The Sichuan Maowen Qiang Language Selection

Language is not only a communication tool but also a carrier of culture and information. It is a necessary cognitive means and an important link to maintain national sentiment. In a sense, language is the concentrated expression of national spirit and wisdom. The fate of the national culture is directly related to its language.Qiang is an ancient ethnic group in the western region of China. The previous studies suggest that Qiang language has revealed some features of an endangered language. Its energy is on the decline. It's a fact that the communicative function of Qiang language has been weakened. More and more Qiang people switch to only use Chinese. So we can not be optimistic about the intergenerational transmission of Qiang language. In many areas that Qiang people inhabited, their mother tongue has become a memory of the elders. The investigation of Qiang's language status is necessary because of its theoretical and practical significance.Firstly, the investigation is important for the studies of ethnic group's language situation in our country. Second, it can enrich the studies of Qiang. When a group's language is studied, the cultural and social background of the group must be given our attention. The way has gradually reached a consensus. This dissertation compensates the study of Qiang for the weakness in this aspect. Third, Qiang people have accumulated much invaluable experience in a multi-language and multi-cultural social environment to maintain their mother tongue and ethnic culture. Through the investigation of Qiang's language status, we can find out the key factors that affect their communities, families and individuals in language choosing. These researches can be used for the other ethnic groups of our country in their culture heritage and development. It's very helpful to explore the pattern of maintaining ethnic groups'mother tongues by revealing the developing rules of Qiang language's function. Especially, it's significant for those groups having no their native character. Fourth, after 5.12 WenChuan Earthquake, unprecedented attention was given to Qiang culture. The state made a good save to the protection and reconstruction of Qiang culture. Behind the crisis, it's the opportunities to develop the ethnic group's culture. But be faced with so many challenges, it's a long way to go. The researches can provide feasible recommendations and reference for related language research, language planning, and government's decision-making.Language has the nature and value of culture. This dissertation follows the research way of anthropological linguistics. Based on the past and present situation of Qiang's language and culture, it brings the research of Qiang language into its cultural background and social environment. The original materials are obtained from field work by using the ways of participant observation, questionnaires, and interviews. Then the dissertation processes the data by using statistical methods of social survey. It also makes good use of previous research findings and available literature on the subject. The author accounts for the peculiarity of Qiang's language and culture applying methodology of anthropological linguistics, cultural linguistics, social linguistics and descriptive linguistics. The dissertation tries to group the differences of communities, families and individuals in Qiang people's language choosing from the perspective of language function. Furthermore, it analyses them systematically.The dissertation consists of six chapters. Chapterâ…¡to Chapter V is the main part.Introduction:This part introduces the purpose and academic value of choosing the topic, the related research developments, the basic ideas and framework of the dissertation, writing methods, etc.Chapterâ… :This part is divided into three sections. The first section tells the origin, population and distribution of Qiang. The second section outlines the development of Qiang including its mode of production, identity and social status. The third section describes the distribution and features of Qiang language including southern dialect and northern dialect.Chapter II:This part covers the field materials and statistical data of the main residential area of Qiang, Maoxian and Wenchuan. The author describes the status of communities, families and individuals in Qiang people's language choosing.Chapterâ…¢:This part mainly analyses the community differences of Qiang people in choosing language. Through comparative studies, the author classifies the types of communities according to the important differences of environment, modes of production, and living patterns.Chapterâ…£:In this part, the author analyses the families and individuals differences of Qiang people in choosing language. The differences of families are closely related to family structure, marital status, social status, economic conditions and other factors. The individual differences are mainly related to gender, age, occupation, education level, etc.Chapterâ…¤:Qiang peoples'language attitude varies widely in different communities and families. The individual differences also exist even in the same family. Based on the field materials and statistical data, this part analyses some decisive factors in these differences.Chapterâ…¥:Faced with the crisis of Qiang's mother tongue in recognition, ecological environment and other problems, the inheritors'passion may be our hope for the inheritance and rehabilitation of the mother tongue. This part discusses the inheritance of Qiang's mother tongue and predicts its trend of development.