Documentation and Revitalization of the Zhuang Language and Culture of Southwestern China Through Linguistic Fieldwork

Abstract

This article outlines innovative strategies, methods, and techniques for the documentation and revitalization of Zhuang language and culture through linguistic fieldwork. Zhuang, a Tai–Kadai language spoken mainly in the rural areas of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of southwestern China, is the largest minority language in China, with about 20 million speakers. Although Zhuang is not in danger of dying out in the foreseeable future, it is indeed an endangered language, given that language shift is occurring in which more and more Zhuang children, especially those born in the cities, are picking up Putonghua, rather than Zhuang, as their most proficient language. Efforts, such as reported in this article, must be made to document and revitalize the language.

I thank the University of Hong Kong Louis Cha Fund (Project No. 20380688) and the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong General Research Fund (Project No. 704708) for generously funding my research on Zhuang language and culture. I also thank many native Zhuang speakers especially my postgraduates and research assistants Pan Yanqin, Pan Yanhong, and Wang Jiangmiao for helping me to transcribe and translate many Zhuang texts and for general assistance during my fieldtrips to Guangxi. I am grateful to my colleagues Gerald Postiglione and Gulbahar Beckett for useful comments on the paper.

Notes

Line 1, is the Romanized writing system, line 2, is the Romanized writing system with numbered tone marks, line 3, is the morpheme for morpheme translation, and line 4 is the free word translation.