A Survey Of Tatar Language Endangerment In Daquan Township, Xinjiang

In recent years, LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT has become a heatedresearch focus of linguistic field both abroad and in China. Domestic scholars whostudy minority languages regard this as an interface of research, and investigate theuse and protection policies of minority languages. As one of nationalities thatpossessed limited number of speakers in Xinjiang, Tatar were taken as the subject ofpresent thesis, from which we examine the language use, and reasons of Tatarendangerment.In this study, the author conducts a questionnaire survey of70Tatar who areeither Tatar or the couple of Tatar inhabited in Daquan Township. Interviews havebeen carried out among7respondents to seek the potential reasons of Tatar languageendangerment. The questionnaire adopted in this thesis is a revised version of Dingshiqing, Wang yuanxin and UNESCO’s research. SPSS18.0is employed toilluminate the nature of the frequency of language use and language attitudes. Also,the reasons of Tatar language endangerment are discussed from socio-cultural andbilingual education perspectives.It can be concluded that Tatar conforms to the “endangered” degree accessedby the language vitality framework of UNESCO. By investigating the potentialreasons of its endangerment, four possible factors are listed as limited number ofspeakers, distribution of local population, inter-ethnical marriage and languageeducation situations.