Summary Details
| Query: |
Nushu Language
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| Author: | Gabriela Pérez Báez | |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email | |
| Linguistic LingField(s): |
Sociolinguistics
Writing Systems |
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| Summary: |
As part of my work teaching a course entitled Language in its Social
Setting, I researched the topic of Nushu. I was introduced to the topic by a BBC article published on the web on 9/23/04 reporting that ?la anciana Yang Huanyi muri? a sus m?s de noventa a?os de edad, y con ella se llev? el ?nico idioma en el mundo hablado solo por mujeres? (my translation: Yang Huanyi, in her nineties, passed away, taking with her with only language in the world spoken only by women). A first pass at resources on the web showed that Nushu (or Nu Shu) is in fact a writing system invented by a community of women in the Hunan province of China at a time when literacy education was forbidden to them. In researching the subject, a number of LinguistList readers contributed sources of information. Below, I am including a list of resources suggested by them, along with some other I was able to pinpoint. I hope this is useful, although not much will be news to those who have looked into the topic in the past. INTERNET: Sites I consulted on the topic did not provide content of scholarly quality, unfortunately. In particular, mass media articles were particularly misleading in clarifying whether Nushu is a written or spoken system of communication. There are a dozen or so sites devoted to the topic, and the most useful is http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/~orie/home.htm maintained by Prof. Orie Endo of Bunkyo University in Japan. REFERENCES Prof. Endo?s website has a list of references http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/~orie/reference.htm. Peter T. Daniels suggested a Yale Dissertation: Chiang (?) We Too Know the Script. A review of this dissertation was written by Wm. S. ?Y. Want in the journal Written Language and Literacy MJ Harman offered a thesis by a student: Qifeng Zan N?SHU: A WOMEN?S WRITING SYSTEM 1994 M.A. in Linguistics University of Florida, Gainesville, FL In addition, I came across the following: Lin-Lee Lee. 2002. Creating a female language: symbolic transformation embedded in Nushu. Chinese communication studies : contexts and comparisons. Ed. by Xing Lu, Wenshan Jia, and D. Ray Heisey. Westport, CT : Ablex Pub. Zhao, Liming. 1998. Nushu: Chinese Women's Characters. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 1998, 129, 127-137 Silber, Cathy Lyn. 1996. Nushu (Chinese Women's Script) Literacy and Literature. Dissertation Abstracts International, A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 1996, 56, 12, June, 4779-A Shi, Dingxu (Review of: Xie, Zhimin). 1993. The Myth of Jiangyong Female Writing. Language, 1993, 69, 1, Mar, 174-178 VIDEO: Mary Bucholtz mentioned the video called ''Nu Shu: A Hidden Language of Women in China''. It can be ordered through Women Make Movies at www.wmm.com/catalog/pages/c473.htm DICTIONARY AND EXHIBITION It appears that the Chinese government has taken an interest in Nushu. The site Beijing This Month reports on a public exhibition that opened in late April 2004 showing artifacts with the Nushu writing. The site also reports on a dictionary of some 1,800 Nushu characters compiled by Zhou Shuoyi, who studied the language while he worked for the Cultural Bureau in Jiangyong County. This report can be consulted at www.btmbeijing.com/contents/en/btm/2004-04/hot/womenway Gabriela P?rez B?ez Linguistics University at Buffalo |
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| LL Issue: | 15.2899 | |
| Date Posted: | 14-Oct-2004 | |
| Original Query: | Read original query | |
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