Languages as historical documents: The endangered archive in Laos

South East Asia Research

Volumn 14, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 471-488

  Enfield, N J ^a  

^a MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR PSYCHOLINGUISTICS   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

Languages; Laos; Minorities

Indexed keywords

ANTHROPOLOGY; DOCUMENTARY SOURCE; HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE; LANGUAGE; LITERATURE REVIEW; MINORITY GROUP; TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE;

ASIA; EURASIA; LAOS; SOUTHEAST ASIA;

EID: 33845601199     PISSN: 0967828X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5367/000000006778881555     Document Type: Review

References (64)

1. Daniel Nettle (1999), Linguistic Diversity, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p 153;
2. see also Johanna Nichols (1991), Language Diversity in Time and Space, Chicago University Press, Chicago, 1L.
3. For an overview of Lao, see Enfield, N. J. (1999), 'Lao as a national language', in Evans, G., ed, Laos: Culture and Society, Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai, pp 258-290.
4. Wallace Chafe (2000), 'Loci of diversity and convergence in thought and language', in Martin Pütz and Marjolijn Verspoor, eds, Explorations in Linguistic Relativity, Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp 101-123.
5. See also Edward Sapir (1949), Selected Writings, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA;
6. Benjamin L. Whorf (1956), Language, Thought, and Reality, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA;
7. John Gumperz and Stephen Levinson (1996), Rethinking Linguistic Relativity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge;
8. and Dedre Gentner and Susan Goldin-Meadow (2003), eds, Language in Mind: Advances in the Study of Language and Thought, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
9. Scholarly discussions of this issue on a global scale include David Crystal (2000), Language Death, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge;
10. Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine (2000), Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
11. Enfield, N. J. (2005), 'Laos - language situation', in Brown, K., ed, Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2 ed, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 698-700.
12. See Crystal, supra note 3,
13. and Nettle and Romaine, supra note 3,
14. as well as Nancy C. Dorian, ed (1989), Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge;
15. and Lenore A. Grenoble and Lindsay J. Whaley, eds (1998), Endangered Languages: Current Issues and Future Prospects, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
16. Crystal, supra note 3, at p 19.
17. Nettle and Romaine, supra note 3, at p 19 discuss Rupert Murdoch's avowed monolingualist position.
18. Nettle and Romaine, supra note 3, Ch 7;
19. see also Crystal, supra note 3.
20. Nettle and Romaine, supra note 3.
21. Grant Evans (1997), The Politics of Ritual and Remembrance, Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai.
22. Adam Smith coined the term 'invisible hand' to refer to the mechanism by which macro-level patterns in an economy emerge not from the intentions of any individual, but from the aggregate of micro-level intentions. Adam Smith (1904, originally published in 1776), An Inquity into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Methuen, London. For example, queues at a supermarket will tend to be each around the same length, although the individuals in line do not intend that to be the case, but rather merely go to the queue that currently appears to be shorter than the rest in order to minimize their own waiting time.
23. For examples and discussion, see Thomas C. Schelling (1978), Micromotives and Macrobehavior, W. W. Norton, New York.
24. Suksavang Simana, Somseng Sayavong and Elizabeth Preisig (1994), Kmhmu'-Lao-French-English Dictionary, Institute for Cultural Research, Ministry of Information and Culture, Vientiane, p 276.
25. Enfield, N. J., ed (2002), 'Cultural logic and syntactic productivity: associated posture constructions in Lao', Ethnosyntax: Explorations in Culture and Grammar, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 231-258.
26. Enfield, N. J. (2006), 'Social consequences of common ground', in Enfield, N. J., and Levinson, S. C., eds, Roots of Human Sociality: Cognition, Culture, and Interaction, Berg, London, pp 399-430.
27. Nettle, supra note 1.
28. William Croft (2000), Explaining Language Change: An Evolutionary Approach, Longman, Harlow.
29. Nettle, supra note 1,
30. and Robin Dunbar (1999), 'Culture, honesty, and the freerider problem', in Robin Dunbar, Chris Knight and Camilla Power, eds, The Evolution of Culture, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, pp 194-213.
31. See Nettle, supra note 1;
32. Dunbar, supra note 17;
33. and Robin Dunbar (1996), Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language, Faber and Faber, London, and the references therein.
34. Croft, supra note 16;
35. Enfield, N. J. (2003), Linguistic Epidemiology: Semantics and Grammar of Language Contact in Mainland Southeast Asia, RoutledgeCurzon, London;
36. Enfield, N. J. (2005), 'Areal linguistics and mainland Southeast Asia', Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol 34, pp 181-206.
37. See also Sarah Grey Thomason and Terrence Kaufman (1988), Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA;
38. and Rudi Keller (1994), On Language Change: The Invisible Hand in Language, Routledge, London/New York.
39. Thomason and Kaufman, supra note 19;
40. on the broader evolutionary perspective, see Richard Dawkins (1976), The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press, Oxford;
41. and Robert Aunger, ed (2000), Darwinizing Culture, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
42. See, inter alia, William.J. Gedney (1989), Selected Papers on Comparative Tai Studies, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI;
43. Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit, eds (1988), Comparative Kadai: Linguistic Studies beyond Tai, Summer Institute of Linguistics and University of Texas Press, Arlington, TX;
44. Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit, eds (1997), Comparative Kadai: The Tai Branch, Summer Institute of Linguistics and University of Texas Press, Arlington, TX;
45. and Luo Yongxian (1997), The Subgroup Structure of the Tai Languages: A Historical-Comparative Study, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
46. Enfield, supra note 19 (both works).
47. Sapir, supra note 2;
48. Anna Wierzbicka (1992), Semantics, Culture, and Cognition, Oxford University Press, New York.
49. The quotation is from Roger Brown (1958), Words and Things, The Free Press, Glencoe, IL, p 20.
50. See Enfield, supra note 1.
51. See Anthony Diller (1991), 'What makes Central Thai a national language?' in Craig J. Reynolds, ed, National Identity and Its Defenders: Thailand, 1939-1989, Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai, pp 87-131.
52. International Labour Organization (2000), Policy Study on Ethnic Minority Issues in Rural Development. Project to Promote ILO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, International Labour Office, Geneva.
53. Evans, supra note 10, discusses various aspects of minority policy.
54. Enfield, supra note 1,
55. and N. J. Enfield and Grant Evans (2000), 'Transcription as standardisation: the problem of Tai languages', Proceedings of the International Conference on Tai Studies, July 29-31, 1998, Mahidol University Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Bangkok, pp 201-212.
56. Suksavang et al, supra note 12,
57. and Suksavang Simana and Elizabeth Preisig (1999), Kmhmu' Language Lessons (trial edition), Vientiane.
58. See the two sources cited in the previous footnote, as well as Jan-Olof Svantesson, Damrong Thayanin and Kristina Lindell (1994), Kammu-Lao Dictionary (in Lao), Ministry of Information and Culture, Vientiane;
59. Nancy Costello and Institute of Research on Lao Culture and Society (1993), Katu Folktales and Society, Ministry of Information and Culture, Vientiane;
60. Pamela Sue Wright (2003), 'Singsali (Phunoi) speech varieties of Phongsali province', Language and Life Journal, Vol 1, pp 62-73;
61. Pascale Jacq (2002), 'A description of Jruq (Loven): a Mon-Khmer language of the Lao P.D.R.', Master of Philosophy thesis, Australian National University (to be published as A Description of Jru'(Loven), Mon-Khmer Studies Special Publication, Mahidol University, Bangkok);
62. and Pascale Jacq and Paul Sidwell (forthcoming), Sketch Grammar of Nyaheun, a West Bahnaric Language.
63. See Lao Front for National Construction (2005), The Ethnics [sic] Groups in Lao PDR, Lao Front for National Construction, Vientiane.
64. Cliff Goddard (2001), 'Lexico-semantic universals: a critical overview', Linguistic Typology, Vol 5, pp 1-65.