Hong Kong and modern diglossia
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Don Snow
Abstract
This article examines the history of diglossia in Hong Kong, and goes on to argue that Hong Kong is similar to German-speaking Switzerland in that it is a rare example of diglossia in a highly modernized society. These two cases differ from most traditional defining cases of diglossia in the nature of their societies, the nature of their high (H) variety, the degree of stability in their diglossic patterns, the historical path through which their diglossic patterns evolved, and the forces that sustain their diglossia, especially the role played by identity issues. It is argued that these two cases should be viewed as a small but distinct subcategory of diglossia that I will call modern diglossia.
© 2010 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York
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Articles in the same Issue
- Sociolinguistics and some of its concepts: a historian's view
- A critical commentary on the discourse of language rights in the Naivasha language policy in Sudan using habitus as a method
- Mixed language usage in Belarus: the sociostructural background of language choice
- Expressing age salience: three generations' reported events, frequencies, and valences
- “We should keep what makes us different”: youth reflections on Turkish maintenance in Australia
- From trilingualism to monolingualism? Sicilian-Italians in Australia
- Hong Kong and modern diglossia
- Streetwise English and French advertising in multilingual DR Congo: symbolism, modernity, and cosmopolitan identity
- Local and global perspectives on overcoming literacy challenges in South Africa
- Comparative accounts of linguistic fieldwork as ethical exercises
- Instrumental music and Gaelic revitalization in Scotland and Nova Scotia
- Indigenous students in bilingual Spanish–English classrooms in New York: a teacher's mediation strategies
- Book reviews
