Language Competition between Bai and Han Chinese,
Yunnan Province (2006)

The general focus of this fieldwork is to investigate factors that influence language competition among dialects of Bai and dialects of Han Chinese in the vicinity of Dali in Yunnan Province, particularly those factors relevant to linguistic interactions in the household and at school.

The aim of this work is to identify the factors that exert the most significant influence on the language competition so that more realistic computational models for language competition can be constructed.

The ultimate goal is to develop a general model for language competition that can be tuned to the sociolinguistic parameters of the particular linguistic system under study. We envisage such a model assisting in the early detection of languages that are threatened with extinction and the planning of practical steps that a society might choose to take to preserve such an endangered language.

The fieldwork, which is now underway in Dali, is the first, pilot study in a series of fieldworks that we intend to carry out.  Our next plan is to undertake a similar study of She dialects in Fujian Province. Whereas the Bai language is vital, having several million first-language speakers, She is moribund and is expected to become extinct within the next generation or two.  By contrasting the two situations of language competition, we expect to be able to identify key factors that herald imminent language death.

This fieldwork is supported in part by research grant 1127/04H awarded to Prof. William S-Y. Wang by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, PRC.