Language and National Identity in AsiaAndrew Simpson Language and National Identity in Asia is a comprehensive introduction to the role of language in the construction and development of nations and national identities in Asia. Leading scholars from all over the world investigate the role languages have played and now play in the formation of the national and social identity in countries throughout South, East, and Southeast Asia. They consider the relation of the regions' languages to national, ethnic, and cultural identity, and examine the status of and interactions between majority, official, and minority languages. Illustrated with maps and accessibly written this book will interest all those concerned to understand the dynamics of social change in some of the most important countries in the world. It will appeal to all those studying, researching, or teaching issues in Asian society, language, and politics from a comparative perspective. |
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areas Asia aVected Bangla Bangladesh Bengali bilingual British Buddhist Burma Burma/Myanmar Burmese Cambodian Cantonese cent China Chinese characters colonial continued conXict country’s culture deWned dialects diVerent diYcult dominant Dutch economic elite English ethnic groups eVect eVorts Filipino foreign French Hindi Hindu Hong Kong identiWed important independence India indigenous Indonesia inXuence Islam island Japan Japanese Khmer Korean language language policy large numbers lingua franca linguistic literary mainland major Malay Malaysia Mandarin minority languages modern mother tongue movement multilingual Muslim national identity national language nationalist Nepali North oYcial language Pakistan People’s period Philippines political population potential promotion Punjabi putonghua quoc ngu regional languages result reXected schools script signiWcant signiWcantly Sindhi Singapore Sinhala Sinhalese South Korea Southern Southern Min speakers speciWc spoken Sri Lanka Standard Thai symbol Taiwan Taiwanese Tamil territory Thailand traditional twentieth century Urdu vernacular Vietnam Vietnamese Wnally writing system written Wrst