Plastic Mandarin: (originally) an umbrella term covering various kinds of Mandarin-vernacular-hybrid varieties including L2 Mandarin accents

“A variety that combines the features of the local Changsha dialect with features of Standard Mandarin” Y. Wu (2005, p.22)

Plastic Mandarin: a particular non-standard Mandarin with distinct and consistent tonal patterns spoken by the young generations in Changsha

• 90% of 104 survey respondents in Changsha correctly identified Plastic Mandarin among recordings of Standard Mandarin, Plastic Mandarin, Changsha-accented L2 Mandarin, and Changsha X. Xu et al. (2012)

• 55.8% of them differentiated Plastic Mandarin from Changsha-accented L2 Mandarin, and some considered Changsha-accented L2 Mandarin as a variant of Plastic Mandarin Ibid

• Most Plastic Mandarin speakers were below 30 years old, and those with high academic qualifications were capable of and inclined to code-switching between Standard Mandarin, Plastic Mandarin, and Changsha. Jing and Niu (2010)

Plastic Mandarin is the de facto lingua franca

Speaking Plastic Mandarin serves as a covert legitimised professional conduct in schools

• Classmates and friends: 20 / 21 (95%)

• Teachers after classes: 16 / 21 (76%)

• Teachers during classes: 13 / 21 (62%)

36 out of 37 subjects attended secondary schools where the major medium of communication was Plastic Mandarin Y. Wang (2018)

Plastic Mandarin is the sociolect of the young

Speaking Plastic Mandarin is increasingly popular in public spaces

• Parents: 8 / 21 (38%)
• Grandparents: 3 / 21 (14%)
• Outside schools : 11/21 (52%)

In high-end department stores, restaurants, hotels, post offices, banks, airports, and train stations, over 3/4 of 42 competent ‘trilinguals’ preferred to communicate in Plastic Mandarin. Jing and Niu (2010)

Plastic Mandarin is first discernible in the speech of adolescents and young adults.

• Less than 30% of 104 Changsha residents aged from 15 to 55 years used Plastic Mandarin in various context. X. Xu (2012)

  • Only one secondary school student participant!

Millenials proficient in Plastic Mandarin may have been reshaping the linguistic landscape of urban Changsha when they entered the workplace and started families.

Language acquisition

• A structurally intermediate status between the native language and the target language Selinker (1972)

• Permeability, dynamism, and systematicity

• NOT persistent errors or failed approximations

• Awareness of the Standard-Plastic mismatch and capability of producing more standard forms

Contact and new dialect formation

• Language contact accompanied acquisition, and was accelerated in the digital space.

• The lack of continuity between generations serves as a marker of a new dialect Kerswill (2020)

• Diglossia with bilingualism Fishman (1967): Standard Mandarin (H) and Changsha (L)

• Plastic Mandarin complicates the functional distribution of varieties

• Boarding school:
  • Dense and multiplex social networks
  • High frequencies of interaction
  • Exact context where Plastic Mandarin predominates
• Premises: Music room
• Participants: 21 in total
  • 16 females and 5 males
  • Age: 17.24 \(\pm\) 0.7 years
  • On average 15.71 years in Changsha

• Premises: Audio Studio
• Participants: 14 in total
  • 9 females and 5 males
  • Age: 24 \(\pm\) 1.96 years
  • Mandarin Chinese region in northern China
  • Eight spent more than 10 years in Beijing
  • None of them claimed to speak or frequently use another Chinese variety or Mandarin dialect

• Perceptually salient change
  • The most frequent tone in Standard Mandarin Wu et al. (2020)
  • The most prominent in both prosodically strong and weak positions Deng (2010)
• Shared tone feature among many Xiang varieties in Hunan province.