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Report of October lecture:
Vitality and Viability of Minority Languages
October 23 - 24, 2009
On Friday and Saturday, October 23rd and 24th 2009, Trace Foundation hosted the third event in its lecture series Minority Language in Today’s Global Society, which was entitled Vitality and Viability of Minority Languages. This event brought together experts from diverse backgrounds to pursue answers to questions surrounding assessment of language vitality, policies to support viability, and practices to ensure a flourishing future for minority languages, with a special focus on the Tibetan language case.
Our keynote event on Friday evening featured Professor Joshua Fishman, a celebrated authority on sociolinguistics, interviewed by Professor Elliot Sperling, a leading Tibetan history expert. Professor Fishman discussed the topic of corpus planning and language maintenance. In combating and reversing language shift, Professor Fishman elaborated on the need of the three essential virtues of patience, prudence and functional specificity. According to him, most weakened languages of the world survive in the homes and communities and therefore, the reversal of language shift should start from there. He also advocated a self-sustained language reversal scheme and cautioned against too much dependency on external infrastructural supports. This informative keynote event was followed by a reception where the audience had the opportunity to engage with the speakers in a lively social atmosphere.
The main session on Saturday consisted of a full day of presentations, question and answer periods, and a panel discussion with all the speakers moderated by Professor Sperling. The first speaker of the day, Professor Joseph Lo Bianco, a widely-experienced international advisor on language policy, discussed the role of language planning and policy initiatives with the help of case studies. In his talk, Professor Lo Bianco stressed that formal language planning and policies alone cannot make a language strong and are effective only when communities themselves create their own unique solutions. With the help of interesting case studies from Ireland, Scotland, and Sri Lanka, he outlined three essential aspects of language policy, namely capacity relating to language proficiency, opportunity in terms of the domain of usage and desire as being the voluntary identification with the language.
Mr. Trowo Gyaltsen, a highly-respected educator from Ngawa Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province in China, talked about the ten rights for learning, using, and developing Tibetan language inherent in China’s Constitution. In his very insightful analysis of the situation of Tibetan language maintenance, Mr. Gyaltsen elaborated on the disparity between the constitutional rights reserved for minority languages in China and their actual implementation. He summarized his talk by suggesting that schools are vulnerable entities and thus, communities have to take the initiative and contribute by employing these constitutional rights.
Professor Arienne Dwyer, a respected scholar on language contact in Inner and Central Asia, and a member of the UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages, spoke on the tools and techniques available for endangered-language assessment and revitalization. In her presentation, Professor Dwyer explored the uses and limits of these tools through case examples applying assessment tools to Amdo Tibetan, Wutun, and Sanie. She also discussed successful language revitalization and maintenance efforts and emphasized the significant role that NGOs like Trace Foundation can play in linguistic and cultural maintenance, particularly in the Tibetan context.
Professor Thupten Phuntsok, a prolific scholar of Tibetan Studies and Tibetan medicine, spoke on the role of education in maintaining Tibetan language vitality and its current infrastructural challenges. His talk covered a general description of the cultural and geographical context of the current educational system and policies. Professor Phuntsok went on to explain the challenges faced with respect to infrastructure and administration. Looking at these challenges, he concluded with some suggestions which were comprised primarily of infrastructural support.
The final speaker, Professor Jaye Trabu, an eminent scholar of Tibetan literature, history, and culture, talked about the vitality and viability of the Tibetan language. His talk gave a general overview of the history of the Tibetan language: its origin and evolution during the periods of the first and second transmission of Buddhism in Tibet and the subsequent changes after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. His talk also touched upon the distinct characteristics of the Tibetan language such as the syntactical structure and numerous calligraphic styles. Additionally, he discussed the Tibetan language population and the functional scope of the language. Professor Trabu concluded by citing the current situation of the Tibetan language and the challenges it faces.
The event concluded with a discussion moderated by Professor Elliot Sperling to draw comparisons between the findings of each of the speakers and to extrapolate possibilities for the future of minority languages in China and internationally. Professor Sperling brought up the issue of the lack of a standard for Tibetan spoken language. He also highlighted the growing trend where the Chinese language was increasingly becoming the connecting language in the absence of a unified Tibetan spoken language. Several audience members also raised questions about the classification of the Sino-Tibetan language family, which demonstrated the constructed nature of language classifications. Some of the audience members discussed the role of women, especially mothers, in the sphere of Tibetan language transmission. In conclusion, some main themes that were touched upon during the weekend were the central role of the language community, the strengths and limitations of policy, assessment tools, and administrative supports, and the essential role of the home language environment in the transmission and maintenance of a language.
Speakers
Arienne Dwyer, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Kansas University
click here to read biography
Joshua A. Fishman, Distinguished University Research Professor of Social Sciences, Emeritus, Yeshiva University
click here to read biography
Trowo Gyaltsen, Senior Lecturer, Barkham Nationalities Normal School, Ngawa Prefecture, Sichuan Province
click here to read biography
Joseph Lo Bianco, Professor and Chair, Language and Literacy Education, Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne
click here to read biography
Thubten Phuntsok, Senior Professor, Tibetology Institute, Central Nationalities University
click here to read biography
Elliot Sperling, Professor, Department of Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University
click here to read biography
