Languages
A governmental statistic in 2000 classifies the dialect affiliation of the ethnic Chinese in Malaysia:
| Dialect | Population |
|---|---|
| Hokkien | 1,848,211 |
| Hakka | 1,679,027 |
| Cantonese | 1,355,541 |
| Teochew | 974,573 |
| Mandarin | 958,467 |
| Hainanese | 380,781 |
| Min Bei | 373,337 |
| Foochow | 249,413 |
Although their ancestral origin are different but due to intermarriages between the different linguistic groups and also due to regional influences, different regions are formed each with its own defacto lingua franca to facilitate communication between the different Chinese dialects in the same region.
Furthermore, the younger generations have generally lost command of their own subdialect (e.g. Hainanese, Hing Hua) and prefer to speak the lingua franca in each region.
Read more about this topic: Malaysian Chinese
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“The trouble with foreign languages is, you have to think before your speak.”
—Swedish proverb, trans. by Verne Moberg.
“Wealth is so much the greatest good that Fortune has to bestow that in the Latin and English languages it has usurped her name.”
—William Lamb Melbourne, 2nd Viscount (1779–1848)
“The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding.”
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1934)