Keynote Speaker: Dana Scott Bourgerie 白杰理

The 27th International Conference on Yue Dialects. Keynote Speaker 1

Date: November 30th, 2023
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Venue: Virtual event via Zoom, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OhioDana Bourgerie

Professor Dana Scott Bourgerie
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

Title of Talk: “Mapping the Chinese Diaspora: Dialects in Southeast Asia” 

Abstract: There are ethnic Chinese populations on every inhabited continent on earth, each with its unique migration circumstance. Among the largest and most established of these diasporas is found in various countries of Southeast Asia (SEA), where Chinese communities have existed for at least 500 years. Despite a relatively high degree of integration into to the majority culture, ethnic Chinese have often maintained their own social organizations, news media, and schools. The diasporas in this region have been well studied but mainly from economic, historical, and sociological perspectives. By contrast, research on these communities’ language characteristics is relatively scant and often embedded incidentally in the literature of non-linguistic disciplines.

Pre-1970s, Chinese schools often adopted the dialect of their affiliated socio-cultural associations (or 會館 hùiguǎn), mostly according to the five predominate groups: Chaozhou, Cantonese, Hakka, Fujianese, and Hainanese.  However, in recent times Mandarin has become a lingua franca of the Chinese communities and of most local Chinese language schools. However, among local ethnic Chinese, there are few if any native speakers of any variety of Mandarin. Through examination of language use survey data, this presentation sketches a picture of selected contemporary Chinese communities in SEA with special reference to the countries of former French Indochina and with particular attention to their Cantonese populations. In addition, I attempt to map the SEA diaspora, while exploring dimensions of Chinese identity in the region. Lastly, I investigate some instances of contact-related language variation in local Cantonese by influence of national majority languages.

Short Bio: Dana Scott Bourgerie is a Professor of Chinese in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University (BYU). He earned his Ph.D. in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures in 1991 from The Ohio State University. He has been a Fulbright Scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was also an honorary professor in the Overseas Education College at Nanjing University. He is the founding director of the Chinese Flagship Center at BYU. He is a sociolinguist who primarily focuses research on language and cultural, especially Chinese dialects including Yue and Hakka. He is currently researching the language of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia and non-standard varieties of Chinese. He is leading the Cambodian Oral History Project.


第二十七屆國際粵方言研討會。主講嘉賓一

日起:2023年11月30日
時間:08:00 HKT
地點:線上形式, 經由俄亥俄州立大學的Zoom視像舉行。

理教授
楊百翰大學

標題:華僑遷徙的蹤跡:東南亞的華語方言

摘要:地球上但凡有人居住的大洲都有華人的蹤跡,但華人族群的遷徙情況大不相同。其中,東南亞各國的華僑群體人數最多、歷史最悠久,當地的華人社區有至少500年的歷史。儘管華僑群體很大程度上融入了當地主流文化,他們通常仍保留自己的社會組織、新聞媒體和學校。有關東南亞各國的華僑群體的研究很多,但研究視角主要集中在經濟、歷史和社會學上。相比之下,關注華僑群體語言特徵的研究相對較少,且通常在語言科學以外的學科文獻中作為附帶內容出現。

1970年代以前,華僑學校使用的方言通常根據所屬會館而定,大致有五大方言:潮州話、粵語、客家話、福建話和海南話。但近年來,普通話已經成為華人社區和大多數當地華文學校的通用語。與此形成鮮明對比的是,當地的華人群體中幾乎沒有人把普通話當作母語。通過分析語言使用調查數據,在本講座中我將嘗試為東南亞特定現代華僑族群畫像,特別是前法屬印度支那國家和其中的粵語族群。此外,我還將嘗試繪製東南亞的華僑分佈圖,同時探討當地華人身份認同的方方面面。最後,我探究當地粵語在和國家主流語言接觸中產生的一些變化。

講者簡介:白杰理教授是楊百翰大學亞洲及近東語言系的中文教授。 他1991年於俄亥俄州立大學東亞語言文學系獲得博士學位。 他曾是香港中文大學富布賴特學者。 他亦曾任南京大學海外教育學院名譽教授。 他是楊百翰大學中國旗艦中心的創辦主任。 他是一位社會語言學家,主要研究語言和文化,特別是中國方言,包括粵語和客家話。 他目前正研究東南亞華人的語言和非標準漢語變體。 他同時亦是柬埔寨口述歷史項目的主任。