UNESCO's International Mother Language Day
The Nepalese Community in Hong Kong
Ethnolinguistic Vitality of Nepali
In this section, we investiagte how vital is Nepali for the Nepalese speakers in Hong Kong. The negotiation of offical status for languages in multilingual communities or nationa invloves a number of social, political and attitudinal factors. These factors affect what we call ethnolinguistic vitality of a variety. There are pillars of ethnolinguistic vitality: the status of the variety or of the speakers of that variety in different contexts, the demograhics of the group adn institutional measures supporting the variety (Meyerhoff, 2011). The factors are shown in the below graph adapted from Giles et al, 1977.
Overall speaking, despite the fact that Nepali is not highly regarded socially and economocially in Hong Kong, the ethnolinguistic vitality of Nepali is still quite high for the Nepaliese community, due to the strong local institutional support of the Nepali.
Status
Economic status- Not high, median monthly income is HK$10,000
Social status- Not high, mostly work in construction and security sector
Sociohistorical status-Very High, most of them share the common background as the descendants of ex-Gurkhas, they are proud of their cultural history
Language status (Within) - High, as the lingua franca of the country
Language status (Without) - Low, not particularly useful in other parts of the world
Demography
National territory concentration-High, almost 50% live Yau Tsim Mong while 27.3% live in Yuen Long area
Proportion -Low, takes 3.7% of the Hong Kong population
Absolute birth rate -Reduced, decreases from 43.6% in 2006 to 39.5% in 2011
Mixed marriages- Low, 95.9% of married Nepalese have spouses with the same ethnicity
Immigration & Emigration -Reduced, population decreases from 4.7% in 2006 to 3.7% in 2011
Institutional Support
Mass Media- High, Nepali Radio channel (RTHK) and 3 Nepali newspapers
Education-High, teach Nepali in kindergartens targeting Nepalese students
Government- high, some posters written in Nepali
Service- High, many stores opened by Nepalese in Jordon and Yuen Long area
Culture- High, many Nepalese associations in Hong Kong organizes acivities for different traditional festivals
For knowing more about the ethnolinguistic vitality, here are two useful books you may refer to:
Giles, H., Bourhis, R. Y., & Taylor, D. M. (1977). Towards a theory of language in ethnic group relations. Language, ethnicity and intergroup relations, 307348.
Meyerhoff, M. (2011). Introducing sociolinguistics. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.