Keyes Politics Language Thailand Laos

The International Conference on Political Transition, Non-violence and Communication in Conflict Transformation. 24-26 Jan 2017, PSU Pattani Campuspdf, 2018

o credible claims can be made that the role of Malay has been entirely overlooked by those studying conflict dynamics in South Thailand. Nevertheless, those concerned with religious factors dwarf the number of studies interrogating issues related to language. Without suggesting that language represents some sort of silver bullet solution to this complex conflict, I argue that anyone pursuing peaceful, political resolutions to Thailand’s southern impasse must be more informed about language policy, linguistic justice, and how linguistic repertoires are linked to inequality. My interests in this paper are theoretical (rather than empirical). The first of this paper’s two substantive sections describes the nature of Thailand's (diverse) linguistic landscape and how the language policies pursued by Bangkok resemble those of other states between South and Southeast Asia. In light of Bangkok’s policies towards southern Malays resemble those that impacted Lao and Khmer-speaking Buddhists in the northeast provinces, I suggest that some dynamics in South Thailand need to be de-exceptionalized. In the section the follows, I interact with theoretical treatments of language and religion in ethno-nationalism, and linguistic injustice. My argument is that anyone seeking peaceful political resolutions in South Thailand – where a nation linguistic minority is connected to the Malay cosmopolis – must address the politically sensitive issue of Thailand’s discriminatory language policy that has led to widespread language loss.

Southeast Asian Studies, 2012

Two recent books on language in Southeast Asia provide a much-needed reminder of the importance of language as an object of study within Area Studies. Both books highlight the importance of conceptualizing language in a region as not only situated in different national and local contexts, but also operating across different embedded scales of social resolution. The policy and practice of language are interwoven from the regional to the national and local, coloring the social fabric of communication, symbolism and identity. While approaches to language policy have differed significantly across the region, there is a universal struggle between a stated respect for diversity and a more practical desire to impose national languages as a tool for maintaining national unity.

Approaches to Language and Culture

In the early decades of the twentieth century, Franz Boas argued for the central importance of language to an understanding of culture. Specifically, Boas noted that certain aspects of linguistic structure, such as grammatical categories, rarely become objects of conscious reflection. Because of this, he proposed, these aspects of language provide a window onto primary ethnological phenomena (or "fundamental ethnic ideas"; see Stocking 1966, Silverstein 1979). In contrast, aspects of custom and tradition more available to conscious reflection are subject to secondary explanation and reanalysis, and get caught up in higher-order subjective schemes of social evaluation (as, e.g., "high", "popular", "traditional", "noble" and so on, see Sapir 1924). In recent years, linguistic anthropologists have focused on differences in the degree to which cultural phenomena are available to conscious awareness, finding here not a reason to privilege some kinds of data over others but rather a central mechanism of cultural dynamism. In what follows, we explore these issues at the heart of the language/culture relationship and some of the associated complexities of current semiotic theory through a consideration of the language-culture nexus in two settings in mainland Southeast Asia: historical developments in twentieth century Vietnam and contemporary life in rural communities of lowland Laos. We evaluate the implications of these case studies for directions in linguistic anthropology broadly, as well as for research on language and culture in mainland Southeast Asia. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110726626/html

Parangalcang Brother Andrew. Festschrift for Andrew Gonzales on His Sixtieth Birthday. Editors: Ma Lourdes S. Bautista, Teodoro A. Llamzon, Bonifacio P. Sibayan. Linguistic Society of the Philippines. , 2000

Language is connected with many sides of social-economic, political, cultural and everyday (private) life of society in any country. In this connection the study of language situation and language policy seems to be highly relevant not only from purely linguistic point of view, but from social-political one as well, because it helps to analyze more deeply and sometimes to look anew to one or another process in the society. Particularly fruitful is to undertake a benchmark analysis of these processes in the dynamic developing Nusantara countries (insular South-East Asia), which are distinguished by the multi-national composition and are rather dense, though not equally populated: 202.5 millions of Indonesians are placed on area of nearly 2 000 thousand km2 (nearly 80 percent of the islands are populated) (Indonesia 1997:16), 80 millions Filipinos - on the territory of 300 thousand km2 (95 percent accounts for 11 most large islands of the Philippine archipelago), 17,6 millions Malaysians occupy nearly 333 thousand km2 (Information 1997: 64). Singapore here is an exception, because its population is nearly 3 millions persons and the area of the island does not exceed 700 km2 (Census 1991: 17). However with all external similarities between these countries language situation in each of it has its own particularities, and language policy has some similar and some different features.

This paper considers the role of Malay language loyalty and loss in South Thailand. The ethnographic material presented is based on the author’s ten years living and working among bilingual urban Malays, and a year making regular visits to rural communities in Narathiwat. One of the few things that informed analysts of South Thailand agree on is that a range of factors contributed to the resumption of violence in 2004. In addition to the role of political legitimacy, there is consensus that progress towards peace is complicated by the involvement of uncivil constituencies from two highly ethnicised religious communities. Despite the importance of ethnoreligious issues this paper argues that ethnolinguistic dynamics⎯specifically language loyalty, loss, and angst⎯have much to contribute to the return of peaceful co-existence and reconciliation. Although religious freedom in Thailand is promised and present, few minority languages in Thailand are strong now than they were before policies promulgated in the 1930s. I introduce the range of positions on the role of language and multi-lingualism in the construction of difference and the achievement of peaceful co-existence. I describe the range mono-lingual and bilingual communities in South Thailand. I also recount the variety of ways that Southern Malays have responded to the decline of Malay and the importance of Thai for those wishing to engage in Thai modernity. There is a need to as informed by ethno-linguistic angst as ethno-religious rebellion.

Language vitality in South Asia. Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim …, 2009

The paper argues that a typology of multilingual contexts that witness different kinds of development of languages and national identities has to be viewed as a cline. At one extreme lie Type A societies in which 'language' as an entity is anthropomorphized by its speakers, so much so that in some communities, it is revered and regarded as an object of worship. Language develops like an organ or a faculty among children of these communities and remains with them as long as they live. Their language becomes a matter of passion for which the community is ready to make sacrifices, and the history of nation-building is often written after such sacrifices. Bangladesh is an ideal example of this type.