Volume 2005, Issue 173

1. Who are the nationalities of China? The current government of the People’s Republic of China has recognized 56 nationalities of China. This includes the Han Chinese majority, so-called from the name of two dynasties, which ruled from 206 B.C. to A.D. 220, and 55 national minorities. Each of the national minorities has one or more distinct languages.

Both Hakka and Cantonese are defined as “Chinese dialects” in China. Before Hong Kong developed into a metropolis, Hakka was the most widespread language spoken by the indigenous inhabitants in the rural area. However, Hakka speakers within the territory have almost completed the shift to Cantonese in the past fifty years. The changing political milieu and the language policy of the colonial government caused its extinction in two generation’s time, when Cantonese was enjoying a quasi ‘‘offcial’’ status in the former British colony. The loss of Hakka speakers was caused by the unwillingness of the parent to talk to their children in their ancestral tongue, who themselves were also shifting to Cantonese. Most people regard Hakka as useless and the rating of their tongue is becoming negative in the younger generations. The Hakka fluency, knowledge of pronunciation and vocabulary decrease with age. The worst thing is that most people do not see ‘‘Hakka’’ as a part of the traditional culture of Hong Kong, but just regard it as a barrier for acquiring Hong Kong identity, which almost equals Cantonese language and culture.

Languages of the Tungusic family are historically spoken all over Northeast Asia, including Siberia, Manchuria, and Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang). Most importantly, the Tungusic family includes Manchu, the offcial administrative language of China during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Due to the impact of Chinese and Russian, Tungusic languages have been rapidly losing ground, and there are today only two potentially viable groups speaking Tungusic: the Manchu-speaking Sibe (Xibo) in Xinjiang and the Ewenki-speaking Solon (Ewenke) in Northern Inner Mongolia (Western Manchuria). In both cases, the language could only be saved by drastic positive measures at the national and international levels.

Oroqen is a Tungusic language spoken in Northeast of China and Inner Mongolia. A considerable amount of data from Oroqen reveal patterns that shed light on our understanding of the complex interplay between language contact and language attrition induced changes. Oroqen has undergone drastic restructuring over a relatively short time span of a few decades. I demonstrate that time depth and intensity of contact correlate very closely with the rate and extent of structural borrowing and structural shift that occurred in Oroqen. I argue that the determining factors are sociolinguistic in nature though some of the changes were initially internally motivated.

The Tujia language, which belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, is spoken by members of the Tujia ethnic minority who live in the border regions of Hunan, Hubei and Guizhou Provinces and Chongqing Municipality in the People’s Republic of China. Although the Tujia people number over eight million, there are now only around 70,000 speakers, that is, less than 1% of the Tujia population. This article first traces and discusses the reasons for the historical decline in the use of Tujia, and then investigates contemporary factors which affect language attitudes and use. The linguistic interactions between Tujia and Chinese are also described, together with the resulting phonological, lexical, and grammatical changes. The article concludes that, in its present endangered state, the Tujia language is likely to disappear completely within a few generations.

Based on a comparison of the results obtained during field investigations in 2002 and those gathered on a field trip eight years previously, this article analyzes the changes in the languages spoken by the Laomian and Laopin peoples, who are distributed in southwestern Yunnan. The decline and changes in these two languages are discussed from two aspects: language use and linguistic structure. This reveals the actual situation of these two endangered languages.

Bisu, as spoken in Northern Thailand, boasts fewer than one thousand speakers. The low number of speakers plus constant pressure from the outside world definitely qualifies Bisu as an endangered language. The Bisu themselves recognize this fact and their leadership has requested outside help in preserving their language and culture. This article endeavors to describe the sociolinguistic situation in which the Bisu of Northern Thailand find themselves, chronicle efforts to preserve this endangered language through community involvement in the development of an orthography and basic reading materials, and assess the current progress of the project. Additional challenges that may be encountered in the course of preserving the Bisu language for future generations will also be discussed.

Research and investigation of Anong started in 1960. Except for the long interruption during the Cultural Revolution, we did follow-up fieldwork on Anong a number of times at quite regular intervals to collect additional data. Altogether seven fieldwork trips were undertaken over a span of 43 years ending in the fall of 2003. Forty years is a very short time period in terms of diachronic development of a language. Therefore, we should not expect to see a lot of changes in Anong over such a short period of time. However, it is noteworthy that during those years, the region inhabited by the Anong underwent tremendous changes. Revolutionary changes took place in economy, transportation, commerce, culture and education, health, and communications. A once closed Anong society suddenly opened its doors to allow other ethnic groups to come in and settle down in their midst, which led to cross-marriages between Anong and other ethnic minorities. At the same time, some Anong traveled freely from their villages to other places to go to school, to seek employment opportunities, to engage in business activities, and so on. Interactions and communications between various ethnic groups reached unprecedented width and depth. These social changes have been reflected in the Anong language. Data collected from different time periods indicate that the Anong language is undergoing some changes.

Most of the many languages spoken by the large and widely distributed Yi nationality in China are endangered. One such is Sanie, spoken by about 8,000 people from a group of over 17,000 near Kunming in Yunnan. In surveying the area around Kuming, we located Sanie and a number of other undescribed and in most cases unreported endangered languages. Sanie is remarkable in that in some dialects it preserves velar plus | w |  clusters which have been simplified in all other closely related languages. Such a cluster is found in the group name; this gives us a clearer understanding of the original autonym for the Yi languages as a whole. Therefore, the new name Ngwi for this group of languages is proposed, with etymological justifications. Sanie also has a large range of internal differences, suggesting that processes of change are speeded up during the process of language death. However it is shown to be a typical Eastern Yi language, like several of the other endangered languages spoken around Kunming including Samataw and Samei.

This article aims to analyze the social functions and linguistic features of an endangered language: Xiandao, and discuss the major factors that have caused Xiandao to become endangered. The research data is drawn from recent fieldwork conducted in two villages in Jiemao district, Yingjiang County, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. Local administrators, teachers, and all Xiandao families were interviewed. In addition, descriptive linguistic studies were conducted into the grammar, text, and vocabulary glossary of Xiandao. The findings show that most Xiandao people speak three languages: Xiandao, Jingpo and Chinese, but the younger generation speak better Jingpo or Chinese than Xiandao. The Xiandao people live intermingled with and intermarry with the Jingpo and Han Chinese people and are strongly influenced by Jingpo culture and customs and their participation in the Christian religion through the Jingpo language. This close contact with other people has resulted in a language shift to the use of the Jingpo and Chinese languages for much of their daily communication. Xiandao has also adopted many loanwords from the Jingpo and Chinese languages. It is anticipated that, unless effective work is undertaken quickly to revive the language, Xiandao will be replaced by other languages in the near future.

Miguel Senna Fernandes and Alan Norman Baxter: Maquista chapado, vocabulário e expressões do crioulo português de Macau . Macau: Instituto Internacional de Macau, 2001. 234 pp. (David Bradley)