Since 2017, the People's Language Commission of the Autonomous Region has carried out the protection of ethnic minority language resources in Guangxi, and so far, 65 language points have been investigated and recorded, covering all minority languages in Guangxi. There are many unforgettable stories that are worth reading. For the sake of readers, recently, the reporter interviewed several people who have experienced the protection of minority language resources in Guangxi, and felt that they told the rainbow of "treasure" road.
There are "words" are "treasures" - a hundred flowers bloom is spring
Before telling a story, we have to say some necessary "digressions". Although language is the inseparable "companion" of human beings, the history of people recognizing language as a valuable cultural resource is not long. However, with the continuous deepening of human research on language, people's understanding of language is also deepening, and the consensus of human beings on the valuable value of language is also constantly condensing.
More and more people realize that language is not only the most important communication tool and thinking tool of human beings, but also the most important component of human culture, and the most important carrier and interpreter of human culture. Language preserves the unique understanding of the world by its language community, preserves the historical memory of its language community, and contains the basic elements and internal driving forces of cultural innovation and language development. Every language contains the unique cultural wisdom of a nation. Needless to say, any language is a valuable resource, and it can be said that "language" is "treasure". As a valuable resource, language is affectionately known as "language treasure" by people (especially "language protectors").
It is precisely because of the recognition that language is a precious resource, people are also gradually realizing that, on the one hand, the demise of any language will be a loss to the entire human race. Once the language dies out, the way of thinking, oral culture, and folk customs that rely on it will disappear and can never be restored. On the other hand, colorful languages are a precious cultural treasure of mankind. Linguistic diversity is a prerequisite for human cultural diversity. It can be said that a hundred flowers bloom is spring, so the protection of language is not only to protect the language as a communication tool and thinking tool, but also to protect the cultural resources of the nation and human beings, but also to maintain linguistic diversity and protect the non-renewable cultural genes of human beings.
The investigation team conducted an investigation in Xia Nan Township, Maonan Autonomous County, Huanjiang
Carry out investigations - cultivate the "folk language" Guangxi trip
It is understood that there are currently about 6,000 languages in the world, and it is said that by the end of the 21st century, 90% of the languages may die, which means that the human cultural wealth contained in languages will be lost by 90% by the end of the 21st century. There are more than 100 languages in China, and there are hundreds of dialects of Chinese. Rich language resources are the precious cultural resources of the Chinese nation that cannot be reborn.
However, according to relevant experts, the inheritance and maintenance of minority language resources in China is worrying, the protection of some languages has achieved little effect, and most minority languages are in danger of disappearing. Time is running out, and rescue and protection work is imminent.
All along, China's language policy has insisted not only on "popularizing the common language and writing of the country", but also on "scientifically protecting the languages and scripts of all ethnic groups".
Based on the understanding of the importance of "language treasure" and the urgency of protecting "language treasure", in 2015, the Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission launched the Chinese and Chinese Language Resources Protection Project (hereinafter referred to as the "Language Protection Project"), and decided to carry out nationwide research, preservation, display, development and utilization of language resources as the core of the work.
According to the Notice on Launching the Project for the Protection of Chinese and Chinese Resources issued by the Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission in May 2015, "all localities are encouraged to raise funds, implement guarantee conditions, expand the scale of investigation points, and include language protection projects on the basis of the overall planning of the project, as needed." And the "Notice on Promoting the Investigation of Minority Languages in the Project of Protecting Chinese and Chinese Language Resources" jointly issued by the State Language Commission and the General Office of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission in May 2016, "Local nationalities committees and folk language committees may combine the needs of local realities and cultural construction, in addition to the national financial funds, strive for local funds and raise social funds to support the work of survey points outside the overall plan of the national language, as well as the construction of the local minority language and cultural resource database and the preparation of language resource sets, and promote the development and application of the results", In 2017, the Autonomous Region Ethnic Minority Language and Writing Work Committee (after the administrative functions were merged into the Autonomous Region's Minzong Committee in 2018, the Guangxi Ethnic Language Research Center was established to continue to promote the protection of ethnic minority languages) used the 2.1 million yuan of funds arranged by the autonomous region's finances every year to carry out the protection of ethnic minority language resources in Guangxi.
Up to now, the "language guarantors" who participate in the protection of ethnic minority language resources in Guangxi have used modern technical means and in accordance with the unified work and technical specifications of the National Language Protection Center to investigate, record and sort out more than 6 million words of 65 language points and more than 420,000 audio and video actual corpuses of ethnic minority languages in the whole region.
Among the 65 language points that have been investigated, 45 points of Dongtai language family, 18 points of Miao Yao language group, and 3 Tibeto-Burman language family are involved, including 58 minority language survey points and 7 endangered minority language survey points. The scope of the survey covers the dialects and native languages of the ethnic minorities living in Guangxi, and basically achieves full coverage of all ethnic minority languages in Guangxi.
In 2019, the Longlin Gelao Language Research Group of the Guangxi Minority Language Resources Protection Project went to Taotun, Yancha Township, Longlin County, to investigate
Find people to pronounce - also through the wind and rain also see the rainbow
"Doing language point investigation work in the language protection project and finding suitable pronunciation people is also a treasure hunting process." Professor Lu Songsong, deputy dean of Baise College, who has been engaged in language fieldwork for many years and has been involved in the language protection project, said with emotion in an interview with reporters, "Generally requires high and small culture, long-term local life, proficiency in local languages, can communicate in Mandarin (or local popular language), the age can not be too big or too small - fifty or sixty years old is the most appropriate." Our favorite thing to look for is an older elementary school teacher. ”
It is understood that every project, every step, every link and every detail of the language protection project is based on "science". He Shuang, a professor at Guangxi University for Nationalities who has been involved in the protection of ethnic minority language resources in Guangxi, also said in an interview with reporters: "The ideal pronunciation person is an important guarantee for the quality of the project. The language protection project has made strict regulations on the conditions of the pronunciation person. The requirements for the pronunciation of minority languages, in addition to being male, aged between 55 and 65 years old at the time of the survey, must also be born and raised locally, the family language environment is simple (parents and spouses are locals), the local minority language is not living in other places for a long time, can speak the authentic local minority language, has a primary or secondary school education level (generally it is not appropriate to choose a junior college or above), has strong thinking ability, reaction ability and language expression ability, and loud and clear pronunciation. Generally, these four conditions are indispensable. "The language point survey of the language protection project can be described as specific and clear on the requirements of the pronunciation person.
In order to find suitable pronunciation people - especially the pronunciation of endangered languages, the "language protector" used eighteen martial arts - to seek help from local government departments, to match relatives, to seek introductions from friends, to recommend through teacher-student relationships... Even so, the process of finding the pronunciation person is not a smooth step, everything is smooth, most of them have gone through ups and downs, occasional surprises, it can be said that they have seen rainbows through wind and rain.
"When we were in Longzhou, we found two pronunciation people. These two pronunciation people, to tell the truth, are not very willing. One of them was a relative of one of our teachers, and he wanted to shirk it, but he got in the way. The other is not a relative, he was helping the school to do engineering, probably will get 6,000 yuan. However, our labor costs to individuals, generally not so much, at that time we did this project a total of 100,000 yuan, the labor costs were not so much. For the sake of the 6,000 yuan job, he stopped doing the work of a pronunciation person. Problems like this are more or less encountered in every research group. Lu Songsong said. In addition to the "attractiveness" of remuneration is not strong, there are also age concerns. "When we investigated the Napo Yi language, we struggled to find a pronunciation collaborator. But this pronunciation collaborator is in his 70s and is older. Because the investigation process is quite torturous, in the process of working with him, we are always worried about his physical condition. "It can really be said: between the ups and downs of language protection, the investigation bears the risk."
But in most cases, after knowing the meaning, many people actively compete to be the pronunciation person.
"In order to find the ideal pronunciation person, on the one hand, our team has the enthusiastic help of the local folk language department or local relatives, friends, etc. On the other hand, sometimes we have to select from many volunteers who are eager to sign up through interviews. Sometimes we go to the survey point to select the pronunciation person, and after detailing our language protection work with the pronunciation person, they are proud to be able to pronounce the language protection project, and to leave a rural sound for future generations and history, and actively and enthusiastically join our language protection work. He Shuang said.
There is no shortage of wind and rain, but also a rainbow companion. Although the road to language protection is bumpy and arduous, it is also full of surprises. "When we were investigating a point in the northern dialect of Zhuang, Yongbei Tuyu, after coming to the local area, as soon as we heard that we were looking for a pronunciation partner, many people enthusiastically signed up and strongly demanded to be a pronunciation person. There are many people willing to cooperate, but in the end we can only choose two. The troubles of happiness followed, and the language protector naturally went with the flow, Lu Songsong said, "One of the pronunciation collaborators who was later determined completed completed according to the regulations." We were asked to investigate and record other elements of his language. Although it was beyond the scope of the mission, we followed his wishes and recorded a lot of more content. ”
In 2019, the Guangxi Minority Language Resources Conservation Project Longlin Mulao language searched for pronunciation speakers
In 2017, guangxi ethnic minority language resources protection project Mashan Bailongtan Zhuang language recording site
Video recording "treasure" - thousands of dollars began to get gold
It is understood that language protection refers to both the maintenance of the vitality of the language and the record-keeping of the language. Therefore, language protection, including preservation, is to record the actual appearance of language dialects through comprehensive and meticulous scientific investigation, and to effectively preserve and display them for a long time. The main goal to be achieved in the preservation of linguistic records is to ensure the scientific planning and scientific and advanced nature of the scientific planning and specific investigation records and processing technology means of the overall protection work. If these tasks are not done well, they will directly affect the value or role of the survey results, and the regrets left behind and the losses caused will be irreparable.
Different from the previous language fieldwork, the language point investigation work procedures of the language protection project are more, the standards are higher, the requirements are stricter, and the regulations are more detailed. "From the start to the completion of a language protection project, it generally goes through several important steps such as applying for project approval and forming a project team, professional training and technical training, selection of pronunciation personnel, investigation (paper and pen records and audio-visual recording), material collation and inspection and acceptance, and each step needs the guidance of scientific theory." From 2016 to 2020, a total of 6 language insurance projects were responsible, and He Shuang, who was familiar with the work steps of the investigation stage of the language insurance project, told reporters.
In view of the strong professionalism and high technical requirements of the language protection project, the Guangxi Ethnic Language Research Center carries out the protection of minority language resources in strict accordance with the technical specifications and work specifications of the national language protection project, and actively coordinates the core expert team of the National Language Resources Protection Center to conduct business training for the heads of projects and investigation teams and professional and technical personnel in Guangxi, and clarifies and unifies the quality requirements. Over the years, a total of 8 training sessions have been carried out, training more than 400 people, ensuring the smooth implementation of language protection work.
In 2017, the Guangxi Ethnic Minority Language Resources Protection Project recorded the scene of Napobuyang
The high standards and strict requirements for hardware equipment and recording environment in the language point survey have deeply touched Lu Fenchang, who has been participating in the language protection project since the third year of the university and is now studying for a doctorate at the Central University for Nationalities: "The relatively big trouble we encountered in the language survey is not a human problem, but a site problem. Previously, the traditional method was used, and later the camcorder was used. You need to use a recording studio and a voice studio. The difficulties on the equipment and on the field are much greater than the difficulties in interacting with people. ”
The high standards and strict requirements in the implementation of the language protection project, especially the "harsh" requirements for recording, not only make the "novices" who have just entered the industry feel incredible, but even the "veterans" who are experienced in language fieldwork practice have also experienced the process from not understanding to finally understanding the intention. "When recording, sit up straight, don't blink your eyes, you can't smile. You can't move until you've finished reading a sentence or finishing a word. This is very demanding for pronunciation people. At first, we also thought it was incredible. How can you ask for such a request and toss pronunciation person so much? Later, we looked at the effect of that recording and understood. Watching a video like this makes it feel like the pronunciation person is talking to you — and it's going to do that. If the pronunciation person sat a little obliquely or shorter, it would look unnatural, so compared to previous fieldwork, the harder work was to record in the studio. Some places don't have a recording studio, and we have to use quilts and so on to soundproof the inside of the hotel. Because its requirements are much higher than the original fieldwork. Another example is that it requires the pronunciation of the pronunciation person not too high nor too low, in the studio hot words, we can move, but the pronunciation person can not move. Lu Songsong, who has carried out language fieldwork many times, told reporters about what he had heard and felt.
It is understood that when recording audio and video, investigators must overcome various problems such as finding a suitable venue, shielding noise, hot weather, and physical discomfort. "Pre-recording should avoid the sound of airplanes, cicadas, the sound of people squeaking, the occasional high heels in the distance, the sound of pulling a chair... At that time, we were recording audio and video recording over and over again in a hotel with poor sound insulation conditions in Du'an, because there was no special recording studio, so our video recording work faced various difficulties and challenges. It was summer vacation and the weather was hot and dry. In a room with closed doors and windows, to reduce the underlying noise, we didn't turn on the air conditioner, and there was a spotlight with a few kilowatts above our heads. Recording in such a secret room makes us still full of deep apologies for comrade Yi Yiqing, who pronounced it. "In 2017, He Shuang led a team to investigate the Du Andi Su Zhuang language, during which the touching details and deep feelings recorded made her unforgettable." I vividly remember one time when we were recording an oral culture section, we had to re-record it repeatedly in order to achieve the best results. The content of just one story will be recorded from more than two o'clock in the afternoon to three o'clock in the morning the next day. In the meantime, Comrade Yi Yiqing, the pronunciation person, took a large towel and kept wiping off pieces of sweat, and the blood in his eyes was straight up, and although he almost collapsed, he persuaded himself to insist on re-recording over and over again until three o'clock in the morning the next day. When we had finished the entire videotape session, the whole team was sitting directly on the ground, no longer able to cheer. He Shuang said.
Source: Guangxi Nationalities Daily | Reporter: Tang Long
Image source: Guangxi Ethnic Language Research Center | Intern Editor: Wenping Song
Editor-in-charge: Huang Yun | Review: Liang Qing | Review: Meng Shuqi | Producer: Wei Xiuguan