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Part of
Sociolinguistic Variation and Language Acquisition across the Lifespan
Edited by Anna Ghimenton, Aurélie Nardy and Jean-Pierre Chevrot
[Studies in Language Variation 26] 2021
► pp. 199–226

Chapter 9
Navigating variation amid contested norms and societal shifts

A case study of two L2 Mandarin speakers in Singapore

| National University of Singapore
| National University of Singapore

L2 learners acquiring patterns of variation in a community that uses stigmatized linguistic features face particular challenges in reconciling prescriptive and local variants. The present study examines the case of Mandarin in Singapore, in which transfer from southern Chinese varieties has created a local norm that differs from the exonormative standard. Speeches from two L2 Mandarin-speaking political figures over a time period from 1966 to 1992 are analyzed, revealing significant roles of L1 background, education, and stance towards standard language. The language use of both speakers is found to temporarily increase in standardness in the years immediately following the launch of the Speak Mandarin Campaign, a government effort to promote Mandarin as the primary language of the Chinese Singaporean community.

Keywords: second language acquisition, sociolinguistic variation, language change, lifespan change, Mandarin Chinese, Singapore
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Research setting
    • Language shifts in multilingual singapore
    • Features of Singapore Mandarin
  • Subjects and methodology
    • Speakers’ language backgrounds
    • Methodology
  • Findings
    • Variation in retroflex and dental sibilant initials (zh), (ch), (sh), (z), (c), (s)
    • Variation in palatal initials (j), (q), (x)
    • Variation in (ü) and (i)
    • Variation in (ng) and (n)
    • Variation in (-uo)
    • Variation in (er)
    • Other variables: (n-), (r-), (h), (-üan)
    • Summary of features
    • Impact of the speak Mandarin Campaign
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 16 August 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.26.09sta
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