Language choices and industrialization: A case study of language use in Luoyang, China

To understand language choice and development in the process of industrialization it is essential to study how the children of workers (the second generation) in a rising industrial community choose their language/dialect for daily communication. The coexistence of three speech communities: dialect, dialect-and-Putonghua mixed, and Putonghua, in three urban districts of Luoyang City, Henan Province, since the 1950s is representative of language development during China’s industrialization. Based on a large-scale survey, this article compares language and dialect use in these three urban districts and some special danwei (work-unit) language islands in Luoyang. This study shows why and how the second generation in a rising industrial community have chosen or not chosen Putonghua as their major language for daily communication. It concludes with a discussion on the characters and underlining principles of language choice in the course of industrialization under the planned economy in China.