LINGUIST List 19.1179: Anthro Ling/Lang Acq/Socioling: Slezáková: 'The Variety of Vi...'

LINGUIST List 19.1179

Tue Apr 08 2008

Diss: Anthro Ling/Lang Acq/Socioling: Slezáková: 'The Variety of Vi...'

Editor for this issue: Evelyn Richter <evelynlinguistlist.org>

1. Jitka Slezáková, The Variety of Vietnamese Czech as an Example of Transcultural Communication in the Czech Republic

Message 1: The Variety of Vietnamese Czech as an Example of Transcultural Communication in the Czech Republic
Date: 08-Apr-2008
From: Jitka Slezáková <slezakovajitkaseznam.cz>
Subject: The Variety of Vietnamese Czech as an Example of Transcultural Communication in the Czech Republic
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Institution: Charles University in Prague Program: Linguistic Anthropology Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2007

Author: Jitka Slezáková

Dissertation Title: The Variety of Vietnamese Czech as an Example of Transcultural Communication in the Czech Republic

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics Language Acquisition Sociolinguistics
Subject Language(s): Czech (ces) Vietnamese (vie)
Dissertation Director:
Petr Zima
Dissertation Abstract:

The subject of ethnic minorities represents an actual topic in today'ssociety. Vietnamese merchants were chosen as an example for severalreasons. They are one of the largest foreign minorities in the CzechRepublic, they are in everyday contact with the Czechs and their nativelanguage is typologically completely different from the language of theirhost country.

The aim of my project was to create a corpus, which would provide data forlinguistic description, analysis and sociolinguistic characterization ofthe outcome of such a specific contact situation in the Czech Republic.More accurately, in which way the typological differences are reflected inVietnamese Czech. Sources of particular morphological as well as phoneticfeatures are detected and explained. In particular, I deal with thequestion whether the Vietnamese Czech could be regarded as an autonomouslanguage code (pidgin or creole) or rather as a case of an incompletesecond language acquisition (SLA) process. For this purpose, the text isdivided into three sections.

In Part I, the Vietnamese Czech is classified within the scope of contactlinguistics, whereas possible linguistic results of the contact areintroduced. A depiction of Vietnamese communicative situation is providedby comparing the conditions before and after the political change in 1989.Special attention is paid to linguistic analysis in subsequent twosections. Part II deals with the Vietnamese Czech as a specific case of SLAand methodology of this field is applied. Specifically, it was desirable toexamine the individual variability of language proficiency from theviewpoint of mastering the Czech target language. On the contrary, Part IIIfocuses on unifying characteristics and stabilization of the VietnameseCzech as necessary conditions for creating a new sovereign language.

The data are based on a survey conducted among the Vietnamese merchants inseveral cities with large residing Vietnamese communities (Praha, Cheb, andJihlava). Border regions were excluded for the expected influence of otherlanguages (German). While questioned individuals were chosen randomly inPraha and Cheb, the entire community was mapped in Jihlava. The sampleincludes 37 different speakers of all important social categories: sex, ageand length of stay in the Czech Republic. Interviews were digitallyrecorded and subsequently transcribed according to the Czech version of theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The total length of the transcribedtext is about 12 hours. Personal experiences and statements from a Czechinformant (a former spokesperson of the Vietnamese community in Jihlava)are added to the official data concerning the numbers of Vietnameseimmigrants in the Czech Republic.

Summary: Although Vietnamese Czech resembles in several linguistic featuresa pidgin at first glance, it has to be characterized - after more elaborateanalysis - as a specific case of second language acquisition.Sociolinguistic facts give support to this statement. The collected dataalso build up an inexhaustible base for further research.

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