Jurisprudential Analysis On The Protection Of Language Rights Of National Minorities In China

National minorities have been facing the conflicts between economic needs and cultural interests as well as the use of Chinese or national languages in realizing of their rights in China,which indicates the conflict between economic development rights and language rights of the national minorities.There are both internal and external causes of the conflict.On the one hand,it is related to the external pressure from the mainstream language.On the other hand,the attitude of national minorities has been changing.The essence of this conflict is a conflict of interests.Some language empirical research has shown the phenomenon that the national minorities shift language is gradually aggravating and the freedom for them to choose language might be limited,which ultimately affect the realization of their language rights.National minorities may prefer Chinese due to self-interest,which might be detrimental to their national languages.The responsibility of national minorities to protect their own languages is more of moral and it should not be stipulated as legal liability,otherwise the freedom of them in choosing languages might be limited.Language rights emphasize the freedom of a person to use the language that he prefers,and the object it protects ordinarily should be the language user instead of language itself.Therefore,language rights are necessary but insufficient condition for the protection of languages,because their implementation does not necessarily maintain the languages pluralism.The shift in national minorities' commonly used language might be the result of assimilation.It may be voluntary or involuntarily state-led.However,there is still a gray zone where it is not easy to distinguish between these two situations,and thus in each cases the impact on language rights may be different.To protect language rights is to prevent language assimilation against the wishes of national minorities.Language,the core of the national characteristic,is an important symbol of identity.Language assimilation reflects one's changes in language attitude and identity,which is de facto an identity of culture.From the perspective of rights conflict,this article discusses the jurisprudential issues that national minorities may face in realizing their language rights,which could provide ideas for China to protect the language rights of national minorities.The experience of foreign countries in protecting minorities' language rights is worth learning,but should not be overlooked.China should protect the language rights of national minorities under the principle of respecting individual freedom to choose languages,protect national minorities from forced language transfer and language assimilation,achieve the cultural pluralism and diversity in a harmonious way,with respect to specific situation of the state.