China has recently embarked upon a large project of language preservation with ambitious goals, which is featured with broad participation and political sensitivity; it thus has attracted a great deal of public attention. The research team also has encountered various diffi culties and challenges during the project implementation. However, in general, given the positive feedback we have received from the public, the project framework has been proven feasible and it has been progressing well so far. Particularly, given its forward planning nature, the Project spearheads the language conservation due to the following three treats: it is government guided, formulating an array of standards and criterions, and characteristic of application of advanced technology. This paper endeavors to answer the major concerns from the public about the Project and its implementation, in the mean time, to present the new concept we proposed as ‘Multiple-Languages-Respective-Domains’, the core nature of which is to construct a hierarchical relationships between layers of languages and regional variants within a multilingual community. Such a framework enables the harmonious co-existence among lingua franca, regional languages and local dialects with each functioning within respective domains, achieving diversity in unity.
曹志耘. 关于语保工程和语保工作的几个问题[J]. 语言战略研究, 2017, 2(4): 11-16.
Cao Zhiyun. Major Issues about Project for the Protection of Language Resources of China. , 2017, 2(4): 11-16.