Language Change in Hong Kong:Diglossia or Bilingualism?

It has been commonly accepted that the language situation of Hong Kong can be seen as diglossia or triglossia though a few linguists argued that this point of view could not offer us a better theoretical explanation for the language development in Hong Kong. It was claimed that its diglossic situation has quickly given way to bilingualism. It is obvious that the situation has changed somewhat since Hong Kong returned to China in 1997. The diglossic situation has not yet disappeared,and will not disappear in the near future. This paper examines the linguistic changes in pre-1997 and post-1997 Hong Kong. There are three external factors influencing linguistic changes in Hong Kong speech community:policy,language use and language attitudes,of which the second is the most important. The paper analyses these three factors,especially focusing on language use. The results show that the language situation in Hong Kong has undergone some quantitative changes,but not qualitative changes. Therefore,Hong Kong is still a diglossic society,not a bilingual society. It is concluded that the sociolinguistic situation in Hong Kong may be described as a multi-level diglossic system which could explain linguistic changes in pre-1997 and post 1997 Hong Kong in a more systematic and convincing way.