ching)Uncle 2 & Hokkien wife (60s , Kuching)HK da ughter 1 (30s, Ku ching)HK so n (20s, Ku ching)H akka dau ghter 2 (30, Ku ching)Unc le 3 & Hakka wife (60, Ku ching)HK so n 1 (30s , Ku chin g)H K da ught er 1 (30, Kuch in g)H K daughter 2 (20s, Ku ch in g)HK so n 2 (20s , KL)

In tergenera tional transmissio n of the ethnic language 77

~ G5

G4~ G5

~ G5

~ G5

G4~ G5

~ G6

~ G5

G4~ G5

~ G5

~ G5

~ G5

G4

HK da ughter 3 (20s , Kuch in g)Uncle 4 & Iban w ife (50s , Kuch in g)HK so n 1 & Iban wife (30s , Kuching)HK so n 2 & Iban wi fe (20s , Kuc h ing)HK dau ghter 1 (20s, Kuching)Aun t 2 & Hokkien hu sb. (n .d.) (50s, Kuching)HO da ughter 1 & HO hu sb. (30s, SGP )Daugh te r 1 (9); Son 1 (7)Son (30s)Au nt 3 & ML husb. (50s, Perak )ML da ugh ter 1 & Malay husb. (20s, Per ak )M L daugh ter 2 (20s, Perak)ML dau ghter 3 (20s , Pe rak)ML so n 1 (18, Perak)Au n t 4* (50s , Kuching)

HK, BIMD, BIMD, BI

HOHO

ivlLML

In the Liaw family, Genera tions 1, 2 and 3 used Hakk a as th e lan ­guage for family communication. Table 2 shows tha t other languagesstarted to emerge in Gene ra tion 4 due to mixed marriages. This ge ne­rat ion is refe rred to as aunts and un cles fro m the perspective of theconsul tant in Genera tion 5. The consultant's you nges t aun t did notge t marr ied ; hen ce, the analys is of family lan guage use will focus onthe other seve n aunts and uncl es.

Of the seven memb ers of Gen eration 4, Hakk a is the main lan ­guage for family communication in three famili es. For Uncles 1 and3, th is is expected becau se both hu sband and wife are Hakka. How ­eve r, Uncle 2 has a Hokki en wife, and yet she learnt to speak Hakk aand used it as the language for family communicat ion wit h her chil ­dren. The wives usually learn to spea k the language of their hu s­ban ds and use it with th eir children. This can be furthe r seen in thelan guage use of th e consultant's aunts. Aunt 1 is married to a Tee ­chew and lives in Singa pore. Aunt 1 could spea k Hokki en bett er th anTeochew. Therefore, Hokki en ended up as the lan guage for famil ycommunication. Aunt 2 was marri ed to a Hokki en before she was di ­vorced, and in her case , it is natural that Hokki en was used for fa­mily communica tion. Tw o Gen eration 4 memb ers married spouses ofothe r ethnic groups (Iban, Uncle 4; Malay, Aunt 3). Uncle 4's wifeaccommodated by spea king Hakk a an d Bidayuh to her children. Herfathe r is Iban , which is why she cons ide rs her self to be from the Ibanethnic group but she spea ks Bidayuh, her moth er 's ethnic lan gu age.

78 Su-Hie Ting

Aun t 3's total acco mmo da tio n can be seen in th e use of Malay as th eon ly lan gu age for family communica tion.

With thi s backgr ound, we exa mine th e lan gu age for family corn­municati on by Ge ne ra tion 5, w ho are cous ins of th e cons ultan t. Onl yfour of her cous ins have ch ildre n , and th e ana lysis w ill focus onth ese four co uples. The eldes t dau ghter of Aun t 1 who is Teoch ew ,following her fathers Chinese descent, married a Hokkien hu sbandand lives in Singapo re. Since she had grown up speaking Hokkienand her hu sband is Hokkien , it is natural for her to speak Hokkienw ith her so n and dau ghter. Next , th e con sultant has tw o cous ins inUncle l ' s family w ho are marri ed with ch ildre n. Hi s eldes t daughteris married to a Hen g Hu a hu sband and lives in Kuching. Sinc e th eycould not speak each othe r 's Ch inese dialect, they chose to use Hok ­kien (a sha re d lan gu age) wi th their teenage so n because of conve­ni en ce. As for hi s second dau ghter who is married to a Hakka, theuse of Hakka in th e fam ily is maintained . Finally, th e cons ulta n t 'sco us in in Aun t 2's family is married to a Hokkien hu sband and th eyspeak Hokkien with th eir two childre n . She had grown up speakingHokkien since she has a Hok kien father and her Hakka mother hadaccommo da ted by speaking hi s lan gu age.

The results fro m th e Liaw fami ly show th at it tak es Hakka-Hak ­ka ma rr iages for th e int er gen er at ion al tr an smission of th e Hakkalan gu age in Ge ne ra tion 5 who are in th eir th irties and for ties . In Ge­ner ati on 4 who are in th eir fifties and six ties , the wo rnen accom mo­da ted by speaking th eir hu sband 's lan gu age. The cons u lta n t 's aun ts(No . 2 and 4) w ho are not Hakka (Ho kkie n and Iban resp ect ively)learnt th eir hu sband 's ethnic lan gu age and used it with th eir chi l­dr en . When I as ked the co ns ulta n t to sta te th e defining charac te ris ticof a Hakka, she sa id it is becau se both par ents are Hakka and it hasnothing to do with whether she spea ks Hakka 0 1' w he the r she ea tstypical Hakka food such as lei cha, a dish of blen ded vegetables andpeanuts.

The Chinese dialect compe ting with Hakka is Hokkien . It isappa ren t tha t w hen Chinese from tw o differ ent dialect gro ups marry,Hok kien is likely to be a co nve n ient lan gu age for family co rn mu nica­tion because they live in Kuching. In terms of number , th e Hokkienpopul ati on is sma ller th an th at of the Hakka, accounting for only13.66 per cent of th e Chi nese populati on in Sara wak. In Kuchingw he re th e s tudy was conduc ted, th e pr op ortion of th e Hokkien po-

Int ergenerati onal tran smission of the ethnic lan guage 79

pulation is similar (13.32 percent of 188,823). It is, in fact , small corn­par ed to Hakka (48.17 percent) (Departme nt of Sta tis tics Malays ia2000, cited in Lam and Ghazali 2012). Yet Hokkien is ofte n the con ve­niently chose n Chinese dialect for famil y communica tion. This ispartly becau se of th e dominanc e of the Hokki en in tr ade. They dorni ­nated as goldsmiths and mon ey remittan ce age nts and groce ry sho powne rs not only in Kuching but through out Sarawak (T' ien, 1997).With Hokki en bein g the langu age for buyin g and selling , Hokkienhas a wid er distributi on than Hakk a - more peopl e learn th e lan gu a­ge and are able to use it, compa red to Hakka whose use is often li mi­ted to th e Hakka community .

4.2. Attitudes towards Mandarin and Hakkaspeakers

Table 3 sho ws the means for trai ts attributed to Mandarin and Hakkaspea kers by Hakka participants (N=22). The average for Hakk a spea ­kers was computed from the ratings given to the female Hakk a re­cord ing and male Hakk a recordings. The same ave rag ing pr ocess wasdon e for the Manda rin recordings.

Items 2-7 sho we d high er eva lua tive rat ings for Manda rin spea­kers. This means that Hakk a parti cipants felt that Manda rin speakerswere friendlier, ge ntier, faire r (in skin colour), richer, and mor e hard ­wo rking than Hakk a spea kers . They also cons idere d the Mandarinlan guage as mo re melodious than Hakk a. These resu lts suggest thatManda rin spea ke rs wer e see n as bein g of high er social sta tus andhad less need to work in farms in the hot sun, ther eby havin g fair erskin.

Items 8-14 showed higher evalua tive ratings for Hakk a spea ke rs.This shows that Hakk a spe akers were considered less fussy, but morehumble, helpful , thrifty and self-reliant compared to Mandari n spea­kers. In sho rt, Hak ka speakers are genera lly likeable people. Their ra­tin gs also indic ated that the Hakk a speaker s were mor e likely tocom e from rural area compar ed to the Mand arin spea ke rs. This is ex­pected becaus e Hakk as have histori cally lived on the outskirts of Ku­ch ing. Str an gely, th e Hakk a spea ke rs were rat ed as havin g a softervoice th an the Mandar in spea ke rs . This cha llenges per ception s ofHakk a peopl e as agriculturalis ts and Mandarin spea ke rs as educa tedpeople wh o speak mor e softly than farm ers .

80 Su-Hie Tin g

However , wh en 2-ta iled t-t ests (une qua l variance) we re run,there were no significant diffe re nces between overall rati ngs of Man­dari n and Hakka speakers (p=0.60). Altho ug h th ere we re sligh t diffe­rences in the mean s, th e standard deviati on s were big. In effec t, th eHakka pa rticipa n ts had similar atti tu des towar ds Mandarin and Hak ­ka . In fac t, ove ra ll, th e Manda rin and Hakka speakers made an equa l­ly favo urable impression on the Hakka pa rticipants (same mean s of4.83).

4.3. Attitudes towards female and male Hakkaspeakers

The results sho we d th at fem ale speake rs were rat ed mor e positi velyon mor e trait s th an male spea ke rs. Table 4 sho ws th e mean s fortrait s attribute d to fem ale and male speakers by Hakka pa rticipa n ts(N=22). Item s 1-10 showed high er ratings for fema le speakers. Thefema le Hakka speake rs wer e rat ed as mor e friend ly, humble, ge n tle,helpful , rich and thrifty. Al though th e fema le Hakka speakers werefeIt to be rich , th ey we re not was teful with th eir mon ey. TI1e Hakk aparticipants also feIt that fema le Hakka speakers made an ove rallbetter impression tha n male Hakka speakers, we re less fussy, andth ey also had fairer skin and softer vo ice.

Item s 11-14 showed h igh er ratings for male speake rs on fourtraits. Male Hakka were considered more likely to come fro m a ruralarea. 'TI1e Hakka parti cipants also rat ed th em as mor e hardworkingand self-reliant. Whe n placed in an agricul tura l con tex t, thi s pro bab ­ly conno tes har dworking far mers who have to be se lf-re lian t in orderto survive . Surprising ly, th e mean for th e male Hakka spea ke rs ' ton ewas sligh tly high er (4.62) th an th at for fem ale Hakka speakers (4.60),suggesting th at th e Hakka men were mor e melodious when th eyspea k Hakka.

TI1e tw o-tail ed t-t cst (unequa l variance) sho we d sig nifican t diffe­ren ces betw een ove ra ll ratings of female and male Hakka spea ke rs(p= 0.00778). TI1is mean s th at wh en the speech of Hakk a wo me n andmen elici t different att itudes tow ard s th e spea ke r and th e lan gu age.

W ith th e four recordings, th e Hakk a particip ants were given th eimpression that th ey were liste ning to four speakers . In fact , th eywe re Iisten ing to only tw o speakers , one female Hakka speaker andone male Hakka spea ke r. W he n th e mat ched guise results for att itu-

Int ergen erati onal tran smission of the ethnic lan guage 81

des towards gender and lan guage of the speakers , it is clear th at th eHakka spea kers could have been awa re th at th ey w ere list ening toonly two speakers. 1his is becau se there w ere no significan t differen ­ces in their overall ratings of Mandarin and Hakk a speake rs. How ­eve r , th ere were significant differ en ces between th e ove ra ll ratings ofth e fem ale and male Hakk a spea ke rs , who were obvious ly tw o diffe ­rent per son s.

When th e lan gu age att itudes results are put together with th elan gu age use resul ts, it can be see n that the positi ve att itudes to ­ward s Hakka peopl e and lan gu age have pr obabl y littl e to do withth eir cho ice of lan guage for family communication. The family lan­guage can be somew hat predic ted based on th e ethnic groups of th ecouple. In the pr esen t day Hakka family, Hakka has the highestchanc e of being tra nsmi tted to chi ldren if bot h paren ts are Hak ka. Ifone par ent is not Hakk a bu t from another Ch inese dialect gro up,th en eithe r Mandarin or Hokkien is chose n as th e family lan gu age.Hokkien is more likely to be chosen if th e family is livin g in Ku ­ching. Becau se of th e similarity of Teoch ew to Hokkien and th e fa ­miliar ity of Hakka peopl e with Hokkien (ra the r than Teoch ew ), th eychoose to speak Hokki en eve n if th eir sp ou se speaks Teochew. How ­eve r, if a Hakka marries a Malay or one of th e Sarawak ind ige no usgro ups , th en it is likely th at Malay or th e Sarawak indi gen ou s lan ­guage is chosen as th e lan gu age for family communica tio n.

5. Conclusion

The study sho we d th at the int ergen er ati on al tr an smi ssion of Hakkain Hakka fam ilies beco mes weaker over tim e. The ge ne ra tion in th eirthirties and forties are alrea dy shifting away from usin g Hakka asth e lan guage for family communica tion. The lan gu ages compe tingwit h Ha kka are Mandarin and Hokkien , and th is usually happen s inth e contex t of mixed marriages with ot her Ch inese dialect gro ups.The need for a common langu age resu lts in the cho ice of Mandarinand Hokkien ove r Hakk a. Resid en ce in an urb an localit y in th e ab­sence of a Hakk a-speaking corn munity as we il as Chinese educationalso makes Mandarin a conve nien t cho ice. En vir onmental factor ssuch as urb an cosmo po litan residential areas, high er education andinterm arriages wer e found to facilita te an increase in Man da rinusage in the extended Hakk a famil y, similar to th e shift tow ards

82 Su-Hie Tin g

Mandarin in the Ch ines e co mm unity in Singapo re (e.g., Gupta &Yeok , 1995; Li, Sar avan an & Ng, 1997) and Brunei (Dunseath, 1996)but unlike th e situation of Hong Kon g wher e the compe titor is Ca n­tonese (see Lau, 2005).

Th e results on lan gu age att itudes showed th at it is not because ofnegati ve a tt itudes towards th e Hakka lan gu age an d the H akkapeople which ca use th e families to sh ift away from Hakka. Ther ewere sign ifica n t differ en ces in per ception s of Hakka w omen andmen. Hakka w omen are see n as fri endly , humble, ge n tle, h elp ful , ri chand thrifty . They are also less fussy, have fairer skin and softer vo iceth an Hakka m en. On th e othe r hand, Hakka men are see n as m or ehardworking an d se lf-re lia n t, and to speak mor e mel odiou sly th anHakka w omen. H owever , th er e w er e no significa n t differ ences bet ­w een att itudes towards Hakka and Mandarin speake rs , sho w ing th atth e Hakka particip ants in th e study did not eva lua te H akka negative­Iy. Th e findings are differ ent for othe r Ch inese dial ect groups in Sa ­rawak . Us ing th e mat ch ed guise technique, Pu ah an d Ting (20 15)foun d th at H okkien participan ts we re mor e positive th an th e Foc­chow participan ts towards speakers of th eir ow n eth nic lan gu age.Fooch ow speake rs we re perceivcd as loud, and th e male Fooch owspeake r was rat ed unfavourabl y on five othe r tr aits (less educated,impolite, not intelli gent, informal an d rou gh ). Their study alsosho we d th at Hokkien men w ere perceived as having low so cia l s ta­tu s, and Hokkien wome n we re co ns ide re d informal. In co n tras t, fa­vo urable a tti tudes tow ards Ma ndarin was found on all th e 15 trait sexami ned in the ir study, namely, educated , hi gh social sta tus, in te l li­gen t, r ich , easy-going , polite , soft-spo ke n , generous, arnbi tio us , h ard­worki ng , frie n dly , gen tle, fo rmal, stro ng so lida r ity and tall. Puttingth e findings of th ese stud ies together , th c Fooch ow and Hokkien vie­w ed th eir dial ect m or e negatively th an Mandarin but th e Hakka havefav ourabl e views of both H akka and Mandarin .

Altho ug h th e study using th e mat ch ed guise technique in volveda small sa m pIe size , th e results are indicati ve of th e ge ne ra l directi onof lan guage a tt it ude s. Further resear ch using a lar ger sa mpIe size isneed ed to ve rify th e results, and it is a lso pertin ent to in vest igat ewhether th e Hak ka lan gu age a tti tu des are linked to th eir notion ofth e re la tio ns h ip between lan gu age and eth nicity . In thi s resp ect , Tingand Pu ah (20 15) had found th at th e Hokkien are inclined to em braceth e patrimony dimen sion of eth n icity, which mak es th em see usage

Int ergenerati onal tran smission of the ethnic lan gu age 83

of Hokkien as symbolic of th eir Hokkien identity and thi s is an im ­portant fac to r to encourage the intergen er ati on al tr an smission of th edialect. Fooch ow, on th e othe r hand, are inclined to emb race th e pa ­ternity dimen sion of eth n icity wher eby Fooch ow par entage (the fa­th er 's) is sufficien t to accord th em member ship in th e Fooch ow corn ­munity , and it is not necessar y for th em to speak th e Fooc how lan ­guage. With this notion of ethnicity , th e Fooch ow commu nity willlose th eir dialect from th e family when th ey are amo ng othe r Ch i­nese dialect groups . In fact , th e results from th e tw o case studies ofHakka family ar e indicat ive of a similar phenomenon happenin g inthe Hakka community w her e the dial ect is pushed out mostl y byMandarin. From th eir in terviews, Ting and Cha ng (2008) had not edth e eme rge nce of a supra-Chinese identity w h ich is anc hored to th euse of Mandarin as the first langu age and only language for familycom munica tion . A supra-Ch inese identi ty ca n be defined as a ge nericChinese identity th at is sha re d between differ ent Ch inese sub­groups, de-emphasising cultural and lan gu age di stinction s of th esub-g ro ups . 111e ph en om en on of a supra-Ch inese had already erner ­ge d in Th ailand wher e th e Ch inese identity is subo rdi na te d to th e111ai nat ion al identity (Mo rita , 2003) . 111ey do not defin e th em selvesby th eir Teoch ew ances try but see th emselves as Thai Chi nese asth ey have ado pte d th e 111ai cu lture (Bun & Kion g, 1993; Liu , 2006 ).Ano the r line of inves tiga tion which can be pursued is to find ou t th eethn icity noti on s of teen ager s in th e Hakka fam ily . 111e res ul ts willbe pr edi cti ve of th e future of th e Hakka dialect in Hakka fam iliesre siding in urban areas away fro m a Hakka-dominant community.

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7. Appendix

Table 3. Means for tr aits a tt r ibu te d to Hakka an d Mandarin speake rsby H akka particip ants (N=22)

Traits 9 HK 0' HK 9 J\llD O' MD avg HK SD avgMD SD1. Very bad -very 4.71 4,95 4.48 4.48 4,83 1.29 4,83 1.12good impression2. Unfriend ly- 4,81 4.81 5.00 4.33 4.67 1.26 4,81 1.23Friendly3, Rough-Gentle 4.71 4.57 4.86 3.81 4.33 1.71 4,64 1.284. Hard tone- 4.67 4.48 4.52 3.95 4.24 1.71 4.57 1.42melodi ous5. Dark -Fair skin 4.62 4.48 4.48 3.10 3.79 1.41 4.55 1.31

88 Su-Hie Ting

6. Poor-Rich 4.38 4.4 3 4. 29 3.67 3.98 1.12 4.40 1.177. Lazy-Hardwor- 4.24 4.4 8 4.05 3.95 4.00 1.13 4.36 1.03king8. Fussy-N ot fus- 4.71 4.67 4.8 1 4.86 4.83 1.41 4.69 1.28sy9. Urba n a rea- Ru- 3.52 3.76 4.5 7 5.05 4.8 1 1.63 3.6 4 1.38ral a rea10. Proud- 4.71 4.62 4.90 4. 62 4.76 1.23 4.67 1.1 2Hu mble11. Unhe lpfu l- 4.48 4. 76 4.8 1 4.4 8 4.64 1.46 4.62 1.27Helpful12. Lou d-Soft 4 .05 4.29 4. 95 3.67 4.31 1.51 4.17 1.45vo ice13. Wasteful- 4.00 4.29 4.48 3.90 4.19 0.94 4.14 0.84Thrifty14. Rely on other s 4.14 3.90 4.10 4.19 4.14 1.37 4.02 1.35-Se lf-re lian t

Not e: I for negati ve tr ait and 7 for positive tr ait , 4 for mid-p oint

Table 4. Mean s for tr ait s a tt ribu ted to fem ale and male speakers byHakka particip ants (N=22)

Traits 9 HK o HK 9 MD o [vlD avg HK SD avg MD SD1. Unfricn dly- 4.8 1 5.00 4.8 1 4.33 4.90 1.19 4.62 1.2 1Friendly2. Proud-Humble 4.71 4.90 4.62 4.62 4.8 1 1.17 4.05 1.293. Rough-Gent le 4. 7 1 4.86 4.57 3.8 1 4.79 1.37 4.76 1.394. Fussy-Not fu ssy 4.7 1 4.8 1 4.67 4.86 4.76 1.30 4 .21 1.605. Un he lpful-Hc lp - 4.48 4.8 1 4.76 4.48 4.6 4 1.5 1 4.05 1.3 1ful6. Ver y bad -very 4.71 4.48 4.95 4.48 4.60 1.2 1 4.4 0 1.50good impression7. Dark-Fair skin 4.62 4.48 4.48 3.10 4.55 1.27 4.21 1.078. Loud-Soft vo ice 4.05 4. 95 4. 29 3.67 4.50 1.37 3.79 1.449. Poor-Rieh 4.38 4.29 4.43 3.67 4.33 1.00 4.10 0.8210. Wastc fu l-Th rif- 4 .00 4.4 8 4.29 3.90 4.24 0.96 3.9 8 1.54ty11. Urban area -Ru- 3.52 4.57 3.76 5.05 4.05 1.71 4.8 1 1.33ral a rea12. Lazy-H a rd wor- 4 .24 4.05 4.48 3.95 4.14 1.12 4.7 1 1.24king13. Har d tonc-me- 4.67 4.52 4.48 3.95 4.60 1.65 4.62 1.17lodious14. Rely on others 4.14 4.10 3.90 4.19 4.12 1.42 4.19 1.60-Sclf- re lian t

Not e: 1 for negati ve tr ait and 7 for positive tr ai t, 4 for mid -p oint