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2019 Vol. 4, No. 3
Published: 2019-05-10
1
The UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay’s Message
Audrey Azoulay
Linguistic diversity plays an important role in building a global community with a shared future as the uniqueness of each language enriches our collective reservoir of wisdom. Access to the diversity of languages can awaken curiosity and the mutual understanding of peoples. UNESCO promotes linguistic diversity by contributing to the preservation and revitalization of endangered languages.
Linguistic diversity goes beyond theory: it has a direct and immediate impact on all aspects of society, including preserving traditional knowledge and promoting contemporary cultural expressions.
The Asia-Pacific region has a great wealth of linguistic diversity and this important international conference is a celebration of that rich variety.
This conference represents a unique opportunity to contribute to the work towards the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages through the promotion of language protection, access to language resources and showcasing emerging initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region.
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, the National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO, the National Language Commission of the People’s Republic of China, and the People’s Government of Hunan Province of the People’s Republic of China for having organized this timely event.
I wish all participants fruitful deliberations throughout the course of this conference.
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5
Protection and Promotion of Linguistic Diversity of the World Yuelu Proclamation
UNESCO
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10
UN Officials on Language and Language Life
Moez Chakchouk/Chandra Roy-Henriksen/Ibrahim Albalawi/Marco Patricio Zambrano Restrepo/Zhang Xiao’an/Frederick Russell-Rivoallan
The Use of Languages Determining the Progress of Society…Moez Chakchouk
The Learning of a Language Involving the Learning of the Culture …Chandra Roy-Henriksen
Helping the Indigenous People Integrate into Globalization While Maintaining Their Language and Identity…Ibrahim Albalawi
Indigenous Languages Protection in Ecuador…Marco Patricio Zambrano Restrepo
Protecting Indigenous Languages as Our Common Cultural Heritage…Zhang Xiao’an
Yuelu
Proclamation Marking a Milestone in World Language Resources Protection…Frederick Russell-Rivoallan
2019 Vol. 4 (3): 10-14 [
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15
Column Prologue: Language Protection in China and in the World
Cao Zhiyun
2019 Vol. 4 (3): 15-15 [
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16
Theories and Practices of China’s Language Resources
Li Yuming
DOI: 10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20190301
Forty years have passed since the concept of language resources was advanced. In the 1980s, Australia formulated the
National Language Policy
based on this concept. Since the beginning of the 21st century, China has started to put this concept into practice. National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center was established, and projects such as the Chinese Language Audio Database Resources and the National Project of Chinese Language Resource Preservation carried out. In cooperation with the UNESCO, China successfully held International Conference on Role of Linguistic Diversity in Building a Global Community with Shared Future and
Yuelu Proclamation
was adopted. China is outstanding for advocating the concept of language resources and implementing language protection. Research on China’s language resources is carried out on the bases of the practices of language planning. The focus of research has moved from the nature of language as resources and their classification to the understanding of the functions of language resources. This article offers a detailed historical survey of the theories and practices of China’s language resources. It classifies language resources into three kinds: oral, written, and derivative resources, and analyzes three functional domains of language resources: language reservation, language information processing and language learning. In addition, this paper proposes the view of language knowledge and regards language as not only a semiotic system, but also a bank for storing human language knowledge system and cultural system.
2019 Vol. 4 (3): 16-28 [
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Language Resource Preservation and Differential National Language Policy
Liu Danqing
DOI: 10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20190302
China has abundant language resources, and there are widely divergent Chinese dialects and dialect speakers of different proficiency levels across the whole country. Currently, however, Chinese dialects are experiencing a severe crisis in their sustainable existence. This paper first makes a brief review of the development of China’s language policy since 1949, and then analyzes the declining uses of dialects in cities since the reform and opening up. It points out that the decrease of intra-generational inheritance, reduced use in family and private domains, and the shrinking of major public functional domains for dialect use are prominent issues confronted by dialects in China. This paper contends that in order to preserve the dialect resources and taper off the shrink of dialects, some differential national language policies should be made and implemented. In some rural poverty regions the role of Putonghua (standard Chinese) in poverty alleviation practice needs to be reinforced, while in most urban areas the preservation of living dialects should be prioritized. Some language policies or practices that discourage dialect conservation should be adjusted or abolished. A number of concrete strategies are proposed in conclusion in order to help the authorities and policymakers to construct a healthy and orderly multilingual society in China.
2019 Vol. 4 (3): 29-37 [
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38
On the Development and Utilization of Minority Language Resources in China
Ding Shiqing
DOI: 10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20190303
The National Project of Chinese Language Resource Preservation (hereinafter Preservation Project) is an unprecedented megaproject with a unified standard and framework. The live linguistic resources it contains are featured as authentic, reliable and scientific, thus providing a scientific ground for precise preservation of minority language resource and controlled development and utilization. The implementation of the Preservation Project enables a thorough survey and rectification of minority languages, regionalects, and colloquialisms. The data collected provide abundant information for language resource preservation and utilization. Over the past five years, the Project team has obtained rich information form the native speakers of minority languages during special focused tasks. Guided by the hierarchical differences in need of protection as revealed by these minority languages, this study attempts to make a preliminary proposal on the development and utilization of the data from the project. I argue that, based on the big data, the development and utilization of minority language resources in China should be implemented with a scheme of unified development and utilization and a scheme of categorized development and utilization. The former includes big-data study, language service, policy consultancy, and the latter contains in-depth development and utilization, in-depth standardized development and utilization, in-depth controlled development and utilization and in-depth archived development and utilization for individual languages. In short, more considerations should be given to post-project preservation and utilization.
2019 Vol. 4 (3): 38-44 [
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45
Some Thoughts on the Policies and Practices for the Welsh Language Revival
Zhang Xinsheng and Li Mingfang
DOI: 10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20190304
Wales has its own distinctive indigenous language and culture. However, since its union with England in the mid-16 century, the political influence of Wales was marginalised for a long time, and the use of its language Welsh was also on the decline. Since the end of the 20th century when Wales had its own government, it has made great efforts to maintain and revive the Welsh language. This work becomes intensified along with the increasing political power of the Welsh government. The success of Welsh conservation and revival can be attributed to a range of language-related policies, including Welsh government’s consistent language revival policies and practices; development of language revival education; integration of language policy in people’s daily life, and international collaboration in the language maintenance and revival work. Some conclusions can be drawn from the Welsh revival experiences. First, the government should have coherent and consistent planning policies backed up with resources. Second, a wide coverage of the policies are the guarantee for language revival. Third, legislations and their implementations are critical means for language revival. Lastly, the economic value of the language is a key factor for language revival. Overall, the experience of Welsh revitalization in Wales can provide a useful reference for the maintenance and revival of other minority languages in the world.
2019 Vol. 4 (3): 45-52 [
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53
Language Revitalization as a Growing Field of Study and Practice
Gerald Roche, Leanne Hinton and Leena Huss
DOI: 10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20190305
This article examines the origin and growth of language revitalization as a field of both research and practice. Based on the recently published Routledge
Handbook of Language Revitalization
, the article defines language revitalization as “giving new life and vigor to a language that has been decreasing in use, or which has even ceased being used altogether.” This article argues that language revitalization has grown in tandem with the study of endangered languages, beginning in the late 1980s. It shows how language revitalization emerged as a distinct field of research in the early twenty-first century, and has become increasingly interdisciplinary since this time. Case studies of language revitalization are offered to demonstrate the ways in which research and practice intertwine in different social, political, and cultural contexts. The article concludes by briefly examining two significant trends in the development of the field: the growth of teaching programs in language revitalization, and the emergence of ethnographic studies of language revitalization.
2019 Vol. 4 (3): 53-61 [
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62
A Bibliometric Analysis of Chinese Language Resource Research (2000–2018)
Li Baogui and Shi Yali
DOI: 10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20190306
Taking the linguistic resource research literature found in CNKI database as the object, and combining the bibliometric method as well as the traditional literature method, this paper analyzes the hot topics and trends in the development of Chinese language resource research from 2000 to 2018. The findings show that the study of language resources has entered a new phase of rapid development; nine major journals have formed a core research zone; the core research groups have been formed, but cooperation between authors needs to be further strengthened. The hot topics in the area mainly include five aspects: language resource theory, language resources and language issues, language resource development and protection, language resource construction and monitoring, and language planning based on rescource concept. What’s more, the issues of language services, national language capacities, the Belt and Road initiative, language strategy as well as language security are becoming the latest cutting-edge topics in the field of language resources.
2019 Vol. 4 (3): 62-74 [
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75
A Review of the International Conference “Role of Linguistic Diversity in Building a Global Community with Shared Future”
Huang Xiaodong and Huang Shiquan
2019 Vol. 4 (3): 75-83 [
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84
Diverse Views on the Protection of World Language Resources
Elsa Stamatopoulou, Irmgarda Kasinskaite-Buddeberg, Wang Han, Gunnar Snorri Gunnarsson, Mandana Seyfeddinipur and Wang Lining
2019 Vol. 4 (3): 84-87 [
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88
Systematic Documentation and Annotation of Dialect-based Local Heritages: A Review of the
Series of Chinese Dialect-based Local Custom with Illustrations (Series 1)
Wang Hongjun
DOI: 10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20190307
In the first part of this review, my reflection focuses on the unique value of dialects in reviving indigenous knowledge and local cultures in the new era. Over the last two decades, radical changes in media and forms of communication for human, material and information have brought a destructible effect on the distinct features of local customs and cultures at an increasing speed. Fortunately, words and expressions encoding regional cultural heritages are still preserved relatively well in the memories of those speakers of 65 years and over. I argue that the main value of the
Series of Chinese Dialect-based Local Custom with Illustrations (Series 1)
lies in creative thinking in a timely-revitalization endeavor, that is, reviving local heritages through documenting dialectal glossary. The effective combination of the preservation of local dialects and cultural heritage provides a good pilot for the National Project of Chinese Language Resource Preservation. In the second part, I review the layout and formats of the Series in a detailed manner. The Series contains ten volumes of different dialects, covering all major aspects of local customs and indigenous knowledge in ten communities, including Beijing. The volumes demonstrate the unique local cultures of the ten selected locations in a very authentic way through a standardized format: an entry with local pronunciation, in-depth culturally loaded explanation, and detailed illustrations. The last part of the review is devoted to volume-by-volume introductions and specific case reviews of these ten volumes.
2019 Vol. 4 (3): 88-96 [
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