Abstract
The purpose of the paper is twofold. First, I describe the vitality of rTa'u – one of the languages of the Ethnic Corridor region of Western Sichuan Province. Using UNESCO’s nine-factor model of language vitality, the analysis finds rTa'u to be endangered and in urgent need of documentation. Secondly, this article argues that linguists have a role to play in supporting this endangered language, by using glottonyms that are salient to the community and coherent with their professed ethnic identity. After analyzing the two most commonly used names for the language used in the literature – Ergong and Horpa – I suggest that linguists should from now on use the preferred glottonym rTa'u.
Appendix
In article | Tibetan | Wyllie | Chinese | Pinyin |
---|---|---|---|---|
Horpa | ཧོར་པ། | Hor pa | 霍尔 | Huo er |
Ergong | ཡར་སྒོ། | Yar sgo | 尔龚 | Er gong |
Dijiao Hua | 地脚话 | Dejiao Hua | ||
Rongske | རོང་སྐད། | Rong skad | 农区话 | Nong qu hua |
rTa'u | རྟའུ། | rTa'u | 道孚 | Dao fu |
GeShenzha | དགེ་བཤེས་རྩ། | Dge bshes rtsa | 格什扎 | Ge shen zha |
Lavrong | ཁྲོ་སྐྱོསབ། | Khro skyabs | 拉坞戎 | La wu rong |
rGyalrong | རྒྱལ་རོང་། | rGyal rong | 嘉荣 | Jia rong |
Sidaba | སྟོད་པ། | Stod pa | Si da ba | |
Situ | 四土 | Si tu | ||
Chabao | ཡ་ཕུག། | Ya phug | 茶堡 | Cha bao |
Ganzi | དཀར་མཛེས། | Dkar mdzes | 甘孜 | Gan zi |
Luhuo | བྲག་མགོ། | Brag mgo | 炉霍 | Lu huo |
Danba | རོང་བྲག། | Rong brag | 丹巴 | Dan ba |
Xinlong | ཉག་རོང། | Nyag rong | 新龙 | Xin long |
Qiang | སྤྱང་རིགས། | Spyang rigs | 羌 | Qiang |
Trehor | ཏྲེ་ཧོར། | Tre hor | 朱倭 | Zhu wo |
Stong skar | སྟོང་སྐོར། | Stong skor | 东谷 | Dong gu |
Xianshuihe | ཤི་སཆུ། | Shi schu | 鲜水河 | Xian shui he |
Yalong | ཉག་ཆུ། | Nyag chu | 雅砻江 | Ya long jiang |
Yajing | ཉག་ཆུ། | Nyag chu | 雅江 | Ya jiang |
Zla chu | ཟླ་ཆུ། | Zla chu | 大曲 | Da qu |
Aba | རྔ་བ། | Rnga ba | 阿 坝 | A ba |
Khang gsar | ཁང་གསར། | Khang gsar | 孔色 | Kong se |
mazu | མ་ཟུ། | Ma zu | 麻孜 | Ma zi |
Bragmda' | བྲག་མདའ། | Brag mda' | 章达 | Zhang da |
Bawang | བླ་བོན། | Bla bon | 巴旺 | Ba wang |
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© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: the transformation of Tibet’s language ecology in the twenty-first century
- Henan Oirat: a shrinking pool of unique linguistic features
- Language evolution and vitality of Lhagang Tibetan: a Tibetic language as a minority in Minyag Rabgang
- Variation, contact, and change in language varieties in Yul shul (northern Khams)
- Is Lhasa Tibetan Sign Language emerging, endangered, or both?
- Language vitality and glottonyms in the Ethnic Corridor: The rTa'u language
- Social network structure and language change in Amdo Tibetan
- Book Review
- Yangbin Chen: Minority education in China: balancing unity and diversity in an era of critical pluralism
- Small languages and small language communities 82 Editor: Bernadette O’Rourke
- Language management and language managers: who are the Irish language managers in Breacbhaile?
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: the transformation of Tibet’s language ecology in the twenty-first century
- Henan Oirat: a shrinking pool of unique linguistic features
- Language evolution and vitality of Lhagang Tibetan: a Tibetic language as a minority in Minyag Rabgang
- Variation, contact, and change in language varieties in Yul shul (northern Khams)
- Is Lhasa Tibetan Sign Language emerging, endangered, or both?
- Language vitality and glottonyms in the Ethnic Corridor: The rTa'u language
- Social network structure and language change in Amdo Tibetan
- Book Review
- Yangbin Chen: Minority education in China: balancing unity and diversity in an era of critical pluralism
- Small languages and small language communities 82 Editor: Bernadette O’Rourke
- Language management and language managers: who are the Irish language managers in Breacbhaile?