Code Switching
Inter-sentential switching
The interviewees have mentioned “We will code-switch between Cantonese and Hakka”, so what does code-switching mean? How would they switch between 2 languages?
Code Switching
Generally speaking, code-switching means switching between two language varieties for the multilingual speakers. There are “inter-sentential switching” and “intra-sentential switching”. Inter-sentential means the code-switching occurs between sentences, but occurs within a sentence for intra-sentential. The code-switching between Cantonese and Hakka is inter-sentential as we observed. We always hear of the code-mix within a sentences for English and Cantonese in Hong Kong, but Hakka is not the case. Hakka is a linguistic resource to represent the social identity- the symbol of the sense of belongings to the village. It is a resources to distinguish the “outsider” and “insider” of their community. I.e. If you 100% belong to their village, they expect you have full competence in speaking Hakka and they will tend to use Hakka instead of Cantonese to communicate, vice versa. |
Making up of new words
“Hakka is relatively old-fashioned. What will you do if you come up with new trendy words?” Our groupmates are curious about the linguistic development of Hakka. 3 of the interviewees answered they will separate the new vocabulary and substitute with old Hakka. For example, Computer (Cantonese: 電/din6/ 腦/nou5/) is made up of 2 words- din6 (電) and nou5 (腦). In the old generation there is no computer, but they have din6 (電, which means electricity on the other hand) and nou5 (腦, which means brain as well). Thus, they will use the Hakka of (electricity)+(brain) in order to form the new word of (Computer) in Hakka and become /tien4/ /lau3/. However, is it the real case? Our groupmates observed sometimes they will do “intra-sentential switching”, replacing the trendy vocabulary in Cantonese instead of making new words in Hakka. For instance, while Apple is on phone with her aunt (who is a Hakka as well) and mentioned 搭棚 (Scaffolding), she will use the Cantonese /dap2/ /pang4/ instead of the Hakka /daap5/ / pæng2/. |