China: Endangered ethnic languages -- reviving or archiving?

[Francis Hult]

China View

 

Endangered ethnic languages -- reviving or archiving?

 

Wang Zhifen, a 39-year-old woman of the Yi ethnic minority, does not speak her mother tongue any more. She stopped using it when she left her village in southwest China's Yunnan Province to be educated more than 20 years ago. 

 

"I have no regrets. Mandarin and English are becoming popular in a rapidly changing society and it's natural for people from ethnic minorities to use suitable languages to communicate better," said Wang, a professor at the Wumayao Anthropological Museum in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, home to 25 ethnic groups. 

 

Full story:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/29/content_11793112.htm

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