The Politics of Language S Contact in the Himalaya ONNTAG AND EDITED BY SELMA K. SONNTAG AND MARK TURIN This book brings together linguistic theory and empirical studies addressing human rights, multilingual education, language ecology and endangered languages. It is essential reading T URIN The Politics of for students, practitioners, language activists and scholars working on language planning, multilingual education, endangered languages and language politics. This is indeed an interdisciplinary book that is testimony to why lesser-known languages matter in the Himalaya ( Language Contact and beyond. EDS —Prof. Nirmal Man Tuladhar, Chair, Social Science Baha .) Although this book was written for a specialist audience of advanced scholars and doctoral in the Himalaya students, the authors successfully link these specific cases to broader issues in sociolinguistics, language policy and planning, and political science. Hence this book will be of interest to scholars working on other contexts besides the Himalayan region; I am very pleased to see such a complex and interesting analysis of the politics of language contact. —Prof. James Tollefson, University of Washington The Politics The Contact in the Hima of Language This highly original and �mely collec�on brings together case studies from salient areas of the Himalayan region to explore the poli�cs of language contact. Promo�ng a linguis�cally and historically grounded perspec�ve, The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalayaoffers nuanced insights into language and its rela�on to power in this geopoli�cally complex region. Edited by respected scholars in the field, the collec�on comprises five new research contribu�ons by established and early-career researchers who have been significantly engaged in the Himalayan region. Grounded in a commitment to theore�cally informed area studies, and covering Tibet (China), Assam (India), and Nepal, each case study is situated within contemporary debates in sociolinguis�cs, poli�cal science, and language policy and planning. Bridging disciplines and transcending na�on-states, the volume offers a unique contribu�on to the study of language contact and its poli�cal implica�ons. The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya is essen�al reading for researchers in the fields of language policy and planning, applied linguis�cs, and language and literary educa�on. The detailed introduc�on and concluding commentary make the collec�on accessible to all social scien�sts concerned with ques�ons of language, and the volume as a whole will be of interest to scholars in anthropology, sociolinguis�cs, poli�cal science and Asian studies. As with all Open Book publica�ons, this en�re book is available to read for free on the publisher’s website. Printed and digital edi�ons, together with supplementary digital material, can also be found at www.openbookpublishers.com laya Cover image: Edward Lear, Kinchinjunga (1877). Yale Center for Bri�sh Art, Public domain, h�p://discover.odai.yale.edu/ydc/Record/1670566. Cover design: Anna Ga�. book EDITED BY SELMA K. SONNTAG AND MARK TURIN eebook and OA edi�ons also available OPEN OBP ACCESS www.openbookpublishers.com To access digital resources including: blog posts videos online appendices and to purchase copies of this book in: hardback paperback ebook editions Go to: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/980 Open Book Publishers is a non-profit independent initiative. We rely on sales and donations to continue publishing high-quality academic works. THE POLITICS OF LANGUAGE CONTACT IN THE HIMALAYA The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya Edited by Selma K. Sonntag and Mark Turin https://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2019 Selma K. Sonntag and Mark Turin. Copyright of individual chapters is maintained by the chapters’ authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Selma K. Sonntag and Mark Turin (eds.), The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2019, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0169 In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit, https:// doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0169#copyright Further details about CC BY licenses are available at, https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/ All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Updated digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0169#resources Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-704-7 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-705-4 ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-706-1 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-707-8 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-708-5 ISBN XML: 978-1-78374-709-2 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0169 Cover image: Edward Lear, Kinchinjunga (1877). Yale Center for British Art, public domain, https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1670566 Cover design: Anna Gatti. All paper used by Open Book Publishers is sourced from SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) accredited mills and the waste is disposed of in an environmentally friendly way Contents Contributors vii Preface xi Introduction: Language Politics and Language Contact 1 Selma K. Sonntag 1. Language Contact and the Politics of Recognition amongst 17 Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China: The rTa’u-Speaking ‘Horpa’ of Khams Tunzhi (Sonam Lhundrop), Hiroyuki Suzuki, and Gerald Roche Vertical and Horizontal Politics of Language Contact in Tibet 17 The rTa’u-speaking ‘Horpa’: Ambiguous Origins 20 and Shifting Polysemy rTa’u-speakers and Contemporary Tibetan Language Politics 30 Conclusion 40 2. What Happened to the Ahom Language? The Politics of 49 Language Contact in Assam Selma K. Sonntag The Mandala State 52 The Ahom Kingdom 57 The Colonial State 66 The Modern State 70 Conclusion 74 vi The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya 3. Transforming Language to Script: Constructing Linguistic 79 Authority through Language Contact in Schools in Nepal Uma Pradhan Linguistic Authority Through Language Contact 81 Writing Language, Claiming “Authenticity” 85 Language, Dialect, and Making “Corrections” 93 Language, Script, and Social Acceptability 98 Language, Education and Frames of “Legitimacy” 102 Conclusion 105 4. The Significance of Place in Ethnolinguistic Vitality: 109 Spatial Variations Across the Kaike-Speaking Diaspora of Nepal Maya Daurio Kaike Speakers 110 Language and Identity 115 Intergenerational Transmission 126 Conclusion 130 5. Speaking Chone, Speaking ‘Shallow’: Dual Linguistic 137 Hegemonies in China’s Tibetan Frontier Bendi Tso and Mark Turin The Shape of Linguistic Hegemony: Coercion and Consent 138 Situating Chone County in Time and Place 140 Research Methods and Subject Position 144 Coercion as an Aspect of Linguistic Hegemony 145 The Role of Consent in Shaping Linguistic Hegemony 154 Conclusion 159 6. Concluding Thoughts on Language Shift and Linguistic 163 Diversity in the Himalaya: The Case of Nepal Mark Turin List of Tables and Figures 177 Index 179 Contributors Bendi Tso completed a Master of Arts in Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2016. She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests lie in linguistic nationalism, linguistic identities, and language ideologies. Her current research explores how the ideology of ‘authentic Tibetanness’ — the idea that speaking Tibetan is taken as a claim to be an authentic Tibetan person — has been played out among Chone Tibetans in Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture by the Chinese state and by Tibetan ethno-nationalists. Her research also examines the ways in which Chone Tibetans engage, mediate, resist, and reject such ideology based on their own linguistic realities and experiences, in history and at present. Maya Daurio earned a Master of Science in Geography from the University of Montana, where her research focused on language maintenance and social-ecological resilience within an endangered language community in Nepal. She has worked for over eight years in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and is interested in anthropological, ecological, and humanitarian applications of GIS. Concurrent research interests include language endangerment and maintenance, traditional ecological knowledge, social-ecological resilience, indigeneity, and mountain geographies. Maya will be pursuing a doctorate in Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Uma Pradhan is Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at Oxford School for Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford. Prior to this, Uma was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of viii The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya Education Anthropology, Aarhus University, Copenhagen. Uma’s research focuses on power-laden dimensions of education and examines the interconnection between state, society, and schooling. Uma holds a DPhil in International Development from the University of Oxford, where she studied