About this book

This book is the first of its kind on Mandarin spread in Malaysia. The author investigated the language situation in the Chinese community in Johor and proposed a theoretical framework to analyze language spread. In her proposal, mass media in Mandarin and Chinese education play significant roles in Mandarin spread. Both top-down and bottom spread are found, which is different from the process of English spread elsewhere. With the spread of Mandarin, more and more Chinese abandon Chinese dialects and identify with the pan-Chinese identity. Mandarin spread is a dynamic process, which is triggered by an internal force, i.e. sociolinguistic realignment of the community. In this book, the author compares Johor with Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in terms of their sociolinguistic realignment process. This is a book for sociolinguists, language planners, students of linguistics, school teachers, and general readers