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A Study of the Vitality of Xiandao Language (Atsang Dialect) Relative to Global Language Loss



Author(s)

YUAN Yan

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DOI:10.17265/1539-8080/2014.07.002

Yunnan University, Kunming, China

In the world today, there are many reasons causing language loss, among which the contact and mixing of languages is the main reason. This paper focuses on the study of a small ethnic group, Xiandao, and their language vitality. By two months’ field work at the village of Xiandao, which locates at the border area between Myanmar and Yunnan, China, the author had door by door interview and showed by statistics in the paper. Firstly, the classical study that it takes at least three generations for a language to shift is not true among the village. The language loss of Xiandao is going faster. Secondly, it is usually dominant official language that minority people choose to shift. Yet it is not the cause in Xiandao. Thirdly, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) evaluative factors of language vitality are not very helpful to evaluate the Xiandao language. Finally, the author suggested that government train at least one scholar of each language so to help with their own language and culture.

Xiandao, language loss, vitality, endangered language