试论早期香港华人族群语言的竞争与选择

A Preliminary Ethnolinguistic Study on the Ethnic Dialects of the Early Hong Kong Chinese

早期香港的华人社会并存着四个华人族群的三种相互激烈竞争的族群语言,即粤方言、客家话和福佬话。由族群语言活力理论来观察,在社会地位、人口、制度支持与控制等三组因素的各个项目的具体分值评定上,本地族群及其语言都得到了最高的分值,这解释了为什么粤方言能够战胜其他族群语言而最终成为香港华人社会的通用语言。

Mainly coming from Guangdong and Fujian, the early Hong Kong Chinese moved into the Hong Kong Island along with the English who occupied the Island in 1841. Among the early Chinese community, there were four major Chinese ethnic groups, and they spoke three ethnic dialects. This paper begins with a review of the Ethnolinguistic Vitality Theory (EVT), and applies EVT to the study of the ethnic dialects in early Hong Kong (1841-1884). In terms of social status, demography, institutional control and factors support, the ethnic dialect of the Punti ethnic group, Cantonese, enjoyed a privileged position.