Endangered languages of Northeast Asia

0566335 - OÚ 2023 RIV NL eng M - Monography Chapter
Cabras, Giulia
The linguistic situation of Wutun (ngandehua). Endangerment and ethnolinguistic vitality.
Endangered languages of Northeast Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2022 - (Ragagnin, E.; Khabtagaeva, B.), s. 38-56. Languages of Asia, 28. ISBN 978-90-04-50342-7
Grant - others:AV ČR(CZ) LQ300211901
Program: Prémie Lumina quaeruntur
Institutional support: RVO:68378009
Keywords : Wutun language * language contact * sociolinguistics * language habits * lexicon * language endangerment
OECD category: Linguistics

This paper discusses some dynamics of endangerment and ethnolinguistic vitality in the Wutun language. Wutun, called ngandehua by its community, is a distinct variety of Northwest Mandarin strongly influenced by Tibetan. The language is spoken by approximately 4,000 people in a rural area called Wutun in Chinese and Sengge gshong in Tibetan, situated in Tongren county, Huangnan prefecture, Qinghai province. In this area, Northwest Mandarin and Amdo Tibetan constitute the vehicular languages, Amdo Tibetan is also the language of cultural identification, and Standard Chinese, as in other parts of Northwest China, is considered the language of social mobility.The language is spoken exclusively in the rural area for daily communication - it has no written standard, and it is considered definitely endangered by UNESCO.This paper examines the current linguistic situation of the Wutun language. In particular, it discusses ethnographic notes on language habits and attitudes of the community and linguistic data on the lexicon of the language. It aims to demonstrate that the language attitudes of the speakers and the socio-economic context of the rural area do not contribute to raising the status of the language, but do play a role in maintaining its main function as the language of communication.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0337697