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A Sociolinguistic Introduction to the Central Taic Languages of Wenshan Prefecture, China

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A Sociolinguistic Introduction to the Central Taic Languages of Wenshan Prefecture, China Eric C. Johnson Research conducted in cooperation with: 王明富 Mingfu Wang Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Minority Affairs Commission Zhuang Studies Association SIL International 2010 SIL Electronic Survey Report 2010-027, September 2010 Copyright © 2010 Eric C. Johnson, Mingfu Wang and SIL International All rights reserved 2 Contents Abstract Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 1.1 The Taic Languages 1.2 The Central Taic Languages 1.3 Geography and Population 1.4 Ethnic History and Identity 1.5 Previous research 2 Intelligibility Research 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Previous Intelligibility Research 2.3 RTT Methodology 2.3.1 Overview of RTT Intelligibility Testing 2.3.2 Selection of Locations for RTT Recordings 2.3.3 Preparation of the RTT Recordings 2.3.4 Administering the RTT Intelligibility Tests 2.3.5 Potential Conflicting Variables 2.4 Intelligibility Testing Results 2.4.1 Nong Zhuang and Dai Zhuang: No Single Reference Dialect 2.4.2 Dai Zhuang Internal Intelligibility 2.4.3 Understanding of Guangxi Yang Zhuang among Yunnan’s Southern Zhuang 2.4.4 Nong Zhuang Internal Intelligibility 2.4.5 Min Zhuang comprehension of Nong Zhuang 2.4.6 Intelligibility with Central Tai languages of Vietnam 3 Language Use and Language Vitality 3.1 The Linguistic Milieu 3.2 Previous Language Use Research 3.3 Language Use Research Methodology 3.4 Nong Zhuang Language Use Datapoints 3.4.1 Kuaxi Village in Yanshan County 3.4.2 Xiao Milewan village in Wenshan County 3.4.3 Geji Village in Xichou County 3.4.4 Xinzhai Village in Maguan County 3.4.5 Jiangdong Village in Malipo County 3.4.6 Xiao Guangnan Village in Guangnan County 3.4.7 Xia Douyue Village in Guangnan County 3.4.8 Summary of Nong Zhuang Language Use Situation 3.5 Dai Zhuang Language Use Datapoints 3.5.1 Xiao Minghu Village, Wenshan County (Northern Dai Zhuang) 3.5.2 Laochangpo village, Maguan County (Southern Dai Zhuang) 3.5.3 Songshupo village, Guangnan County (Northeastern Dai Zhuang) 3.5.4 Niutouzhai and Shuichezhai villages, Wenshan County (Central Dai Zhuang) 3 3.5.5 Dai Zhuang Language Use Conclusions 3.6 The Min Zhuang village of Guixun-Anhe 3.7 Summary of the Wenshan Zhuang Language Use Situation 3.8 How Threatened or Endangered are the Central Taic Languages of Wenshan Prefecture? 3.8.1 Fishman’s “Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale” 3.8.2 Landweer’s “Eight Indicators of Linguistic Vitality” 3.8.3 UNESCO’s Language Vitality Assessment Factors 3.9 Language Use and Vitality Conclusion 4 Conclusion Appendix A: Maps Appendix B: Photographs of Yunnan Zhuang Ethnic Costumes B.1 Nong Branch (Pu Nong) B.2 Sha Branch (Bu Yuei) B.3 Tu Branch (Bu Dai) B.4 The Laji People English Bibliography 4 Abstract Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in China’s Yunnan province is home to over a million members of the official Zhuang nationality. Over half of these speak language varieties classified into the central branch of Tai languages. Though many of the languages of the southwestern branch of Tai (which includes Thai and Lao) have been extensively studied by Thai and other linguists, and the northern branch (which includes the government designated standard varieties for both the Zhuang and Bouyei nationalities) are the subject of numerous works by Chinese linguists, relatively few works focused on Central Tai languages are available. The aim of this work is to provide sociolinguistic data from the several Central Taic Zhuang languages of Wenshan prefecture, resulting from sociolinguistic field research conducted from 2005 to 2007. 5 Acknowledgements While the authors remain entirely responsible for any errors or misunderstandings in the following materials, we would like to sincerely thank the following people for their kind assistance: Changli Huang of the Wenshan Prefecture United Front Bureau, Zhengting He of the Yunnan Province Zhuang Studies Association, Simu Meng and Baocheng Lu of the Yunnan Province Language Commission, Shijun Zhao of the Wenshan Teachers’ College, Jerold Edmondson of the University of Texas at Arlington, Keith Slater, Cathryn Yang, Andy Castro, Jamin Pelkey, Susanne Johnson of SIL International, East Asia Group, Sue Hasselbring, and Ted Bergman of SIL International, Asia Area. We are also grateful to the Wenshan Prefecture government for arranging the village research trips and to SIL International for providing the funding for the research expenses. 6 1 Introduction The Zhuang people are the largest minority nationality within the People’s Republic of China, numbered at a population of 16 million during the 2000 national census (National Bureau of Statistics 2003). Of these, approximately one-third speak "Southern Zhuang" dialects, that is, Central Taic varieties, whereas two-thirds speak "Northern Zhuang", or Northern Taic varieties. Over 1.1 million Zhuang nationality people live in Yunnan Province, and more than half of these are speakers of Central Taic language varieties. Though the Tai family as a whole has been the subject of a significant amount of research in Thailand, China, and elsewhere during the past century, much remains to be done. Before his death in 1987, the great Chinese-American linguist Li Fang-kuei wrote: The Need for a Linguistic Survey: There are important areas where we lack information about the Tai languages. Some regions are not readily accessible to us for investigation, but eventually we shall need good descriptions of many key languages and dialects. There are, of course, increasing numbers of current publications about these languages and dialects, but still more will be necessary. The study of Tai languages has been in the past more or less oriented from the point of view of Siamese, the standard language of Thailand. Very often the Tai languages in China have been considered as aberrant languages or dialects and still very little is known about them, in spite of some good, recent publications. The study of Tai languages as a whole must put the linguistic material from China on the same level as the Siamese, Lao, or Shan language (Li 1992). Li would be glad to see how much new research (and older, previously unpublished research) on the Chinese Taic languages has been published in the past two decades; however, there remains a need to supplement our knowledge of the Tai family with additional data from less studied languages. The Central Taic languages of Yunnan remain some of the least researched languages of the Tai family, and thus the current work endeavors to bring to print some preliminary data on these languages. The research data presented here is the fruit of a collaborative research project jointly conducted by the Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture’s Zhuang Studies Association and Minority Affairs Commission and SIL International’s East Asia Group. The research was carried out at a number of locations within Yunnan Province’s Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture from 2005 to 2007. The primary researchers were Mingfu Wang, an ethnographer with the Wenshan Prefecture Zhuang Studies Association (and a first language speaker of Nong Zhuang) and Minority Affairs Commission and Eric and Susanne Johnson, linguists with SIL International’s East Asia Group. The initial research objectives were: 7 1. Determine the feasibility of using Nong Zhuang1 (Yan-Guang Southern Zhuang) as a reference dialect to meet the language dialect needs of all Wenshan Central Taic (Southern Zhuang) speakers (both those called Bu Dai/Tu and those called Phu Nong).2 2. Understand the village vitality level of the two Yunnan Southern Zhuang languages (dialects), the interest of the speakers of Southern Zhuang in Yunnan in Zhuang language development (such as adult literacy, bilingual education and print and non-print media in Zhuang) and viability of further Southern Zhuang language development work. In order to accomplish these objectives, several instruments were used: sociolinguistic questionnaires, observation, recorded text testing (RTT), and wordlist elicitation. The following sections on language use and vitality and dialect intelligibility will rely upon the data elicited through these instruments to attempt to achieve the above objectives and answer the primary research question: Which Wenshan Central Taic (Southern Zhuang) dialect(s) should be the basis for further language development efforts, in order that resources can be most efficiently used to serve the greatest number of those needing resources through the spoken and written forms of their own language? (The wordlist data collected in the course of this survey will be analyzed in a separate paper, Johnson 2010, forthcoming.) 1.1 The Taic Languages The Tai3 group of languages stretches from northeast India in the west, down into Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and up through the provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou and Guangdong in China, with a few villages on Hainan Island. There are over 80 million speakers of Taic languages (Li and Solnit 2002), the largest language in terms of speakers being that of the Thai language of central Thailand. Within China most members of the Zhuang, Dai and Bouyei nationality groups speak Taic languages. The higher level classification of the Taic languages remains a subject for study with several differing theories proposed. The traditional view going all the way back to Lacouperie (1886), the first linguist to identify the Tai languages as a distinct group, is that the Taic languages are somehow related to the Sino- Tibetan family. This was originally the view of the great Chinese-American linguist Fang Kuei Li, who published his reconstruction of Proto-Tai in 1977,4 and remains the most common view within Chinese linguistic circles today, with scholars such as Luo Meizhen (1992) arguing this position based on large numbers of cognate words in core vocabulary and seemingly similar tonal development.
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