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    Tibet's Minority Languages: Diversity and Endangerment
    Roche, G ; Suzuki, H (Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2018)
    Asia is the world's most linguistically diverse continent and its diversity largely conforms to established global patterns that correlate linguistic diversity with biodiversity, latitude, and topography. However, one Asian region stands out as an anomaly in these patterns—Tibet, which is often portrayed as linguistically homogenous. A growing body of research now suggests that Tibet is linguistically diverse. In this article, we examine this literature in an attempt to quantify Tibet's linguistic diversity. We focus on the minority languages of Tibet—languages that are neither Chinese nor Tibetan. We provide five different estimates of how many minority languages are spoken in Tibet. We also interrogate these sources for clues about language endangerment among Tibet's minority languages and propose a sociolinguistic categorization of Tibet's minority languages that enables broad patterns of language endangerment to be perceived. Appendices include lists of the languages identified in each of our five estimates, along with references to key sources on each language. Our survey found that as many as 60 minority languages may be spoken in Tibet and that the majority of these languages are endangered to some degree. We hope our contribution inspires further research into the predicament of Tibet's minority languages and helps support community efforts to maintain and revitalize these languages.
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    Tibet’s Invisible Languages and China’s Language Endangerment Crisis: Lessons from the Gochang Language of Western Sichuan
    Roche, G ; Tsomu, Y (Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2018)
    China is facing a language endangerment crisis, with half of its languages decreasing in number of speakers. This article contributes to the understanding of language endangerment in China with a case study of the Gochang language, which is spoken by about 10,000 Tibetans in western Sichuan. We describe Gochang as an “invisible” language – one that is overlooked by the state’s ethnic and linguistic policies and thus is more vulnerable to the social transformations wrought by statist development. Using UNESCO’s language vitality and endangerment framework to assess the endangerment of Gochang, we conclude that the language is “definitely endangered.” Our comparison of Gochang with other “invisible” languages in China shows that most are in a similar predicament, suggesting that China’s language endangerment crisis is likely to continue unless these languages receive formal recognition or local governments take advantage of ambiguities in the policy framework to support them. The social impacts of a continuing, deepening language endangerment crisis in China are as yet unknown.
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    Draft Report on Tibet's Linguistic Minorities
    Roche, G ( 2018)
    This draft report provides new insights into the situation of the non-Tibetan languages spoken by Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China. Key findings are as follows: • Of the 20 languages surveyed, all are endangered (p4-5). • Experts believe that most of these languages will no longer be spoken by 2100 (p5). • Families are increasingly transmitting Chinese rather than their heritage language (p6). • All these languages are excluded from major social institutions such as media and education (p8-9). • Whilst Chinese dominates most social institutions, Tibetan dominates in religion (p8-10). • Speakers of minority languages typically face relatively mild levels of discrimination (p11). • Speakers of minority languages do not associate their language with their Tibetan identity (p12). • There appears to be a significant geographical basis to whether populations are shifting towards Tibetan or Chinese (p17
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    Tibetan Studies in Australia - Language and Education
    Roche, G ( 2018)
    As part of a series of articles in the IIAS newsletter on Tibetan studies in Australia, this article looks at: 1) the languages used by Tibetan studies scholars in Australia, and 2) the opportunities afforded by Australia's linguistics community for the study of language in Tibet.
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    Long Narrative Songs from the Mongghul of Northeast Tibet: Texts in Mongghul, Chinese, and English
    Roche, G ; Roche, G (Open Book Publishers, 2017)
    Containing ballads of martial heroism, tales of tragic lovers and visions of the nature of the world, Long Narrative Songs from the Mongghul of Northeast Tibet: Texts in Mongghul, Chinese, and English is a rich repository of songs collected amongst the Mongghul of the Seven Valleys, on the northeast Tibetan Plateau in western China. These songs represent the apogee of Mongghul oral literature, and they provide valuable insights into the lives of Mongghul people—their hopes, dreams, and worries. They bear testimony to the impressive plurilingual repertoire commanded by some Mongghul singers: the original texts in Tibetan, Mongghul, and Chinese are here presented in Mongghul, Chinese, and English. The kaleidoscope of stories told in these songs include that of Marshall Qi, a chieftain from the Seven Valleys who travels to Luoyang with his Mongghul army to battle rebels; Laarimbu and Qiimunso, a pair of star-crossed lovers who take revenge from beyond the grave on the families that kept them apart; and the Crop-Planting Song and the Sheep Song, which map the physical and spiritual terrain of the Mongghul people, vividly describing the physical and cosmological world in which they exist. This collection of songs is supported by an Introduction by Gerald Roche that provides an understanding of their traditional context, and shows that these works offer insights into the practices of multilingualism in Tibet. Long Narrative Songs from the Mongghul of Northeast Tibet is vital reading for researchers and others working on oral literature, as well as those who study Inner Asia, Tibet, and China’s ethnic minorities. Finally, this book is of interest to linguistic anthropologists and sociolinguists, particularly those working on small-scale multilingualism and pre-colonial multilingualism.
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    Linguistic vitality, endangerment, and resilience
    ROCHE, G (University of Hawaii Press, Journals Department, 2017)
    The concept of “resilience” originated in both ecology and psychology, and refers to the propensity of a system or entity to “bounce back” from a disturbance. Recently, the concept has found increasing application within linguistics, particularly the study of endangered languages. In this context, resilience is used to describe one aspect of long-term, cyclical changes in language vitality. Proponents of “resilience linguistics” argue that understanding long-term patterns of language vitality can be of use in fostering resilience in, and therefore maintenance of, endangered languages. This article takes a critical look at these proposals, based on the examination of long-term trends in the Monguor and Saami languages.
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    The Language Loss of the Indigenous
    Roche, G (CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, 2017-06)
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    Introduction: the transformation of Tibet’s language ecology in the twenty-first century
    ROCHE, G (Mouton de Gruyter, 2017)
    Tibet’s linguistic diversity is undergoing drastic transformations in the twenty-first century. In this article, I begin my examination of this issue by outlining the extent of Tibet’s linguistic diversity, including not only its numerous Tibetic languages, but also its non-Tibetic minority languages. Using a “language ecology” approach, I examine the mechanisms that have produced and maintained this diversity, as well as the ways this diversity was spatially and socially patterned. I argue that these processes and patterns were largely maintained up until the twenty-first century, when the Chinese state’s program to “Open the West” unleashed an ideologically driven modernization program on Tibet, radically altering its language ecology. I argue that the present trends emerging from this process are likely to continue throughout the twenty-first century, resulting in both language loss and the emergence of new languages, leaving the overall language ecology fundamentally altered by the beginning of the twenty-second century. It is hoped that this article will not only provide a useful framework for future discussions on linguistic diversity in Tibet, but will also focus attention on the challenges facing individual languages in Tibet today.
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    I, Ya ri a bsod, am a dog: The Life and Music of a Tibetan Mendicant Singer
    ROCHE, G ; Skal dbang skyid, ; Sha bo don sgrub rdo rje, ; Sgrol ma mtsho, ; Schweickert, E ; Dpa' rtse rgyal, ; Stuart, K (Asian Highlands Perspectives, 2011)