[Linganth] New Publication on Language Shift and Identity Reproduction

[Cook, Matthew A]

After working at the intersection of anthropology and history for a long while, I am happy to share my first article on the Sindhi language.  Published in Modern Asian Studies (with Maya Khemlani-David), the abstract and a link to the article are below for anyone interested in reading more about its comparative approach to language shift and identity reproduction.


Language Shift and Identity Reproduction among Diaspora Sindhis in India and Southeast Asia

MATTHEW A. COOK
North Carolina Central University
Email: matthew.alain.cook at gmail.com
MAYA KHEMLANI DAVID
University of Malaya
Email: mayadavid at yahoo.com

Abstract
This article examines the relationship between language shift and identity among diaspora Sindhis in India and Southeast Asia. It focuses on questions concerning how members of this community reproduce identity through language shift. The first part of the article describes identity and language shift among diaspora Sindhis in post-partition India. It argues that language shift facilitates the reproduction of core cultural modalities among diaspora Sindhis. The second part describes the history of diaspora Sindhis in Southeast Asia and analyses language shift. It contends that language shift enables diaspora Sindhis to suspend a connection between mother-tongue proficiency and identity. The article concludes by discussing how the diaspora Sindhi experience retunes the interval that conventionally connects language shift to cultural change.

Link:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/language-shift-and-identity-reproduction-among-diaspora-sindhis-in-india-and-southeast-asia/678711394095029BE7AC10943ADA6946/share/bc16a7bb54f8bfe84f4f676d89a97eaa98a18195



Matthew A. Cook, Ph.D.
Professor of Postcolonial and South Asian Studies
Department of Language and Literature
Department of History

Office:
321 Farrison-Newton Communications Bldg.
North Carolina Central University
Durham, NC  27707
Tel: 919-530-6883
Fax: 919-530-7991
E-mail: mcook at nccu.edu

Books Authored or Edited by Matthew A. Cook:

Discovering Sindh's Past: Selections from the Journal of the Sindh Historical Society, with M. Boivin and J. Levesque (OUP, 2017).
Annexation and the Unhappy Valley: The Historical Anthropology of Sindh's Colonization (Brill, 2016).
Willoughby's Minute: Treaty of Nownahar, Fraud and British Sindh (OUP, 2013).
Interpreting the Sindhi World: Essays on Society and History, with Michel Boivin (OUP, 2010).
Observing Sindh: Selected Reports by Edward Del Hoste (OUP, 2008).