An Investigation Of Minority Language Inheritance From The Perspective Of Ecolinguistics

There are about 6,000 languages in the world,and half of which may disappear by the end of this century(Krauss,1992).It is estimated that a language disappears every two weeks(UNESCO,2001),which indicates that human beings are facing the great challenge of losing their rich language and cultural diversity.The key of language protection is to keep language in dynamics,that is,how to enable the younger generation to continue to use ethnic language and how to make language serve for ethnic development(Dai Qingxia,2014;Yu Jinzhi,2016).Yunnan Province has the richest linguistic and cultural resources with the most variety of ethnic groups in China.Most of ethnic groups in Yunnan have been living harmoniously in the way of mixed communities for centuries using different languages or mother tongues.With the development of social economy and living quality,all the members of ethnic groups can speak Chinese fluently,and commendably most of them still keep using their minority language,that is,their mother tongue.They are bilinguals,and they have puzzles and dilemmas in making linguistic choices in daily communication.They have contradictory and complex feelings or attitudes toward their language use.Their feelings and choice of language use are often affected by various social factors to some extent.Therefore,the study of language protection and inheritance will be concerned about these various social factors.On the other hand,it should consider the habitual patterns of language use in view of the internal factors.From the perspective of ecolinguistics,this study focuses on the issue of language inheritance and the protection of language living conditions.An investigation is conducted in Tuanjie village,Kunming city proper.Tuanjie village is located on the outskirts of Kunming city proper,where Bai,Yi,Miao and Han people have lived together for centuries.The local economy continues to develop while the use of ethnic languages remains stable.This research uses a qualitative-quantitative combined research method,through questionnaires,interviews and observations,to explore the status quo of the use of Bai and Yi languages,the status quo of language inheritance,the interrelationship between ecological environment and language inheritance.There are many villages in Yunnan with good ecological environment and rich linguistic and cultural resources.This study on language inheritance in Tuanjie village may provide new perspectives or possibilities for such studies.Based on 172 questionnaires,5 interviews and observations,it is found that:Firstly,the use of Bai and Yi languages in Tuanjie village is relatively stable.In the village,most of the Bai and Yi villagers can communicate in Bai or Yi language smoothly;in families and communities,the ethnic languages(Bai or Yi)are still the main languages used.At the same time,most Bai and Yi villagers maintain a positive attitude towards their ethnic languages,and have a high willingness to speak ethnic languages at home and in community,and are optimistic about the future of ethnic languages.Due to economic,educational and other factors,the proportion of bilingual languages between Chinese dialect and Putonghua has increased,and a small proportion of language transmission has occurred.Secondly,family and community are the main places of language acquisition and inheritance of Bai and Yi languages,and schools are important supplementary places for learning ethnic languages.Among them,the community,that is village,is the key to its language protection and inheritance.Thirdly,village,the community and the key place where language is acquired and used,can be considered as kind of “product” revealing the link between the ecological environment improvement and the protection and inheritance of minority language.The investigation shows that the improvement of the ecological environment drives the economic development,and the economic development makes migrant workers come back to the village,so that the migration of villagers tend to be stable,which implies that ethnic people can have a satisfactory life in the place where their mother tongue is produced and used generation by generation.Only in this way can a harmonious bilingual or multilingual phenomenon exist as it is seen in Tuanjie village.