All adopting Kanji and classical Han writing as the official written language before the 20th century

All adopting Kanji and classical Han writing as the official written language before the 20th century

• All adopting Kanji and classical Han writing as the official written language before the 20th century

• Vietnam
• Korea
• Japan
• Taiwan
• China

Vietnam:

• Vietnam:

• Chu Nom (derivative of Han characters) was adopted in the 20th as official, replacing the romanized Chu Quoc Ngu (established1945)

• Korea:

• Han characters replaced by phonemic system Hangul after World War II

• Japan:

• Han characters decreased from thousands to 1945 frequently used ones by 1981

Internal factors:

• Internal factors:

• general public’s demand for literacy
• anti-feudal hierarchy

• External factors:

• Political relationships between these countries
• The origin of Han characters

Pros- Vietnam & Korea

• Pros- Vietnam & Korea

• Cons- Ireland and US

‘nation-state’ – a concept formed by

• ‘nation-state’ – a concept formed by

• Publication

• Religious reform

• Mother tongue

• (Anderson 1991)

• E.g. Renaissance: national literature

Benedict Anderson (1991)

• Benedict Anderson (1991)

• An imagined Hanji cultural community prompts the construction of nation-state in Chinese character-based circle

An imagined Hanji cultural community

• An imagined Hanji cultural community

• 中華民族 the Chinese people

• 中國國族 the China people

• Excluding minorities like Zhuang, Miao, Yao

Unique language

• Unique language

• Unique writing system

• Vietnam, Korea, Japan

Writing system ╪ national identity

• Writing system ╪ national identity

• Language vs. dialect

• Mutually intelligible (Crystal 1997),

• Swedish/Norwegian/Danish

Diglossia> (spoken) language

• Diglossia> (spoken) language

• digraphia> writing system (written lang)

Charles Ferguson (1959):

• Charles Ferguson (1959):

• Two varieties of the same language, carrying with each different social functions
• High language vs. low language
• Formal & literary vs. informal & colloquial

• Joshua Fishman (1967)

• Not necessarily of the same language
• Not necessarily limited to 2 languages

Dale (1980)

• Dale (1980)

• Extending Ferguson’s idea of diglossia to the writing system

• De Francis (1984): same as Dale

• Chiung Wi-vun (2003)

• More than one writing systems in one society, each with different communicative functions

Spoken

• Spoken

• Literary (wenyan) vs. colloquial (baihua)
• High language (emperor; puppet heroes)
• Low language (commoner; clown)

• Written

• High lang (writing in Han characters)
• Low lang (Chu-Nam of Vietnam; Kana of Japan)

Status may change

• Status may change

• Political
• Linguistic structures of the writing systems

• Kana (Japan) > high

• Romanization (Vietnam) > high

• Zhuang/miao/yao > still low

1st lg = fluent lg?

• 1st lg = fluent lg?

• Personal mother tongue vs. ethnic language/national language

• Usually, one’s mother tongue = one’s ethnic/national lang, with the exception

• Immigration
• Studying abroad
• colonialism

Divergence 異化

• Divergence 異化

• Language shift 語言轉換

• More and more divergence will lead to language shift

• Ireland: Irish as national language & English as the official language, though English is used
• Taiwan 平埔? > vernacular shift

Determined by its social context (Fishman 1999)

• Determined by its social context (Fishman 1999)

• There exists no causal relationship between the two

• Linguistic functions can be

• Strengthened: taking advantage of it
• Weakened: not taking advantage of it

Change from immigrant society into native society

• Change from immigrant society into native society

• Aboriginal tribes in Taiwan

• Han people has become indigenized 1683-1895

• Indigenization is the foundation of Taiwan languages, Taiwan lit and Taiwan (national) people