Documenting Tibetan in the Chinese linguistic landscape. An ethnographic approach

0576763 - OÚ 2024 eng A3 - Přednáška/prezentace nepublikovaná
Cabras, Giulia - Wang, Z.
Documenting Tibetan in the Chinese linguistic landscape. An ethnographic approach.
[Documenting languages, documenting cultures: migration, minorities, dialects. Naples, 05.10.2023-06.10.2023]
Způsob prezentace: Přednáška
Pořadatel akce: Accademia Pontaniana
URL akce: https://sites.google.com/view/documentinglanguages2023/home?authuser=0 
Grant ostatní: AV ČR(CZ) LQ300211901
Program: Prémie Lumina quaeruntur
Institucionální podpora: RVO:68378009
Klíčová slova: linguistic landscape * Tibetan language * ethnic minorities * ethnography
Obor OECD: Specific languages

In Tibetan autonomous areas of the People’s Republic of China Tibetan is co-official with China’s national language, Standard Chinese. Co-officiality implies using Tibetan on public and commercial signs, administrative documents, and as the language of instruction in some schools. A different situation concerns the Tibetan language in non-autonomous areas of the province, in which minority languages do not receive any support from local authorities. In this paper, we explore the use of Tibetan in the linguistic landscape of Xining, the capital of Qinghai, a province in Northwest China straddling the Sino-Tibetan cultural frontier. In Xining, Standard Chinese is the only official language, whereas the ethnic minority languages are functionally marginalized. However, the increasing presence of Tibetans in the city, and economic and educational opportunities are leading to the emergence of a Tibetan urban community which tries to build its own spaces in a city where Han Chinese constitute the majority (Grant, 2016, 2018). This paper builds on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in several periods from 2018 to 2021 in Xining, and on research and follow-up through remote ethnography. We analyse commercial and institutional signs considering methodologies used in the framework of linguistic landscape research on minority groups (e.g. Marten et al., 2012,, Coupland, 2012,, Pietikäinen, 2014,, Woldemariam & Lanza, 2014) by looking at visual design choices, code prominence, translations and phenomena of language contact. Moreover, we contextualise the data using our ethnographic knowledge of language usage in public and private spheres, spoken and written practices, semi-structured interviews and informal exchanges with shop owners and members of the community (Blommaert, 2013). Combining linguistic, visual, and ethnographic data, this study investigates language hierarchies and power relationships and aims to provide insights into ethnic minority languages in China.


Trvalý link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0347383