RP Chinese and social class?
兔主席2004-02-17 10:44
February 17, 2004
RP Chinese and social class?
received pronounciation of Mandarin: in relation to social class Received Pronounciation of Chinese,i.e. putonghua
is RP chinese - perfect putonghua free from any regional dialect/accent, including Beijing accent - associated with education and social class? if it is not the case now, would it be the case in the future?
let me gives a concrete example: if you find a guy speaks perfect RP Chinese (putonghua), would you think that he is reasonably educated? would you also think that he is from a higher social stractum, say, middle class or upper-middle class?
on the other hand, will you find a person who is unable to speak decent putonghua, i.e. with very heavy local/regional accent, would you suspect that h/her is less educated?
if you do, in both cases, it is an indication that RP Chinese (putonghua) is associaed with education and social class. this may be true for countries where there is significant variety of local dialects, and one form of accent serves as the “received standard” that all people will study in school and use it to communicate with people from other regions.
however, the connexion between educaiton and/or social class and putonghua still heavily relies upon the putonghua education itself. for example, in some regions there is no satisfactory putonghua education in the first place,for children either from better or disadvantaged social background.aer both incapble of speaking good putonghua. this to some extent disconnects accent from education.
the notion is controversial, becasue for some regions, such as Guangdong, it is quite difficult even for very good students to imitate perfect putonghua accent: the difference betwen local dialect and putonghua is too significant. to be able to speak good putonghua, apart from intensive conscious training, also requires some talent. this also disconnects the association between putonghua and education.
all in all, this is only a trend or propect, i.e. putonghua may be more and more associated with education and class in the ilght of the propagation of putonghua education.
in the past, this principle may not work at all. say, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping all speak with accents. but our society is changing now.
received pronounciation of Mandarin: in relation to social class Received Pronounciation of Chinese,i.e. putonghua
is RP chinese - perfect putonghua free from any regional dialect/accent, including Beijing accent - associated with education and social class? if it is not the case now, would it be the case in the future?
let me gives a concrete example: if you find a guy speaks perfect RP Chinese (putonghua), would you think that he is reasonably educated? would you also think that he is from a higher social stractum, say, middle class or upper-middle class?
on the other hand, will you find a person who is unable to speak decent putonghua, i.e. with very heavy local/regional accent, would you suspect that h/her is less educated?
if you do, in both cases, it is an indication that RP Chinese (putonghua) is associaed with education and social class. this may be true for countries where there is significant variety of local dialects, and one form of accent serves as the “received standard” that all people will study in school and use it to communicate with people from other regions.
however, the connexion between educaiton and/or social class and putonghua still heavily relies upon the putonghua education itself. for example, in some regions there is no satisfactory putonghua education in the first place,for children either from better or disadvantaged social background.aer both incapble of speaking good putonghua. this to some extent disconnects accent from education.
the notion is controversial, becasue for some regions, such as Guangdong, it is quite difficult even for very good students to imitate perfect putonghua accent: the difference betwen local dialect and putonghua is too significant. to be able to speak good putonghua, apart from intensive conscious training, also requires some talent. this also disconnects the association between putonghua and education.
all in all, this is only a trend or propect, i.e. putonghua may be more and more associated with education and class in the ilght of the propagation of putonghua education.
in the past, this principle may not work at all. say, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping all speak with accents. but our society is changing now.