Language regard in liminal hmong American speech communities

Author(s):

Stanford, J.N.; Ito, R.; Nibbs, F.

Format:

Book section

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Language:

English

Abstract:

This chapter differs from others in this volume because it focuses on a lesser-studied Southeast Asian language in the context of immigration and multilingual cross-cultural contact. To gain a full understanding of language regard (Preston 2010), it will be important for scholars to explore such lesser-studied languages and the complex multilingual sociolinguistic experiences of immigrant communities (Nagy 2015; Nagy & Meyerhoff 2008). Such settings are prime opportunities to observe ongoing changes in language regard as communities undergo contact and cultural shifts. The multidimensional linguistic landscapes of many Asian American communities are ideal for such a study (Bucholtz 2004; Chun 2004; Hall-Lew 2009; Reyes 2007; Reyes & Lo 2009; Shankar 2008), and Hmong American communities are undergoing a particularly sharp experience of contact with Western society. Using folk linguistic methods (Preston 1993; Niedzielski & Preston 2000), ethnographic observations, and recorded field data, we investigate Hmong American communities to learn how language regard changes. We frame our analysis around the theoretical notion of liminality (Turner 1967, 1987; Rampton 1995, 1999), which is a state of transition and “creative in-betweenness” (Hess 1996) where social norms and power dynamics can be challenged and changed. Hmong Americans are well acquainted with “in-betweenness” and cultural transitions, both in their own lives and in their origin stories. Hmong ancestry traces back to rural southern China, which is still home to many large Hmong communities today (Culas & Michaud 2004). In the eighteenth century, some groups of Hmong people began migrating from China into Southeast Asia. Then a second major stage of migration began in the mid/late twentieth century, as war in Southeast Asia forced many Hmong people to leave the region entirely. A vast Hmong diaspora now stretches across many countries around the world, and the Hmong people continue to experience linguistic and cultural liminality. Liminality For anthropology, Turner (1967, 1974, 1982, 1987) defines liminality as the transitional phase when a person is “betwixt and between” two social statuses, such as the ritualistic transition from layperson to priest or the rites of passage into adulthood in a traditional society: “During the intervening phase of transition…the ritual subjects pass through a period and area of ambiguity, a sort of social limbo…. © Cambridge University Press 2018.

ISBN:

9781316678381 (ISBN); 9781107162808 (ISBN)

Identifier:

HmongStudies3034