the random oracle

China is a land of great linguistic diversity, not just among the various minority languages but also within Chinese speakers. The Chinese spoken in one region of the country may be as far from Mandarin as Dutch is from English or French is from Italian (namely they are related, but not mutually intellgible).

As with all things in China, the linguistic landscape is changing at a frantic pace. Mandarin has increasingly come to dominate the public space, as it is the mandated language of business, media, government, and education. This has led to the decline of the regional tongues, some of which have rich histories and distinct cultures that are fading along with their dialects.

One regional language that has received a lot of publicity is Tibetan. There is a lot of concern that it is being slowly erased because Mandarin is taught in the classroom, but in fact from the time I’ve spent this summer in Tibetan regions the language seems alive and quite healthy. Signage in Tibetan regions is universally bilingual, and there were plenty of people including storekeepers or hotel staff who had little if any Mandarin language skills, for better or worse. Interestingly enough, the Mandarin of the monks that I encountered was usually much better than that of the laypeople.

What seems significantly more endangered are regional forms of Chinese, such as the Wu language that is native to my city of birth, Suzhou. The first time I visited Suzhou it was almost impossible to hear anyone on the streets speaking Mandarin, but 15 years later it is more likely that someone will address you in Mandarin then Suzhou-ese. Especially in stores and restaurants, it seems that a large portion of the staff is from other parts of China, so the lingua franca becomes Mandarin. This is a pity, since the Suzhou dialect is often considered the standard form of the Wu language, and has a rich tradition of spoken poetry and opera associated with it.

It seems that Suzhou has become the victim of its own success. Since it is one of the wealthiest parts of the country, it has attracted migrants from all over the country, and since those migrants don’t speak the local language they default to Mandarin. Since the locals also speak Mandarin, which is how school is taught, it then becomes a habit for everyone to address each other in Mandarin, at least until they figure out where their interlocutor is from.

In contrast, since Tibetan regions are still unfortunately relatively impoverished, there is relatively little migration towards those regions (despite what the pro-Tibetan independence press would like you to believe). And even for those few migrants or tourists to communicate with Tibetans, Mandarin is frequently not an option because a large fraction of Tibetan children do not receive sufficient schooling because of poverty or because they lead nomadic lifestyles. Paradoxically, this poverty may be one of their best defences against the cultural pressure of assimilation.

If I were ask to make a prediction, I would say that Tibetan has at least 100 years before it may become endangered, while languages such as Wu may be extinct within 30 years.