说「粤语」可能会死亡,变成像古埃及文那样成了考古遗迹并不是在危言耸听,因为语言历史本身就充满这样的例子。英国语言学权威 David Crystal二千年的时候写了《 Language Death》(语言的死亡),说全球语言现存总数大约在六千多种左右,但曾经存在的语言则可能多达十四万种。换言之,人类不同种族的语言中有九成半已经死亡,再没有懂得说或使用的人,再没有传承者;存活下来的语言只有不到百分之五。而且由于全球化及英语大军压境的关系,语言死亡的速度正在加快,即使一些说话人还有上百万的语系也开始受威胁,可能前途不保,成了濒危语言。例如南非白人说的「斐语」( Afrikaan),大概还有六百万人在使用,也是南非政府的法定语文,可是由于与全球接轨,要走向世界,父母拚命推动下一代学好英文,这些新一代日常接触、使用的语言也以英文为主,「斐语」反而落在次要位置。对长居南非的白人( Afrikaner)来说,再过几代,会使用、懂得使用「斐语」的人肯定越来越少。到只剩下一万几千人时,「斐语」便极可能淹没在英语海洋中。
Cantonese Citzens Defend Cantonese Language Activity refers to the activity in which the citizens of Canton City opposed the proposal suggested by the city committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) to use Mandarin more in television news programmes, rather than Cantonese.
Background
Cantonese is basically attacked on two fronts. One is "internal migration" - people moving to Guangdong from other regions. Guangdong boasts 14 million residents; half of the new settlers do not speak any Cantonese. The other front is the government policy to create a "unified harmonious society". Beijing's 1982 constitution article 19 set Putonghua as the official language. A survey in June 2010 showed 80% of 30,000 respondents opposed the switch from Cantonese to Mandarin.
Activity
On 12 July, Cantonese citizens went to People's Park in Canton City to defend Cantonese. They sang 80's Cantonese pop music in this activity.