Evolution & Development of Penang Hokkien

Every living language is expected to evolve and change over time. A language that is static, that has been forced to be frozen in time, is not able keep pace with new demands. Even today, the English that we speak continues to absorb new words, some words change their meaning, and some fall out of use. We don't use "thou" or "saith" in every day conversation, unless we use it for a period context.

The most important way to keep a language alive is by using it. And when we use it, we should not be afraid to accept new words into its vocabulary. If you were an author, and you plan to produce works in Penang Hokkien, you should have the license to coin new words, albeit sparingly, in order that it best conveys your thoughts. Some of the most acclaimed authors of works in English coin words or introduce new usage to existing words. For that reason, we should not be afraid to push the boundaries forward. Remember that it is better to have produced works in Penang Hokkien, even with newly introduced words, than not producing anything at all.

How we communicate has also changed. Throughout much of the 20th century, generations of Penang Hokkien-speaking people grew up using the language orally. We were satisfied to being able to use the language among ourselves in person, face to face. But times have change. In the past, should we wish to communicate in writing, we write a letter, and we accept that it will take a measurable amount of time to receive a response.

Nowadays, most of us have various channels to telecommunicate in writing, whether by email, SMS, Messenger, Whatsapp, Wechat or fax. Writing letters and sending them away by post is not the usual form of written telecommunication anymore.

In order for our language to survive and remain relevant in this present age, the need for literacy in the language is stronger now than before. If we are incapable of telecommunicating in Penang Hokkien, then our language is handicapped, for we are forced to rely on languages with a writing system to telecommunicate, perhaps in English or Mandarin. In the past, in does not matter, for our daily life back then does not require that much written telecommunication. Now it does, for written telecommunication is part of modern daily life.

The tool for written telecommunication is the writing system. There may be more than one tool to get the job done, but the survival of our language is more assured when we choose a tool that is easilty used. On one end of the spectrum, if we create a new writing system with strange characters and rules, none of which resembling existing languages that the speakers of Penang Hokkien know, it will be harder to learn how to communicate in the language and pass it on. We should be mindful that the main purpose of a writing system is effective telecommunication. If the system has rules that does not contribute to effective communication, we should be asking ourselves why we are using it in the first place. On the other hand, if we ride on existing knowledge of languages among the speakers, and we build on something they are already familiar with, our hope of passing maintaining the survival of the language is enhanced.

When it comes to rescuing an endangered language, different people will always have different opinion of which path to take. At the end of the day, rather than arguing over which is the best course of action, the only way to maintain the survival of our language is just to keep doing it - speak it, write it, use it. [an error occurred while processing this directive]