Abstract
Since 1949, the Chinese government has issued a series of laws and regulations to protect, develop minority languages, to confirm their social function and status. The article generally presents the sociolinguistic parameters of language categorization of the People’s Republic of China. These sociolinguistic parameters concentrate on two aspects: the language policy and the social status of the language. While the former one represents the attitude of the government to languages, the latter one, however, reflects the functionality of a language in the society. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the interrelation between state ideology and categories of social, ethnic groups and nominations of languages in the People’s Republic of China. Therefore, the terminology of 民族 [min zu] (nationality, nation) is analyzed within Chinese language space. The different meanings of the notion of min zu are studied. The main attention is paid to the social status of languages and dialects of People’s Republic of China. Considering the content of laws and regulations, the article explains the legal status of minority languages and gives examples of actual use in different fields.
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Notes
- 1.
Reviewed: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/共同體 (30/10/2017).
- 2.
Translated from:“第2章, 第4条: 国家根据各少数民族的特点和需要, 帮助各少数民族地区加速经济和文化的发展.”
- 3.
Translated from:“第59条: 各少数民族都应当有适当名额的代表.”
- 4.
Translated from: “第4章: 国旗、国歌、国徽、首都.”
- 5.
Translated from: “第136条: 中华人民共和国国旗是五星红旗.”
- 6.
Translated from: “第137条: 中华人民共和国国徽, 中间是五星照耀下的天安门, 周围是谷穗和齿轮.”
- 7.
Reviewed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_group (30/10/2017).
- 8.
Translated from: “序言:中华人民共和国是全国各族人民共同缔造的统一的多民族国家。平等、团结、互助、和谐的社会主义民族关系已经确立, 并将继续加强.”
- 9.
Translated from: “第10条:民族自治地方的自治机关保障本地方各民族都有使用和发展自己的语言文字的自由, 都有保持或者改革自己的风俗习惯的自由.”
- 10.
Translated from: “第34条: 中华人民共和国年满十八周岁的公民, 不分民族、种族、性别、职业、家庭出身、宗教信仰、教育程度、财产状况、居住期限, 都有选举权和被选举权.”
- 11.
Translated from: “第33条:凡具有中华人民共和国国籍的人都是中华人民共和国公民.”
- 12.
Translated from: “第2条:本法所称的国家通用语言文字是普通话和规范汉字.”
- 13.
Translated from: “第9条:国家机关以普通话和规范汉字为公务用语用字。法律另有规定的除外.”
- 14.
Translated from: “第10条 1节:学校及其他教育机构以普通话和规范汉字为基本的教育教学用语用字。法律另有规定的除外.”
- 15.
Translated from: “第4条 第4节: 各民族都有使用和发展自己的语言文字的自由.”
- 16.
Translated from: “第19条 4节:国家推广全国通用的普通话.”
- 17.
Translated from: “第19条 4节:国家推广全国通用的普通话.”
- 18.
Translated from: “第12条:学校及其他教育机构进行教学, 应当推广使用全国通用的普通话和规范字.”
- 19.
Translated from: “第16条:
1. 国家机关的工作人员执行公务时确需使用的.
2. 经国务院广播电视部门或省级广播电视部门批准的播音用语.
3. 戏曲、影视等艺术形式中需要使用的.
4. 出版、教学、研究中确需使用的. ”
- 20.
Translated from: “第4条 第4节: 各民族都有使用和发展自己的语言文字的自由, 都有保持或者改革自己的风俗习惯的自由.”
- 21.
Translated from: “第121条: 民族自治地方的自治机关在执行职务的时候, 依照本民族自治地方自治条例的规定, 使用当地通用的一种或者几种语言文字.”
- 22.
Translated from: “第21条: 同时使用几种通用的语言文字执行职务的, 可以以实行区域自治的民族的语言文字为主.”
- 23.
Translated from: “第37条 第3节: 招收少数民族学生为主的学校(班级)和其他教育机构, 有条件的应当采用少数民族文字的课本, 并用少数民族语言讲课.”
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Li, X. (2019). From Nominations of Socio-Ethnic Groups to Categorization of Minority Languages in China: Semantic Analysis. In: Moskvitcheva, S., Viaut, A. (eds) Minority Languages from Western Europe and Russia. Language Policy, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24340-1_8
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