Languages
A governmental statistic in 2000 classifies the dialect affiliation of the ethnic Chinese in Malaysia:
| Dialect | Population |
|---|---|
| Hokkien | 1,848,211 |
| Hakka | 1,679,027 |
| Cantonese | 1,355,541 |
| Teochew | 974,573 |
| Mandarin | 958,467 |
| Hainanese | 380,781 |
| Min Bei | 373,337 |
| Foochow | 249,413 |
Although their ancestral origin are different but due to intermarriages between the different linguistic groups and also due to regional influences, different regions are formed each with its own defacto lingua franca to facilitate communication between the different Chinese dialects in the same region.
Furthermore, the younger generations have generally lost command of their own subdialect (e.g. Hainanese, Hing Hua) and prefer to speak the lingua franca in each region.
Read more about this topic: Malaysian Chinese
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
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—J.G. (James Graham)
“I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
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—William Lamb Melbourne, 2nd Viscount (1779–1848)