Chapter 9

Language resources of Yunnan in “the Belt and Road” project

As a multi-ethnic and multilingual province, Yunnan has very rich resources in the minority languages. Among the 25 ethnic minority groups, 22 groups speak 26 languages, belonging to the Tibetan-Burmese, Zhuang-Dong, Miao Yao and Meng Khmer language branches of the two major language families of Sino-Tibetan and Austro-Asiatic. The 16 cross-border ethnic groups are mainly distributed outside in Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and other countries bordering China. The languages and characters of these cross-border ethnic groups have become important language resources in Yunnan in the construction of “Belt and Road Initiative”. How to fully develop and make full use of these languages to meet the language needs of ethnic groups in these countries along the route and to achieve cooperation and win-win results under the framework of equal language and cultural identity is an urgent problem to be studied and solved by the Chinese government. This paper will make an in-depth analysis of the current language policy in Yunnan and its efforts in the protection of cross-border language resources, in the hope to provide some ideas for the scientific protection and utilization of cross-border language resources.

云南是个多民族、多语言、多文种的省份，少数民族语言资源十分丰富。25个少数民族中，有22个少数民族使用着26种语言，分属汉藏、南亚两大语系的藏缅、壮侗、苗瑶、孟高棉4个语族。16个跨境民族，在境外主要分布在与中国接壤的越南、老挝、缅甸等国家。这些跨境民族的语言文字成为“一带一路”建设中云南重要的语言资源。如何充分开发和利用跨境民族语言满足“一带一路”沿线国家各族群的语言需求，在平等的语言文化认同框架下实现合作、共赢，是亟待中国政府研究解决的问题。本文将深入分析云南现行的民族语言政策及其在保护跨境语言资源方面做出的努力，以期为科学保护和充分利用跨境语言资源提供合理思路。