| Yonghe Port,which is located in Cangyuan County,Yunnan Province,was approved by the provincial government to be a national second-grade port in 1996.It is the Wa State of Myanmar on the other side of this port.Wa people living in Yonghe Port account for 84% of the region’s total population.Wa people of Yonghe Port share the same trading market with the people of Myanmar,so people here can speak multiple languages in such a multilingual environment.Linguistic ecology,as a new branch of linguistics,studies the interactions between any given language and its environment.This study,under the theoretical framework of linguistic ecology,taking Wa people as research subjects,aims to explore into the ecolinguistic environment of Yonghe Port,both qualitatively and quantitatively.The research questions are specifically as follows.(1)What is the current situation of Wa people’s language use?(2)What are the attitudes of Wa people towards Wa language,Cangyuan dialect,Standard Chinese,English and Myanmar language? Are there any differences among these attitudes? If so,What are the differences?(3)What ecological factors contribute to Wa people’s language use and language attitude?By investigating Wa people’s language use and their language attitude towards Wa language,Cangyuan dialect,Standard Chinese,English and Myanmar language and analyzing the data,the results show:(1)Wa language is the most frequently used language within the family,but Cangyuan dialect is the most frequently used language in public places;Standard Chinese is usually used by some young people in some public places;English and Myanmar language are seldom used in their daily life.(2)There are significant differences in Wa people’s language attitude in terms of age,education,profession and nationality;Wa people’s attitude towards Wa language is the most positive,and their attitude towards Myanmar language is the least positive;Wa people’s attitude towards Standard Chinese is more positive than their attitude towards Cangyuan dialect.Although the second frequently used language in their daily life is Cangyuan dialect,Standard Chinese has an important position in Wa people’s mind;Wa people’s attitude towards English is more positive than their attitude towards Myanmar language.(3)The ecological factors contributing to Wa people’s language use and language attitude mainly include the aspects of nature,society and mentality.Specifically,the geographical environment,the lagging economy,government policy,the civil wars and the turmoils of Wa State,national psychology,and the strong sense of Wa people’s national identity all contribute to Wa people’s linguistic ecosystem of Yonghe Port. |
