Asia Institute - Research Publications
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ItemTibet's Minority Languages: Diversity and Endangerment(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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ItemTibet’s Invisible Languages and China’s Language Endangerment Crisis: Lessons from the Gochang Language of Western Sichuan(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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ItemDraft Report on Tibet's Linguistic Minorities( 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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ItemNo Preview AvailableTibetan Studies in Australia - Language and Education( 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.