Lingual shifts

This item may not be of much interest to most, but the Associated Press put out an interesting story today about how Chinese communities in the United States are gradually shifting away from their traditional Cantonese vernacular toward Mandarin, the official dialect of mainland China and Taiwan.

The main reason AP cites is a change in demographics among Chinese-speaking immigrants. The first waves came from southern China, where Cantonese is spoken. But many immigrants now come from Mandarin-speaking regions.

I've seen that divide illustrated sharply here in Seattle. In the International District and nearby Beacon Hill, areas settled by those early immigrants, Cantonese still seems more common. But around the University of Washington, whose Asian studies programs have drawn many students and visiting scholars from abroad, Mandarin is what I hear.

Another factor in the rise of Mandarin, which the story doesn't mention, is that many of the children and grandchildren of Cantonese-speaking immigrants no longer speak their ancestral tongue fluently, or at all. (Yours truly belongs to the first group.) Add in the fact that Mandarin is generally the dialect taught in public-school and college classes, and it's easy to see how it might come to eclipse Cantonese in the not-too-distant future.