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The Tai-Kadai Languages and Their Genetic Affiliation the Nexus Between Language Diversity and Language Education

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The Tai-Kadai Languages and Their Genetic Affiliation the Nexus Between Language Diversity and Language Education The Newsletter | No.77 | Summer 2017 14 | The Region News from Australia and the Pacific continued [to discover] and a complex sentence structure. She also The nexus between language diversity laughs, indicating the humorous incongruity between what she said and how she said it. Rini and Ratih then switch to a and language education more colloquial style indicated by informal aja [just] and nggak [not], the use of ellipses and the incorporation of a Sundanese Michael Ewing and Dwi Noverini Djenar discourse marker teh and (coincidently homophonous) vocative Teh [older sister].3 While the forces of conservative educators and government bureaucrats continue to promote standard INDONESIAN IS TAUGHT in many primary and secondary These and the dramatic popularity of social media in Indonesian, the mixing of styles, registers and languages is schools across Australia, as well as most major universities in Indonesia in recent years, correlate with a weakening of the in fact the lived reality of all Indonesian speakers, and youth the country. Strengthening the nexus between research and divide that has officially separated standard and colloquial enthusiastically celebrate this linguistic plurality. teaching is important for keeping teaching methodologies language, creating a more porous boundary between the What does this mean for language education? We feel that and content up-to-date and engaging students. We present two.1 In an example from Fairish, a teen-lit novel written by the love of language variation expressed by young Indonesians some findings from our research project on the language Esti Kinasih,2 the narrator describes how Irish, the protagonist, is something that needs to be shared with learners. We identify of young Indonesians, and explore some of the ways these is surprised one morning to find she was not the first to four ways that our research can inform the teaching of findings can inform language learning and teaching. arrive early at school. Indonesian. First, diversity is the reality. As educators, we Indonesia is a highly multilingual society and standard must recognise and embrace linguistic and cultural diversity Indonesian (itself a variety of Malay), as promoted by the Betapa kagetnya Irish begitu tiba di sekolah, karena dia and can no longer teach only the standard language in national language board and educational practices, exists pikir dia bakalan jadi orang pertama yang menginjakkan isolation, because this would provide an unrealistic model in a complex sociolinguistic ecology. Indonesia’s language kakinya di sekolah. Tapi ternyata, boro-boro! for students. Second, narrative (in its myriad forms) is an diversity includes colloquial varieties of Indonesian, other “Irish was so surprised when she arrived at school extremely useful entry into the complex cultural and linguistic varieties of Malay and hundreds of regional languages found because she thought she was the first one to enter diversity found in Indonesia and so is valuable in language across the archipelago. In the past the relationship between the school ground. But she was totally wrong!” teaching. Third, for learners the key is flexibility. We cannot the different languages has been described in terms of possibly teach all the different kinds of language and cultural diglossia, in which each language has a specific function The narration begins with the standard style then moves variation students will encounter in Indonesia, but we can within a particular domain. Standard Indonesian is considered to a more colloquial style before ending with the particularly teach them skills, tools and strategies to deal with and embrace the language of government and colloquial expression boro-boro [let alone] (the translation diversity. Finally, as educators we have to rise to this challenge. education, while regional languages or above is adjusted for idiomaticity). In older teen fiction, Rather than falling back on easy solutions that rely on colloquial varieties of Indonesian are this mixing of style is rare. Similar shifts occur in comics, a simplistic reading of register and language variation, we for family and personal relationships. on social media and in conversation. Our next example is need to embrace difference, hybridity, and complexity. In fiction, this divide can be seen from a recording of a group of university students sitting when authors present narration in a food court. They have been discussing economics in Michael Ewing, Asia Institute, The University of Melbourne in standard Indonesian, but allow fairly standard Indonesian when Rini changes the topic ([email protected]) colloquial forms to appear in dialogue. and says that she hasn’t yet decided what to order. Dwi Noverini Djenar, School of Languages and Cultures, Examining recent genres of fiction The University of Sydney ([email protected]) aimed at young audiences, we found Rini: (while laughing) Saya belum menemukan that this simplistic division is no apa yang mau saya makan. longer operative. “I have not yet discovered what it is that References Beginning in the 1990s, with I want to eat.” 1 Djenar, D.N. & M.C. Ewing. 2015. ‘Language varieties democratisation and press freedom, Ini=. ... Hah. Itu teh cuma esnya aja? and youthful involvement in Indonesian fiction’, Language there has been a dramatic increase in “Here. Hah. That’s just with ice?” and Literature 4(2):108-128. both numbers and kinds of Indonesian 2 Djenar, D.N. 2015. ‘Style and authorial identity in Indonesian publications, including those aimed Ratih: Minum aja Teh. ...Tapi nggak tau mau teen literature: a ‘sociostylistic’ approach’, in D.N. Djenar et at a youth demographic. During minum apa. al. (eds.) Language and Identity Across Modes of Communication. the same period a newly recognised “(I) am just going to have a drink. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp.225-248. trendy, urban youth identity and But (I) don’t know what (I) want.” 3 Ewing, M.C. 2016. ‘Localising person reference among its associated form of language Indonesian Youth’, in Goebel, Z. et al. (eds.) Margins, hubs, called bahasa gaul [the language Rini begins in the standard style, indicated by saya for and peripheries in a decentralizing Indonesia. Tilburg Papers of sociability] became popular. first person reference, the fully inflected verb menemukan in Culture Studies, Special Issue 162, pp.26-41. Little parallel development can be observed between The Tai-Kadai languages and their genetic affiliation Kam-Tai and Austronesian in this regard. This is at variance with Benedict’s claims that Tai and Chinese share little in Yongxian Luo basic vocabulary and morphology. Since basic vocabulary and morphology is relatively stable and resistant to borrowing, this finding is worth considering. TAI-KADAI is a family of diverse languages found in southern Kadai was coined. More recently, terms like Kra and Kra-dai For now, evidence from both sides is contested. China, northeast India and much of Southeast Asia, with a have been proposed for these latter languages. The Sino-Tai hypothesis needs to be revisited, as does the diaspora in North America and Europe. It is one of the major While there is no question about the status of Tai as a Austro-Tai hypothesis. Since Kadai languages may hold a key language families in East and Southeast Asia. The number distinct language family, the genetic affiliation of Tai-Kadai to the genetic position of Tai-Kadai, good descriptive and of the Tai-Kadai languages is estimated to be close to one remains controversial. Opinions are divided into three camps: comparative work needs to be done to unveil key aspects hundred, with approximately 100 million speakers who are (1) Sino-Tai; (2) Austro-Tai; (3) Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian. of historical connection.6 The issue of genetic affiliation of spread across six countries: China, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, The Sino-Tai hypothesis assumes the membership of Tai under Tai-Kadai remains a fascinating topic of academic pursuit. India and Vietnam. Tai-Kadai is a well-established family in Sino-Tibetan while the Austro-Tai theory argues for a genetic its own right. However, its genetic affiliation remains open. relationship between Tai and Austronesian. The Sino-Tibetan- Yongxian Luo, Associate Professor, Asia Institute, As the name itself suggests, Tai-Kadai is made up of two Austronesian hypothesis proposes a super phylum that includes The University of Melbourne ([email protected]). major groups: Tai and Kadai. Tai, also known as Kam-Tai, Chinese, Tai-Kadai, Miao-Yao, and Austronesian. comprises the best known members of the family: Thai and Lao, Today western researchers generally embrace the References the national languages of Thailand and Laos, whose speakers Austro-Tai theory while the majority of Chinese scholars 1 Diller, A. et al. (eds.) 2008. The Tai-Kadai Languages. London alone account for over half of the Tai-Kadai population. Thai and still uphold the traditional hypothesis for a Sino-Tai alliance. and New York: Routledge; Luo, Y. 2017. ‘Tai-Kadai languages Lao are closely related to Zhuang, the language of the largest A number of Chinese scholars, however, are siding with in China’, Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics minority group in China. Other important members within the Benedict in linking Tai-Kadai with Austronesian, excluding 4:249-257. Tai group include Kam and Sui, with several million speakers. Tai-Kadai from Sino-Tibetan.3 The advancement in the 2 Benedict, P.K. 1942. ‘Thai, Kadai and Indonesian: a new Kadai refers to a number of lesser-known languages, some phylogenetic study of Kam-Tai and Austronesian peoples, alignment in southeast Asia’, American Anthropologist of which have only a few hundred fluent speakers or even less.1 along with several anthropological traits such as face- 44:576-601; Benedict, P.K. 1975. Austro-Thai language and The majority of Tai-Kadai languages have no writing systems tattooing and teeth-blackening, lend support to this view.
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