Doctoral Dissertation Research: Contesting Beauties: Multilingualism, Language Shift, and Linguistic Ideology in Tanzania

在Salikoko Mufwene博士的指导下，Sabrina Billings女士将为其关于坦桑尼亚语言使用和语言意识形态的博士论文进行社会语言学研究。英语、斯瓦希里语和大约120种民族语言在那里使用，每种语言都与一系列关于国家或地区身份、种族或政治派别、现代性、全球化和传统的观念联系在一起。对其中任何一个的选择都可以从意识形态上加以解释，并可能引起争议。该项目旨在阐明与语言选择相关的多价值意识形态，以及这些意识形态如何塑造社会多语言，并告知社区语言曲目的变化。比林斯将研究选美比赛中关于语言使用的谈判。尽管这些活动最近很受欢迎，但没有统一的语言来进行这些活动。因此，这些选美比赛是充满意识形态色彩的表演，因此也是研究语言意识形态的绝佳场所。比林斯将研究10个地区选美比赛和坦桑尼亚全国选美比赛的选手、评委和主持人的语言使用情况。通过录像，她将记录语言选择、代码转换以及参与者对语言的评论。比赛结束后，她将采访参赛者和观众，评估他们在比赛过程中对语言使用的反应。关于受试者语言背景的调查问卷也将被填写。该项目将有助于更好地了解坦桑尼亚的社会多语言现象、导致语言濒危和丧失的机制以及语言使用情况。该项目将记录一个民族志研究相对较少的国家的语言使用情况，为斯瓦希里语的地区差异、坦桑尼亚多种语言的社会融合方式以及女性语言在这种结构中的作用提供见解。该项目的研究结果将加深人们对语言变化和世界各地许多土著语言消失的原因的理解。最后，通过以强调当地使用者自己的想法和决定的方式重新构建语言死亡问题，本项目将为制定和评估坦桑尼亚的教育和语言政策提供基线，并有可能应用于其他强大的多语言社会。

Under the direction of Dr. Salikoko Mufwene, Ms. Sabrina Billings will conduct sociolinguistic research for her doctoral dissertation on language use and linguistic ideologies in Tanzania. English, Swahili, and about 120 ethnic languages are used there, with each language being linked to an array of ideas about national or regional identity, ethnic or political affiliation, as well as modernity, globalization, and tradition. The choice of any one of them can be interpreted ideologically and can arouse controversy. This project seeks to articulate the multivalent ideologies associated with language choices and how these ideologies shape societal multilingualism and inform changes in a community's linguistic repertoire. Billings will study negotiations about language use during beauty pageants. Despite their recent popularity, there is no agreed upon language in which to conduct these events. These pageants are thus ideologically charged performances and hence excellent sites for research on language ideology. Billings will study language use among contestants, judges, and hosts in 10 regional beauty pageants and the Tanzanian national pageant. With video recordings, she will document language choices, codeswitching, and participants' commentaries about language. Following the pageants, she will interview participants and audience members to assess their reactions to language use during the pageant proceedings. Questionnaires regarding the subjects' linguistic backgrounds will also be filled out.This project will contribute to better understanding of societal multilingualism and the mechanisms that account for language endangerment and loss, as well as language use in Tanzania. The project will document language use in a country where relatively little ethnographic research has been undertaken, providing insights into regional variation in Swahili, the ways that Tanzania's many languages fit together socially, and the role of women's speech in this structure. The project's results will enhance understanding of the causes driving linguistic change and the disappearance of many indigenous languages throughout the world. Finally, by reframing the issues surrounding language death in a way that emphasizes local speakers' own ideas and decisions, this project will offer a baseline for developing and evaluating educational and language policies in Tanzania, with potential application to other strongly multilingual societies.