One Country, Two Systems, Three Languages: A Survey of Changing Language Use in Hong Kong (Current Issues in Language and Society (Unnumbered).)

Contains a set of papers and debates derived from a conference that took place in Hong Kong in 1996. Analyzes the patterns of language use that prevailed in mid 1996 and assesses the linguistic changes that might accompany the political shift. DLC: Sociolinguistics - Hong Kong. The book presents the following papers and transcriptions of debates: "One Country, Two Systems, Three Languages" (Sue Wright); "The Background to Language Change in Hong Kong" (Godfrey Harrison, Lydia K. H. So); "Aspects of the Two Languages System and Three Language Problem in the Changing Society of Hong Kong" (Benjamin K. Tsou); "The (Un)changing Role of Mandarin Chinese in Language Education in Hong Kong" (Cheung-Shing Samuel Leung, Yuen-Fan Lornita Wong); "Language and the Law in Hong Kong: From English to Chinese" (Alice Lee); "English in Hong Kong: Emergence and Decline" (John E. Joseph); "Tonal Changes in Hong Kong Cantonese" (Lydia K. H. So); and "Phonological Changes in Hong Kong Cantonese" (Eric Zee). Debate transcripts are inserted after the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth papers. (MSE) In 1997, Hong Kong has the attention of the world as it moves from being one of the world's most liberal market economies to inclusion in one of the few remaining states which might be termed communist. The set of papers and debates in this volume derive from a conference that took place in Hong Kong one year before this changeover, and in which the participants attempted to analyze the patterns of language use that prevailed in mid-1996 and to assess the linguistic changes that might accompany the political shift. The contributors to this book analyse the patterns of language use that prevailed in Hong Kong in 1996 and to assess the linguistic changes that might accompany the political shift at that time. This interest in recognising and predicting language change stems in part from a belief that language shifts are a useful barometer for societal change