A Preliminary Exploration of the Ecological Layers of Minority Mother-Tongue Use in the Process of Urbanization: A Case Study of the Survey on Naxi Mother-Tongue Use in Nanyao Village, Lashi Township, Yulong County
Drawing on a month-long 2014 field survey (interviews plus 120 household questionnaires) in Nanyao Village, a bilingual Naxi-and-Yi settlement in Lashi Township, Yulong County near Lijiang, this article examines how urbanization is affecting Naxi mother-tongue vitality. The authors distinguish three ecological layers — individual, family, and community — and find each remarkably robust: over 96% of respondents speak Naxi, transmission from elders within the family dominates acquisition, family interaction still strongly favors Naxi across generations, and community life (television, a performance troupe, Dongba religious ritual, and tourism) continues to reinforce the language. Rather than eroding the mother tongue, tourism-driven urbanization has created economic incentives for bilingualism. The authors attribute this resilience to sustained external motivation and internal cultural confidence, and recommend macro-level minority-language planning, involvement of educated ethnic elites, engagement with global endangered-language protection efforts, and resolving the unsettled debate between Dongba script and a new Naxi pinyin orthography.
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