Kiak Uei Khoo
Malaysian Mandarin is a unique variation of Mandarin that exhibits certain degrees of variation as opposed to Putonghua, the standardized Mandarin spoken in Mainland China. Following the spread of Putonghua under the Mandarin globalization trend, the issue of language standardization has become a central concern among the Chinese Malaysian community. This article examines the central principles of language standardization and thus gives suggestions to the proper and workable strategies needed for managing the Malaysian Mandarin variations. By these principles, in addition to an analysis of issues within Malaysian Mandarin standardization, this article proposes, through illustration of lexical standardization, a flexible and dynamic approach to setting strategies for standardization of Malaysian Mandarin with regard to the Mandarin globalization trend.