A Study On Chinese Road Names In Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia

The Chinese Language street names in George Town, a city on Penang Island in Malaysia, are often preserved and spread in the form of Chinese Language street names. The official English Language street names and Malay Language street names are different from the Chinese Language street names because of historical tradition and collective creation. This thesis addresses the Chinese Language street names in George Town, a city on Penang Island in Malaysia. Because of its long history of Chinese Language street name analyses, the street names will be statistically collected, organized, analyzed and summarized from a sociolinguistic perspective. The thesis is divided into four major sections.The first section analyzes the Chinese Language street names of George Town, making the detailed analysis from the generics and non generics to the Chinese Language street names to understand how Malaysian Chinese citizens classify in accordance with the attribute of street names.The second section is an analysis of the structure of the Chinese Language street names in the city. This will be done by analyzing the character and structure of the syllables and vocabulary to conclude the diverse characteristics of syllables and vocabulary in the Chinese Language street names.The third section examines what influenced the early Chinese settlers when they named the streets over200years ago. Influences that will be examined include the geographical, historical, political and cultural landscapes of town over the years. The different categories of street names are described using narrative point of view.The fourth section has conducted the systematical research and the inspection of the Chinese Language street names of George Town, Malaysia. Through analysis, we know that the early Chinese social organization, economic and cultural features of the historical society, diversification of folk belief and the religious belief, and the prosperous areas from northeast transferring to south west all explore the cultural connotations of George Town, Penang.