Chronotopes, language practices and language shift: an ethnographic study of the Blang community in China

ABSTRACT

This study explores language practices of the Blang people and their perceptions of the changes in language ecology through the lens of chronotopes, hoping to better understand patterns of language shift in the Blang community in China. It takes a qualitative approach and draws on semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observations conducted in the Blang Mountain Township, Yunnan province, China. The study reveals that the Blang community has been undergoing a gradual shift from Blang to Chinese, and the decline of Blang has been most noticeable amongst the younger generation. This study uses a narrative approach with a focus on chronotopization in narratives to explore language shift. It contributes to our understanding of the way participants position themselves vis-a-vis the decline of their native tongue in the changing language ecology. Their accounts reveal the dynamic dialogic interrelationship between structure (conceptualised as external pressures) and agency (conceptualised as individuals’ freedom of action). The study contributes to the methodology of using chronotopes in sociolinguistic research.

KEYWORDS:

• Chronotopes
• language practices
• language ecology
• language shift
• the Blang language
• minority languages in China

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants in this research project for their time and contributions. We also appreciate the friends who helped us to build connections with the Blang community. The first author extends thanks for the University International Postgraduate Award scholarship provided by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the HDR research funding provided by the Faculty of Arts and Social Science at UNSW.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Language shift amongst the minority groups is not necessarily only to Putonghua but also to regional varieties of Chinese. Therefore, this paper uses ‘Chinese’ as the broader term that covers both Putonghua and the regional Chinese varieties, unless the participants specifically referred to ‘Putonghua’.

2 According to Ethnologue, Blang is at the level of 6a (vigorous), which means the language is used for face-to-face communication by all generations.

3 Blang was not used as one of the interview languages because the interviewer does not speak the Blang language. Despite this limitation, the quality of interviews was not thought to have been affected much, as the participants had high proficiency in at least one of the varieties of Chinese.

4 ‘Enen and En’ both have a meaning of ‘yes’ in Chinese. In the excerpts of the current paper, they were used to express agreement and confirmation. There is no substantial difference between these two expressions, but ‘Enen’ is regarded as stronger and enthusiastic agreement and confirmation.