Language Policy

Ch15-2 Language Policy of
the Han Sphere
From
A Chinese-character-based
Cultural Circle 漢字文化圈
授課老師：蘇以文
I-wen Su
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The “Work” under the Creative Commons Taiwan 3.0 License of “BY-NC-SA”.
The Han sphere

All adopting Kanji and classical Han
writing as the official written language
before the 20th century
• Vietnam
• Korea
• Japan
• Taiwan
• China
Chiung, Wi-vun T. (2007) “Language, Literacy, and Nationalism:
Taiwan's Orthographic transition from the perspective of Han
Sphere.”
changes



Chiung, Wi-vun T. (2007) “Language, Literacy, and Nationalism:
Taiwan's Orthographic transition from the perspective of Han
Sphere.”
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
Orthographic reform

Internal factors:

External factors:
• general public’s demand for literacy
• anti-feudal hierarchy
• Political relationships between these countries
• The origin of Han characters
Native language (including writing
system) & national identity


Pros- Vietnam & Korea
Cons- Ireland and US
National identity: A Western View





‘nation-state’ – a concept formed by
Publication
Religious reform
Mother tongue
(Anderson 1991)
E.g. Renaissance: national literature
Anderson, Benedict.(1991) Imagined Communities. New York: Verso.
Imagined communities


Benedict Anderson (1991)
An imagined Hanji cultural community
prompts the construction of nation-state
in Chinese character-based circle
Anderson, Benedict.(1991) Imagined Communities. New York: Verso.
Sense of Community via the
Chinese/Han characters 漢字共同體




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
Non-imagined Hanji cultural
community



Unique language
Unique writing system
Vietnam, Korea, Japan
Linguistic vs. political



Writing system ╪ national identity
Language vs. dialect
Mutually intelligible (Crystal 1997),
• Swedish/Norwegian/Danish
Crystal, D.(1997) The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language.
2nd edition.
Diglossia & digraphia


Diglossia> (spoken) language
digraphia> writing system (written lang)
diglossia

Charles Ferguson (1959):
• Two varieties of the same language, carrying
•
•

Ferguson, Charles A.(1959) 'Diglossia',
with each different social functions
High language vs. low language
Formal & literary vs. informal & colloquial
Joshua Fishman (1967)
Fishman, Joshua.(1967) Bilingualism with
and without diglossia; diglossia with and
without bilingualism.
• Not necessarily of the same language
• Not necessarily limited to 2 languages
digraphia




Dale (1980)
Extending Ferguson’s idea of diglossia
to the writing system
De Francis (1984): same as Dale
Chiung Wi-vun (2003)
Dale, I.R.H. (1980) “Digraphia”.
DeFrancis, John.
(1984) Digraphia.
• More than one writing systems in one society,
each with different communicative functions
Chiung, Wi-vun T.(2003) Learning Efficiencies for
Different Orthographies: A Comparative Study of
Han Characters and Vietnamese Romanization.
How about the Han circle?

Spoken

Written
• Literary (wenyan) vs. colloquial (baihua)
• High language (emperor; puppet heroes)
• Low language (commoner; clown)
• High lang (writing in Han characters)
• Low lang (Chu-Nam of Vietnam; Kana of
Japan)
High vs. Low

Status may change

Kana (Japan) > high
Romanization (Vietnam) > high
Zhuang/miao/yao > still low


• Political
• Linguistic structures of the writing systems
1st vs. 2nd languages



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 and shift of the
mother tongue



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
Language and national identity

Determined by its social context
(Fishman 1999)
There exists no causal relationship
between the two
Linguistic functions can be
Fishman, Joshua. (ed.) (1999) Handbook of
Language and Ethnic Identity.


• Strengthened: taking advantage of it
• Weakened: not taking advantage of it
indigenization




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
Copyright Declaration
Work
p.2, 3
p.6, 7
p.10
Licensing
Author/Source
Chiung, Wi-vun T. (2007) “Language, Literacy, and
Nationalism: Taiwan's Orthographic transition from the
perspective of Han Sphere.” Journal of Multilingual and
Multicultural Development, 28(2), 102-116.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Anderson, Benedict.(1991) Imagined Communities.
New York: Verso.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Crystal, D.(1997) The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of
Language. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Copyright Declaration
Work
p.12
p.12
p.13
Licensing
Author/Source
Ferguson, Charles A.(1959) 'Diglossia', Word 15:325340.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Fishman, Joshua.(1967) Bilingualism with and without
diglossia; diglossia with and without bilingualism.
Journal of Social Issues 32(2), 29-38.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Dale, I.R.H. (1980) “Digraphia”. International Journal of
the Sociology of Language 26, 5–13
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Copyright Declaration
Work
p.13
p.13
p.18
Licensing
Author/Source
DeFrancis, John. (1984) Digraphia. Word 35 (1), 59-66.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Chiung, Wi-vun T.(2003) Learning Efficiencies for
Different Orthographies: A Comparative Study of Han
Characters and Vietnamese Romanization. PhD
dissertation: Univ. of Texas at Arlington.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Fishman, Joshua. (ed.) (1999) Handbook of Language
and Ethnic Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW

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