DSpace at VNU: Asean from a geolinguistic perspective

VNU Journal of Science, Social Sciences and Hum anities 23, No SE (20307) 53-59 Asean from a geolinguistic perspective Dinh Van Due* College o f Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU, 336 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, Vietnam R eceived M ay 2007 A b s tr a c t T h e p a p e r fo c u se s o n th e fo llo w in g : G e o lin g u istic s ad d resses th e m ix tu re a n d d istrib u tio n of lan g u ag e s from a geographical p e rsp e c tiv e th a t is alw ay s associated w ith econom y, p o p u la tio n a n d society A geolinguistic p ersp ectiv e, th erefo re, can shed m ore lig ht on th e specificities of a certain socio-politicai space in existence a n d d e v e lo p m e n t Such is the case w ith ASEAN A SEA N o rig in ally (1967) w a s a political alliance for m ilita ry co n fro n tatio n R egional an d in te rn a tio n a l political changes in the last few d ecad es have g d u a lly tu rn e d it into an alliance of p a rtn e rs for eco n o m y an d security of the w hole area of S outh East A sia G eolinguistically, how ever, th is sp ac e is th e r special: it is m ore d iv erse th a n u n ifo rm ed , m o re d iv e rg e n t th a n convergent ASEAN co m p rise s tw o g ro u p s of countries: th o se on lan d a n d on islands; th e ir p o p u la tio n s are ac co rd in g ly v a rie d G eographical influences from C hina an d In d ia re su lt in a p p a re n t econom ic an d cu ltu l co n seq u en ces, an d the lan g u ag e m ap sh o w s o b vious g eo g rap h ical segregation, w hich p ro v id e s a lm o st no g ro u n d s for assem bly an d linkages U n lik e A frican, L atin A m erican, C arrib ean a n d A rabic co m m u n itie s v ery close g e o g p h ic a l an d linguistic linkages, S outh East A sian space, p resen t, h as see n m o re d istin ctio n s th an u n ifo rm ity in th eir lan g u ag e s in th eir in ter-c o n tacts h a v e b ro u g h t ab o u t different co n c ep tu alizatio n s as w ell policies in o rd e r to h arm o n iz e v ario u s interests for dev elo p m en t w h ich h av e alw ays h ad b o th in h isto ry a n d at term s of stru ctu re ; an d as practices of lan g u ag e G e o -reg io n a lism in lan g u ag e contact also h as created cu ltu l co u n ter-flo w s - the in vasion of th e S an sk rit w ritin g sy stem from th e In d ian su b -co n tin en t an d th e sq u a rish Sino ch aracters from th e C h in ese co n tin en t, a n d later th e forccd contact w ith English, French, D utch a n d S panish b ro u g h t a lo n g by colonialism It is d ifficu lt to find am o n g th e n ativ e lan g u ag e s a com m on, p o p u la r lan g u a g e for ASEAN in th e fu tu re T h e existence of cu ltu l g a p s u n d e rly in g th e lan g u ag e d istrib u tio n is also of im p o rtan ce a n d in terest T h e p a p e r co ncludes w ith forecasts of lan g u a g e tre n d s w h ic h m ay stre n g th e n in the g eo g rap h ical reg io n of ASEAN ad o p ted by m o d ern linguistics, O rig inating from Europe, geolinguistics w as particularly in m ethodological aspect, w hich had co n trib u ted to identifying the dialect helps reveal the m ixture and distribution of m ap of G erm any in the 19th century before it regional languages from a geographical perspective th at is alw ays associated w ith *C o rre sp o n d in g a u th o r Tel.: 84-4-8589679 econom y, p o p u latio n and society A E-mail: dm hvanduc2002@ yahoo.com 53 54 Dinh Van Due / V N U Journal of Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No 5E (2007) 53-59 geolinguistic perspective, therefore, can shed m ore light on the specificities of a certain socio-political space in existence and develo p m en t Such is the case w ith ASEAN O ne C hinese saying goes, "Dom ains u n d e r heaven, after a long period of division, ten d s to unite; after a long period of union, ten d s to divide" (Luo G uanzhong's opening statem en t in Sanguo [zhi] yanyi, Three K ingdom s or Three W arring States or R om ance of T hree Kingdom s) A t the age of 40, ASEAN is uniting, enhancing and ex p an d in g cooperative and integrating activities A retrospective look reveals that this is originally a political alliance of m ilitary colors th a t reflects the confrontation of the C old W ar p erio d an d the Vietnam War The nam e "A ssociation of South East Asian N ations" (ASEAN, 1967) displays the ally relationship w ith o u t m any geographical, econom ic an d cultural criteria Yet currently it is aim ing at those criteria an d w ants to forw ard on those bases ASEAN geographically com prises a g ro u p of co u n tries on land, peninsulas and island s form ing a w ok-likc shape betw een In d ia and C hina, situating in the m iddle of the East-W est m arin e trajectory, linking the In d ian an d the Pacific Oceans, w hich is very convenient for trad e and IS significantly im p o rta n t geo-econom ically and geopolitically H ow ever, in term s of population an d culture, this region is no t an am algam ation Its diversity and m ultidim en sio n ality , even the cultural distinctions a m o n g the nations, diffuse the possibility to m ove tow ard a type of unity like Europe, W est Asia, C arribee or South A m erica There exist three big issues relating to geolinguistics in this region First, the regional language m ap d istrib u tes diversely, distinctively and non-concentrating Second, language contacts w ith the o u tsid e w orld vary considerably and are diverse and m ultidim ensional, w hich exerts decisive im pacts on traditional language policies of each nation, and on a broader, regional sense, will influence ASEAN language policies in the integration process L a n g u a g e diffusion is probably an obstacle to overcom e on the w ay tow ard a com m unity of the Association m em ber states Possibly no other regions in the w orld are as narrow as South East Asia and yet with such a high density and diversity of languages ASEAN can be div id ed into tw o groups: continental and island/peninsula countries Those on land lying betw een the tw o sub-continents - India an d China - have distinctive linguistic features Even though som e w ere originally related to A ustroasiatic (like Vietnamese), typologically, they are m ostly isolating and tonal languages (Vietnamese, Laotian, Thai, Burm ese, etc.), w hile A ustronesian and p eninsula languages (M elayu, Tagalog) from S um atra to the Philippines have partially agglutinating m orphological structure A ro u n d the ASEAN 'w ok' are h u n d red s of ethnic m inority languages influenced by v arious language families: Sino-Tibetan, Meo-Yao, M on-K hm er on land and M alay-Polynesia on the sea They m ight have had certain contacts or m igrated, b u t basically they localized geographically L anguage, culture and religion interm ingled in accordance to international isoglosses w hich distinguish the status of each area of inhabitants In the past, due to low and slow ly g row ing productivity, econom ic exchanges in the region w ere low and totally unm atch ed w ith each nation's Dinh Van Due / V N U Journal of Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No 5E (2007) 53-59 potentials W hen econom ic capitalism appeared, contacts and exchanges w ith the outside w orld w ere predom inant, b ut the volum e of goods and intra-regional transactions w ere very lim ited Prior to 1945, m ost of the region w as m agnetized to the orbit of colonialism (the UK, France, the N etherlands, Spain, the US), and com m ercial and cultural transactions in the colonies were prim arily oriented to m other countries; regional exchanges, therefore, w ere even m ore restricted "H ouses are stan d in g back to back, yet their entrances are m iles aw ay" w as the case for a long tim e am ong South East Asian nations L anguage contact is a geo-linguistic universal The situation of language contact in ASEAN geographical region is dissim ilar to that in Europe, W est Asia or Carribee Two m ajor issues em erge: language and w riting in the contacts Linguistically, due to typological diversity (language structure), together w ith historical o p p o rtu n ities and risks, language contacts here contain both intra-regional and transregional contacts T hroughout the historical process, transregionai contacts w ere influenced by m igration, com m erce and religion The two m ajor routes of contacts rem ained In dian and China O n th e regional scale, Sino (Chinese) language had had contact w ith Japanese and Korean, an d V ietnam ese in the south for tw o thousand years, an d even further south w ith A ustroasiatic languages of M alay and Singapore H ow ever, d u e to differences in the form of contact, there ap p eared in Vietnam ese a w ay of Sino-V ietnam ese pronunciation, w hich w as u n iq u e and did not recur in so u th ern nations In M alaysia, Singapore an d p art of the islands, a num ber of com m unities spoke Sino as p art of the 55 national languages; nevertheless, contact betw een Sino and indigenous languages w as not significant and did not result in considerable diffusion nor a rem arkable p ro d u ct both in term s of stru ctu re and function V ietnam did not have such a Sino language-inhabitant com m unity C ho Lon precinct in H o Chi M inh City has large Chinese D iasporas, yet V ietnam ese rem ains the official language in all transactions and social activities Languages from the Indian sub-continent m oving to South East A sia did have certain inter-typological contacts and interchanges These interchanges, ap p aren tly having occurred on the islands from S um atra to East Tim or (form er territory in Indonesia), and trans-island/peninsula areas in M alaysia, w ere open, and contacts in language stru ctu re (vocabulary and m orphology) w ere m ore evident than those relating to Sino an d Thai In the 17th century, w hen w estern capitalist econom y developed, new contacts em erged in South East Asia C om m ercial transactions and Catholic m issionaries b ro u g h t E uropean languages to exotic shores Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, D utch languages one by one cam e into contact w ith indigenous languages Im m ediately afterw ard , these contacts w ere segregated in accordance to colonial regions: Indochina w ith French, M yanm ar and M alaysia w ith English, Indonesia w ith Dutch, the P hilippines initially w ith Spanish and then English (w hen they becam e a u s colony, 1898) Such contacts blew a new breeze into in d igenous languages, b u t colonial segregation led to increased situation of "houses are stan d in g back to back, yet their entrances are m iles away" am ong the nations u p till now W ith regards to intra-regional language contacts, the language p an o ram a is also 56 Dinh Van Due / V N U Journal of Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No 5E (2007) 53-59 pieced and patched: nations on land (3 w riting system in m any nations, entailed an Indochinese countries, Thailand and extensive diffusion of influences from IndianM yanm ar), despite territorial borderlines, the origin languages as w ell as Tay-Thai and language m ap is extensively covered by Thai, M on-K hm er language groups, particularly in Vietnam ese and M on-K hm er languages, and the lexicon, personal and geographical language contacts w ere obvious Languages nam es U nlike Sanskrit w riting, Sino of A ustroasiatic origin present in som e areas characters m oved south th ro u g h exam ination (In Tay Nguyen - the Central H ig h lan d in paths and dissem ination of C onfucianism Vietnam, for exam ple) w ere restricted only in ideological teaching V ietnam w as the place certain geographical localities and had little w here Sino w riting w as the m ost influential; contact w ith V ietnam ese M eanw hile, in prior to the appearance of phonological A ustronesian areas, the largest intra-regional w riting system (Quoc-ngu), the V ietnam ese contact occurred w ith M eleyu, originally the people had created the N om script based on language of p art of M alaysian and Indonesian Sino squarish characters, an d a few other population Influenced by Islam outreach, w riting system s of V ietnam ese ethnic contact of this language b ro u g h t about m inorities w ere form ulated in the sam e w ay evident results: the geographical expansion of Differences in the w riting system s intensify M elayu language use in M alaysia, Indonesia, cultural distinctions am ong inhabitant Brunei and Singapore as a distinct space from com m unities in the region R om an w riting continental countries A language w ith large acquired increasing predom inance ip the groups of speakers on the Eastern Sea (South region, w hich partially stren g th en ed the use China Sea), Tagalog in the Philippines, of English as a com m on language in ASEAN though having contact w ith continental and transactions island regions in the w est (w ith M eleyu Let us now tu rn to language policies language), continued eastw ard to m ake Policies involve national planning, and contact w ith languages originating from West language guidelines derive from each Pacific Historical differences in the w riting country's reality and desires ASEAN system s am ong the nations naturally resulted language m ap is a com plexity M ost countries in cultural distinction (on N ew G uinea in the A ssociation are m ultilingual nations islands and austronesian region) (Vietnam, Laos TDK, T hailand, M alaysia, etc.) Language contact in term s of the In each country, how ever, a m ajority w riting system s is another peculiarity of the language m ay predom inate, b u t it cannot region The Indian an d Sino w riting system s cover the colors of other languages, and the also initiated cultural and religious contacts differences in d ev elo p m en t levels and in the region The w riting system originating language usability in social life exist as a from ancient Indian (Sanskrit) w as used to natural necessity N ational language policy­ dissem inate B uddhist canons eastw ard as far m aking dep en d s on various calculations as Tibet and China, and so u th w ard to norm ally involving, for instance, the m ajority present-day Bangladesh, M yanm ar, Thailand, native speakers, the actuality of language Laos PDR and C am bodia Such contact, as distribution on p opulation basis, historical evident in the current use of Sanskrit-origin and cu rren t m igration, w ritin g traditions, Dinh Van Due / V N U journal of Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No 5E (2007) 53-59 57 population) Realizing this fact, the three language contact, native speakers' island nations agreed to strengthen M elayu consciousness, language traditions in artistic and coordinated their control through the poetics, am ongst others 10 Specific language policies, in relation T rans-N ational L anguage Council It is necessary to a d d that in these island nations, to geolinguistics, of ASEAN nations are quite along w ith M elayu, there exist h u n d red s of flexible O n the continent, the three other indigenous m inority languages Unlike Indochinese countries, T hailand and continental countries, how ever, Chinese and M yanm ar, each has the language of an ethnic Indian languages are also w idely used m ajority selected as the national language alongside English in these nations, and in (Viet over 80%, Laotian 70%, Thai nearly 90%, fact, people have the right to use w hichever Burm ese 70%, K hm er over 80%), and in each language of their preference in social of the national languages the policies are com m unication and transaction realized in different w ays: The G overnm ent 11 The P hilippines and Singapore are of V ietnam considers V ietnam ese the national exceptional S ingapore is an island-city state language, and p u rp o rts to develop and w ith diverse population Chinese people preserve the values of ethnic m inority account for nearly 80%, yet M elayu is languages Laos also has policies on equality considered the national language, despite the of ethnic languages, w hile such rules are not fact that M alay-origin inhabitants only explicit in T hailand w here m inority account for about 15% In fact, besides languages, except C hinese and M alay, seem to be encouraged to integrate into Thai, the Chinese and M elayu, English enjoys a critical status as the foundation of the national national language This is no t the case w ith island/peninsula nations In three island adm inistrative language Flexibility in language policies is one of the dynam ics for nations of M alaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, this country's cultural, scientific and though M eleyu em erges as an official technological developm ent This is not the language, it is no t yet a tru e representative of the inhabitants' languages M eleyu is of case w ith the Philippines W ith m ore than 80 m illion population, b u t as an isolating island A ustroasiatic origin and belongs to M alaystate in the w est Pacific, the Philippines Polynesian language fam ily Initially, it was experiences u neven inhabitant distribution: the language of M elayu com m unity (Protothe Bisai people account for 35%, the Tagal M alay); aro u n d 60% of this nation's 25%, the Illoca 12%, etc A m ong these, population w as in d igenous in habitants of Tagalog soars as a w ell-know n language, for Indonesia and neighboring areas (it is Tagalog speakers, though accounting for only possible, in a b ro ad er scope, to m ention such 25%, reside in culturally and econom ically other V ietnam 's ethnic m inority languages as Cham , Ede, Giarai, etc.) Later, M elayu developed areas in central and southern L uzon Island The P hilippines becam e a lexicon w as su p p lem en ted w ith m ore vocabulary from east-w est contacts and its colony of Spain quite early, and w as transferred to the u s in 1898, so the use of scope of use ex p an d ed to becom e a language Spanish and English along w ith the spoken by a m ajority of speakers th ro u g h o u t Indonesia (nearly 90% of the 200 m illion indigenous Tagalog language grew naturally ... Specific language policies, in relation T rans-N ational L anguage Council It is necessary to a d d that in these island nations, to geolinguistics, of ASEAN nations are quite along w ith M elayu,... integrate into Thai, the Chinese and M elayu, English enjoys a critical status as the foundation of the national national language This is no t the case w ith island/peninsula nations In three island... etc.), w hile A ustronesian and p eninsula languages (M elayu, Tagalog) from S um atra to the Philippines have partially agglutinating m orphological structure A ro u n d the ASEAN 'w ok' are h u n