A Case Study of Teenagers’ Use of Southern Min and Attitude Toward the Language

Abstract

The present study is to investigate teenagers’ use of Southern Min, and attitude toward the language by doing a survey with questionnaires. The respondents are randomly selected from two classes of senior high school students in second grade in Tainan city. The results of the survey show that: (1) language communities dominated by Southern Ívlin arc “invaded" by Mánuánn Chinese, (2) comparison made across generations shows an astonishing diminishing trend of Southern Min use in daily conversation, (3) the respondents tend to take sides with Mandarin Chinese when Southern Min and Mandarin Chinese compete for preference in a communicative situation, and (4) more than half (64%) of the respondents regard Southern Min as no less elegant than Mandarin Chinese. No incentive is shown for the respondents to polish either Southern Min or Mandarin Chinese because it is not considered important to speak a “standard” Mandarin Chinese or Southern Min. These two languages maintain a dynamic equilibrium for the time being. Such being the case, it is predicted that Southern Min will remain in a moribund status under the dominance of Mandarin Chinese in the years to come if no political, economic, or other factors, intervene in the language market of Taiwan.