GES1038 La Kopi: Will Dialect Groups be Relevant and Important to the Construction of Chineseness in Singapore as the Nation Marches Forward: Forging of the Chinese Singaporean Community Research Paper, NUS, Singapore

Introduction: Ethnic Diversity, Identity And Everyday Multiculturalism In Singapore

HISTORY OF SINGAPORE’S ETHNIC DIVERSITY & CULTURE:
Singapore’s ethnic diversity was realized not long after the British established Singapore as a free port in the early 19th century. The economic opportunities arising from a port without the usual tariffs found elsewhere quickly attracted migrants from China, India, the Malay Peninsula, the Indonesian archipelago, Europe, and other places. lack of immigration controls on the island3 meant that people could move in and out of the island without much concern. While many migrants planned to return to their homeland after they had accumulated sufficient resources in the thriving port city.

Chinese Dialects:

Abstract and Keywords
The Chinese language comprises many regional varieties or dialects. The most significant is Mandarin or Guanhua官话, from which Putonghua普通话originates. Besides Mandarin, other main dialect groups have been identified. The classification of Chinese dialects and their interrelationships remains uncertain because new data are constantly emerging; in addition, each main dialect group could be further divided into branches or subbranches, and because Chinese dialects have evolved for hundreds or thousands of years, mutual intelligibility is not always possible. Also, within a dialect group, it is common that a single sinogram (Chinese character) may have different literary and colloquial readings. By analyzing these readings, the history of a certain dialect can be partially reconstructed. This chapter focuses on geographical distribution, three models of dialect formation, phonological characteristics, evolution rate and dialect history, literary versus colloquial readings and linguistic strata, lexical and syntactic differences, and unclassified dialects.

Dialect Groups, Ecology and Bang Structure
The Chinese in Singapore have been divided into several sub-groups, principally based on dialect differences. Terms usually used for classifying these distinct sub-groups of Chinese are “tribe”, “community”, “speech group”, and “dialect group”. Prior to 1957, the term “tribe” gained its currency for census purposes (1911, 1921, 1931, and 1947 Population Censuses). The term “tribe” was “admittedly based on an inconsistent blend of political, geographic and linguistic, rather than ethnographic criteria .. . (being] intended to reflect those broad divisions whit which a non-specialist administrator is mainly concerned in Malaya” (Vlieland 1932:77). In both the 1957 and 1970 censuses, however, the term “tribe” was replaced by “community” and “dialect group” which were used interchangeably. However, in the 1980 census, only “dialect group” was used.

In his study of the Chinese Society in Thailand, Skinner (1962:29) preferred the term “speech group”, for he believed “it was accurate so far as it goes and other-wise non-committal”. Skinner argued that the term “tribe” “seems particularly inept since both the technical anthropological sense and the popular meaning are scarcely germane”. “Dialect group”, said Skinner, “is also unfortunate in as much as the speech differences which determine the groups are more than dialectal in most cases.” Nevertheless, in this study, the term “dialect group” is preferred. There are good reasons for such a preference. Increased literacy and inter dialect contact over the years have somewhat broken down the dialect barrier. Furthermore, dialect has long been the principal basis for classifying the Chinese different sub-groups. In the Singapore context, the term “speech group” fails to reflect the dynamism of each group which, apart from its phonetic distinction, also assumes political, territorial, and socioeconomic dimensions.

In Singapore, there are more than a dozen dialects spoken by the Chinese. The importance of-a .dialect in a locality is determined by the degree of concentration of that dialect group as well as’biiis numerical size in the total population in that locality. At the national level, however, the importance of a-dialect-is-largely deleiTnined by its numerical size in. relation to other dialect groups. Table 2.1 shows the percentage distribution of the Chinese -dialect groups from 1881 to 1980. Hokkiens, Teochews, Cantonese.