The Politics of Promoting the Tai Ethnic Minority Language in North-Central Vietnam
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Abstract
The state plays a crucial role in determining language policy, but in practice, it can adopt various measures to either promote or suppress minority languages. On the one hand, state language policy has a profound impact on the status and survival of minority languages. On the other hand, it is also a political means of controlling and assimilating minority groups. This article attempts to unveil the politics of promoting the Tai language, a minority language in Thanh Hóa Province, north-central Vietnam. Applying the conceptual framework of minority language politics and ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2016, 2019 and 2023, this article argues that despite the Vietnamese government's policy of promoting minority languages, the measures and regulations for implementing the policy are often characterized by control and suppression of linguistic diversity, and are infused with nationalist, communist party, and Kinh (Vietnamese) cultural ideologies. Moreover, the state has been using a decade-long program of training local state officials in minority languages as a political tool to centralize local governance. However, while the central government benefits from this program, local scholars also gain academic and professional benefits by networking with local intellectuals and state officials. Local state officials find it easier to work with the Tai ethnic group even if they cannot speak the Tai language. Furthermore, this study illuminates the complex interplay between state language policies and local community responses. The findings reveal that local intellectuals have strategically utilized this process to negotiate and mitigate the impact of standardized Thai orthography on local writing systems, reflecting concerted efforts to preserve linguistic identity. Additionally, this engagement has fostered a sense of pride in the language and culture of the Tai community, underscoring the intricate dynamics of language policy implementation and its socio-cultural implications in ethnolinguistically diverse contexts.
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