Dialect Preserving

885 Words2 Pages

Dialect is a specific form of a language that has great significance to a nationality [1]. According to the United Nations, there are 56 nationalities in China and more than 100 of the dialect languages are in danger of extinction [2]. This striking statistic illustrates the importance of Chinese dialect preserving. This essay will describe the problems regard to disappearance of the dialect, and outline the solutions that make the efforts to preserve the dialects, with accurate evaluation.
Dialects are one of special culture with many characteristics in China. Throughout approximately 130 local dialects, many Chinese dialects even have longer history than Mandarin itself, so the dialect is an indispensable part of Chinese culture. If China does not try to protect valuable dialects, it would be losing a vital part of Cultural treasures [2]. However, according to LiLan, professor of dialectology, the dialects disappear so fast that beyond the pace of government’s protection [2]. In conclusion, dialect preserving in China is an urgent problem that need the government and people get together to solve.
The problem with dialect preserving is that the development of Mandarin hinders the use of dialect and real dialect speakers become less. With the government forces people to use Mandarin in daily life [3], it was a stupid way for government to break the link between language and culture language within China, although the use of Mandarin has promote the development of Chinese economy and society [4]. However, the room for a dialects’ survival seems to be getting smaller and smaller. The protection of the dialects does not get the support of the Chinese government and the parents do not pay attention to the Children’s dialect educat...

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...vailable: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/dialect. [Accessed 08 11 2013].
[2] Y. Ran, “Dialects endangered by modernization,” 17 03 2011. [Online]. Available: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-03/17/content_12183431.htm. [Accessed 08 11 2013].
[3] Pan, “Phonemica:Americans Mapping and Preserving Chinese Dialects,” 07 07 2013. [Online]. Available: http://www.chinasmack.com/2013/stories/phonemica-americans-mapping-and-preserving-chinese-dialects.html. [Accessed 08 11 2013].
[4] j. ohata, “China's Disappearing Dialects,” 10 05 2013. [Online]. Available: http://chinesepod.com/blog/china-s-disappearing-dialects/1152#sthash.4GEPMQZr.dpuf. [Accessed 08 11 2013].
[5] C. Jinzhang, “Let the fate of local dialects take its course,” 13 09 2010. [Online]. Available: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2010-09/13/content_20916626.htm. [Accessed 08 11 2013].

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