Language policy research

[Richard]

Can you come up with an interesting mini research project concerning language policy? Your project might use document analysis, linguistic analysis, attitude surveys etc. To get you started, here are 2 suggestions.

1. On a variety of Thai social media (Pantip, relevant Facebook pages etc.), ask respondents to say where they think people use the คว -> ‘f’ sound? In other words, you are examining the level of public agreement concerning the geographical spread of this non-standard phoneme. I did this very informally and got a lot of variation in the responses.

2. Using publicly available data (e.g. UN reports, Wikipedia pages etc.), try to identify what factors correlate with the number of official languages in a country. To do this, the dependent variable is the number of official languages; the independent variables could be, say, the number of languages spoken in a country, the percentage of the population speaking the most common language, the number of years since the country’s formation (i.e. independence, the country splitting off from a larger country), the rating of the country on a left to right political scale. This data could be collected for, say, 50+ countries and correlations calculated between the variables.

What are your ideas? Have fun and be creative.

[Wannapa]

I would say I'm interested in the bottom-up language policy. I mean I would like to see how people naturally use the language (e.g. Thai) and how new features become accepted. Language use on social media can be a good source of information (quick, widespread, influencing). To do this, I will focus on new (coined) words, phrases and short expressions. Then, I will (try to) identify if the new items stay in use (for long) or they only come and go quickly. If possible, I should be able to identify characteristics of the two groups (stay and go). Then, we can have some ideas of what linguistic forms are more likely to be accepted.

[Jatupon P.]

Thinking of some idea about doing research in language policy is really a big challenge to me as I have very slight exposure in this area. However, based on my experience of being a Thai Southerner, I may be interested in investigating diaglossic phenomenon between using Central Thai and Southern dialect of native Southerners. To conduct the study, diaglossic practice of native Thai Southerners who were born in the Southern provinces of Thailand may be used as the data. Despite living in the South, people from Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat are not included due to the different linguistic backgrounds. To collect the data, I may rely on questionnairs and interviews. For the questionnairs, the subjects may be asked whether they choose to use Central Thai or Southern dialect for commutation in given contexts (e.g. talking to government Officials, talking to friends). For the interview, interviewees may be asked to share their voice or experience about using the two varieties of language (Central Thai and Southern dialect) in their daily life. For example, an interviewee may be asked to share how has he/she ever been criticized of speaking Central Thai with regional accent (พูดทองแดง)? To explore complex meaning from the interview data shared by the interviewees, a discourse analysis can be employed.

Hopefully, this research idea may shed light on sociolinguistic issues (e.g. linguistic nationalism, power, social discrimination)

[Richard]

I should be able to identify characteristics of the two groups (stay and go).

Have you got any ideas about what these characteristics might be? For example, do you think the word itself or who by/how it was created and spread is more important? If it's the word, do you think it's the meaning (e.g. the word encapsulates a meaning which otherwise would require a long phrase), some memetic characteristic (e.g. the word is like a pun), or something else?

Also, how are new words in Thai created? If you look at https://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/ca ... new-words/ for new words in English, most are constructed by combining 2 existing words in new patterns to create specialised meanings. Do you think the same will apply in Thai?

[Richard]

I may be interested in investigating diaglossic phenomenon between using Central Thai and Southern dialect of native Southerners.

You might be interested in reading Chamaiporn's PhD thesis - an ethnographic study of language use in Bahn Kiriwong - to see if she found anything interesting about this point.

[Wannapa]

Thinking of some idea about doing research in language policy is really a big challenge to me as I have very slight exposure in this area. However, based on my experience of being a Thai Southerner, I may be interested in investigating diaglossic phenomenon between using Central Thai and Southern dialect of native Southerners.

It can be interesting to observe the southern speakers' choice of dialect in government offices, where Central Thai might be expected.

Or we can interview local people about their language attitude. (From my experience when I was a kid) Even if Central Thai can be viewed more prestigious, not being able to speak the southern dialect can lead to some disadvantages (insult, discrimination).

[Wannapa]

Have you got any ideas about what these characteristics might be?

From my informal observation, I would guess that newly coined words/phrases stay and are widely used, e.g. แว๊นซ์ สก๊อย กิ๊ก. New forms of words that could help express some underlying meaning also stay, e.g. คับ กั๊บ for ครับ to make ครับ sounds less formal and cuter (childish sound).

I can't think of any combined terms now.

However, I'm now interested in words like สู่ขิต for สู่สุขิต (clipping + changing meaning/context of use).

Also, I would guess that words coined by gay people can become popular and widespread more quickly.

[Jatupon P.]

To Ajarn Richard, thank you very much for sharing.

[Jatupon P.]

Thinking of some idea about doing research in language policy is really a big challenge to me as I have very slight exposure in this area. However, based on my experience of being a Thai Southerner, I may be interested in investigating diaglossic phenomenon between using Central Thai and Southern dialect of native Southerners.

It can be interesting to observe the southern speakers' choice of dialect in government offices, where Central Thai might be expected.

Or we can interview local people about their language attitude. (From my experience when I was a kid) Even if Central Thai can be viewed more prestigious, not being able to speak the southern dialect can lead to some disadvantages (insult, discrimination).

Your point reminds me of my experience at The Department of Land Transport (in Phuket) last year, which I went there for driving license renewal. According to my informal observation, Central Thai was predominantly used in interaction between local officials and young visitors while Southern dialect was mainly selected in interaction between local officials and senior visitors.

In the same context, moreover, Southern dialect was often used by the local officials to communicate with their colleagues who are in the same and lower positions. In contrast, Central Thai was often used with colleagues with higher positions.

To find out why these happens in a particular way may be interesting!

[ronnakritong]

Kia ora,
It took me so loooooong to contribute to the forum because I had very limited exposure to the research in this area (just copied Jatupon's words). I spent time pondering on research topics relevant to language policy. I am really into the cultures of New Zealand so this is my topic (which I am not sure if it concerns with language policy): Promoting Te reo Maori in NZ.

My very first thought was investigating to what extent Te reo Maori (Maori language) is promoted in New Zealand English. As far as I am concerned, New Zealand English = English used by the Kiwis (of course!) with some Maori loan words. So, I was eager to know to what extent (if any) do Maori words exist in New Zealand newspaper. Unfortunately, I came across an article which confirmed that Te reo Maori did regularly exist in the English newspaper of New Zealand (the most common of which included iwi, reo (no preceding 'te'), whānau, marae, kapa haka, pākehā, Kiwi and kia ora.). This is the source if you are interested in --> https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/107042 ... newspapers

I then had to do some extra work (too bad). I doubted if she was true, so I browse through some existing online NZ newspapers. It turned out that she might be true. But it seems to me that the news writers typically included Te reo Maori in certain types of news, espectially in Sport news (https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-dail ... d=12366732). As such, I would examine the use of Te reo Maori across different types of news in NZ newspaper. Which types of news in NZ newspaper appear to have the largest number of Maori loan words? I went through the online newspaper and noticed that the news related to serious social issues seemed to have pretty less Maori loan words. And if that is the case, what are the reasons behind such decision? Or it was just that the authors were not aware of this issue? I have not yet figured out how to sensibly gather the "why" question yet. To me simply interviewing the authors asking why would not be enough.

Kia kaha