Okinawan Language Shift
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THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Copyright and use of this thesis This thesis must be used in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Reproduction of material protected by copyright may be an infringement of copyright and copyright owners may be entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. Section 51 (2) of the Copyright Act permits an authorized officer of a university library or archives to provide a copy (by communication or otherwise) of an unpublished thesis kept in the library or archives, to a person who satisfies the authorized officer that he or she requires the reproduction for the purposes of research or study. The Copyright Act grants the creator of a work a number of moral rights, specifically the right of attribution, the right against false attribution and the right of integrity. You may infringe the author’s moral rights if you: - fail to acknowledge the author of this thesis if you quote sections from the work - attribute this thesis to another author -subject this thesis to derogatory treatment which may prejudice the author’s reputation For further information contact the University’s Copyright Service. sydney.edu.au/copyright Emergent Language Shift in Okinawa THESIS SUBMITTED TO The University of Sydney FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY Mark Robert Anderson Sydney, March 2009 Certification of Authorship/Originality I, Mark Robert Anderson, certify that the work in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or as partial fulfilment of the requirements for a degree. I also certify that the thesis has been written by me. Any help that I have received in my research work and the preparation of the thesis itself has been acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information sources and literature used are indicated in the thesis. This research was approved by the University of Sydney Human Ethics Committee (Approval Number 9493). “When a language disappears, the most intimate aspects of culture can disappear as well: fundamental ways of organising experience into concepts, of relating ideas to each other, of interacting with other people. The more conscious genres of verbal art are usually lost as well: traditional ritual, oratory, myth, legend, and even humour. Speakers commonly remark that when they speak a different language, they say different things and even think different thoughts Dalby 2003:252 3 Table of Contents List of maps, tables and figures..........................................................................................8 Acknowledgements............................................................................................................. 10 Chapter 1: Introduction..................................................................................................... 13 1.0 What this thesis is about......................................................................................................................13 1.1 Overview of the investigation........................................................................................................... 15 1.1.1 Motivation for study.............................................................................................................. 15 1.1.2 Theoretical model and terminology...................................................................................... 16 1.1.3 Qualitative analysis................................................................................................................18 1.1.4 Scope of study and possibilities for future research............................................................ 19 1.1.5 The concept of “emergence” ................................................................................................ 20 1.2 Language shift and death................................................................................................................... 22 1.2.1 What is language shift?..........................................................................................................23 1.2.2 What is language death?........................................................................................................23 1.2.3 Bilingualism during gradual language shift......................................................................... 25 1.2.4 Domains and diglossia...........................................................................................................26 1.2.5 The significance of intergenerational transmission.............................................................27 1.3 The Ryukyuan setting..........................................................................................................................28 1.3.1 Historical background...........................................................................................................29 1.3.2 The current status of Ryukyuan languages.......................................................................... 35 1.3.3 The relationship between Ryukyuan languages and Japanese............................................ 36 1.3.4 A separate language cluster or dialect of Japanese?.............................................................37 1.3.5 Language classification within the Ryukyuarchipelago......................................................40 1.3.6 Uchinaaguchi........................................................................................................................ 43 1.3.7 Uchinaa-yamatuguchi and Shin-hogen.................................................................................44 1.4 Chapter outline....................................................................................................................................46 1.5 Summary............................................................................................................................................. 47 Chapter 2: Literature review.............................................................................................. 48 2.0 Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 48 2.1 General observations about the literature.......................................................................................... 49 2.2 Perspectives on language contact phenomena..................................................................................50 2.2.1 Uchinaa-yamatuguchi...........................................................................................................51 2.2.2 The notions of “interdialect” and “interlanguage”............................................................... 55 2.2.3 Shin-hogen..............................................................................................................................60 4 2.2.4 Does the emergence of Shin-hôgen signify language shift reversal?................................... 64 2.2.5 Ryukyu Creole........................................................................................................................67 2.2.6 Code-switching.......................................................................................................................70 2.2.7 Mixed codes...........................................................................................................................79 2.2.8 Split (mixed) languages......................................................................................................... 80 2.3 Perspectives on language shift........................................................................................................... 83 2.3.1 Progressive erasure................................................................................................................ 84 2.3.2 The Gaelic-Arvanitika Model (GAM).................................................................................. 85 2.3.3 The Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (G1DS)......................................................86 2.3.4 The Marked Bilingualism Model (MBM)............................................................................88 2.3.5 New perspectives from the emerging field of language dynamics.....................................90 2.3.6 Categorisation of speakers into sociolinguistic subgroups or cohorts...............................92 2.4 Summary..............................................................................................................................................95 Chapter 3: Research methods and ethics........................................................................ 97 3.0 Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 97 3.1 Research methods...............................................................................................................................97 3.1.1 The recordings and participants............................................................................................97 3.1.2 Recording method................................................................................................................. 99 3.1.3 Gaining access to the community........................................................................................103 3.1.4 Recording equipment........................................................................................................... 108 3.1.5 Selection and transcription of the recordings.....................................................................108