Multilingualism in China: The Politics of Writing Reforms for Minority Languages 1949-2002

Minglang Zhou’s highly erudite and well-researched volume on the policies concerning writing reforms for China’s minorities since 1949 provides an original and well-reasoned summary of a complex process. It documents how different script reforms meet dramatically different fates according to local preferences, history, cross-border ties, and the vitality of previously-used scripts. It convincingly shows that no single variable is decisive in the success of a script, and that language planners’ fixation with technical details is doomed to failure, without careful coordination of extra-code factors. It also documents the little-known Sino-Soviet cooperation in the area of writing reforms. In a style accessible to both undergraduate and graduate students, Zhou’s book is of interest to language planners, sinologists, applied linguists, writing theorists, and ethnologists.Additional ISBNs9783111812496Multilingualism in China: The Politics of Writing Reforms for Minority Languages 1949-2002 1st Edition is written by Minglang Zhou and published by De Gruyter Mouton. ISBNs for Multilingualism in China are 9783110924596, 3110924595 and the print ISBNs are 9783110178968, 3110178966. Additional ISBNs include 9783111812496.