Multilingualism in China : : The Politics of Writing Reforms for Minority Languages 1949-2002 / / Minglang Zhou.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Asian Studies Backlist (2000-2014) eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Zhou, Minglang,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter Mouton, , [2012]; ©2003
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: Contributions to the Sociology of Language [CSL] , 89
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (458 p.) :; 2 Ktn.

Minglang Zhou's highly erudite and well-researched volume on the policies concerning writing reforms for China's minorities since 1949 provides an original and well-reasoned summary of a complex process. It documents how different script reforms meet dramatically different fates according to local preferences, history, cross-border ties, and the vitality of previously-used scripts. It convincingly shows that no single variable is decisive in the success of a script, and that language planners' fixation with technical details is doomed to failure, without careful coordination of extra-code factors. It also documents the little-known Sino-Soviet cooperation in the area of writing reforms. In a style accessible to both undergraduate and graduate students, Zhou's book is of interest to language planners, sinologists, applied linguists, writing theorists, and ethnologists.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of tables -- Abbreviations and names of minorities in China -- Map 1. Distribution of Minority Nationalities and Languages in China -- Map 2 China: Autonomous regions and prefectures -- Chapter 1. Minorities and minority languages in China -- Chapter 2. The politics of minority language policy, 1949–2002 -- Chapter 3. The politics of the status of writing systems: Official, experimental, or unofficial -- Chapter 4. Choices of scripts and theories of writing systems: East vs. West -- Chapter 5. The politics of vernacular writing systems -- Chapter 6. The politics of traditional and reformed writing systems -- Chapter 7. Modernization: The politics and sociolinguistics of Chinese loanwords and minority language orthography -- Chapter 8. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Subject index -- Index of (officially recognized) minority nationalities and minority languages in China -- Index of names of influential persons