Language Standardization and Language Variation in Multilingual Contexts

Asian Perspectives

Edited by Dr. Nicola McLelland, Hui Zhao

Publication date:

24 November 2021

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781800411555

This important contribution to the sociolinguistics of Asian languages breaks new ground in the study of language standards and standardization in two key ways: in its focus on Asia, with particular attention paid to China and its neighbours, and in the attention paid to multilingual contexts. The chapters address various kinds of (sometimes hidden) multilingualism and examine the interactions between multilingualism and language standardization, offering a corrective to earlier work on standardization, which has tended to assume a monolingual nation state and monolingual individuals. Taken together, the chapters in this book thus add to our understanding of the ways in which multilingualism is implicated in language standardization, as well as the impact of language standards on multilingualism.

The introduction, Chapter 6 and Chapter 8 are free to download as open access publications. You can access them here:
Introduction: https://zenodo.org/record/5749388#.YaiwuNDP3cs
Chapter 6: https://zenodo.org/record/5749522#.Yaiw-9DP3cs
Chapter 8: https://zenodo.org/record/5749586#.Yai0RNDP3cs

Contributors
Note on the Use of Original Scripts in This Volume

Nicola McLelland and Hui Zhao: Introduction: Language Standardization and Language Variation in Multilingual Contexts – Asian Perspectives

Part 1: Histories of Standardization in Multilingual Contexts

Chapter 1. S. Imtiaz Hasnain: Language Codification: Coloniality, Society and History

Chapter 2. Mariarosaria Gianninoto: Linguistic Variation in Late Qing Western Sources: An Analysis of Edkins’ Grammar of Shanghainese

Chapter 3. Jiaye (Jenny) Wu: Teaching Mandarin Pronunciation to Mongolian Learners in Early Republican Period China: The Case of the Mongolian Han Original Sounds of the Five Regions Ménghàn Hébì Wǔfāng Yuányīn, 蒙漢合璧五方元音

Part 2: Standardization and Variation in Multilingual China: Implications for Education, Testing, Policy and Practice

Chapter 4. Anwei Feng: Reconciling Multilingualism and Promotion of the Standard Language in Education in China

Chapter 5. Lian Luo: Language Standards in Language Testing: The Case of Variation in Written Chinese Proficiency Tests for Second Language Learners

Chapter 6. Hui Zhao: Social Meaning and Variation in Perception: Beijingers’ Attitudes Towards Beijing Mandarin

Chapter 7. Wang Xiaomei: Global Chinese and Malaysian Mandarin: Transnational Standards for the Chinese Language

Part 3: Standardization and Minoritized Languages in Multilingual Contexts

Chapter 8. Alexandra Grey: How Standard Zhuang has Met with Market Forces

Chapter 9. Ying Sargin: Is Sibe a Linguistic Continuation of Manchu?

Chapter 10. Rigdrol Jikar: Language Standardization for Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China

Chapter 11. Tsering Samdrup and Hiroyuki Suzuki: Politeness Strategies, Language Standardization and Language Purism in Amdo Tibetan

Chapter 12. Moira Saltzman: Erasure and Revitalization of an Endangered Language: The Case of Jejueo in South Korea

Chapter 13. Suwilai Premsrirat: Standardizing Indigenous Languages in Thailand Through Orthography Development and Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education: The Case of Patani Malay

Part 4: Negotiating Standards and Variation: Case Studies from Japanese

Chapter 14. Patrick Heinrich: After Language Standardization: Dialect Cosplay in Japan

Chapter 15. Hideko Abe: Negotiating ‘Standard’ Gendered Speech in Japanese: The Case of Transgender Speakers

Chapter 16. Mie Hiramoto: Changes in Tôhoku Dialect as Spoken in Hawai‘i

Index

This volume makes an essential contribution to the critical task of decolonizing sociolinguistics, by making the discipline more inclusive and representative. The case studies – drawn from south, southeast, east, and inner Asia – broaden the scope of sociolinguistic knowledge and stimulate important theoretical developments in our understanding of language standardization.