International collaboration and the management of linguistic resources at a diaspora festival in Okinawa

Abstract

This article uses Jernudd and Neustupný's (1987) theory of language management to address the planning, management and distribution of linguistic resources at the 4th Worldwide Uchinaanchu Festival (WUF), a diaspora festival held in Okinawa, Japan. WUF organizers – from Okinawa and diaspora communities abroad – were concerned with both international collaboration in language planning and language planning for future international collaboration. Without the former, festival planners would not have been able to provide adequate multilingual resources and services to all WUF participants. Planners' language management efforts not only enabled participants to connect with the homeland, but also helped foster an awareness of the collaborative role they might play in the planning and implementation of future events in the Okinawan diaspora. The article draws on several sources of multilingual data and reveals that micro-language planning for diaspora events is a challenging, yet rewarding, undertaking. Because of their common heritage, planners and participants alike are all major stakeholders in the outcome of language management actions taken at diaspora festivals.

Keywords:

• Okinawa
• language management
• language ideology
• diaspora
• tourism

Acknowledgements

We would like to extend our thanks to Prof. Tony Liddicoat for his professional and editorial assistance. Our heartfelt thanks also go to the many Uchinaanchu and ‘Uchinaanchu at heart’ across the globe who unsparingly gave their support to this study. Their contributions have been immeasurable. However, needless to say, any errors or shortcomings in this article belong solely to the authors. We would also like to acknowledge that this research was partially funded by Massey University and the Grant-in-Aid for Exploratory Research (19652039) sponsored by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Notes

The textual representation of Uchinaaguchi in this article is done primarily in katakana, one of three writing systems used for Japanese text besides hiragana and kanji. Conventionally, the katakana syllabary is used, instead of its mutually interchangeable hiragana counterpart, in an environment where one wants to mark loanwords and distinguish a non-standard variety from a standard one for readability. However, in a textual environment where no need for such distinction exists, hiragana can be used for Uchinaaguchi (e.g., ).

Literal translation: ‘Expanding compassion, joining beautiful hearts’.

Literal translation: ‘From the generous hand beautiful hearts will unite’.

Literal translation: ‘Profuse feelings of affection and generosity uniting beautiful hearts’.

Literal translation: ‘The Opening Ceremony was accompanied by the members of Requios with Project Chimugukuru and their performance of the WUF theme song “The Wind to Nirai”’.

Literal translation: ‘The members of Requios and Project Chimugukuru have just finished performing the WUF theme song “The Wind to Nirai”’.

Literal translation: ‘I've come to have a bowl of pork soba’.

Literal translation: ‘I've come thinking about eating this tasty soba …’.

Literal translation: ‘I want to eat your meat soba to see …’.

Literal translation: ‘But Okinawan people's genuine heart and spirit will never change …’.

Literal translation: ‘The Uchinaanchu heart has not changed …’.

Literal translation: ‘The Uchinaanchu heart continues …’.