An Investigation Of Ethnic Minority Immigrants’ Language Life And Change

In 2014,due to Centianhe Reservoir Expansion Project,most of the villages around the reservoir area were affected.For this reason,the Hunan government established Silian Resettlement District,the second largest resettlement,in Tuojiang Town of Jianghua Yao Autonomous County.Up to now,the Yao immigrants have been there for four years.During this period,the Yao immigrants’ language use has been undergoing changes and some new linguistic phenomena in language use emerge.Language situation and language change in the resettlement district serves as a fairly appropriate model for the research on the language maintenance of ethnic group,and also one of the best approaches to understand and study bilingualism or multilingualism in ethnic minority areas.Therefore,by conducting an objective and comprehensive investigation of the Yao immigrants’ language life at Silian Resettlement District in Tuojiang Town,this thesis based on language contact theory explores the Yao immigrants’ language situation after their moving to the resettlement district and analyzes the reasons for the changes in their language use.The research findings show that,after moving to Silian Resettlement District,the Yao immigrants’ language use and change can be manifested as follows.On the one hand,the Yao immigrants adopt the bilingual model of the Yao language and Jianghua dialect or the bilingual model of the Yao language and Putonghua in Jianghua County.Most of the Yao immigrants can use different languages to communicate with different communicative partners on different occasions.On the other hand,native language(Yao language)is their main medium of communication in family domain or in the domain of communicating with their kinsmen.The Yao immigrants who speak the Yao language in family domain believe that speaking in the Yao language is more affable and pleasant.In addition,there are distinct intergenerational differences in the Yao immigrants’ language use.Many students often use the bilingual model of the Yao language and Putonghua to communicate with others,while a part of old and poorly-educated Yao immigrants only speak the Yao language with communicative partners whatever the occasions are.This phenomenon reflects that the young generations are trying their hard to improve their proficiency of Mandarin in order to meet the needs of social development.Meanwhile,more and more Yao immigrants reduce and even quit using their mother tongue.To some extent,it reflects that the Yao language,as an important language resource,is in peril of becoming endangered or its vitality becomes declining at Silian Resettlement District of Jianghua County.In view of the above information,this thesis also explores the Yao immigrants’ language situation and the reasons for the changes in their language use from the perspective of language attitude.As for the Yao immigrants’ language attitudes,Yao immigrants have a relatively strong affection for their mother tongue,deeming that the Yao language is more listenable and amiable.By using the Yao language,on the one hand,the Yao immigrants express their emotional identity to their mother tongue;on the other hand,it builds the harmonious relationship among the Yao compatriots who share the common ethnic group.Likewise,their cognitive attitudes towards Jianghua dialect and Putonghua are positive and favorable and they lay stress on the instrumental functions of Jianghua dialect and Putonghua in their daily interaction.It indicates that the social function of the Yao language is declining gradually.Obviously,there are many complicated reasons for the changes in the Yao immigrants’ language use,such as the contact between the Yao immigrants and the local residents,language use of the Yao immigrants with different ethnic and social identity constructed in different communicative occasions and language harmony and social harmony in migration community.