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TRANSCRIPT
Assessing the Vitality of Akha in Myanmar with
the Sustainable Use Model
Ah Suhn
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
IN
LINGUISTICS
Payap University
September 2015
Title: Assessing the Vitality of Akha in Myanmar with
the Sustainable Use Model
Author: Ah Suhn
Degree: Master of Arts in Linguistics
Advisor: Assistant Professor Thomas M. Tehan, Ph.D.
Approval Date: 30 September 2015
Institution: Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
The members of the thesis examination committee:
1. _________________________________ Committee Chair
[Isara Choosri, Ph.D.]
2. _________________________________ Committee Member
[Asst. Prof. Thomas M. Tehan, Ph.D.]
3. _________________________________ Committee Member
[Robert Wyn Owen, Ph.D.]
Copyright © Ah Suhn Ghoemeh
Payap University 2015
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank to God for His provision to complete this study. It is impossible without His
guidance and also help from many people. I appreciate prayers from my family, my
church, and Akha community as well as my friends.
My special thanks go to Rev. Noel Kyaheh who introduced me Payap University and
encouraged me to do Linguistics. Since he is the only one Akha linguist he gave me
many answers that I was curious regarding with Akha situation throughout my study.
And he was always there whenever I needed help and was praying for me.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to my mentor Dr. Robert Wyn Owen who
has helped me from the beginning, from the design of the sociolinguistics survey for
the research, to the end, writing thesis and proof reading. He has given a lot of time to
shape this thesis well and being patient to correct my grammar errors. His guidance
and good advice made this thesis possible.
I also would like to thank to my advisor, Dr. Thomas. M. Tehan. He took an
important role to complete this thesis. He gave much help reading through all my
papers and thesis checking the content and giving suggestions as needed. I am
thankful to Ajarn Dave Eberhard for his good thoughts and advice that provided
guidance for this research.
I thank Ajarn Mark Wannamacher who supported me to come to Payap and study
Linguistics. His help and support for to the fieldtrips to collect the data was
fundamental to this thesis research.
I would like to give my special thanks to all the Akha people who helped me during
my research trips and participated by answering the research questionnaires. They
hosted me and gave me their best food in the villages. I also would like to thank to
Saya Ahdo, the Akha Literacy Program Manager, who accompanied me throughout
my research trips. He guided me to go to the villages and introduced me to the people
I needed to meet.
ii
I am very grateful to Ajarn Art Cooper who encouraged and helped me throughout my
studies at Payap. With him as the department head the Linguistics department is well
organized, and I appreciate the staff who gave me help whenever I needed it.
I am so blessed to have all of you in my life, especially for this study. I thank all of
you from the bottom of my heart. Without all of your helps this thesis could not be
completed. I wish all of you to see His gracious love and have a wonderful life.
Ah Suhn Ghoemeh
iii
Title: Assessing the Vitality of Akha in Myanmar with the
Sustainable Use Model
Author: Ah Suhn
Degree: Master of Arts in Linguistics
Advisor: Assistant Professor Thomas M. Tehan, Ph.D.
Approval Date: 30 September 2015
Institution: Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Number of Pages: 123
Keywords: Akha, Sociolinguistics, Language Vitality
ABSTRACT
This thesis describes an assessment of the vitality of the Akha language in Myanmar
based on fieldwork carried out in 18 villages in Eastern Shan State. The current level
of vitality is assessed as well as the extent to which the current level is sustainable.
The methodology is based on the Sustainable Use Model (Lewis & Simons 2015) and
in particular the FAMED (Function, Acquisition, Motivation, Environment,
Differentiation) conditions, which provide a framework for evaluating the
sustainability of a language. Questionnaire data is used along with data from a new
data collection tool developed for this study, namely the Bodies of Knowledge
Participatory Tool.
The study shows that the current level of vitality is EGIDS level 5 because ‘the
language is in vigorous use with literature in a standardized form being used by some’
(Lewis & Simons 2015:105). According to the model, in order to be sustainable in the
long term, Akha language vitality needs to be raised to EGIDS 4 in which the
language is ‘…sustained by a widespread system of institutionally supported
education’ (Lewis & Simons 2015:105). The methodology naturally identifies areas
of activity where efforts are needed to strengthen overall vitality.
iv
ชอเรอง: การประเมนพลงชวตของภาษาอาขาในประเทศเมยนมารดวยตวแบบการใชภาษาแบบยงยน
ผจดทา: อาสนห ชอปรญญา: ศลปศาสตรมหาบณฑต สาขาวชาภาษาศาสตร อาจารยทปรกษาวทยานพนธ: ผชวยศาสตราจารย ดร.โธมส เอม. เทยน วนทอนมต: 30 กนยายน 2558 สถาบน: มหาวทยาลยพายพ จงหวดเชยงใหม ประเทศไทย จานวนหนา: 123 คาสาคญ: อาขา ภาษาศาสตรสงคม พลงชวตของภาษา
บทคดยอ
วทยานพนธฉบบนศกษาการประเมนพลงชวตของภาษาอาขาในประเทศเมยนมารดวยการออกภาคสนามทงสน 18 หมบานในภาคตะวนออกของรฐฉาน โดยมงศกษาระดบความมชวตในปจจบนของภาษาอาขาและประเมนความยงยนของความมชวตโดยใชโมเดลการใชภาษาแบบยงยน (Sustainable Use Model) (Lewis & Simons 2015) โดยเฉพาะอยางยง เงอนไข FAMED (Function (หนาท) Acquisition (การเรยนร) Motivation (แรงจงใจ) Environment (สภาพแวดลอม) Differentiation (การสรางความแตกตาง)) เปนกรอบในการวดผลความยงยนของภาษา ขอมลจากแบบสอบถามจะถกใชรวมกบขอมลจากเครองมอทชอวา เครองมอองคความรแบบมสวนรวม (The Bodies of Knowledge Participatory Tool) ผลการศกษาแสดงใหเหนวา ระดบพลงชวตของภาษาอาขาในปจจบนอยทระดบ EGIDS 5 เนองจาก “เปนภาษาทมการใชอยางกวางขวางรวมทงมวรรณกรรมทเปนรปแบบมาตรฐานใชในบางสวน” (Lewis & Simons 2015:105) นอกจากนยงพบวาหากตองการใหพลงชวตของภาษาอาขายกระดบขนเปน EGIDS 4 ซงกลายเปนภาษาท “ยงยนจากระบบการศกษาทไดรบการสนบสนนจากรฐ” (Lewis & Simons 2015:105) ระเบยบวธวจยทใชในการศกษาครงนยงไดระบพนททใชเกบขอมลทจาเปนตองมการสรางความมนคงใหกบความมชวตของภาษาในภาพรวมตอไป
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... i
Abstract ........................................................................................................................ iii
บทคดยอ .......................................................................................................................... iv
Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... v
List of Tables ................................................................................................................ ix
List of Figures ............................................................................................................... xi
List of Abbreviations and Symbols..............................................................................xii
Glossary ..................................................................................................................... xiii
Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background .......................................................................................................... 1
1.1.1 Geographical distribution.............................................................................. 3
1.1.2 Population estimates ..................................................................................... 3
1.1.3 Culture........................................................................................................... 4
1.2 Linguistic classification ....................................................................................... 8
1.3 Language development status ............................................................................ 10
1.4 Akha Cultural Committee (ACC) ...................................................................... 10
1.5 Research questions and hypothesis .................................................................... 12
1.6 Scope of thesis ................................................................................................... 12
1.7 Contributions or benefits of the research ........................................................... 12
1.8 Outline of thesis ................................................................................................. 13
Chapter 2 Theoretical Foundations and Literature Review ......................................... 14
2.1 Sociolinguistics .................................................................................................. 14
2.1.1 Language vitality ........................................................................................ 14
2.1.2 Language choice ......................................................................................... 15
2.1.3 Language attitudes ...................................................................................... 16
2.1.4 Diglossia ..................................................................................................... 18
2.2 Measuring vitality with EGIDS ......................................................................... 18
2.3 Sustainable Use Model ...................................................................................... 23
2.4 FAMED conditions ............................................................................................ 25
2.4.1 Functions ..................................................................................................... 25
vi
2.4.2 Acquisition .................................................................................................. 27
2.4.3 Motivation ................................................................................................... 29
2.4.4 Environment ................................................................................................ 29
2.4.5 Differentiation ............................................................................................. 31
2.5 Bodies of Knowledge ......................................................................................... 32
2.6 Literature Review............................................................................................... 33
Chapter 3 Methodology ............................................................................................... 38
3.1 Questionnaires.................................................................................................... 38
3.1.1 Individual Sociolinguistic Questionnaire (ISLQ) ....................................... 39
3.1.2 Knowledgeable Insider Questionnaire ........................................................ 39
3.1.3 Religious Leader Questionnaires ................................................................ 40
3.1.4 Teacher Interview Questionnaire ................................................................ 41
3.1.5 Literacy Manager Questionnaire (LMQ) .................................................... 42
3.1.6 Background Research Questionnaire (BRQ) .............................................. 42
3.2 Bodies of Knowledge Participatory Tool (BoKT) ............................................. 43
3.3 Site selection ...................................................................................................... 47
3.3.1 First trip ....................................................................................................... 48
3.3.2 Second trip .................................................................................................. 49
3.4 Individual Subject selection ............................................................................... 51
3.4.1 Screening criteria ........................................................................................ 51
3.4.2 Sampling plan ............................................................................................. 52
3.5 Methods of Analysis .......................................................................................... 52
3.5.1 Summary of data ......................................................................................... 52
3.5.2 Criteria for answering Research Questions................................................. 52
Chapter 4 Analysis of Questionnaire Data................................................................... 54
4.1 Description of survey sites ................................................................................. 54
4.1.1 Religion ....................................................................................................... 54
4.1.2 Area ............................................................................................................. 55
4.2 Current level of Akha language vitality ............................................................. 56
4.2.1 Key Question #1: Identity function of Akha............................................... 56
4.2.2 Key Question #3: Parents transmitting Akha to children ........................... 58
4.2.3 Key Question #4: Literacy status ................................................................ 61
4.2.4 Summary of findings about Akha language vitality ................................... 66
4.3 Sustainability of Akha........................................................................................ 66
4.3.1 Functions ..................................................................................................... 67
4.3.2 Acquisition .................................................................................................. 71
vii
4.3.3 Motivation ................................................................................................... 75
4.3.4 Environment ................................................................................................ 76
4.3.5 Differentiation ............................................................................................. 78
4.3.6 Summary of findings relating to sustainability ........................................... 84
Chapter 5 Analysis of Bodies of Knowledge Data ...................................................... 86
5.1 Description of Data ............................................................................................ 86
5.1.1 BoK Categories ........................................................................................... 86
5.1.2 BoK Data Format ........................................................................................ 90
5.2 Results ................................................................................................................ 92
5.2.1 Function ...................................................................................................... 92
5.2.2 Acquisition .................................................................................................. 94
5.2.3 Motivation ................................................................................................... 97
5.2.4 Environment .............................................................................................. 100
5.2.5 Differentiation ........................................................................................... 103
5.2.6 Summary of Results for FAMED Conditions ........................................... 105
5.3 Results by area ................................................................................................. 107
5.4 Results by religious group ............................................................................... 109
5.5 Evaluation of BoKT ......................................................................................... 111
5.5.1 Evaluation of data collection procedure ................................................... 112
5.5.2 Evaluation of scope of BoK data collection ............................................. 115
Chapter 6 Conclusions ............................................................................................... 117
6.1 Overview of the study ...................................................................................... 117
6.2 Conclusions Relating to the Research Questions............................................. 118
6.2.1 Research Question 1: What is the current level of vitality of Akha in
Myanmar? .......................................................................................................... 118
6.2.2 Research Question 2: What evidence is there that the current level of
vitality of Akha in Myanmar is sustainable? ..................................................... 118
6.3 Implications of the research results .................................................................. 121
6.3.1 Going deeper ............................................................................................. 121
6.3.2 Going broader ........................................................................................... 122
6.4 Suggestions for further work ........................................................................... 122
6.4.1 Specific ideas for choosing the areas ........................................................ 123
6.4.2 Improvements to the BoKT ...................................................................... 123
Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 124
Appendix A Individual Sociolinguistic Questionnaire .............................................. 129
Appendix B Knowledgeable Insider sociolinguistic Questionnaire .......................... 139
viii
Appendix C Religious leader Questionnaire.............................................................. 150
Appendix D Teacher Interview Questionnaire .......................................................... 160
Appendix E Literacy Manager Questionnaire ........................................................... 165
Appendix F Background Research Questionnaire ..................................................... 168
Appendix G Book titles in Akha mini library ............................................................ 170
Appendix H BoK data from each village ................................................................... 171
Appendix I Pictures used to Represent Bodies of Knowledge .................................. 178
Appendix J Procedure for Bodies of Knowledge Participatory Tool ........................ 185
Resume ....................................................................................................................... 187
ix
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Estimates of Akha Populations in Countries of SE Asia .................................. 4
Table 2 Genealogy of author .......................................................................................... 8
Table 3 Fishman's Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS)....................... 19
Table 4 Expanded GIDS (Lewis and Simons 2015: 105-106) .................................... 20
Table 5 EGIDS Key Questions and Allowable Answers............................................. 21
Table 6 FAMED conditions (Lewis and Simons 2015:159) ....................................... 25
Table 7 Function scale (Lewis and Simons 2015:167) ................................................ 26
Table 8 Acquisition scale (Lewis and Simons 2015:171) ........................................... 28
Table 9 Motivation scale (Lewis and Simons 2015:175) ............................................ 29
Table 10 Environment scale (Lewis and Simons 2015:179) ....................................... 30
Table 11 Differentiation scale (Lewis and Simons 2015:183) .................................... 31
Table 12 Paul W. Lewis's ethnographic books ............................................................ 34
Table 13 Comparison of Akha Orthographies Developed since 2000 ........................ 35
Table 14 List of Inga-Lill Hansson's papers ................................................................ 36
Table 15 Descriptions of sections on Individual Sociolinguistic Questionnaire ......... 39
Table 16 Description of sections on Knowledgeable Insider Questionnaire ............... 40
Table 17 Descriptions of sections on Religious Leader Questionnaires ...................... 41
Table 18 Descriptions of sections on Teacher Interview Questionnaire ..................... 42
Table 19 Description of sections on Literacy Manager Questionnaire ........................ 42
Table 20 Description of sections on Background Research Questionnaire ................. 43
Table 21 BoKs Categorised as Inside or Outside ........................................................ 44
Table 22 Result of FAMED conditions for Farming Body of knowledge .................. 45
Table 23 Summary of data collected on first trip ........................................................ 48
Table 24 Villages visited on second trip ...................................................................... 49
Table 25 Summary of data collected on second trip .................................................... 51
Table 26 Sampling plan ............................................................................................... 52
Table 27 Areas that speak Akha as a second language ................................................ 58
Table 28 Intermarriage in Akha community ................................................................ 59
Table 29 Details of Akha Literacy classes (from first fieldtrip) .................................. 62
Table 30 Perceptions about after school literacy classes during the school term ........ 64
Table 31 Self-reported literacy proficiency in Akha ................................................... 65
Table 32 Patterns of language use in Christian communities ...................................... 67
Table 33 Patterns of language use in Akha zah villages .............................................. 68
Table 34 Patterns of language use in the home domain ............................................... 69
Table 35 Language use in social setting outside the home .......................................... 70
Table 36 Akha literacy class teaching hours ................................................................ 73
Table 37 Advantages of being able to read and write Akha ........................................ 75
Table 38 Primary ethnic identity.................................................................................. 76
Table 39 Akha language proficiency ........................................................................... 78
Table 40 Children’s language use ................................................................................ 79
Table 41 Language attitude toward LWC .................................................................... 80
Table 42 Tested Burmese reading proficiency as a whole .......................................... 81
Table 43 Tested Burmese reading proficiency in each village .................................... 82
x
Table 44 Beliefs about language use in future ............................................................. 83
Table 45 Description of BoKs by Category ................................................................ 87
Table 46 BoK data from Seu Nyeh Akha village ........................................................ 91
Table 47 EGIDS Function Levels for all Inside Bodies of Knowledge by Village ..... 92
Table 48 EGIDS Function Levels for all Outside Bodies of Knowledge by Village .. 93
Table 49 EGIDS Acquisition Levels for all Inside BoKs by village ........................... 95
Table 50 EGIDS Acquisition Levels for Outside and Inside-Outside BoKs by village
...................................................................................................................................... 96
Table 51 EGIDS Motivation Levels for all Inside BoKs by Village ........................... 98
Table 52 EGIDS Motivation Levels for Outside and Inside-Outside Boks by Village
...................................................................................................................................... 99
Table 53 EGIDS Environment Levels for all BoKs by Village ................................. 101
Table 54 EGIDS Differentiation Levels for all Inside BoKs by Village ................... 103
Table 55 EGIDS Differentiation Levels for Outside or Inside-Outside Boks by Village
.................................................................................................................................... 104
Table 56 Modal EGIDS Levels for Inside and Outside BoKs by Village and Condition
.................................................................................................................................... 106
Table 57 Modal EGIDS Levels for Family, Community and Religious BoKs ......... 107
Table 58 Modal EGIDS Levels in Nam Pan area ...................................................... 108
Table 59 Modal EGIDS Levels in Tachileik area ...................................................... 108
Table 60 Modal EGIDS Levels in Keng Tung area ................................................... 109
Table 61 Modal EGIDS Levels in Baptist villages .................................................... 110
Table 62 Modal EGIDS Levels in Catholic villages ................................................. 110
Table 63 Modal EGIDS Levels in Akha zah villages ................................................ 111
Table 64 Pros and Cons to Using All FAMED Conditions ....................................... 116
xi
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Map of Eastern Shan State, Myanmar, where Akha people are living............ 3
Figure 2 Akha traditional costume (Source: Yar Htu. 2012) ......................................... 5
Figure 3 Different types of Akha hats (Source: HatHorizons 2006) ............................. 6
Figure 4 Akha language family tree (adapted from Bradley 2007) ............................... 9
Figure 5 ACC members and Akha New Year festival committee members 2013 ...... 11
Figure 6 Tree diagram to determine EGIDS level (Lewis and Simons 2010:114) ...... 22
Figure 7 Hierarchy of Sustainable Use (Source: Lewis and Simons 2015:148).......... 24
Figure 8 Akha/Hani phrase in 10 orthographies (Kya Heh and Tehan 2000:8) ......... 35
Figure 9 Picture for Farming Body of Knowledge ...................................................... 45
Figure 10 Complete Results for Function from Bar Aa village ................................... 46
Figure 11 Children’s language use .............................................................................. 61
Figure 12 Picture of BoK No. 4: Law .......................................................................... 88
Figure 13 Picture of BoK No. 16 ................................................................................. 89
Figure 14 Picture of BoK No. 28 ................................................................................. 90
Figure 15 Hierarchy of Sustainable Use (Source: Lewis and Simons 2015:148)...... 121
xii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS
ABC Akha Baptist Convention
ALQ Akha zah Leader Questionnaire
ACC Akha Cultural Committee
BRQ Background Research Questionnaire
BoK Body of Knowledge
BAO Baptist Akha Orthography
CLQ Christian Leader Questionnaire
CAO Catholic Akha Orthography
CAO* Common Akha Orthography
EGIDS Extended Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale
ECCD Early Childhood Care and Development
ISLQ Individual Sociolinguistic Questionnaire
KQ Key Question
KABA Keng Tung Akha Baptist Association
KIQ Knowledgeable Insider Questionnaire
KHAS Khanqgm Aqkaq Sanqbovq (this is also known as Common Akha Orthography,
CAO*)
L1 First language
L2 Second language
LWC Language of Wider Communication
LMQ Literacy Manager Questionnaire
RQ Research Question
RLQ Religious Leader Questionnaire
TIQ Teacher Interview Questionnaire
TABA Tachileik Akha Baptist Association
UAO Unified Akha Orthography
NGO Non-Government Organization
xiii
GLOSSARY
Item Description
Baptist Akha
Orthography (BAO)
This is a Latin script based orthography that was used in the Baptist
Akha community until 2004.
Body of Knowledge
(BOK)
This is knowledge about a particular area of life, such as religion,
farming practices or traditional medicine. By examining language
use in a range of bodies of knowledge, it is possible to gain insight
into the vitality of a language as well as to identify areas where
language development initiatives might be needed to strengthen
the vitality. For more detail see Lewis & Simons 2015:31-33
Catholic Akha
Orthography (CAO)
Catholic Akha Orthography. This is a Latin script based
orthography that was used in Catholic Akha community until 2004.
Note that this is not the same as the Common Akha Orthography
(also CAO) described in Panadda (2010)
Extended Graded
Intergenerational
Disruption Scale
(EGIDS)
EGIDS provides a scale for measuring language vitality for any
language whether it is used as an international trade language with
hundreds of millions of speakers or a language with no remaining
speakers. For more detail see Lewis & Simons 2015:105-117
FAMED Conditions FAMED describe five aspects of (Function, Acquisition, Motivation,
Environment, and Differentiation) which are important in
determining the sustainability of a language’s level of vitality. The
FAMED conditions provide a more detailed framework than EGIDS
for assessing the vitality level in the community with a view to
identifying activities that the community can do to move their
language towards one of the sustainable levels of language use. For
more detail see Lewis & Simons 2015:160-165
L1 A person’s first language.
L2 The language that is used as a second language for those who speak
more than one language.
Sustainable Use Model
(SUM)
The Sustainable Use Model is a framework that can help to describe
the level of language vitality and identify if it is sustainable or not.
For more detail see Lewis & Simons 2015:8-14
Unified Akha
Orthography (UAO)
Unified Akha Orthography. This Latin script based orthography was
developed in 2004 and has since then been used by most Akha in
Myanmar. It has largely replaced the BAO and CAO.
1
Chapter 1
Introduction
This thesis presents an investigation into the language vitality of Akha in Myanmar.
The Sustainable Use Model (Lewis & Simons 2015) is used as the theoretical
framework for the study although many of the insights are not dependent on that
model.
In this chapter an introduction to the Akha people, culture and language are given.
Section 1.1 provides general background information including geographical
distribution of Akha communities, population estimates, and Akha traditional
culture. Section 1.2 gives a linguistic classification that shows how Akha is related to
other Tibeto-Burman languages. Section 1.3 describes the status of language
development and section 1.4 covers the Akha Cultural Committee (ACC). Then
section 1.5 lays out the research questions for this study, and section 1.6 discusses
the scope of the research. The last two sections 1.7 and 1.8 outline the benefits of
the research and outline of this thesis.
1.1 Background This section provides a general introduction to the Akha people. Akha belongs to the
Ngwi (a.k.a. Lolo) language group which is a subgroup of Tibeto-Burman languages
in the Sino-Tibetan language family. Originally from China, the Akha now live in
rural upland areas of Yunnan Province, P.R.C; Eastern Shan State, Myanmar;
northern Thailand; north western Laos, and north western Vietnam (Kammerer
1990). There are three main different religious groups among Akha in Myanmar:
Christianity (Catholic, and Baptist), Akha zah1 [ʔa˨kʰa˨zɑ˦], and Buddhist. The
majority group is Christian, followed by Akha zah. Kya Heh (2014, p.c.) estimates
that 80% of Akha in Myanmar are Christian, 18% are Akha zah and 2% are
Buddhist.
1 The Akha word zah has many senses and can be used in many different ways in the language. The
expression Akha zah can be translated as ‘The Akha Way’ and consists of many practices in everyday
life, such as cooking an egg or building a house as well as practices that would be considered as
religious such, as sacrifices after an Akha person has not followed some aspect of the zah. Section 2.6
contains more information about Akha zah. This thesis will use the term ‘Akha zah’ instead of ‘Akha
Animist’ because this is the name the followers of Akha zah prefer to be called.
2
According to oral tradition the Akha people had their own land, named Ja Deh lahˇ
dzahˇ [dʒa˧dɛ˧lɑ˦dzɑ˦], China, and had their own king. One day, however, all the
Akha leaders were killed at a party by neighbouring people who tried to damage
Akha land because they became jealous of Akha people’s land and well organized
rule over their people. Then a battle was started because the people trespassed onto
Akha land and tried to rule the Akha. Unfortunately for the Akha they lost the battle
since all the leaders had been killed unexpectedly. So they just ran away to areas
where they would not come under attack. This need to escape from violent attack is
the reason why Akha people have spread out to four different countries in Southeast
Asia: Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
There were leaders who led the escape to each area. The person who led the Akha to
Keng Tung (Eastern Shan State, Myanmar), was called Khahso2. He came along the
Nam Loi River and crossed that river and then entered to the Keng Tung area.
Khahso’s son Someh was the person who started the first Akha community in the
Mongkhet area on Loi Mee Mountain (in Eastern Shan State, Myanmar). Even now
there is a river named ‘Someh River’ in that area, in memory of him. Over the years
the Akha have spread to many different areas in Eastern Shan State.
Yar Htu 2012 has written that: “I realized that the Akha suffered much in the past.
They had to run away and move from one place to another looking for a more
secure place to resettle. Their social life and profession were definitely affected. In
their journey, they lost some loved ones because they could not avail [themselves]
of necessary medical assistance. They had to start all over again in the place where
they resettled. Luckily, they discovered their hidden voice of Akha. While they had
to struggle from the place where they [had] come from until they reached Keng
Tung in that their [threatened] traditional work was given new context; they were
able to adapt and saw good signs especially in accessing education which was the
first time in the Akha history. Moreover, they were able to widen their world by
being open to acquire formal education which paved the way towards coming up
with new concepts and ideas to achieve development not only the personal level but
more in the society.”
2 Also known as Khahso Jawbaa, or ‘Lord Khahso’.
3
1.1.1 Geographical distribution Akha communities are located in eleven different townships in Eastern Shan state,
Myanmar. These are Keng Tung, Tachileik, Tontar, Mongpin, Mongpyat,
Mongyaung, Mongyang, Mongla, Mongpauk, Mongkhet, and Mongsat.
Geographically Akha people live mainly in village communities located on
mountains, though there are also some livings in towns such as Keng Tung or
Tachileik.
Figure 1 Map of Eastern Shan State, Myanmar, where Akha people are living
1.1.2 Population estimates It is difficult to estimate the population as we can see by the way different authors
give quite different estimates. The following table shows estimates of the Akha
population for each country from different sources.
4
Table 1 Estimates of Akha Populations in Countries of SE Asia
Country Bradley 2007:173 Grimes 2000 ACC 1994 Keng Tung
China 240,000 103,000 700,000
Myanmar 200,000 103,600 400,000
Thailand 66,108 60,000 70,000
Laos 56,616 58,000 60,000
Vietnam 1,260 1,261 A few thousands
As shown in the above table, the largest Akha population is in China – their
traditional homeland before they started to migrate to other countries in South-East
Asia. The second largest Akha population is in Myanmar and the third largest is in
Thailand, followed by Laos. Among all the five countries the population of Akha in
Vietnam is the smallest population; there are only a few thousand there.
According to 2008 Myanmar constitution, each ethnic minority group whose
population is at least 0.1% of the population of Myanmar would be allowed to have
their own minister. The ACC estimate of the Akha population in Myanmar (see Table
1) is approximately 0.7% of the national population,3 so since 2008 Myanmar
constitution has allowed the Akha to have an Akha affairs minister to represent all
of the Akha in Myanmar. Actually the estimate of Akha population by the
government is lower than that of the ACC because they only count the number of
Akha identity card holders. However, even this lower estimate is enough to satisfy
the requirement.
1.1.3 Culture The Akha have their own culture and they are proud of having their culture. There
are many aspects of their culture that they love to keep and maintain as their own.
Among those are Akha traditional costume, Akha traditional food, farming, and
Akha genealogy. These things are described in the following subsections.
1.1.3.1 Akha traditional costume Akha costumes are made by hand. Women take responsibility to make traditional
costumes for all ages: children, adults and old people. They weave the cloth
themselves and they sew it very beautifully. They like to sew the cloth that they
3 The population of Myanmar is estimated at 54,164,262 – see http://www.worldometers.info/world-
population/burma-population/
5
wove (but not ready-made cloth, by machine), because it was easy for them to
create beautiful and original styles. In the past all Akha women were very good at
the whole process of making clothes from the beginning (producing cloth) to the end
(designing and sewing garments until they are ready to wear.) All the clothes are
made in black colour, and Akha girls or women wear a short skirt, long jacket and
beautiful hat. Akha boys or men wear a long-sleeved black jacket and long black
pants. However nowadays there are very few Akha ladies who can do the whole
process to make their own clothing. The new Akha generation prefers to buy the
Akha fabric ready-made and then sew their own clothes in modern fashion styles.
Figure 2 Akha traditional costume (Source: Yar Htu. 2012)
The most attractive item in the traditional costume for girls or women is the hat. It
is made of silver and uses a lot of silver coins depending on how rich the woman is.
Those who don’t have silver to use for their hats can use aluminium instead.
Depending on the location and family group, their hats and styles are quite different.
It is the most expensive item among all of their clothing. Since they use many silver
things such as silver coins for the hat it is very heavy. They are very proud of the
hats they have. Their husbands and parents are also proud of the hats, if they can
provide their wives and girls with beautiful hats with a lot of silver. Figure 3 shows
various kinds of Akha hats.
6
Figure 3 Different types of Akha hats (Source: HatHorizons 2006)
1.1.3.2 Akha traditional food Akha food is very nutritious. They don’t like to use much oil for cooking, and they
eat organic food in their daily life. Most Akha live in rural villages, and they like to
grow some food around their house, which gives them fresh vegetables to be
7
healthy. They also like to raise animals. They raise at least chickens and pigs at their
house, and they also raise cows and buffalo. All of their animals grow naturally, and
the meats that come from those animals are healthier and more delicious. The
healthy diet and active lifestyle meant that obesity has until recently never been a
problem.
1.1.3.3 Farming Most of the Akha are farmers growing rice and a variety of other crops since the
basic food for them is rice. The Akha traditionally cultivate varieties of upland rice.
They also grow vegetables and other food products in the village. Normally they
have two fields: one for cultivating rice and one for vegetables and other crops. They
work very hard in the fields, and it is their main business. Apart from growing crops
they normally do not have other business except raising animals. Their lives in the
village are very simple, and they are happy with their crops and livestock.
1.1.3.4 Akha genealogy Akha has a very interesting genealogy that can’t compare with any other tribes. The
name called Sue mii o [sm˦mi˦ʔo˦] is the first person’s name in their genealogy.
Many Akha people are losing the ability to recite the genealogy now because they
cannot memorize the names of all the generations in the genealogy. The way of
reciting the name is very simple: the last word of the father’s name becomes the first
word of his children’s name. Only male’s names are supposed to count to maintain
the genealogy. A sample genealogical counting system is shown in Table 2.
8
Table 2 Genealogy of author
1. Sm˦mi˦ʔo˦ 12. tsɔ˦mɔ˨ʔœ˦ 23. lɛ˧ˀlm˦bo˦ 34. gə˨dzo˧ˀ 45. ge˧dzo˧ˀ
2. ʔo˦tʰœ˨lœ˧ 13. mɔ˨ʔœ˦dzœ˨ 24. bo˦mɔ˨po˧ˀ 35. dzo˧ˀɲɔ˦ 46. dzo˧ˀ dʒɑ˧
3. tʰœ˨lœ˧dzm˧ 14.dzœ˨tʰɑ˨ pʰɑ˨ 25. mɔ˨po˧ˀtʰi˦ 36. ɲɔ˦sa˦ 47. dʒɑ˧dɯ˧
4. dzm˧mɔ˨jɛ˦ 15. tʰɑ˨ pʰɑ˨ mɑ˦ 26. tʰi˦sa˦ɓə˧ˀ 37. sa˦ɓe˨ˀ 48. dɯ˧dʒu˧
5. mɔ˨jɛ˦tʃa˧ˀ 16. mɑ˦ hɔ˨tʰɑ˧ 27. ɓə˧ˀma˧dzɑ˦ 38. ɓe˨ˀtʃʰə˧ 49. dʒu˧ɓə˧ˀ
6. tʃa˧ˀtʰi˨si˨ 17. hɔ˨tʰɑ˧ dʒe˨ 28. dzɑ˦ dʒə˨ 39. tʃə˧ba˧ 50. dʒa˨lɛ˧
7. tʰi˨si˨li˦ 18. dʒe˨le˧ɲɔ˦ 29. dʒə˨ɣœ˨ 40. ba˧za˦ 51. lɛ˧dzœ˨
8. li˦pʰɔ˨ɓɛ˧ˀ 19. ɲɔ˦tʃʰi˦la˨ 30. ɣœ˨mɛ˦ 41. pʰi˦pyʰɔ˨ 52. dzœ˨sa˦
9. pɔ˨ɓɛ˧ˀʔu˧ˀ 20. la˨tʰã˦bœ˨ 31. mɛ˦tʃʰɑ˦ 42. lɛ˨ɲi˧
10. ʔu˧ˀɲo˨za˨ 21. tʰã˦bœ˨sœ˧ˀ 32. tʃʰɑ˦ jɔ˧ 43. ɲi˧zɑ˧
11. ɲo˨za˨tsɔ˦ 22. bœ˨sœ˧ˀlɛ˧ˀ 33. jɔ˧gə˨ 44. zɑ˧ ge˧
The above list gives the author, [sa˦mʲə˦] Ah Suhn’s, lineage. The last name, dzœ˨sa˦,
is the author’s [sa˦mʲə˦] father’s name. By counting back through these generations
two Akha people from the same family can work out how closely related they are.
For some lineages, it is more than 55 or 60 generations and some are less than that.
Actually there are 11 generations above Sue mii o [sm˦mi˦ʔo˦]. These generations
represent a kind of creation process beginning with ‘sky’ and going through other
elements of the physical and spiritual realms. Akha people start counting from the
Sue mii o [sm˦mi˦ʔo˦] since they believe that Sue mii o [sm˦mi˦ʔo˦] is the first
human being. The list of these 11 generations is shown below.
i) m˨ma˨ v) zɔ˨ˀzə˧ˀ ix) jɔ˦nɛ˨ˀ
ii) m˨ɣɑ˦ vi) zə˧ˀtʰo˦ x) nɛ˨ˀbɛ˧
iii) ɣã˦ne˨ vii) tʰo˦ma˧ xi) bɛ˧sm˦
iv) ne˨zɔ˨ˀ viii) ma˧jɔ˦
1.2 Linguistic classification The Akha language is a member of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan
language family. It is classified as Tibeto-Burman, Burmese-Ngwi, and then Ngwi,
Southern Ngwi, and Akoid. Within the Akoid branch the closest two languages are
Hani and Akha, the next closer one is Akeu. The classification diagram in Figure 4 is
adapted from Bradley (2007).
9
There are some different dialects or varieties of Akha depending on the area but the
standard one is the Jeuˬghoeˬ [dʒə˨ɣœ˨] dialect. It is used as the basis of the writing
system and is often used for written Akha. Even though there are some diferent
dialects or varieties, they understand each other well. In the view of the author it is
not a big issue to communicate with each other across Akha language varieties.
However, Kya Heh (2002:1) said that “Some Akha dialects, which are
geographically distant from the Jerway [dʒə˨ɣœ˨] dialect, have lost some
important sentence particles and this poses a major obstacle in dialect
intelligibility.” An important distinguishing feature of different dialects is the use of
different sentence particles.
Speakers of different Akha dialects, even from different countries, are generally able
to communicate, though the use of different loan words from the country that they
are living in can lower the comprehension levels. The use of different dialects is very
common in Akha even in the same village depending on their background or where
they came from.
The position of Akha in the broader Tibeto-Burman language family is shown in
Figure 4.
Tibeto-Burman
Western (Bodic) Sal (Baric) Central Northeastern Burmese-Ngwi Karenic
Mru Gong Burmish Ngwi
Northern Ngwi Central Ngwi Southern Ngwi Southeastern Ngwi
Akoid Bi-ka Bisoid
Hani Akha Akeu
Figure 4 Akha language family tree (adapted from Bradley 2007)
As the figure shows, the closest relatives of Akha are Akeu and Hani.
10
1.3 Language development status The first Akha orthographies were created by Christian missionaries, in about 1950
for the Baptist Akha Orthography and around 1917 for the Roman Catholic Akha
Orthography. Until recently there were at least three different orthographies being
used in Myanmar: a Roman Catholic Akha orthography, a Baptist Akha orthography,
and Burmese alphabet orthography. The first two were based on the Latin script and
were developed by missionaries from the Roman Catholic and Baptist churches
respectively. The third orthography, based on the Burmese script, was introduced
around 1970 by some Akha young people educated in Burmese in the government
school. The use of different orthographies has made it very difficult to find unity and
to be able to work together. Both religion and the orthographies separated the
people in many ways. So some of the leaders recognised the problem and they tried
to make changes in order to bring unity.
Most of the people from Catholic and Baptist churches are familiar with reading
materials in Catholic Akha orthography (CAO) or Baptist Akha orthography (BAO).
From the late 1990s onwards the two churches tried to merge their orthographies
several times, but each attempt ended in failure. But in 2004, a group of Akha
intellectuals including two top leaders from the Akha Cultural Committee and an
influential Akha Catholic clergyman approached a Baptist linguist and started
working for a single orthography that is practical as well as acceptable for all Akha
in Myanmar. As a result, the Unified Akha Orthography (UAO) was constructed and
accepted by all Akha organizations in Myanmar, including Akha zah. But when the
Common Akha Orthography (CAO*) was developed in Thailand in 2008 by some
Akha from different countries, the Akha zah changed to that. Now, many books have
been written in Akha including dictionaries (BAO), Christian literature (BAO, UAO),
folktales (BAO, UAO), and technical manuals in agriculture (UAO). The UAO is
based on CAO, so the people who read CAO are able to read UAO as well. A
comparison of Akha alphabets can be seen in section 2.6.
1.4 Akha Cultural Committee (ACC) There is a community body that organizes aspects of cultural life for all Akha in
Myanmar. It is the Akha cultural committee. Representatives of the three religious
groups - Christian, Buddhist, and Akha zah, are included in the committee. In the
committee there are also sub-committees such as: women, youth, cultural, literature,
etc. Since Akha people live in many townships in Eastern Shan State, various
townships have their own local Akha cultural committee for organizing that
township. The central one is in the capital town of Eastern Shan State, Keng Tung.
11
The ACC is one of the important bodies to organize the whole Akha people in
Myanmar. It also plays a key role in maintaining the culture. It is taking a lead in
language planning in some ways since the committee can represent the whole Akha
people in Myanmar. For example every year the ACC produces an Akha cultural
calendar and they are currently working to produce Akha pre-school materials.
The ACC organises the Akha New Year festival every single year. They celebrate the
New Year festival every 28th December with all Akha people in Myanmar. They
started celebrating the Akha New Year festival in 1975. In this festival the Akha
from different countries also attend, especially Akha from China and Thailand. This
brings Akha together because there is no separation by religious affiliation or
geography. They can work together and invite the governors and other minority
groups to participate with them as well. In this festival many Akha cultural things
can be seen and it is one way in which Akha cultural life is maintained. This is one
of the values that the ACC stands for.
There is another big job that the ACC handles for all Akha in Myanmar. This is to
lead the Akha in cooperating with the government. Since the ACC can handle it very
well, there have been no political problems between the Akha and the government.
The Akha get favours from the government because they are regarded as good
citizens by the government.
The photograph in Figure 5 shows members of the Akha Cultural committee and the
Akha New Year festival committee.
Figure 5 ACC members and Akha New Year festival committee members 2013
12
1.5 Research questions and hypothesis The objectives of this study are to assess the current level and predict the future
direction of language vitality of Akha in Myanmar. The Sustainable Use Model
(SUM) is a new theoretical framework which is closely related to the EGIDS. This
SUM provides the framework for the study. (The EGIDS and SUM are described in
section 2.2 and 2.3)
These objectives are encapsulated in the following two specific research questions
for this research.
Research Question 1. What is the current level of vitality of Akha in Myanmar?
Research Question 2. What evidence is there that the current level of vitality of
Akha in Myanmar is sustainable?
In relation to Research Question 1 the following hypothesis can be stated based on
the author’s experience as a member of the community: the vitality of Akha in
Myanmar can be assessed as EGIDS level 5.
1.6 Scope of thesis Although there are Akha communities in five countries in the region, the research in
this thesis is focused on Akha in Shan State, Myanmar. The methodology uses a
single theoretical framework for evaluating language vitality, namely the
Sustainable Use Model and the associated Extended Graded Intergenerational
Disruption Scale (EGIDS). Due to time and budget limitations, the fieldwork was
limited to a relatively small number of data collection sites although these were
carefully chosen as likely to represent a broad cross-section of Akha communities.
1.7 Contributions or benefits of the research This study will provide the most detailed assessment to date of language vitality for
Akha in Myanmar. Understanding the factors involved in language vitality will be
helpful for getting support from the community for language development initiatives
in the future. The thesis is also pioneering the use of the SUM, particularly the use of
data on Bodies of Knowledge, to add insights to more conventional questionnaire
data.
13
1.8 Outline of thesis Chapter 2 presents a description of the theoretical foundations of this research as
well as a brief review of literature relevant to the topic. Chapter 3 describes the
methodology used for the research and chapter 4 is an analysis of the data collected
by questionnaires. Chapter 5 presents the analysis of data collected on patterns of
language use in a range of Bodies of Knowledge. The final chapter, chapter 6, gives
conclusions and suggestions for further research.
14
Chapter 2
Theoretical Foundations and Literature Review
This chapter presents an outline of the theoretical concepts on which this research is
based as well as a brief review of relevant literature. In addition to the general
definition of the theoretical concepts, illustrations of these concepts from the Akha
community are given.
2.1 Sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between the language and society, or
of the various functions of language in society (Wardhaugh 2002:1). The society can
be any group of people who are gathering together for a certain purpose. The
following subsections describe topics within sociolinguistics most relevant to the
present study.
2.1.1 Language vitality A study of language vitality is important to decide on the most effective approach
for doing language development. It provides an indication of the likelihood that the
language will continue to be used in the future. Wardhaugh (2002:37) characterises
vitality as relating to ‘the existence of a living community of speakers.’ In other
words an extinct language like Latin has no vitality because it is not spoken by any
community, whereas Burmese has strong vitality because it is used by many
communities as L1 and others as L2. SIL International gives the following
description:
Language vitality is demonstrated by the extent that the language is
used as a means of communication in various social contexts for specific
purposes. The most significant indicator of a language’s vitality is its
daily use in the home. A language with high vitality would be one that
is used extensively both inside and outside the home, by all
generations, and for most, if not all, topics. (SIL International 2015).
15
The attitude speakers have toward their language affects whether the language is
sustainable or not, and it is one of the indicators used to assess language vitality
with more positive attitudes reflecting higher vitality.
For language vitality, the speakers who have a positive attitude toward
their language ideally not only strongly value their language but they
also know in which social domain their language is to be supported. A
positive attitude is a sign for the long term stability of a language,
(Brenzinger et al 2003:16).
2.1.2 Language choice Fasold (1984) said that the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about
language choice is “whole languages”. We can think of a person who speaks more
than one language. He/she has to choose a language to use. Fasold listed three kinds
of language choice: code switching, code mixing and variation in the same language.
Code switching involves a choice of language which means a language needs to be
chosen by a person who speaks two or more languages. Code mixing involves
inserting elements of one language, such as words or phrases, into another language.
The third kind of language choice is variation in the same language. These three
kinds of language choice cannot be separated from each other cleanly.
Owen (2008:62-63) summarised Fishman’s (1964) definition of domains as follows:
“domains are defined by various factors such as location, topic and participants. If
an individual is at home talking to another member of their family about an
everyday topic then that individual could be said to be in their ‘family’ domain.”
Convergence happens when a person changes his/her speech patterns to be the same
as the speech patterns of people from another group or community. On the other
hand, divergence happens when a person changes his/her speech pattern to be
distinct from people belonging to another group or community (Patrick 2014).
Crystal (1991:295) defines register as “a variety defined according to its use in social
situations, e.g. a register of scientific, religious, formal English.” In a speech
community, the language variation is chosen by the situational factors. For example,
a formal register is chosen for speaking at church or some other religious setting.
The language is used formally in the religious domain whereas it is used informally
at home or some other social settings. Code switching and code mixing tend to
happen more in informal settings but they can also occur in formal settings.
16
In the Akha situation most of the people are bilingual or multilingual, but there are
also some people who only speak Akha, i.e. they are monolingual. Language choice
is normally determined by the domain and is quite complex since they have to
choose the language from all the languages that they speak. For example, the
author, a mother-tongue Akha speaker, needs to speak at least three different
languages in her daily life, in Keng Tung, Myanmar. She speaks Akha in the home
and church domains, Shan at the market and most of the shops, and Burmese at the
office in order to communicate with people who do not speak Akha.
Regarding Akha language use for the whole Akha community, there are two
domains, namely home and religious/church, where Akha is generally the language
of choice. The Home domain is important because of Akha people use Akha there
every single day. It is predominately the oral form of the language that is used at
home. The other important domain is the religious domain. In both Akha zah and
Christian contexts, oral use of Akha is very strong. In church services a higher more
formal register is used as well as the written word from the Akha Bible or
hymnbook.
2.1.3 Language attitudes “The study of attitude in general begins with a decision between two competing
theories about the nature of attitudes” (Fasold 1984:147). These two theories are the
mentalist theory and behaviourist theory. A mentalist view of attitude says that
attitudes are internal to a person and therefore cannot be observed, whereas a
behaviourist view says that attitudes can be found in the responses people make to
particular situations. In some ways it is easier to undertake research if one adopts
the behaviourist view of attitudes, but it is only possible to draw conclusions about
the particular social situation observed, so it is not so useful. Therefore most
research is based on the mentalist view and researchers work hard to collect
unbiased information.
The other things that should be considered for attitude are cognitive (knowledge),
affective (feeling), and conative (action) components (Agheyisi and Fishman
1970:139). Cognitive includes the knowledge of something if it is true or false.
Affective includes feeling and emotion. Conative includes actions or behaviours.
These three components are important to assess the language vitality.
Baker (1992) broke language attitude into two components, ‘instrumental’ and
‘integrative’. Instrumental attitude reflects pragmatic choices through knowledge of
17
a particular domain. Integrative attitude is “more interpersonal and social and
linked with the need for affiliation” (Baker 1992:32).
Another thing that can vary regarding data collection on language attitudes is the
level of directness. At the most direct end of the spectrum the subject is aware that
the researcher is investigating their attitude to a particular language. At the other
ends of the spectrum, “a totally indirect method would be designed to keep the
subject from knowing that her language attitudes were being investigated” (Fasold
1984:149).
Various tools have been used in attitude research. Questionnaires, interviews and
observation are three of the most general methods. Questionnaires allow the
researcher to collect data efficiently and to collect the same data from many
different people. This data can be collated and compared to investigate possible
patterns of response. When using a questionnaire, two kinds of questions can be
considered: open and closed questions. Open questions allow the respondents
freedom to respond in any way they choose. On the other hand closed questions
have a limited number of allowable responses. For example, the respondent can only
answer Yes or No or choose from a fixed list of choices. Closed questions are much
easier to analyse for the researcher whereas open questions can give helpful insights
that the researcher might not have thought of. A combination of open and closed
questions allows the researcher to get the advantages of both types.
Fasold said “Interviews are like open-question questionnaires without the
questionnaire” (1984:152). Normally a researcher asks attitude questions and
records the responses by writing them down or using a recorder. The main
disadvantage of interviews is that they are very time-consuming, and the data is not
so easy to compare between different interviewees.
Observation is the least intrusive method of data collection and gives the most
natural data. The researcher can observe the people’s behaviour just by watching
them. Deductions are made about the mental process by observing responses to
certain natural situations, ideally without the participants being aware that they are
being observed. So observation is the best way to investigate from a behaviourist
view of attitude.
18
2.1.4 Diglossia The term ‘diglossia’ refers to the use of two language varieties for different purposes
in the same community. The varieties are labelled H (for High) and L (for Low). An
important aspect of diglossia is specialization: H being appropriate in one set of
situations and L being appropriate in another set. Typically one variety is more
formal while the other one is used informally as a mark of lower social status or less
education (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online).
According to Ferguson (1959: 232-251) there are nine characteristics of diglossia.
i) Function (specialized for H and L),
ii) Prestige (H superior to L in some respects),
iii) Literary heritage (H has large, respected body of literature),
iv) Acquisition (Adults use L with children, H taught in school),
v) Standardization (tradition of grammatical study of H),
vi) Stability (H and L persist for several centuries),
vii) Grammar (H has grammatical categories not found in L),
viii) Lexicon (the bulk of vocabulary in H and L are shared), and
ix) Phonology (H has phonological distinctions L does not have).
The Akha language is spoken strongly within the Akha community. However some
of the young educated people speak Burmese even in the Akha community. It is true
that they still need to speak Burmese, Shan, and Chinese language to communicate
with others out of the community. Also they have to learn Burmese at school since
the language of instruction is Burmese.
2.2 Measuring vitality with EGIDS In this section the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS) is
described (Lewis and Simons 2015). EGIDS provides a scale for measuring language
vitality. EGIDS is an extension of Fishman’s (1991) Graded International Disruption
Scale (GIDS) which is shown in Table 3.
19
Table 3 Fishman's Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS)
Level Description
1 The language is used in education, work, mass media, and government at the
national level
2 The language is used for local and regional mass media and governmental services
3 The language is used for local and regional work by both insiders and outsiders
4 Literacy in the language is transmitted through education
5 The language is used orally by all generations and is effective used in written
form throughout the community
6 The language is used orally by all generation and is being learned by children as
their first language
7 The child-bearing generation knows the language well enough to use it with their
elders but is not transmitting it to their children
8 The only remaining speakers of the language are members of the grandparent
generation
In Table 3 the lowest number on the scale represents the highest level of language
vitality or the least disruption of the transmission of the language from one
generation to the next. Higher numbers represent greater degrees of disruption,
culminating in level 8 where transmission has effectively ceased because present
generations of parents and children do not speak the language.
Lewis and Simons (2015:105-106) expanded the GIDS in order to create a scale that
could be used to describe any language situation, not just endangered languages.
The 13 levels of the EGIDS are described in Table 4.
20
Table 4 Expanded GIDS (Lewis and Simons 2015: 105-106)
Level Label Description
0 International The language is widely used between nations in trade,
knowledge exchange, and international policy.
1 National The language is used in education, work, mass media, and
government at the national level.
2 Provincial This language is used in education, work, mass media, and
government within major administrative subdivisions of a
nation.
3 Wider
Communication
The language is used in work and mass media without official
status to transcend language differences across a region.
4 Educational The language is in vigorous use, with standardization and
literature being sustained through a widespread system of
institutionally supported education.
5 Developing The language is in vigorous use, with literature in a
standardized from being used by some though this is not yet
widespread or sustainable.
6a Vigorous The language is used for face-to-face communication by all
generations and the situation is sustainable.
6b Threatened The language is used for face-to-face communication within all
generations, but it is losing users.
7 Shifting The child-bearing generation can use the language among
themselves, but it is not being transmitted to children.
8a Moribund The only remaining active users of the language are members of
the grandparent generation and older.
8b Nearly Extinct The only remaining users of the language are members of the
grandparent generation or older who have little opportunity to
use the language.
9 Dormant The language serves as a reminder of heritage identity for an
ethnic community, but no one has more than symbolic
proficiency.
10 Extinct The language is no longer used and no one retains a sense of
ethnic identity associated with the language.
21
Level 0 is the highest level of language vitality and describes a situation where the
language is widely used at an international level for knowledge exchange and
international policy. At the other end of the scale is level 10, where no one remains
who can speak the language. Such languages are called ‘extinct’.
To determine the current EGIDS level of a particular language, Lewis and Simons
(2010:11-14) pose a series of five key questions. The five questions together with
allowable answers are shown in Table 5.
Table 5 EGIDS Key Questions and Allowable Answers
Number Key Question Allowable Answers
1 What is the identity function? Historical; Heritage; Home; Vehicular
2 What is the level of official use? International; National; Regional; not
official
3 Are all parents transmitting the
language to their children?
Yes; No
4 What is the literacy status? Institutional; Incipient; None
5 What is the youngest generation
that has at least some proficient
speakers?
Great Grandparents; Grandparents;
Parents; Children
22
Figure 6 (reproduced from Lewis and Simons 2010) shows an overview of a decision
tree that presents the key questions in an ordered fashion.
Yes
HOME
No
Figure 6 Tree diagram to determine EGIDS level (Lewis and Simons 2010:114)
Q.1. What is
the identity
function?
Q.3. Are all parents
transmitting the
language to their
children?
Q.4. What is the
literacy status?
Q.2. What is the
level of official
use?
Q.5. What is the
youngest generation
that has at least some
proficient Speakers?
VEHICULAR
HERITAGE
HISTORICAL
0. International
1. National
2. Provincial
3. Wider
Communication
4. Educational
5. Developing
(Incipient)
6a. Vigorous
6b. Threatened
7. Shifting
8a. Moribund
8b. Nearly
Extinct
9. Dormant
10. Extinct
23
The answer to Key Question #1 will determine which Key Question (KQ) must be
answered next. If the answer to KQ#1 is either HERITAGE or HISTORICAL then no
further questions need be answered. If the answer to KQ#1 is VEHICULAR then only
KQ#2 must be answered in order to determine the EGIDS level. If the answer to
KQ#1 was HOME then KQ#3 followed by Either KQ#4 or KQ#5 must be answered.
2.3 Sustainable Use Model Lewis and Simons (2015:19) define community-based language development as
follows. “Community-based language development focuses on helping minority
language communities identify and achieve a sustainable level of language use for
their heritage language.” The rapid spread of modern technology as well as
globalization can cause language vitality to decrease among minority language
groups. Lewis & Simons (2015) developed the Sustainable Use Model (SUM) as a
tool that can help to describe the level of language vitality and identify if it is
sustainable or not. The SUM uses EGIDS as the measure of language vitality. Once
the level of vitality has been determined, a community can choose to do language
development activities appropriate to their vitality level which can help them raise
the vitality level of their language.
A key insight of the SUM is that certain levels of language vitality are sustainable,
whereas other levels are not sustainable. The four sustainable levels, namely,
sustainable history, sustainable identity, sustainable orality and sustainable literacy,
are pictured as a hierarchy in Figure 7.
24
Figure 7 Hierarchy of Sustainable Use (Source: Lewis and Simons 2015:148)
In the case of sustainable history, the language is no longer spoken and does not
serve any function in the community even though it has been documented
adequately and it is archived safely and reliably. The sustainable history level
corresponds to EGIDS level 10, Extinct. In the case of sustainable identity, there are
no proficient speakers of the language. The members of the community remember
the language but do not speak it. They identify the language as the language of
previous generations. However, they might use very limited amounts of the
language for example in ceremonies or other cultural events to express their identity
and heritage. This sustainable level corresponds to the EGIDS level 9. In the case of
sustainable orality, the community members speak the language as their first
language, and they transmit the language to their children well. The sustainable
orality level corresponds to EGIDS level 6a. In the case of sustainable literacy, all
generations in the community have the ability not only to speak the language but
also to read and write in their language.
25
2.4 FAMED conditions In this section the so-called FAMED conditions are described (Lewis and Simons
2015:159). The acronym stands for: Function; Acquisition; Motivation; Environment;
Differentiation. The FAMED conditions provide a more detailed framework for
assessing the vitality level in the community with a view to identifying activities
that the community can do to move their language towards one of the sustainable
levels of language use. The FAMED conditions are outlined in Table 6.
Table 6 FAMED conditions (Lewis and Simons 2015:159)
Condition Name Description of Condition
Functions Functions (uses, bodies of knowledge) associated with the language
must exist and be recognized by the community.
Acquisition A means of acquiring the needed proficiency to use the language for
those functions must be in place and accessible to community members.
Motivation Community members must be motivated to use the language for those
functions. They must perceive that the use of the language is beneficial
in some way.
Environment The policy environment (including at national, regional, and local
levels) must not be hostile to the use of the language for those
functions.
Differentiation Societal norms must clearly delineate the functions assigned to the local
language marking them as distinct from the function for other
languages in the speech community’s repertoire.
The following subsections present the approach to measuring the five FAMED
conditions.
2.4.1 Functions Lewis and Simons (2015:160) say that the function of language is like clothing. For
example people know what kind of clothes to wear in different situations. People
never wear wedding clothes to go to the market! Likewise people choose which
language functions best for each situation.
Lewis and Simons (2015:167) provide a scale for measuring the functions of a
language. The levels on the scale correspond to EGIDS levels and the authors
provide descriptions which characterise each level. The descriptions are shown in
Table 7 along with the highest potential EGIDS level. The reason it is called the
highest potential EGIDS level is that, having the condition allows that level to be
achieved but it does not guarantee that that level will be achieved. For example,
26
level F2 requires that enough literature exists. However, the existence of literature
does not guarantee that people will be using the literature. In logic terms, these
conditions are ‘necessary’ but not ‘sufficient’.
Table 7 Function scale (Lewis and Simons 2015:167)
Level Description Highest EGIDS
potential
F1 Adequate literature exists in this language for every Function for
which writing in this language is desired
4 (Education)
F2 Enough literature exists in this language for some Functions to
exemplify the value of literacy in this language.
5 (Developing)
F3 The language is being used orally for the Functions of day-to-
day life, but there is no written use of the language.
6a (Vigorous)
F4 Some members of the community use the language orally for the
Functions of day-to-day life, but an increasing number no longer
do so.
6b (Threatened)
to 8a
(Moribund)
F5 There is enough oral use of this language to represent the
identity of the group, but not enough for full communication.
8b (Nearly
Extinct) and 9
(Dormant)
F6 The language is no longer used but there are enough archival
materials that some Functions could be restored in the future.
10 (Extinct)
F7 The language is no longer used and there is little or no
documentation.
10 (Extinct)
As can be seen in the table with function levels F6-F7, sometimes more than one
level of function corresponds to a single highest EGIDS potential. On the other hand,
sometimes single Function level corresponds to two or three EGIDS levels. F4
corresponds to EGIDS level 6b, 7, and 8a. To describe it more detail, Functions level
F4 corresponds to EGIDS level 6b when the youngest generation is still using the
language for the Functions of their daily life. F4 corresponds to EGIDS level 7 when
the children are no longer using the language, and it corresponds to EGIDS level 8a
when there is no native speaker left in the childbearing generation.
Likewise Functions level F5 corresponds to EGIDS level 8b (Nearly Extinct) and 9
(Dormant). At the F5 level, the function of the language is entirely identity-related.
At level 8b stage there are so few people who speak L1 left that they do not have
regular contact with other speakers so they are unable to use the language on a daily
basis. At EGIDS level 9 there are no speakers with more than symbolic proficiency in
the language.
27
2.4.2 Acquisition The second condition is Acquisition. The form and extent of acquisition of the
language will determine the highest EGIDS potential in the community. The content
of what is passed on from one generation to the next will be determined by where it
is passed on. For example, the community can pass on the history, stories,
traditional songs, and other heritage things informally through family or more
formally at school. If the language is to be passed on as a means of communication
between individuals, it will most likely have to be passed on through oral
transmission at home and/or in the community. There may also be a role for
transmission via formal education if there is a standardized form of the language.
The acquisition scale is shown in Table 8.
28
Table 8 Acquisition scale (Lewis and Simons 2015:171)
Level Description Highest
EGIDS
potential
A1 Literacy in this language is being taught by trained teachers under
the auspices of a sustainable institution.
4 (Education)
A2 There are adequate materials in this language to support literacy
instruction in the language and some members of the community
are successfully learning to read and write about some bodies of
knowledge in the language.
5
(Developing)
A3 There is full face-to-face transmission of this language to all
children in the home and community; literacy acquisition, if any,
is in another language.
6a (Vigorous)
A4 Only some of the child-bearing generations are transmitting the
language by normal means to their children.
6b
(Threatened)
A5 The only transmission of the language is for identificational use
(often in institutional settings rather than the home).
7 (Shifting)
to 9
(Dormant)
A6 There is no transmission of this language. 10 (Extinct)
As shown in Table 8, Acquisition level A5 corresponds to EGIDS levels 7-9
(Shifting)-(Dormant). So for the level A5, a single level corresponds to four EGIDS
levels. The A5 level describes “the situation where intergenerational transmission of
the language for day-to-day communication has ceased… In most cases, language
Acquisition at this level centers around memorization and performance of traditional
stories, poems, songs and dances which reinforce the heritage identity. Like the
preservation of traditional ways of dress, crafts, arts, and technologies, language is
another tool in the identity construction and maintenance repertoire of the
community.” (Lewis and Simons 2015:174) The appropriate EGIDS level for a
particular language will depend on which is the youngest generation of proficient
speakers. In other words, if the child-bearing generation can speak the language but
are not passing it on to their children, A5 corresponds to EGIDS 7. If the only
generation of proficient speakers is the grandparent generation, A5 corresponds to
EGIDS 8a if the grandparents are actively using it and 8b if they have little
opportunity to use it in everyday life. EGIDS 9 is the level when there are no longer
any proficient speakers of the language.
29
2.4.3 Motivation Economic reasons are among the strongest factors providing motivation for the use
of a particular language. The table below shows the motivation scale.
Table 9 Motivation scale (Lewis and Simons 2015:175)
Level Description Highest
EGIDS
Potential
M1 Members of the speech community perceive the benefits of
reading and writing in this language.
4 (Education)
M2 Some members of the speech community perceive the benefits of
reading and writing in this language, but the majority of them
still do not.
5
(Developing)
M3 Members of the speech community perceive the benefits of using
this language for face-to-face communication, but they perceive
no benefits in reading and writing it.
6a (Vigorous)
M4 Some members of the child-bearing generation perceive the
benefits of using this language for face-to-face communication,
but others find more benefit in shifting to another language.
6b
(Threatened)
M5 The child-bearing generation perceives no practical benefit in
using this language, though they still perceive symbolic benefit.
7 (Shifting) to
9 (Dormant)
M6 Descendants of the language community associate neither
practical nor symbolic benefits with the language.
10 (Extinct)
The Motivation scale is also similar to Acquisition scale. There is one level, M5,
which corresponds to four EGIDS levels, 7-9 (Shifting-Dormant). In this level the
parents believe that to acquire a dominant language is better for their children.
However they also have strong emotional ties to their language and so they use it as
a marker of identity for example in ceremonial performances or cultural events.
Other than that they choose a dominant language to speak with their children.
2.4.4 Environment The fourth condition of sustainable use is the Environment. Normally the situation
focuses on the language policy environment. Organizations and institutions have
their own language policy mostly. The follow table shows the Environment scale.
30
Table 10 Environment scale (Lewis and Simons 2015:179)
Level Description Highest EGIDS
Potential
E1 The external policy environment calls for the cultivation of this
language and cultural identity, and the policy-making bodies are
putting this into practice by sanctioning an official orthography
and using their institutions to transmit literacy in this language.
4 (Educational)
E2 The external policy environment encourages the development of
this language, but the policy-making bodies are making no
investment in the implementation of such policy.
5 (Developing)
E3 The external policy environment has nothing to say about
ethnolinguistic diversity or language development and thus
raises no impediment.
5 (Developing),
6a (Vigorous)
E4 The external policy environment affirms the oral use of this
language, but calls for the language to be left in its current state
and not developed.
6a (Vigorous),
6b Threatened)
E5 The external policy environment is hostile toward ethnolinguistic
diversity and calls for the elimination or suppression of this
language.
7 (shifting) to
10 (Extinct)
The E2 and E3 correspond to a single EGIDS level 5. Likewise E3 and E4 also
correspond to a single EGIDS level 6a. On the other hand, the EGIDS levels 5 and 6a
correspond to a single level E3, and then EGIDS levels 6a and 6b correspond to a
single level E4. Lastly the EGIDS level 7-10 correspond to a single level E5.
At the E3 level the government language policy only focuses on using the national
language but not on local language development. There is no prohibition of local
language development but no implementation by the government. The E3 level can
support an EGIDS level of 5 in which some local institution undertakes language
development but EGIDS 6a in which the language is primarily used in oral form only
is also common.
At the E4 level the government authorities either do not support or actively oppose
the development of local languages. It is still possible for the language to be used
vigorously in oral form (EGIDS 6a) but it is also possible that parents will begin to
not transmit the language to their children (EGIDS 6b).
31
At the E5 level the government authorities are against not only local language
development but also against their continued use. Thus “the long-term prognosis at
level E5 is EGIDS 10 (Extinct), though if a community can maintain its identity
(even covertly) in defiance of government opposition, EGIDS 9 (Dormant) may be
achievable. As a prohibition against transmitting the language goes into effect, the
corresponding EGIDS level is EGIDS 7 (Shifting) and it will drop from there”. (Lewis
and Simons 2015:182)
2.4.5 Differentiation The final condition of sustainable use is Differentiation. The different levels of the
differentiation scale are shown in Table 11. Differentiation refers to the use of
different languages in different domains and so is related to the concept of diglossia.
The authors state that they chose the term ‘differentiation’ instead of ‘diglossia’
because they wanted to avoid confusion caused by multiple definitions of diglossia
(Lewis & Simons 2015:182).
Table 11 Differentiation scale (Lewis and Simons 2015:183)
Level Description Highest EGIDS
Potential
D1 Members of the language community have a set of shared
norms as to when to use this language orally and in writing
versus when to use another language.
4 (Education)
D2 Members of the speech community have a set of shared norms
as to when to use this language orally versus when to use other
languages, but for writing, some use this language while others
use another language for many of the same Functions.
5 (Developing)
D3 Members of this speech community have a set of shared norms
as to when to use this language orally versus when to use other
languages and they never use this language in written form.
6a (Vigorous)
D4 Some members of the child-bearing generation use this
language orally for Functions of day-to-day life, while others
use a different language for many of the same Functions.
6b (Threatened)
D5 The only Functions for this language that remain for all in the
speech community are identificational, and there is a set of
shared norms as to when and how they use the language as a
marker of their ethnic identity.
7 (Shifting) to 9
(Dormant)
D6 For some members of the speech community the only remaining
Functions for this language are identificational, while others use
a different language for many of the same Functions.
9 (Dormant)
32
In the Differentiation condition there is no level which corresponds to EGIDS level
10. In a similar way to the Functions and Motivation scales, Differentiation level D5
corresponds to EGIDS levels 7-9 (Shifting to Dormant), that it those EGIDS levels
where transmission of the language for day-to-day communication has become
broken. The EGIDS level for a particular language is determined by the youngest
generation of proficient speakers using the language.
2.5 Bodies of Knowledge Lewis & Simons (2015:31-36) propose investigating language use by examining
‘bodies of knowledge’, that is, knowledge that is crucial to some aspect of life and
the language used to express it.
Two different kinds of knowledge are described, ‘internal’ knowledge and ‘external’
knowledge. These are also called ‘inside’ bodies of knowledge and ‘outside’ bodies of
knowledge. Internal knowledge refers to things that are part of the culture of the
community such as stories, folk tales, legends, and ritual uses of language,
ceremonies or festivals, also non-verbal activities such as cuisine, costumes, arts,
music, dance, and visual arts. The community should transmit this kind of
knowledge in order to sustain their language and culture. Lewis & Simons
(2015:197) give a short list of internal knowledge that might include the following
among many others:
• Folklore and origin stories,
• History of the community (origin stories, historical events, etc.),
• Life histories of community members,
• Folk taxonomy and uses of flora and fauna,
• Traditional religion and cosmology,
• Traditional art forms,
• Health and healing,
• Local technology,
• Food and clothing, and
• Subsistence practice and technologies.
External knowledge refers to things that are not traditionally part of the culture, but
have become part of the life of the community. This often includes new technology
or ideas that have been developed by other people groups. Linguistically these
include loan words, translated terminology, innovations in patterns of speech, or the
33
acquisition of second language proficiency (Lewis & Simons 2015:36). The
community needs to transmit the external knowledge as well as internal knowledge;
otherwise the ability to benefit from external knowledge or resources may be lost.
This division between internal and external is not always clear. For example, words
that were originally borrowed from another language eventually become part of the
language itself and are used as any other non-borrowed word might be.
Lewis & Simons (2015:198) give a short list of external knowledge that might
include the following among many others:
• World history,
• World religions,
• Scientific and technology,
• Mathematics,
• Nutrition and hygiene,
• Medicine and pharmacology, and
• Agriculture and food production.
An ‘Inside’ body of knowledge is knowledge that is part of the culture of the
language community and is used in their daily life. The knowledge is passed on from
generation to generation and it is not transmitted by outsiders. Normally it is
transmitted orally and it belongs to the community. On the other hand, an ‘Outside’
body of knowledge comes from outsiders. Normally it is technical terms and
loanwords that are needed as the community adopts new technology or new ideas. It
is used in the community as their language and over time it can become inside
knowledge when the community passes it on from generation to generation.
2.6 Literature Review There is not much published research about Akha sociolinguistics. However, there
are works about Akha culture and Akha linguistics which will be briefly described in
this section. Paul W. Lewis (not M. Paul Lewis) spent many years serving the Akha
community and wrote many books about Akha in Akha as well. Story books,
legends, health books, and an Akha-English-Thai dictionary were also written by
him. Aside from his ethnographic and linguistic publications he also did Bible
translation in Akha, especially the New Testament. Lewis wrote four volumes of
ethnographic notes, which are outlined in Table 12. The books are available online
and are free to download. (See Bibliography for web address.)
34
Table 12 Paul W. Lewis's ethnographic books
Year Volume Titles
1961 I Akha phonology; Akha Religious Beliefs; Akha Religious Practices
Akha Religious Practitioner; Organised Ceremony
1970 II Sickness and treatment; Preventative medicine
1970 III Food Quest; Animal husbandry; Agriculture
Food Processing and Consumption; Dwellings; Settlements
Property; Offenses and Sanctions; Justice
1970 IV Name and Naming
As can be seen from the table, Lewis’s writings describe many aspects of Akha
culture, their beliefs, traditional medicines, agriculture, and phonology. Here brief
attention will be given to the phonology and naming practices.
Lewis (1969) found that there are 26 consonant phonemes, 13 vowels and three
diphthongs in Akha. Akha has three level tones: high tone, mid tone, and low tone.
Aside from that there are two laryngealized tones for mid tone and low tone. So it
should be considered Akha has five tones altogether. Lewis 1969 said that “the tone
marks indicate both the nature of the vowel (whether oral or laryngealized) and the
pitch (high, mid or low).”
Normally an Akha name has two parts. The first part of the child’s name must be the
second part of the father’s name. This is the official name and normally they don’t
use it very often. They only use it for special occasion or event. So a nick name is
given to everyone, normally by their parents, in order not to use the official name in
any situation. They mostly use their nick name in daily life. A sample of naming for
Akha can be seen in the Table 2 Genealogy of author, in the introduction section.
Kya Heh (2002) wrote “A descriptive study of Akha sentence final particles” for his
Payap University MA thesis. Altogether he described 87 particles and gave examples
for each one. Since he is a native speaker of Akha, the analysis and descriptions
benefit from the insights and intuition of the native speaker. He also spent about 13
years (1983-1996) to translate the Akha Bible, Old and New Testament.
Kya Heh and Tehan (2000) wrote “The current status of Akha.” It included
descriptions of the orthographies that existed at that time and a comparison of those
orthographies. They found 10 different orthographies and showed each orthography
in the table below and compared how they differ from each other. The use of each
orthography was also illustrated in a clause with an example. Figure 8 below shows
the transcription of a clause which means “Akha marriage customs” in 10 Akha
orthographies.
35
Figure 8 Akha/Hani phrase in 10 orthographies (Kya Heh and Tehan 2000:8)
For ease of comparison, the following table shows the same sentence transcribed in
orthographies that have been developed since Kya Heh & Tehan’s paper.
Table 13 Comparison of Akha Orthographies Developed since 2000
UAO
(Unified Akha Orthography 2004) Aˬkhaˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ oeˇ mˇ baˇ dzaˬ-eu zahˇ sahˇ qoꞈ
CAO*
(Common Akha Orthography 2008) Aqkaq tsawr jeq oer mr bar dzaq-e zanr sanr khof
CAO*
(Common Akha Orthography 2009) Aqkaq tsawrjeq oermrbar dzaq-e zanrsanrkhovq
Boonyasaranai (2010) describes the creation of the Common Akha Orthography
(CAO*) in her thesis. She did her research in Northern Thailand especially in Chiang
Rai. Her interest is the use of Common Akha Orthography and its usage in the Akha
community. It shows that the orthography was created in 2008 and revised in 2009.
She included the CAO classes’ participants in different areas.
Inga-Lill Hansson spent over 20 years conducting extensive linguistic research for
Akha. She published 16 articles and papers in the period 1974-1997. The 14 of her
papers relating to linguistics are listed in Table 14.
36
Table 14 List of Inga-Lill Hansson's papers
No. Date Authors Title of paper
1. 1974 Inga-Lill Hansson,
and Søren Egerod
An Akha conversation on death and funeral
2. 1976 Inga-Lill Hansson,
and Søren Egerod
Aspects of Akha grammar
3. 1979 Inga-Lill Hansson Sound changes in Akha
4. 1982 Inga-Lill Hansson Where have all the adjectives gone?
5. 1985 Inga-Lill Hansson Verb concatenation in Akha
6. 1987 Inga-Lill Hansson The language of Akha ritual text
7. 1988 Inga-Lill Hansson Akheu Akha and Pahi Akha – two little known
Burnese-Yipho language
8. 1989 Inga-Lill Hansson A comparison of Akha, Hani, Khatu, and Pijɔ
9. 1989 Inga-Lill Hansson The word order of Akha nouns
10. 1991 Inga-Lill Hansson Akha oral text-memorized or created a new?
11. 1996 Inga-Lill Hansson The interplay between the verb particle ‘ə’ and the
sentence particles in Akha
12. 1996 Inga-Lill Hansson Object-verb in Akha: The ABB structure
13. 1996 Inga-Lill Hansson The Akha connection
14. 1997 Inga-Lill Hansson Oral transmitted texts of the minorities in east and
southeast Asia: suggestions for research across
borders
While some of the papers are about aspects of Akha grammar, some have relevance
to sociolinguistics so these will be reviewed below.
The earliest paper in 1974 was about “An Akha conversation on death and funeral”.
In this paper a conversation of two Akha people talking about death and funerals is
described. It can be seen how the funeral of an Akha zah would be done. It also can
be noted that their oral and culture transmitting were very strong. Even though
there was no written book about those things they transmitted it orally from
generation to generation.
Another paper in 1976 was about “Aspects of Akha grammar”. The informants were
mostly from Chiang Rai province, Thailand. Since they had informants who spoke
the common dialect, Jeughoe [dʒə˨ɣœ˨], the description is understandable with
little difficulty by those Akha from other countries.
Another paper is about “the language of Akha ritual texts.” The text is recited by the
religious leaders such as what they call Phima [pʰi˦ma˧] or assistant, Phiza [pʰi˦za˨],
37
at the occasion of a funeral. The recitation takes about eight hours without pause
and it takes place during three nights or more depending on the version. It is not
written down; they have good concentration and memories. The people who are
interested in learning the ritual texts have to be trained by the Phima. They have a
special teaching rhythm that is called [nɛ˨ʔ kʰə˨kʰə˨ə], and the Phima recites the
whole night. They might have several nights in a year to learn it depending on how
many people die in the village. And then they become assistant (Phiza) first, then
Phima later on depending on how well he could handle it. Thus this is a traditional
transmitting of the ritual texts.
Tooker (1992) discusses the nature of Akha zah, which she said should not be
referred to as ‘religion’ because her research led her to conclude that the Akha did
not hold strong beliefs in relation to Akha zah in the same way such beliefs are
associated with Western concepts of religion. She suggested the term ‘relationship to
tradition’ or ‘ethno-religion’ to describe Akha zah (Tooker 1992:803). Tooker
(1992:803) also says that the term ‘Animist’ as defined as a ‘belief in the spirits’ is
not accurate in referring to Akha zah. For this reason the term zah will be used in
this thesis.
Kammerer (1990:280) gives further detail and discussion about Akha zah. She
explains that the male leader of the village (dzoeˬ ma) is ‘ranked above the reciter
(phiˇ ma or boeˇ mawˬ). The fact that any ritual – even an elaborate funeral at which
a buffalo is killed for the deceased – can be performed without the presence of a
reciter demonstrates that for the Akha the efficacy of ritual is rooted in actions
rather than words.’ Perhaps this emphasis on the action rather than words that
accompany the action might be one reason why Akha zah has not developed a
culture of written materials for practising the zah.
38
Chapter 3
Methodology
This chapter describes the methodology and research design used in this thesis.
There were two main kinds of data collection instruments used: sociolinguistic
questionnaires and a participatory method referred to as the Bodies of Knowledge
Participatory Tool. The questionnaires were designed specifically for this research
but based on the Research and Instrument Design Tool (RAID) (Nahhas et al. n.d.).
All the questionnaires were first designed in English and then translated into Akha
by the author. The theoretical framework for the study as a whole is the Sustainable
Use Model [SUM] (Lewis 2010). The concept of investigating language maintenance
via Bodies of Knowledge is due to Lewis though the method of eliciting information
using pictures to represent of Bodies of Knowledge was developed for the present
study. The various types of questionnaire are described in more detail in the
following section, and the Bodies of Knowledge Participatory Tool is described in
section 3.2.
3.1 Questionnaires Six different questionnaires were developed for this research. These are:
i. Individual sociolinguistic questionnaire (ISLQ),
ii. Knowledgeable insider questionnaire (KIQ),
iii. Religious leader questionnaire (RLQ),
iv. Teacher interview questionnaire (TIQ),
v. Literacy manager Questionnaire (LMQ),
vi. Background research Questionnaire (BRQ)
For the first trip only three questionnaires, TIQ, KIQ, RLQ, were used in each village,
and for the second trip ISLQ, KIQ, RLQ were used in each village and TIQ was used
in one village which has a literacy class. Altogether 11 villages were asked three
questionnaires (TIQ, KIQ, RLQ), and 7 villages were asked all the questionnaires and
also BOK. The LMQ was used to interview the manager of the literacy program that
is run in the Akha Baptist community and BRQ was asked to the only Akha linguist
in the whole Akha community.
39
3.1.1 Individual Sociolinguistic Questionnaire (ISLQ) The objective of the Individual Sociolinguistic Questionnaire is to investigate how
Akha people are using their mother tongue; e.g. in what setting, which age group,
etc. In each village 12 people: 6 male and 6 female, 3 under 39 and 3 above 40 in
each gender, were interviewed. Also 84 people from 7 villages were interviewed
using this questionnaire. Both of the full questionnaires, in Akha and English can be
seen in Appendix A. The questionnaire is divided into 9 sections grouped by topic.
Table 15 lists the sections and gives a brief description of the content of the section.
Table 15 Descriptions of sections on Individual Sociolinguistic Questionnaire
Section Title Summary of Information Elicited
Preliminary Information Information about interview: location, interviewer name,
language used for interview etc.
Subject demographics Basic information about subject: age, education,
languages spoken, work etc.
Domain of language use Information about language use in different domains.
Attitude toward LWC literature Information about how well Akha like LWC literature.
Interest in literacy Information about the subjects’ interest in Akha literacy.
Attitude toward Akha
literature
Information about their attitude toward mother tongue.
Ethnolinguistic Identity Information about their attitude toward their language
and culture.
Bilingualism Information about the subjects’ proficiency in LWCs.
Children Language use and
language maintenance
Information about children’s language and language
maintenance.
3.1.2 Knowledgeable Insider Questionnaire The knowledgeable insider questionnaire was designed to get information relevant
to a village as a whole. There are two advantages of this: firstly it gathers
information from someone who is knowledgeable about the village as a whole, and
secondly it does not waste time asking individuals questions that do not vary from
person to person, such as whether there is a school in the village. Normally the
knowledgeable insider is the village leader. The English and Akha versions of the
questionnaire are given in Appendix B. In this questionnaire, 11 sections are
included as described in Table 16.
40
Table 16 Description of sections on Knowledgeable Insider Questionnaire
Section Title Summary of Information Elicited
Preliminary Information Information about the interview: interviewer, location,
language used, etc.
Subject demographics Basic information about subject: age, education,
languages spoken, work etc.
Tribal group information Information about how other people call them, and where
they originally come from.
Village name and population Information about village population and how others call
their village.
Intermarriage Information about marriage patterns.
School Information about education, language use in school, etc.
Language maintenance Information about to whether all sections of the village
speak their language well.
LWCs Information about dominant languages and people groups
in that area.
Contact Information about contact with other Akha villages.
Contact with Shan Information about contact with Shan people and their
relationship with Shan.
Akha Literacy Information about Akha literacy and their attitude toward
the literacy program.
3.1.3 Religious Leader Questionnaires This questionnaire is designed to find out patterns of language use in the religious
domain. The questionnaire was designed to be used with a religious leader in each
village. There were two kinds of religious leader questionnaires: (i) Christian Leader
Questionnaire (CLQ) and (ii) Akha zah Leader Questionnaire (ALQ). The Christian
leader questionnaire was used in both Baptist villages and Roman Catholic villages.
The Akha zah leader questionnaire was designed for Akha zah villages. In Christian,
Catholic or Baptist, villages the pastor was the one who gave answers to the
questions. In Akha zah villages one of the religious leaders responded to the
questions. The questionnaires are both divided into sections are described in Table
17. Both the CLQ and the ALQ are given in appendix C.
41
Table 17 Descriptions of sections on Religious Leader Questionnaires
Section Title Questionnaire Summary of Information Elicited
Preliminary Information CLQ, ALQ Information about the interview: interviewer,
location, language used, etc.
Subject demographics CLQ, ALQ Basic information about subject: age,
education, languages spoken, work etc.
Church Information CLQ Basic information about the Church.
Language use CLQ, ALQ Information about language use in different
areas of religious life.
Akha Bible CLQ Information about using Akha Bible and
religious books.
Burmese Bible CLQ Information about using national language
Bible.
Akha literacy CLQ Information about Akha literacy and their
attitude toward the literacy program.
Akha zah leader
information
ALQ Information about the number of religious
leaders and their roles in the village.
Festivals ALQ Information about their religious festivals.
Literature ALQ Information about their literature in the
religious domain.
3.1.4 Teacher Interview Questionnaire The teacher interview questionnaire is designed for use with literacy class teachers
to get a better understanding of what is happening and how useful the class is for
the community. It also asks about how much the community is interested in and
supportive of the literacy program.
Twelve teachers were interviewed from the 18 villages in the sample. There were 13
villages that have a literacy class in the village, but only 12 teachers were available
to be interviewed because one of the teachers was sick when the research was been
done at the Naung Noon Akha village, in Keng Tung. The sections are described in
Table 18. The full questionnaire is given in appendix D.
42
Table 18 Descriptions of sections on Teacher Interview Questionnaire
Section Title Summary of Information Elicited
Preliminary Information Information about the interview: interviewer, location,
language used, etc.
Subject demographics Basic information about subject: age, education, languages
spoken, work etc.
Akha literacy program Information about the practical details of the Akha literacy
program.
Attitudes Information about attitudes towards the literacy program.
3.1.5 Literacy Manager Questionnaire (LMQ) This questionnaire was designed to find out the current situation of the Akha
literacy program as a whole. The Literacy Program Manager of the Akha Baptist
Convention is the person with the most complete information about the program.
The questionnaire was designed to facilitate an interview with the literacy manager.
The sections of the questionnaire are described in Table 19. The English version of
the questionnaire is given in appendix E.
Table 19 Description of sections on Literacy Manager Questionnaire
Section Title Summary of Information Elicited
Overview of Akha in
Myanmar
Information about Akha in Myanmar.
Akha literacy program Information about the literacy program that is currently
run by ABC.
Institutions Information about institutions that provide training for
Akha literacy teachers.
Akha Baptist Convention Details about language policy and practice in ABC.
3.1.6 Background Research Questionnaire (BRQ) This questionnaire was designed to facilitate an interview with an Akha linguist who
was asked to answer the questions through his experiences promoting linguistics in
the community. The sections of the questionnaire are described in Table 20. The
English version of the questionnaire is given in appendix F.
43
Table 20 Description of sections on Background Research Questionnaire
Section Title Summary of Information Elicited
Demographics Information about Akha population and religion.
Akha Cultural Committee Information about ACC (Akha Cultural committee).
History of Akha language
development
Information about Akha orthographies and written materials.
Government policy Information about government policies relating to language
development including potential to use Akha in government
schools.
Akha community Information about things which promote unity and things
which create divisions in the Akha community.
Early childhood care and
development
Information about ECCD programs in Akha.
Materials creation Information about whether materials could be created by
translating from existing materials in Lahu.
3.2 Bodies of Knowledge Participatory Tool (BoKT) The Body of Knowledge participatory tool was used with a group of people in each
of the seven villages on the second trip. This tool was used to learn about language
use in various bodies of knowledge, for each of the FAMED conditions (Function,
Acquisition, Motivation, Environment, and Differentiation). The bodies of knowledge
used are listed in Table 21 where they are also categorised as ‘Inside’ or ‘Outside’
bodies of knowledge.
44
Table 21 BoKs Categorised as Inside or Outside
Inside Outside
BoK
Num
Description BoK
Num
Description
5 Community events-funeral 1 Transportation
6 Art/music-traditional instrument 2 Technology
7 Community events-wedding 3 Community development
8 Community events-new year
festival
4 Law
9 Community events-thanks giving 11 Farming-technically
10 Community life 18 Health-medicine
12 Family 19 Self-advancement
13 Farming-raising animal 20 Business and trade
14 Farming-traditional 22 Housing- modernize house
15 Food-basic food 27 Art/music-technical
instrument
16 Food-drinks
17 Heath-herb
21 Housing-traditional
23 Craft-women
24 Craft-man
25 Religious-Christian formality
26 Religious-hymnal
28 Religious-singing songs
The procedure for carrying out the data collection with the BoK is described in
Appendix J. The method of data collection was developed for this thesis. Since many
Akha people have low literacy, proficiency levels in Akha pictures were used to
represent each body of knowledge. An example picture is shown in Figure 9.
45
Figure 9 Picture for Farming Body of Knowledge
Note that the picture in Figure 9 is a composite picture used to illustrate a range of
traditional farming crops and activities. A large amount of data was collected for
each Body of Knowledge. The data collected for the farming BoK for FAMED
condition from each village is shown in Table 22. The full set of pictures used
together with the results for all of the villages are given in Appendix I
Table 22 Result of FAMED conditions for Farming Body of knowledge
Village Function Acquisition Motivation Environment Differentiation
Seu Nyeh 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Bar Leh 6a 6a 6a 5 5
Hu Naw 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Panaw 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Bar Aa 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Ho Kyin 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Gaw tsum 4 4 4 5 6a
46
In a particular village, the author would select a FAMED condition and then ask the
group of participants to place each body of knowledge under the appropriate
heading which represented a level of that condition as described in Table 7 - Table
11 of Section 2.4. The headings were written in Akha as a reminder to the author
and those members of the community who could read. The headings were also
numbered to reinforce the ordering of the columns from strongest on the left
(numbered 1) to weakest on the right (numbered 7 if the respective FAMED
condition had 7 levels.) The image in Figure 10 below shows what the end result
looked like after the categorisation was completed for the Function condition in Bar
Aa village.
Figure 10 Complete Results for Function from Bar Aa village
In this research there are three categories of BoKs: Inside body of knowledge,
outside body of knowledge, and both inside and outside body of knowledge. The
categories Inside body of knowledge and Outside body of knowledge are clear that
the knowledge is coming from inside and outside the community. However some of
the BoKs can be considered as both inside and outside knowledge. For example, for
songs that are sung in the church, most of the melodies come from outsiders but
some of the lyrics come from insiders. The melodies that are used in the Church are
not originally Akha melodies. Also some of the lyrics are translations into Akha from
hymns in English and neighbouring languages. However, because many of these
songs have been sung by Akha for many years, they have become part of the
47
repertoire of Akha Christian music and now make an inside BoK in the Christian
community. So this kind of BoK should perhaps be considered as both inside and
outside because for some parts of the community it is inside whereas for others it is
outside.
Bodies of knowledge were chosen from both inside the culture and outside. Inside
Bodies of Knowledge included traditional farming methods, traditional building
methods, food, community events such as weddings etc. Outside Bodies of
Knowledge included modern technology, transportation, modern building
techniques, modern farming techniques etc. Altogether 18 inside BoKs and 10
Outside BoKs were included.
3.3 Site selection The sites for this research were chosen in three areas within Eastern Shan State,
Myanmar. The three areas are Keng Tung, Thachileik, and Nam Pan (Special Region
4). The reasons for choosing these three areas were because of different language
contact situations in the different areas. To make a good site selection within each
area the author discussed with the local leaders for each area.
First of all, Keng Tung is the capital city of Eastern Shan state and the majority
population in that area are Shan people. It means they may be influenced by Shan
language in many situations, possibly more than the national language, Burmese.
Secondly, Tachileik is located on the border with Thailand and it is influenced by
Thai culture in many situations.
Finally, Nam Pan Township in Special Region 4, is located near the China border.
Even though the majority of people in this area are Akha they are influenced by
Chinese, because of contact with Chinese speakers. There are at least eight different
ethnic groups: Akha, Akeu [ʔa˦kʰə˦], Lahu, Shan, Hmong (Miao, Akha call them
Myaotsu), Burmese, Chinese, and Kokark [ko˦kaʔ˦]. Akha has the largest population
among these groups, and some other people speak Akha as a second language.
In the Akha community, the literacy class is open only in summer, March-May. The
reason why there were two trips for this research is because the author wanted to
visit villages with literacy classes while they were open. There was limited time to
prepare the questionnaires for the whole study so the fieldwork was conducted in
two stages: the first focusing on issues relating to the Akha literacy program in
villages with a literacy class, and the second focusing more on factors relating to
language vitality in villages in different Akha-speaking areas.
48
3.3.1 First trip The first trip was during the hot season school break, 24th April to 16th May 2014,
and focused on villages where literacy classes were actually running at that time.
The data were collected in Keng Tung and Tachileik areas, in the Akha Baptist
community. Altogether 13 villages—seven villages in Tachileik area and six villages
in Keng Tung area—were chosen for data collection. These villages were chosen in
consultation between by the author and the Akha literacy manager since it is in their
community and the literacy manager knows which villages are having literacy class.
The literacy manager contacted the leaders from Tachileik area, Tachileik Akha
Baptist Association [TABA], and the author contacted the Keng Tung area leaders,
Keng Tung Akha Baptist Association [KABA], to visit and collect the data for this
trip. Villages which were chosen could be reached by motorbike to make travel
quicker and allow more villages to be included in the study.
Table 23 below shows the list of village names and number of people that were
interviewed for the first trip. Three different questionnaires were asked to three
people: village leader, literacy teacher, and pastor, in each village. However in the
seven villages marked by an asterisk (*) the literacy teacher and pastor is the same
person. For many villages the same person serves as pastor as well as literacy
teacher. In this research seven pastors, from the highlighted villages in the table
below, are also literacy teachers, and all of the respondents were male.
Table 23 Summary of data collected on first trip
No. Village Area Lit class KIQ TIQ RLQ
1 Eden* Tachileik Yes 1 1 1
2 Makawbar Tachileik Yes 1 1 1
3 Pasak Tachileik Yes 1 1 1
4 Pakwe* Tachileik Yes 1 1 1
5 Yan Kin Tachileik Yes 1 1 1
6 Hoekhai* Tachileik Yes 1 1 1
7 Bar Aa* Tachileik Yes 1 1 1
8 Pankalar Keng Tung Yes 1 1 1
9 Popeng I* Keng Tung Yes 1 1 1
10 Naung Noon Keng Tung Yes 1 1
11 Yang Lu Keng Tung Yes 1 1 1
12 Kyate Khao* Keng Tung Yes 1 1 1
13 Gaw tsum * Keng Tung Yes 1 1 1
Total 13 13 12 13
49
3.3.2 Second trip For the second trip, 9th June to 11st July 2014, seven villages were visited, in three
different areas, Keng Tung, Tachileik, and Nam Pan (Special Region 4). Among these
three areas Keng Tung is the capital town of Eastern Shan State and it is the largest
township. Then Tachileik is smaller than Keng Tung but it is on the border of
Thailand and many business people are living there. Nam Pan is a very small town.
Normally people will see the town of Nam Pan just as a village. However there are
over 170 villages in the Nam Pan area.
Two villages (one from Tachileik and one from Keng Tung) were visited on both the
first and second trips. So, it should be said that 5 new villages were visited on the
second trip. Three villages from Nam Pan area, two villages from Tachileik area and
two villages from Keng Tung area, were visited. As far as possible pure Akha villages
were selected. Generally the villages selected for the second trip did not have much
contact with their nearest large town or city, partly because they were not located
close to such large towns.
Table 24 Villages visited on second trip
No. Area Village Religion Distance from
town4
Time from town
1. Nam Pan Bar
Leh
Baptist About 3 miles About 30 minutes by motor
bike
2. Nam Pan Seu
Nyeh
Catholic About 16 miles Over one hour by motor
bike
3. Nam Pan Hu
Naw
Akha
zah
About 3.5 miles About 20 minute by motor
bike and one hour on foot
4. Tachileik Panaw Catholic About 40 miles About two hours by motor
bike
5. Tachileik Bar Aa Baptist About 35 miles About one and half hour
by motor bike
6. Keng
Tung
Ho
Kyin-2
Akha
zah
About 20 miles About two hours by bike
7. Keng
Tung
Gaw
tsum
Baptist 21 miles Over one hour by motor
bike
4 The town is the same as the area name, that is, Nam Pan town for villages in Nam Pan area, Tachileik
Town for villages in Tachileik area and Keng Tung town for villages in Keng Tung area.
50
For some villages the distance between the village and the nearest large town is not
the main factor determining ease of contact. The main factor is the quality of the
road which determines how difficult it is to get to the villages. For example Seu
Nyeh village is the furthest away from town in the Nam Pan area. However since the
village is located just beside the main road it is easy to travel to town and takes
around only an hour by motorbike. So many people can go to the town anytime if
they have their own vehicles to travel; no matter what season it is. On the other
hand Hu Naw is not far from the town but it is located on the mountain and far
away from the main road. Cars cannot get to the village because the road is not
suitable, so villagers normally walk unless they have use of a powerful motorbike. In
the raining season no motorbike can go to the village, and even if you walk you
have to be very careful because the road is slippery and rises steeply up the
mountain. So for this trip Ho kyin from Keng Tung area and Hu Naw from Nam Pan
area are the most difficult to travel to and these two villages should be considered as
more remote.
To select the villages for Nam Pan area the author and guide (Akha literacy
manager) went to an Akha Christian leader’s house, at Nam Pan, and stayed with his
family a couple of days to explain and figure out how to start visiting the villages.
And they got an idea to go and see a local leader, who has power over all the
villages in that region. So they went to see the local leader to ask permission to go
and visit to the villages for collecting the data. After he understood what the
research needed, he allowed them to go and collect the data. He was the one who
contacted to the villages leaders to take care of the research team when they arrived
to the villages.
Three villages, one Baptist village, one Catholic village, and one Akha zah village,
were selected to visit in that area. Since it was rainy season and difficult to travel,
the three villages, which are not very difficult to travel, are selected. Two of the
three villages could be reached by motorbike but one could not. It is about one and
half hours walk from the main road to get the Akha zah village.
For the Tachileik and Keng Tung areas, it was more convenient to travel since those
areas are familiar to the author. In the Tachileik area the author went to two
villages, one Baptist village and one Roman Catholic village, with accompaniment to
collect the data. However she went alone to the Keng Tung area since it is her
hometown and she knows her way very well about that region. Two villages, one
Baptist village and one Akha zah village were visited.
51
The second trip focused on assessing the language vitality. Individual
Sociolinguistics Questionnaire, Knowledgeable Insider Questionnaire, Religious
Leader Questionnaire and Teacher Interview Questionnaire were used for this
second trip. Furthermore the Bodies of Knowledge Participatory Tool, was used for
in this trip.
Table 25 Summary of data collected on second trip
No. Village Area Lit class KIQ TIQ RLQ ISLQ BOK
1 Bar Leh Nam Pan Yes 1 1 1 12 8
2 Seu Nyeh Nam Pan No 1 1 12 6
3 Hu Naw Nam Pan No 1 1 12 7
4 Bar Aa Tachileik Yes 12 7
5 Panaw Tachileik No 1 1 12 7
6 Ho Kyin-2 Keng Tung No 1 1 12 10
7 Gaw Tsum Keng Tung Yes 12 8
Total 5 1 5 84 53
3.4 Individual Subject selection To ensure that appropriate subjects are selected for the study there are some
screening criteria which are described in subsection 3.4.1. To ensure that a range of
subjects were included in the study, a sampling plan was designed which are
described in subsection 3.4.2.
3.4.1 Screening criteria For the individual sociolinguistic questionnaire there are three criteria which each
potential subject must meet in order to be included in the study. The three criteria
are as follow:
(i) The subject is living in the Akha village and grew up in the Akha area. The
subject has never lived outside of the Akha area for more than a year.
(ii) The subject speaks Akha as his or her mother tongue or speaks Akha better
than any other language.
(iii) The subject has at least one parent who is a native speaker of Akha, and
that parent spoke Akha to them when they were little children.
52
3.4.2 Sampling plan Two factors, namely gender and age, were used to determine the sampling plan. This
is because males and females have different roles in society often leading to different
patterns of outside contact and education, and younger age groups have had greater
exposure to the national language through Burmese-medium education. All together
12 people were sampled in each village: 6 males and 6 females, 6 aged 15-39 and 6
aged 40 or above. This plan is shown in Table 26.
Table 26 Sampling plan
Gender
Age
15-39 40+ Total
Female 3 3 6
Male 3 3 6
Total 6 6 12
3.5 Methods of Analysis This section will describe the logic of how data are analysed and how the answers
combine to provide answers to the Research Questions.
3.5.1 Summary of data All the data collected from the villages is first put into an Excel spreadsheet. Then
counting the frequencies of various responses is done for each question. Presenting
frequencies of responses by factors such as village, gender and age-group allow
patterns to be identified.
For the data relating to Bodies of Knowledge, tables have been made for each village
and compared to each other depending on area or religious group. Identifying
whether a Body of Knowledge is primarily from inside or outside the culture will
also provide a possible explanation of patterns of language use. In order to
summarise data from many BoKs, the mode (most frequently occurring value) is
used to identify a typical value.
3.5.2 Criteria for answering Research Questions The first research question is answered according to the sequence of Key Questions
laid out by Lewis and Simons (2010) and described in section 2.2. The result is a
level on the EGIDS.
53
The second research question is answered by analysis of a combination of data
types: the questionnaire data and BoK data. The FAMED conditions are used to
provide a framework for assessing the sustainability of the current level of vitality.
The higher the levels of FAMED condition from the questionnaire data, the greater
the evidence that the current level (as determined by the answers to research
question 1) will be sustainable. The BoK data also gives values on the EGIDS and
provides direct evidence of how strong the language is for each FAMED condition.
54
Chapter 4
Analysis of Questionnaire Data
The analysis of the questionnaire data presented in this chapter provide answers to
the two research questions of this study, namely the current level of Akha language
vitality (RQ1) and the sustainability of the current level of vitality (RQ2). Further
evidence relating to both research questions is presented in chapter 5 where the
insights from the Bodies of Knowledge data are discussed. The methods of analysis
used in this chapter were described in section 3.5.1. Before presenting the analysis
however, it is important to see more details about the villages which were not
known before visiting but were learned through interviews with members of the
village community. These details are presented in section 4.1 and help in
understanding the data analysis that follows.
4.1 Description of survey sites This section describes aspects of village history and composition that will help
understand the data that was obtained from each village.
4.1.1 Religion As mentioned in Chapter 1 there are three main religions: Christianity, Buddhist,
and Akha zah. Among the Christian there are two denominations, Catholic and
Baptist.
Since religion is known to affect whether or not a village has a literacy program, it is
expected that religion will be an important factor to examine any differences in
language vitality between the villages. However sometimes even villages in the same
religion may have some very different results because of the history of each village.
For example, Bar Leh from Nam Pan area, Bar Aa from Tachileik area, and Gaw
Tsum village from Keng Tung area are all from the same religion, i.e. Baptist.
However the history of each village is quite different. Even though Bar Leh is
Baptist, it is still only a few years since they became Christian from Akha zah. So
they are trying to get various things started, such as literacy classes, Sunday school,
etc. Also the children only started going to a government school around 2-3 years
55
ago. So compared with the other two Baptist villages (Bar Aa and Gaw Tsum), Bar
Leh is quite different in many aspects, such as spiritual life, education, and lifestyle.
Seu Nyeh village from Nam Pan area and Panaw village from Tachileik area are
from the same religion, i.e. Roman Catholic. However the backgrounds of these
villages are a bit different. Even though before the trip the author was informed that
Seu Nyeh is a Roman Catholic village, when she got to the village and interviewed
to the people she learned that some of the villagers came from a Baptist village a
few years ago. In that region there is an unwritten rule that each village has only
one religion, so people have to change their religious affiliation to be the same as
the village where they migrate to. In this case Seu Nyeh village had been Catholic
for many years, so when the people from a Baptist village wanted to move into Seu
Nyeh they automatically became Catholic5. Thus, the results from this village might
be a bit mixed since individual subjects might have come from different
backgrounds.
The two Akha zah villages, namely Hu Naw from Nam Pan area and Ho Kyin-2 from
Keng Tung area, are not very much different even though the areas are quite
different. Both of these two villages are living on the mountain and are very difficult
to reach, especially in the rainy season. They have their religious leaders, priests, in
the village and they are the persons who have power in the village.
4.1.2 Area Keng Tung is the capital of Eastern Shan State, and there are many ethnic peoples in
the area which makes the linguistic situation more complex. The ABC (Akha Baptist
Convention) administration office is located in Keng Tung, in the town, and almost
all of the Akha literature is produced or delivered from there. However many of
Akha people live in villages that are situated on the mountain and far from the
town. Only a few Akha people live in urban environments.
Tachileik is located on the border with Thailand, and people from that area are
influenced by Thai culture in many different ways. They watch a lot of Thai
television and also advertising. Their fashions are more like Thai people and many
different kinds of Thai food can be bought very easily. They like to use Thai
products better than others. Furthermore they use some Thai loan words when
speaking their languages. From a religious point of view the Tachileik Akha Baptist
5 This information came from informal conversation rather than as an answer to one of the research
instruments.
56
Association (TABA) is under the supervision of ABC, and for the Akha Baptist
community there are several influences that they have in common with the Akha
Baptists from Keng Tung.
Nam Pan is located in Special Region 4 and is adjacent to the China border. The
people from that area are strongly influenced by Chinese culture. Sociolinguistically
it is a very complex area although the majority of the population is Akha in that
area. However the small population of Chinese have a stronger influence on the
Akha than Burmese since there are very few Burmese in that area. There are some
villages connected to ABC in the area, but even though a village might be called a
Christian village, it will probably not have been Christian for very long so it might
be a bit different from longer established Christian villages in other areas where ABC
has a longer history of involvement.
The Akha people from two areas, Tachileik and Keng Tung, are quite similar, but the
other area Nam Pan is a bit different from the other two. Since Nam Pan is in
Special Region 4, the history of this area is quite different with the other two. So the
results of the analysis might be quite different for the Nam Pan area. Tachileik and
Keng Tung area are very similar for the Baptist community since they are under the
same organization, ABC. They are neighbouring townships and the background of
Christian villages and people from these two areas are very much the same.
4.2 Current level of Akha language vitality This section seeks to determine the current level of Akha language vitality as
measured by the EGIDS (Lewis and Simons 2010). In fact Lewis et al (2015) estimate
a level of 3 for Akha in Myanmar on the grounds that Akeu people use Akha as their
L2. As described in section 2.2 the EGIDS level can be determined by answering
certain ‘Key Questions’. The following three subsections each deal with one of these
key questions and together determine the EGIDS level for Akha in Myanmar.
4.2.1 Key Question #1: Identity function of Akha Key Question #1 can be stated as: ‘What is the identity function of Akha?’
The question is really about the use of the language within and beyond the Akha
community. This section will discuss which of the four possible answers (Historical;
Heritage; Home; Vehicular) provided in the methodology is most appropriate for
Akha.
57
It is known from Lewis and Simons (2015) and the personal experience of the author
that Akeu [ʔa˦kʰə˦] people speak Akha as a second language. However Akha do not
speak Akeu even though they understand some of their speaking. Akeu is a closely
related language to Akha, although they are not mutually intelligible. This would
suggest that Akha is a vehicle for inter-group communication and hence it would be
classed as VEHICULAR. However because the use of Akha by other groups is very
limited, vehicular status might imply that it is stronger than it really is. A safer
answer would be HOME because this categorization is not dependent on the
language choices of a small group such as Akeu. Akeu has a small population of
speakers in Myanmar and they are developing their own literature now. A literacy
program is underway and Akeu Christians are expected to publish the Akeu
translation of the New Testament in 2015.
The present survey collected data on this topic and found that Akha is used as a
second language for some situations depending on the area. 4/18 village leaders said
that other people from that area speak Akha as a second language. Three of these
villages, Bar Leh, Seu Nyeh and Hu Naw, are from the Nam Pan area. Nam Pan is
located next to the China border, so there are a lot of Chinese business people in the
area. Since the majority of the people are Akha, other ethnic groups are speaking
Akha for many reasons. For example, there are many Chinese in the market who are
selling things to Akha customers. Also there are many Akha, who only speak Akha
but not any other languages, coming to the market to buy and sell things. So the
other people learn to speak Akha for business, since the majority people are Akha.
Some Chinese own a lot of farms in that area. They plant rubber and bananas mainly
for their business. So they need local people from that area to work on their farms,
and they need to communicate with the local people. These are some of the reasons
that the author found as to why Akha is used as a second language in the Nam Pan
area.
Ho Kyin-2 village is located in Keng Tung area but it is a little far away from the
city. The Ho Kyin Akha village is a big village, so they have separated it into four
sections Ho Kyin-1-2-3-4. There are also some other ethnic groups living around the
village. Since the majority of people are Akha in that area, some other people that
live near the village speak Akha as a second language.
The table below shows the villages that have some other ethnic groups who speak
Akha as a second language near their villages.
58
Table 27 Areas that speak Akha as a second language
Area Village Use Akha as second language
Yes No
Nam Pan Bar Leh Yes
Nam Pan Seu Nyeh Yes
Nam Pan Hu Naw Yes
Tachileik Panaw No
Tachileik Bar Aa No
Tachileik Eden No
Tachileik Makawbar No
Tachileik PaSak No
Tachileik Pakwe No
Tachileik Yan Kin No
Tachileik Hoe Khai No
Keng Tung Pankarlar No
Keng Tung Popeng I No
Keng Tung Naung Noon No
Keng Tung Kyate Khao No
Keng Tung Yan Lu No
Keng Tung Ho Kyin II Yes
Keng Tung Gaw tsum No
It should be noted that no villages from Tachileik and only one village from Keng
Tung report that Akha is used by other ethnic groups in their locality. So although
the use of Akha as a second language by other ethnic groups is not limited to just
the Akeu, it is limited mainly to the Nam Pan area. From the point of view of
language vitality, the use of Akha as an L2 does point to strong vitality, but the level
of usage doesn’t greatly add to the vitality of Akha or guarantee its future.
4.2.2 Key Question #3: Parents transmitting Akha to children Because HOME was the most appropriate answer for KQ #1, the next question that
must be answered is Key Question #3: Are all parents transmitting Akha to their
children? From the author’s knowledge as a member of the Akha community it can
be said that the vast majority of parents transmit their language to their children.
The results from the survey agree with this. 64/66 [97%] of parents reported that
they speak Akha to their children at home. There were only 2/64 [3%] of parents
where one partner is non-Akha. Subjects from both of these families said that their
children speak Akha because they live in an Akha village and one of their parents
speaks Akha to them.
59
An important factor that can influence language transmission is intermarriage. The
more Akha people intermarry with speakers of other languages, the greater the
chance of disruption in the transmission of Akha from one generation to the next.
Table 28 gives details about intermarriage in the 18 villages visited.
Table 28 Intermarriage in Akha community
KIQ 32 Is it common for Akha people from this village to marry non-Akha speaking
people?
Village Yes No KIQ 32a. (if yes) What non-Akha
speaking people do they marry?
KIQ 33-e, How many men
do this: few, some, half,
most, or all?
Few Some Most
Bar Leh Yes Chinese Few
Seu Nyeh Yes Chinese, Kayar Few
Hu Naw Yes Chinese most
Panaw Yes Burmese, Lahu, Rakhine, Chinese Few
Ho Kyin 2 No
Bar Aa Yes Burmese, Kayin Very few
Gaw tsum Yes Burmese Few
Eden Yes Burmese Few
Makawbar Yes Lahu, Shan Few
Pasak Yes Burmese Few
Pakwe Yes Lahu Few
Yan Kin Yes Lahu, Kayin, Danuk, Burmese, Pa Oo Few
Hoekhai Yes Burmese, Kayin, Kayar 6 couples
Pankarlar Yes Chinese, Lahu Few
Ponpeng I Yes Shan, Wa, Inn Thar, Burmese Few
NaungNoon Yes Lahu, Burmese, Shan, Chinese Some
Kyate Khao Yes Thai, Chinese, Lahu, Burmese most
Yang Lu Yes Shan, Lahu, Burmese Some
According to the figures in the table, it is very common for Akha people to marry
non-Akha speaking people. However those couples who live in an Akha village
mostly speak Akha since the whole village speaks Akha. Some of the couples are
living out of the Akha village after getting married. For those couples it would be
assumed that they speak other languages since they are out of Akha village and live
in another community. It should be noted that the percentage who get married to
other ethnic groups is small. Only 13/18 [72%] of them said a few people get
married to non-Akha speaking people and 1/18 [5%] of them said nobody gets
60
married to non-Akha speaking people. 2/18 [11%] leaders (from Hu Naw and Kyate
Khao) said most of the people get married to non-Akha people. This is a surprising
statement and in the opinion of the author it is an exaggeration since only a few
decades ago the Akha did not allow their people to marry non-Akha. There has been
an increasing trend, particularly for young women from Hu Naw village who get
married to Chinese and go to live in China.
Some of the parents speak only Akha, not any other language. So the author didn’t
interview or meet any people who don’t speak Akha well in the villages of the
survey. It could also be because the people who are married to non-Akha people are
not living in the village, and may be living in other places but not in an Akha
village. The author also observed that all age groups speak Akha well in every
village she went to. Some of the youth like to speak other languages such as the
local LWC or Burmese among themselves, but it doesn’t mean they don’t speak Akha
well. Since the author is Akha, she was able to accurately assess whether people
were speaking Akha well in the villages.
In the author’s experience the transmission of Akha is very strong because Akha
people consider those who choose to speak a higher status language such as Burmese
or Chinese instead of Akha to be claiming to be superior. Such attitudes are not
welcomed because they create divisions rather than promote unity. So normally
people have strong motivation to speak Akha, especially in the villages. On the other
hand the author noticed that some Akha leaders or Akha local government officers
always speak Burmese when they talk to each other. For them it is not a matter of
putting on an appearance to show off their status or education. Instead the Burmese
language is used automatically and naturally when they meet. It happens to the
youth who are educated as well.
According to the responses from ISLQ subjects, 64/66 [93%] parents said they speak
Akha to their children and only one person speaks Chinese to her son. In this case it
is showing that not all the people who have been interviewed are parents. 18/84
[21%] of the subjects are single. 83/84 [99%] speak Akha at home and only one
man speaks Burmese to his wife. This couple is newly married and the wife does not
yet speak Akha.84/84 [100%] of the individual subjects, said that in their village
the children’s first language is Akha and all the young people speak Akha well.
According to the data, 44/84 [52%] of the people said the children speak Akha
when they play together, 36/84 [43%] of them said the children speak mostly Akha
but sometimes Burmese or Chinese, and only 4/84 [5%] of them said the children
speak mostly Burmese or Chinese but sometime Akha when they play together.
61
Figure 11 shows data relating to children’s language use.
Figure 11 Children’s language use
According to the author’s observation, the reason why children sometimes speak
Burmese when they play together is that they need to use Burmese when playing
with Burmese children who live in their village because of the government school in
that village. There are also Burmese schoolteachers living in those Akha villages and
their children play together with the Akha children. The Burmese children
understand what the Akha children speak mostly, but the Burmese children cannot
speak Akha very well. So the Akha children switch to Burmese to let everyone in the
group understand. Since they are also learning Burmese at school, they have enough
vocabulary to communicate among themselves. Another reason is there are other
ethnic groups in the village or near the village. When all of the children play
together Burmese is the language they all have in common even though they don’t
speak it fluently.
4.2.3 Key Question #4: Literacy status Because the answer to KQ #3 was YES, the final question that must be asked to
determine the EGIDS level is Key Question #4 which can be stated: ‘What is the
literacy status of Akha?’ The EGIDS methodology provides three possible answers:
Institutional (taught in schools or by some other institution); Incipient (used by a
section of the community but not taught in schools); or None (no significant portion
of the population is literate, or no organised means of acquiring literacy). The
following paragraphs discuss the status of Akha literacy.
Akha
52%
Mostly Akha, also
national language
43%
Mostly national
language also
Akha
5%
62
Firstly it must be stated that Akha literacy is not supported by the government
educational system because the official language used in government schools in
Myanmar is Burmese. Written curriculum materials are all in Burmese and Burmese
is the official language of assessment and instruction. So Akha literacy does not have
the institutional support of the government education system. There is however an
organised literacy program runs by the Akha Baptist Convention, which will be
described below.
Most of the students in the Akha literacy program are still of school age and during
school terms attend their local government school. Therefore most villages run their
Akha literacy class in the summer, during the long hot-season school break. But
some churches do the Akha literacy class on Sunday, before or after Sunday school
time.
Most of the students are children, but some youth and adults also join their local
class. There are currently very few literacy classes being run outside of the Akha
Baptist community. In the 13 villages visited on the first fieldtrip, the author found
that a total of 285 students were attending the literacy classes. More details of the
classes are given in Table 29.
Table 29 Details of Akha Literacy classes (from first fieldtrip)
Area Village Name Number
of
students
Number of
Weeks per
Year
Number of
Hours per
Week
Total
number of
Hours
Tachileik Eden 20 12 7.5 90
Tachileik Makawbar 30 8 10 80
Tachileik Pasak 30 12 5 60
Tachileik Pakwe 33 10 10 100
Tachileik Yan Kin 1 20 10 7.5 75
Tachileik Hoekhai 20 10 7.5 75
Tachileik Bar Aa 15 8 12.5 100
Keng Tung Pankarlar 20 8 10 80
Keng Tung Ponpeng 1 23 8 5 40
Keng Tung Gaw tsum 22 8 10 80
Keng Tung Kyate Khao 21 7 7.5 52.5
Keng Tung Yan Lu 15 3 15 45
Nam Pan Bar Leh 16 8 15 120
Median
Mode
20
20
8
8
8.75
7.5
77.5
80
63
As the figures in the table show, there is a wide range in the number of hours,
although there are various factors which affect this. After finishing the literacy
classes, students are expected to be able to read and write, focusing especially on
reading the Bible and singing Akha songs.
The Akha Baptist community sent potential literacy trainers for training in
workshops run in Thailand by SIL. The trainers in turn trained volunteer teachers
who in turn started literacy classes in their own villages. The literacy program has
been running since 2004. So far about 64 teachers have been trained for teaching
Akha in their local area, or their villages.
According to the Akha literacy manager, (LMQ 1: How many churches are there in
ABC? LMQ 9: How many villages have a literacy class during the hot season break?),
70/120 [58%] of Akha Baptist villages run a literacy class. Based on the author’s
observations and conversations with knowledgeable people in the community, it can
be said that most of the literacy classes are held at the village church and most of
the literacy teachers are pastors. Almost all of the villages with a literacy class have
been provided with a small library of books that students can borrow to practise
reading and so improve their reading skills. The books are designed for beginning
readers and there are 30 different titles, all stories or folk tales, in each library. The
list of titles and the number of pages in each book is given in Appendix G.
In addition to the literacy classes that are currently run during the hot-season school
break, village leaders, religious leaders and teachers were asked to give their
opinions about the potential benefits of having Akha literacy classes during the
school year6. At present there are no definite plans to start such a program, but the
responses help to reveal the attitudes of the community members to the value of
Akha literacy. The responses are given in Table 30.
6 In 2013 the Myanmar government passed a law allowing minority ethnic groups to teach literacy
classes in their language on school premises but after regular school hours. The local community is
expected to fund such initiatives.
64
Table 30 Perceptions about after school literacy classes during the school term
KIQ-58 CLQ-47 TIQ-39 Total
Do you see any
advantages of having
Akha literacy classes after
school time each week?
N 18 167 13 47
Yes 18 [100%] 16 [100%] 13 [100%] 47 [100%]
No 0 0 0 0
KIQ-59 CLQ-48 TIQ-40 Total
What percentage of Akha
parents would encourage
children to attend those
classes?
N 18 16 13 47
All 13 [72%] 9 [56%] 10 [77%] 32 [68%]
Most 5 [28%] 3 [19%] 1 [8%] 9 [19%]
Other 4 [25%] 2 [15%] 6 [13%]
The figures in the table show that 18/18 [100%] village leaders, 16/16 [100%]
religious leaders and 13/13 [100%] teachers believe that there are advantages to
having Akha literacy classes after school each week. Furthermore 41/47 [87%]
respondents believed that most or all of the parents in their village would encourage
their children to attend the classes. The results in Table 30 point to positive attitudes
towards Akha. Further data regarding attitudes will be presented in section 4.3.3.
Another important measure of the literacy status is the current L1 literacy rate in the
Akha community. Table 31, table below shows the responses from individual
questionnaire subjects to questions about whether they were able to read and write
in Akha.
7 There are seven teachers who are also pastors in this analysis
65
Table 31 Self-reported literacy proficiency in Akha
ISLQ 36, Can you read in
Akha (with understanding)?
ISLQ 37, Can you write
Akha?
Village Religion N Yes No Yes No
Bar Leh
Baptist
12 4 [33%] 8 [67%] 1 [8%] 11 [92%]
Bar Aa 12 8 [67%] 4 [33%] 4 [33%] 8 [67%]
Gaw tsum 12 10 [83%] 2 [17%] 7 [58%] 5 [42%]
Total 36 22 [61%] 14 [39%] 12 [33%] 24 [67%]
Seu Nyeh
Catholic
12 3 [25%] 9 [75%] 3 [25%] 9 [75%]
Panaw 12 5 [42%] 7 [58%] 3 [25%] 9 [75%]
Total 24 8 [33%] 16 [67%] 6 [25%] 18 [75%]
Hu Naw
Akha zah
12 0 12 [100%] 0 12 [100%]
Ho Kyin-2 12 1 [8%] 11 [92%] 1 [8%] 11 [92%]
Total 24 1 [4%] 23 [96%] 1 [4%] 23 [96%]
Total overall 84 31 [37%] 53 [63%] 19 [23%] 65 [77%]
It is clear from the figures in Table 31 that the vast majority of the people who are
able to read and write are from the Christian community. Overall 22/36 [61%] of
Baptist and 8/24 [33%] of Catholic Christians said they could read with
understanding. However in Akha zah villages only 1/24 [4%] claimed to be able to
read. This is not surprising given that there are very few literacy classes in Akha zah
villages. The numbers who can write are roughly half as many who can read but
generally show the same ordering, namely Baptists followed by Catholics followed
by Akha zah. Altogether these figures show big differences between the different
religious communities in literacy proficiency.
It should be noted that the figures in Table 31 are from the ISLQ subjects who were
all adults. Since the current Akha literacy program has been running only a few
years, it cannot be held responsible for the literacy rate in the Baptist community. It
might be argued that the adult literacy rate will increase in the future as those
children currently involved in literacy classes grow into adulthood.
Based on the evidence presented above about Akha literacy status, the most
appropriate category is ‘incipient’. Even though there is institutional support
through the Akha Baptist Convention for training teachers and providing ongoing
organisation to the Akha literacy program, the program is limited in its scope to
around half of the Akha Baptist villages, and almost none of the Akha zah or
Catholic villages. So the literate Akha are limited in proportion as well as being
66
largely confined to one sector of the community. Of course this situation could
change if the literacy program continues to develop and spread to more villages.
However, at the present time, ‘Incipient’ is the best category for literacy status. This
in turn leads to the EGIDS level of 5.
4.2.4 Summary of findings about Akha language vitality As shown in the previous paragraph, the EGIDS level for Akha language vitality in
Myanmar should be 5. According to the definition of the EGIDS level 5, “This is the
level at which literacy is incipient, more often than not informally transmitted and
with only weak or transient institutional support. Although the introduction of
literacy can serve powerfully to improve the prestige of a minority language and
may increase its prospects for survival in many cases, the stronger institutional
support for literacy acquisition and maintenance found at the levels above is
required for ongoing transmission of local-language literacy from one generation to
the next” (Lewis and Simons 2010:111).
Lewis et al (2015) state that Akha in Myanmar should be at EGIDS level 3. However
the author would say that this is an optimistic assessment, and the argument above
leading to the conclusion that the EGIDS level of 5 gives a more realistic assessment
of the language situation. The function of the language was discussed in section
4.2.1, and the conclusion was drawn that Akha is most accurately categorised as
serving a Home function. In section 4.2.2, the parents’ language transmission is
described in detail and it is shown that parents are passing on Akha to their
children. The literacy situation in Akha is shown in section 4.2.3, which categorises
Akha literacy as ‘Incipient’ (Developing).
Since language vitality is not fixed but changes over time, the discussion in the
following section about sustainability will help to assess whether the EGIDS level is
more likely to rise or fall in the future.
4.3 Sustainability of Akha The FAMED conditions (Function, Acquisition, Motivation, Environment,
Differentiation) for sustainable language use were described in section 2.4. In the
following subsections these conditions will be used as a framework to describe how
sustainable the current level of Akha language vitality is.
67
4.3.1 Functions This section presents data about patterns of language use in the Akha villages. By
identifying what language Akha people use in different areas of life, it is possible to
infer the functions that the language serves in these communities. Table 32 shows
the patterns of language use in the religious domain in Akha Christian villages. Data
for Baptist villages are shown separately from Catholic villages to see how these two
types of community compare.
Table 32 Patterns of language use in Christian communities
Baptist
village
Catholic
village
CLQ 25, What language Bibles are
used in your church?
Akha 13 [93%] 1.5 [75%]
Burmese 1 [7%] 0.5 [25%]
CLQ 27, What languages do the
preachers use when they preach in
your church?
Akha 13 [93%] 1.5 [75%]
Burmese 0.5 [3.5%] 0.5 [25%]
Lahu 0.5 [3.5%] 0%
CLQ 28, What languages are used for
opening prayer in your church?
Akha 14 [100%] 2 [100%]
Burmese 0% 0%
CLQ 29, What languages are used for
singing in your church?
Akha 12 [86%] 2 [100%]
Burmese, Chinese,
Lahu
2 [14%] 0%
CLQ 30, What languages are used to
make announcements in your church?
Akha 13.5 [96%] 2 [100%]
Burmese 0.5 [4%] 0%
CLQ 31, What languages are used
during fellowship times [conversations
between church members]?
Akha 12.5 [89%] 1.5 [75%]
Burmese, Lahu 1.5 [11%] 0.5 [25%]
CLQ 32, What languages are used by
the youth in your church?
Akha 8 [57%] 1.5 [75%]
Burmese 6 [43%] 0.5 [25%]
CLQ 32b, What languages are used for
singing by the youth?
Akha 7 [50%] 2 [100%]
Burmese 7 [50%] 0%
In the Christian villages, most of the activities in the domain of religion are done
using Akha but some other languages are also used in a small number of situations.
As the numbers in the table show, most activities are dominated by Akha apart from
language use by young people, especially in Baptist villages where Akha and
Burmese are each used about 50% for singing in church.
Patterns of language use in the religious domain in Akha zah villages also show that
Akha is very strong. They use only Akha for all aspects of doing religious things.
68
Table 33 shows patterns of language use in Akha zah villages.
Table 33 Patterns of language use in Akha zah villages
Question from RLQ N Akha
RLQ-29, What language do they use when they do for religious things? 2 2 [100%]
RLQ-30, What languages are used when they recite/chant? 2 2 [100%]
RLQ-31, What languages are used for announcements? 2 2 [100%]
RLQ-32, What languages are used for festivals? 2 2 [100%]
RLQ-33, What languages are used for funeral? 2 2 [100%]
RLQ-34, What languages are used for visiting? 2 2 [100%]
RLQ-35, What languages are used when talking in your family? 2 2 [100%]
RLQ-36, What languages are used [for other activities]? 2 2 [100%]
RLQ-37, For all your religious activities, which language is used most? 2 2 [100%]
The religious domain is the main area that motivates language development in
Akha. Most of the books that have been produced in Akha are religious books
especially in the Christian community. All of the Christian leaders or pastors have to
be literate in Akha, otherwise they cannot serve for Akha people since most of the
Akha are living on the mountain, in remote areas and they don’t speak other
languages well. Even though some Akha are in the city, they only use Akha in
Church except for some young people who like to sing the modern Christian songs
that have been written recently in other languages [English, Burmese, or Chinese],
especially Burmese. So Akha language maintenance in the religious domain is very
strong. Another domain of vital importance to language maintenance is the home
domain. Table 34 shows data for language use in the home.
69
Table 34 Patterns of language use in the home domain
Questions on ISLQ Nam Pan Tachileik Keng Tung
N 36 24 24
ISLQ 27[a], with your parents? Akha 36 [100%] 24 [100%] 24 [100%]
ISLQ 27[b], with your grandparents? Akha 36 [100%] 24 [100%] 24 [100%]
ISLQ 27[c], with your siblings? Akha 36 [100%] 24 [100%] 24 [100%]
ISLQ 27[d], (if married) with your
spouse?
Akha 28 [93%] 18 [100%] 18 [100%]
Burmese 1 [3.5%] - -
Chinese 1 [3.5%] - -
ISLQ 27[e], (if have children) with
your children?
Akha 26 [96%] 17 [100%] 18 [100%]
Chinese 1 [3%] - -
ISLQ 27[f], (if old and have
children) with your
grandchildren/nieces/nephews?
Akha 23 [100%] 19 [90%] 19 [100%]
Burmese - 1 [5%] -
Chinese - 1 [5%] -
ISLQ 27[g], In your house What
language do you use the most?
Akha 35 [97%] 24 [100%] 24 [100%]
Burmese 1 [3%] 0% 0%
Almost every household speaks Akha at home with their parents, grandparents,
children, and grandchildren. The above table shows the language use with parents,
grandparents and also among siblings is 100% Akha in all the three different areas.
Even though there are low numbers for the language use between spouse, children
and grandchildren it does not mean they don’t speak Akha among them. It means
not all the respondents are married and they don’t have children and grandchildren.
According to the author’s experience, even though there are some people who speak
Burmese at home, it can be said that these are a very small percentage. This is only
done by some Akha who live in the city. So the domains of religion and the home
are the strongest domains of language use for Akha.
70
Table 35 Language use in social setting outside the home
Nam Pan Tachileik Keng Tung
ISLQ 27
[i] At the market
Akha 17 [47%] 5 [21%] 6 [25%]
Other languages 19 [53%] 19 [79%] 18 [75%]
[j] At the funeral Akha 35 [97%] 22 [92%] 20 [83%]
Burmese 1 [3%] 2 [8%] 4 [17%]
[k] At the village meeting Akha 36 [100%] 24 [100%] 24 [100%]
Burmese 0% 0% 38 [12%]
[l] With government officer Akha 35 [97%] 3 [13%] 7 [30%]
Burmese 1 [3%] 21 [87%] 17 [70%]
Table 35 shows the language use in social settings outside the home. They use many
different languages in the market setting. Only small percentages speak Akha at the
market. Of the three areas, Nam Pan area shows the highest usage of Akha at the
market, 17/36 [47%]. Only 5/24 [21%] speak Akha in the Tachileik market and
6/24 [25%] speak Akha in Keng Tung market. Apart from this Akha language they
mostly speak Burmese, Shan, and Chinese at the market.
In another setting, namely at a funeral, they speak Akha mostly; 35/36 [97%] in
Nam Pan area, 22/24 [92%] in Tachileik area, and 20/24 [83%] in Keng Tung area
speak Akha for this setting. Only a small percentage 1/36 [3%] in Nam Pan, 2/24
[8%] in Tachileik, and 4/24 [17%] in Keng Tung area speak Burmese at a funeral.
For the village meeting they speak 100% Akha in all the three areas. 3/24 [12%] of
them also speak Burmese in Keng Tung area. However it does not mean the 12% of
them don’t speak Akha. The reason they speak both Akha and Burmese is there are
some Burmese [teachers or some others] in the village. So they speak some Burmese
to them in order to let them understand what the meeting is about and the decisions.
The meeting is not conducted in the Burmese language, but only Akha.
To talk with government officers, the two areas Tachileik and Keng Tung, mostly
speak Burmese. 21/24 [87%] in Tachileik area and 17/24 [70%] in Keng Tung area
speak Burmese to government officers. However only 1/36 [3%] of speakers from
Nam Pan area speak Burmese and 35/36 [97%] of them speak Akha in this setting.
On the other hand only 3/24[13%] of speakers in Tachileik area, and 7/24[30%], in
Keng Tung area speak Akha with government officers.
8 Note this use of Burmese is with those who are unable to speak Akha, so the Akha speakers have no
choice but to use Burmese to communicate.
71
4.3.2 Acquisition The Acquisition condition concerns how much support there is for people to acquire
proficiency in Akha, whether it is oral or written proficiency. The discussion in
sections 4.2.1and 4.2.2 showed that since Akha is the dominant language of
community life and the vast majority of parents transmit Akha to their children,
there are strong conditions for acquisition of the oral form of the language. This
section will therefore focus on acquisition of the written form of the language. The
discussion will start with brief details of Akha orthographies in the following
subsection, followed by subsections on existing written materials in Akha and the
Akha literacy program. The final subsection will discuss current levels of literacy in
the Akha community.
4.3.2.1 Akha orthography Over the years many orthographies have been developed for Akha. The Roman
Catholic Akha orthography (CAO) was originally created about 100 years ago,
although it was revised around 1985.
The Baptist Akha orthography (BAO) was developed about 1949 and was widely
used in Baptist villages until the Unified Akha Orthography (UAO) was developed in
2004. The Burmese script Akha orthography was created in around 1970 and was
used for a few years. However, the orthography was found to have problems
representing the language so people stopped using that orthography later on.
However there were still at least two orthographies, CAO and BAO, for Akha, in
Myanmar. So they have tried to merge the two orthographies since about 1980.
They finally managed to agree on the new orthography in 2004, and the UAO
started to be used from that time, although gradually at first.
After the creation of the UAO, however, another orthography was created named the
Khanqgm Aqkaq Sanqbovq [qʰɑ˨gm a˨kʰa˨ sɑ˨ɓo˨ʔ] (hereafter KHAS) which is also
called Common Akha Orthography, CAO* (different from CAO, Catholic Akha
Orthoraphy). Some Akha leaders from Myanmar and Thailand were gathering on 8th
August 2008 and made a decision to create the new orthography. The creators tried
to get it used by the whole Akha community in every country that Akha people are
living in, that is Myanmar, Thailand, China, Laos and Vietnam. However the
Christian and Buddhist communities in Myanmar didn’t accept the KHAS
orthography. Furthermore there are different Akha orthographies in use in other
countries as well. So it did not gain acceptance by the whole Akha community.
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To sum up, the UAO is most widely used by the Akha in Myanmar. The ABC literacy
program is using UAO for all literacy classes. All ABC literacy materials use UAO.
Baptist, Catholic, and Buddhist Akha are using UAO and some of the Akha zah are
using KHAS.
4.3.2.2 Akha written materials The Akha translation of the Bible was published in 1940 (New Testament) and in
2001 (Old Testament and revised New Testament), and it is used in all churches in
the Akha Baptist Convention. As mentioned in section 4.2.3 most written materials
in Akha are produced by the Christian community. Apart from Christian teaching
materials, various literacy materials have been developed.
Another aspect of acquisition is the literacy process. Akha has primer for literacy
class, and there are plans to produce a post primer soon. Teacher training for
literacy teachers was conducted in Thailand by SIL. After that some other materials
such as big books, story books, and a picture dictionary were produced to help the
students improve their reading. Many Akha Baptist villages now have a village
library, and there are over 30 different books, over 749 pages, written in Akha,
available for the villagers to read. These books are mainly short stories with pictures
written at a beginners’ level. Akha Christians also have the Bible which is over 1000
pages.
4.3.2.3 Akha literacy program The Akha literacy program is being run mainly in the Christian community,
especially the Akha Baptist community. Almost all of the literacy teachers are
pastors. The pastors are automatically expected to teach Akha literacy for the
villagers. So the pastors need to be ready to teach Akha before they are going to
serve to the villages. Since the pastors are expected to teach Akha in the village,
teacher training is held for the Bible school students at the Akha Bible School, in
Keng Tung every year, in order to be able to teach the literacy class properly after
Bible school. So it has become a part of their program in the Bible school. This
shows that even though Akha is not currently used in the government education
system, acquisition of Akha literacy is supported by at least one institution, namely
the Akha Baptist Convention.
The author found out there is a very effective way to have teacher training at the
Bible school. She met the literacy teachers who got the training from the Bible
school and then they are willing to teach in their own villages or the villages where
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they are serving. Having the opportunity to learn Akha literacy is very much
appreciated by the villagers.
Table 36 gives details about the numbers of hours in the literacy class in the 13
villages that had classes on the survey. To explain the longest teaching hours for Bar
Leh village; there are very few people who have ever gone to school. So to teach the
literacy class for those students takes more time. The teacher has to teach them how
to write properly even for very simple words, since it is their first learning and they
had never experienced any learning process.
Table 36 Akha literacy class teaching hours
Village Area Weeks Hours per day Total hours
Bar Leh Nam Pan 8 3 120
Bar Aa Tachileik 8 2.5 100
Pakwe Tachileik 10 2 100
Eden Tachileik 12 1.5 90
Makawbar Tachileik 8 2 80
Yan Kin I Tachileik 10 1.5 75
Hoekhai Tachileik 10 1.5 75
Pasak Tachileik 12 1 60
Pankarlar Keng Tung 8 2 80
Gaw tsum Keng Tung 8 2 80
Kyate Khao Keng Tung 7 1.5 52.5
Yang Lu Keng Tung 3 3 45
Ponpeng I Keng Tung 8 1 40
The period of time is 3-10 weeks, and the duration is 1-3 hours per day. In total the
teaching hours are 40-120 hours in each year. The different teaching hours depend
on the village situation and students’ needs. In some villages there are more students
and mixed age groups, and for some villages are less students and not very much
different their levels. So the teachers adjust the teaching hours for each year
depending on the situation. Sometimes there are other activities in the villages
74
during the hot season school break. For example, in Christian villages they are
invited to attend some training organised by ABC or one of its departments; such as
youth department, women’s department, etc. The literacy class teachers try to be
careful not to cause their students to miss other opportunities and so they adjust the
literacy class schedule.
4.3.2.4 Akha literacy levels Having discussed the resources for literacy in the previous subsections, this
subsection focuses on the current levels of L1 literacy in the Akha community. As
shown in section 4.2.3 on literacy status, the current literacy levels strongly depend
on which religious community a person belongs to, with Baptists having the highest
literacy rate followed by Catholics. The estimated literacy rate among Akha zah from
the villages in the survey is very low. Since the resources described in the previous
subsections have all seen changes in the last decade, it is too soon to see much effect
of those changes on the literacy levels in the community. Since the changes would
be expected to enhance the resources and provide greater opportunity for acquiring
the written form of Akha, it is to be expected that the literacy rates might increase in
the future, if other factors do not change.
Table 31 showed only whether people said they could read or write not, how well
they could do either. No data was collected on proficiency levels, but some
comments are possible based on what is known about the Christian community.
Most Christians are motivated to learn to read in order to be able to read the Bible
and hymnal, so most would have regular practice at reading complex reading
material. As the numbers in Table 31 show, the number of people who say they can
write is much lower than the number who can read. From the author’s knowledge as
a member of the Akha community, it can be said that most people are limited in
their writing proficiency in Akha. Even some people who are educated in Burmese
or an international language such as English have a hard time to write in Akha
properly because they were educated only in Burmese or English but not in Akha.
Writing in Akha is seen only in the religious domain and some special events, such
as Akha New Year festival, wedding, anniversary, etc. The author would say that
even though many Akha Christians are able to write their names or other basic
writing tasks, typically only pastors and a few highly educated people can write
Akha at a more advanced level.
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4.3.3 Motivation The more reasons there are for Akha speakers to use their language, the more
sustainable the use of the language at a particular level. This section will discuss
data relating to why Akha people might be motivated to use their language. The
Akha Baptist community is the most active in its use of Akha both in oral and in
written form. The Akha Baptist convention (ABC) uses Akha as its official language.
Minutes from meetings, reports, invitation letters, and many other things are written
in Akha. Since being able to read the Akha Bible is highly valued by members of the
Baptist community, there is strong motivation to be literate in Akha. This in turn
motivates people to support the running of a literacy class in their village. The
pastors always preach in Akha, and almost all of the church activities, prayer,
reading the Bible, singing hymns, and announcements, are done in Akha. There is
therefore strong motivation to have high oral proficiency in Akha as well as being
literate in Akha.
The Akha zah, Catholic, and Buddhist Akha communities have strong motivation to
be orally proficient, but not very much in writing and reading. They only use Akha
in written form occasionally when holding community or family events.
Table 37 shows the attitude toward their own language by the advantages they
perceive to being literate in Akha.
Table 37 Advantages of being able to read and write Akha
ISLQ-39 KIQ-56 CLQ-41
Do you see advantages in being
able to read and write Akha?
Yes 64 [76%] 17 [94%] 16 [100%]
No response 20 [24%] 1 [6%] 0%
Total number 84 18 16
[b] (if yes) What advantage?
ISLQ KIQ CLQ
Religious 27 [32%] 6 [33%] 14 [88%]
Business 6 [7%] 2 [11%] -
Record 5 [6%] 3 [17%] -
Every thing 4 [5%] 2 [11%] -
Other 18 [21%] 4 [22%] 2 [12%]
Total 60 [71%] 17 [94%] 16 [100%]
[c] (if no) Why not? Nobody said no
76
As shown in Table 37, 16/16 [100%] of the Christian leaders, see the advantages of
being able to read and write Akha since they need to use it in their life for mission.
17/18 [94%] of the village leaders see the advantage of being able to read and
write. 64/84 [76%] of individual subjects see the advantages of being able to read
and write. Even though 20/84 [24%] of them did not answer the question, it could
not be said that they don’t see advantages but they may find it difficult to answer
this question since they are not literate and have never experienced reading and
writing. 27/84 [32%] of individual, 6/18 [33%] village leaders, and 14/16 [88%]
Christian leaders said the most advantages of being able to read and write Akha are
in the religious domain. The rest of the respondents said there are many other
advantages of being able to read and write Akha. Some uses mentioned for business
include keeping records; to be able to read numbers such as written on money or the
telephone; to be able to sell and buy things. Other advantages include composing
Akha songs, and teaching their children.
Table 38 shows the attitude toward their own language by their reported primary
ethnic identity.
Table 38 Primary ethnic identity
Nam Pan Tachileik Keng Tung
ISLQ-40 Do you think of yourself
first as Akha, Burmese, or
something else?
Akha 36[100%] 21 [88%] 21 [88%]
Burmese 0% 2 [8%] 1 [4%]
Depend on the
situation
0% 1 [4%] 2 [8%]
Nam Pan area has the most people who think of themselves first as Akha whereas
Tachileik and Keng Tung have a few people who think of themselves first as other
ethnic identities depending on the situation. Overall the strong sense of being Akha
suggests pride in the language and culture.
4.3.4 Environment Sustainability of language use is affected by the environment, both by external
factors such as government policy as well as factors within the community such as
community cohesiveness and unity. The Myanmar government officially recognises
135 ethnic groups including Akha, so Akha has the status of an officially recognized
group in Myanmar. Government education policy is currently quite complicated for
ethnic minority groups since there are many different ethnic groups but the
language of instruction is Burmese. There are many people, who only speak their
77
mother tongue at home, before they go to school. So many students find it difficult
or even impossible to understand what their teachers are saying. They could not
completely understand for at least the first year or second year of their school life.
However they gradually learn the language and grow in their understanding of the
learning process after fourth or fifth year of school.
Those children who can have preschool ECCD do pretty well in the class compared
with those who have never gone to ECCD, even though they could not learn in their
mother tongue, Akha. But there are very few students who can go to ECCD before
they go to the school. Only those who live in the city or certain villages where ECCD
is provided by an NGO can have the opportunity. Since most of the Akha people live
in upland areas, they could not have the opportunity to have preschool in their
villages so they face many struggles in their education. Many students stop going to
school after they complete the primary or secondary school.
The Myanmar Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2009-2010 [MICS] (Ministry of
National Planning and Economic Development and Ministry of Health, Myanmar
2011) presents various regional, division-level, and national statistics. According to
MICS, the rate of primary school completion and the rate of transition to secondary
education in Eastern Shan State are 97.0% in 2009-2010. Seeing this number the
rate of the transition is strong. However it should be considered that the number is
not representative for only Akha people but for the whole of Eastern Shan State.
From the author’s experience as a member of the language community, the
following reasons can be proposed for why the Akha students stop going to school
after finishing the primary or secondary school. Firstly most of them have to go to
another village or city to continue their studies. Secondly, they are often not happy
to go to school because of the extra difficulties they face since they cannot have a
chance to learn in their mother tongue. Thirdly, if they go to the city they have to
mix with more people groups who speak other languages that they cannot
understand. Yet another reason might be that the children are needed to help the
parents. For example the parents need help to work in the farm or to take care of
their animals.
Mother-tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) is not easy to have in some
areas where Akha live because in many village schools there are often three or four
different ethnic groups in a class. Moreover in the city there are about seven or eight
different ethnic groups in a school. Of course in areas where only Akha people live
such as mountain areas, there are situations where the whole village is Akha, but
78
there may be only one school for two or three villages so even there non-Akha
students might be in the school. Another problem is that there are not enough
qualified teachers from minority ethnic groups who could teach the students in their
mother tongue.
4.3.5 Differentiation Differentiation is the use of two or more languages for different functions within a
community. The more stable the usage of particular languages for particular
functions, the more sustainable the language. As shown in section 4.2.1 above, there
is very strong usage of Akha in the home domain as well as in the religious domain.
Table 39 Akha language proficiency
Question number Yes No Akha
KIQ-37, Are there people in this village who
can only speak Akha?
9 [50%] 9 [50%]
KIQ-38, Are there people in this village who
can speak Akha, but not very well?
1 [6%] 17[94%]
KIQ-39, Are there people in this village who
cannot speak Akha at all?
0 18[100%]
KIQ-4-, Normally what language do the
children in this village speak first
18[100%]
The above table shows the language proficiency of their mother tongue. According
to this analysis half of the village leaders, 9/18 [50%], responded that there are still
people who can only speak Akha in their villages. They also said that there is no one
who cannot speak Akha at all, but there is one person who cannot speak very well.
Table 39 also shows all of the children in the Akha villages speak Akha as their first
language. Data from the ISLQ relating to children’s language use is presented in
Table 40.
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Table 40 Children’s language use
ISLQ 52, Normally, what language do the children in this village speak first?
Nam Pan Tachileik Keng Tung
Akha 36/36 [100%] 24/24 [100%] 24/24 [100%]
ISLQ 53, Do you think the young people [from your group] in this village speak your
language well?
Nam Pan Tachileik Keng Tung
Yes 36/36 [100%] 24/24 [100%] 24/24 [100%]
As shown in Table 40 above, children’s language is 100% Akha in all villages
included in the survey. On the survey fieldtrips the author spoke only Akha to
people in the villages, and she observed that even those who also speak other
languages are still able to speak Akha well. However one area where there is lower
usage of Akha in the religious domain is the use of Burmese in Christian songs by
young people in the Akha Baptist churches. This is a matter of some concern because
it suggests that Akha might lose its dominant position if this usage spreads to other
areas of church life.
Apart from at home, village, church or religious domain, they speak Burmese, Shan,
and Chinese for other settings such as at the market, at school, government office,
etc. For Keng Tung and Tachileik areas, Burmese is the most commonly used
language in settings outside of the home. However the Nam Pan area, which is in
Special Region 4, is different from the other two areas. Even though the population
of Chinese in the area is less than the Akha population, the influence of Chinese is
quite strong. In some villages there is a Chinese school but no Akha literacy class or
Burmese government school! The people are attracted to the Chinese lifestyle and
they often try to imitate them.
However one interesting thing that the author found out from that area is that Akha
is used as a second language. People from other ethnic groups can speak Akha. For
example, most of the shopkeepers at the Nam Pan market are Chinese and some are
Shan but they all speak Akha. Since most of the people of that area are Akha, other
people try to speak Akha for their business, to sell things at the market or to hire
people for their farm. They consider the Chinese to have high prestige. Even though
some Chinese people speak Akha, their proficiency is limited to the topics they need
to communicate about, such as selling their goods at the market or matters relating
to employing labourers for their farms.
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Even though there are more Akha people in that area, the reason why Chinese
language is used widely is that they rely on Chinese people a lot to get many goods
or technical things for their daily life. Table 41 shows the patterns of language use
of the LWCs by Akha from the three areas.
Table 41 Language attitude toward LWC
Nam Pan Tachileik Keng Tung
ISLQ-43, Overall, how well
do you speak Shan?
Well 2 [6%] 1 [4%] 1 [4%]
Half 3 [8%] 3 [13%] 1 [4%]
A little 10 [28%] 11 [46%] 5 [21%]
Not at all 21 [58%] 9 [37%] 17 [71%]
ISLQ-44, How many times
a week do you typically
speak Shan?
Every day 5 [14%] 1 [4%] 0%
Often or
sometimes
10 [28%] 10 [42%] 7 [29%]
ISLQ-44a, What do you use
Shan for?
Business 6 [17%] 8 [33%] 4 [17%]
Social 8 [22%] 3 [13%] 3 [13%]
ISLQ-46, Overall, how well
do you speak Burmese?
Well 1 [3%] 12 [50%] 7 [29%]
Half 1 [3%] 1 [4%] 1 [4%]
A little 3 [8%] 6 [25%] 9 [38%]
Not at all 16 [44%] - -
ISLQ-47, How many times
a week do you typically
speak Burmese?
Every day 4 [11%] 14 [58%] 12 [50%]
Often or
sometimes
5 [14%] 5 [21%] 4 [17%]
ISLQ-47a, What do you use
Burmese for?
Business - 3 [13%] -
Social/chatting/
daily conversation
4 [11%] 16 [67%] 18 [75%]
ISLQ-49, Overall, how well
do you speak Chinese?
Well 5 [14%] - -
Half 10 [28%] - -
A little 7 [19%] - 3 [13%]
Not at all 3 [8%] 6 [25%] -
ISLQ-50, How many times
a week do you typically
speak Chinese?
Every day 10 [28%] - -
Often or
sometimes
18 [50%] - 1 [4%]
ISLQ-50a, What do you use
Chinese for?
Business 18 [50%] - 1 [4%]
Social 4 [11%] - -
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As we can see from the numbers in Table 41, Chinese is the most used LWC in the
Nam Pam area, whereas Burmese is used more in Tachileik and Keng Tung. The
Shan language is used in all three areas but not very strongly. Even though they
speak many different languages they mostly don’t speak these languages very well.
Only in one of the three areas, (50% in Tachileik) are people able to speak Burmese
well, but not very much in the other two areas. So it could be said that even though
they speak many different languages they don’t speak very well mostly, and they are
limited in what they are able to communicate with other people. The only language
they speak very well is Akha. Table 42 shows data for Burmese proficiency.
Table 42 Tested Burmese reading proficiency as a whole
ISLQ 32(a) show Burmese text and ask them to read it aloud
Reading speed Mistake
N Fast Medium Slow None Half of
sentence
Every
sentence
Total
Nam Pan 36 1[3%] 3[8%] 4 [11%] 4 [11%]
Tachileik 24 8 [33%] 5[21%] 1[4%] 9 [38%] 5 [21%] 14[58%]
Keng
Tung
24 6 [25%] 2 [8%] 1[4%] 5 [21%] 3 [13%] 1 [4%] 9 [38%]
Total 84 14[17%] 8[10%] 5[6%] 14[17%] 12[14%] 1 [1%] 27[32%]
The percentage of people who are able to read and write confidently in Burmese is
very small. In the Nam Pan area, there are only 4/35 [12%] people who can read in
Burmese. None of them read fluently even though they read some Burmese. 14/24
[58%] are able to read in Tachileik area, and 9/24 [38%] of them read fluently. In
Keng Tung area, 9/24 [37%] are able to read, and 5/24 [21%] of them read
fluently. To understand the differences between the Tachiliek and Keng Tung areas,
it is helpful to consider each village separately, as shown in Table 43 below.
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Table 43 Tested Burmese reading proficiency in each village
ISLQ 32(a) show Burmese text and ask them to read it aloud
Village Speed Mistake
N Fast Medium Slow Every
sentence
Half of
sentence
None Total
Bar Leh 12 - 1 [8%] 1 [8%] - 2 [17%] - 2 [17%]
Seu
Nyeh
12 - - 2[17%] - 2 [17%] - 2 [17%]
Hu
Naw
12 - - - - - - 0
Ho
Kyin 2
12 - 1 [8%] - - 1 [8%] - 1 [8%]
Panaw 12 3 [25%] 5[42%] 4 [33%] 4 [33%] 8 [67%]
Gaw
tsum
12 6 [50%] 1 [8%] 1 [8%] 1[8%] 2 [17%] 5 [42%] 8 [67%]
Bar Aa 12 5 [42%] 1 [8%] 1 [8%] 5 [42%] 6 [50%]
Total 84 14[17%] 8[10%] 5[6%] 1 [1%] 12[14%] 14[17%] 27[32%]
According to the figures in Table 43, none of the respondents from Hu Naw Akha
Akha zah village read Burmese. In two other villages, Bar Leh and Seu Nyeh, from
Nam Pan area, there are 2/12 [17%] in each village who can read Burmese but none
of them are able to read fast without making mistakes. There is also one village from
Keng Tung area, Ho Kyin 2 Akha Akha zah village; only one of the respondents, 1/12
[8%], is able to read.
Panaw, Catholic Akha village, from Tachileik area and Gaw Tsum, Baptist Akha
villages, from Keng Tung area have the most people who can read Burmese among
all the seven villages: 8/12 [67%] from each village can read Burmese. 6/12 [50%]
respondents from Gaw Tsum are able to read fast and 5/12 [42%] of them are able
to read without making any mistake.
Bar Aa Baptist village from Tachileik area is the village with the second largest
number of people who can read Burmese. 6/12 [50%] of them are able to read, and
5/12 [42%] of them are able to read fast without making mistake.
83
Table 44 shows beliefs about language use twenty years in the future.
Table 44 Beliefs about language use in future
ISLQ-55, Twenty years from now, what languages do you think
children in this village will be speaking?
Nam Pan Tachileik Keng Tung Total
Akha 35 [97%] 24 [100%] 23 [96%] 82 [98%]
Burmese 27 [75%] 24 [100%] 23 [96%] 74 [88%]
Chinese 34 [94%] 3 [13%] 3 [13%] 40 [48%]
Shan 1 [3%] 2 [8%] 6 [25%] 9 [11%]
Lahu 1 [4%] 8 [33%] 9 [11%]
English 3 [13%] 5 [21%] 8 [10%]
Thai 2 [8%] 2 [2%]
As we can see from the figures in Table 44, 82/84 [98%] of the subjects do believe
that their language will be spoken in 20 years’ time. The language with the second
highest number of responses is Burmese with 74/84 [88%]. Since Burmese is the
national language there is no doubt that it is going to be spoken in the near future.
But it does not mean when they are going to speak Burmese, they will not speak
Akha. They expect that they will keep speaking Akha even though they are also
going to speak Burmese. The language with the third highest percentage is Chinese
with 40/84 [48%]. It should be noted that in the Tachileik and Keng Tung areas
Akha and Burmese receive equal numbers of responses. In other words, people
believe that in 20 years’ time children in their village will be bilingual in Akha and
Burmese.
In the Nam Pan area people believe that in the future children in their village will be
trilingual in Akha, Chinese and to a lesser extent Burmese. This is not surprising
because Nam Pan is located next to the China border. Whereas 94% of people in
Nam Pan believe children in future will speak Chinese, only 13% of people from
each of Tachileik and Keng Tung areas said Chinese will be spoken in 20 years’ time.
Shan and Lahu are considered at the same level in total, 11% for each, mainly in
Keng Tung. 8/84 [10%], of respondents said English will also be spoken since there
are some people who are studying abroad and working in the international level.
Lastly, 2/84 [8%] of respondents think that Thai will also be spoken in the next 20
years. It should be noted that these subjects were both from Tachileik. So it could be
said that 2/24 [8%] of the subjects from Tachileik believe that Thai will be spoken
in the future.
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4.3.6 Summary of findings relating to sustainability The FAMED (Functions; Acquisition; Motivation; Environment; Differentiation)
conditions were used as a framework to assess the sustainability of the current level
of language vitality for Akha in Myanmar. The pattern of language use in both the
Christian and the Akha zah communities reveal the functions served by Akha for
these communities. Akha was shown to be the dominant language in both the
religious and home domains of language use. Since literature exists and is in use
particularly in the Christian community in the religious domain, the most
appropriate level in the Functions scale is F2. This level supports an EGIDS level of 5
(developing on the other conditions).
The resources available to the community to acquire Akha language and literacy
proficiency were discussed in section 4.3.2. Orthographies currently in use were
described as well as the written materials available in the community. It was shown
that the community in general is transmitting oral proficiency strongly, but the
literacy proficiency is only being transmitted among approximately half of the Akha
Baptist villages and just a handful of villages outside of the Akha Baptist community.
Even though there is literacy training supported by an established institution, named
ABC, which would suggest an acquisition level of A1, it is more appropriate to say it
is level A2 because the literacy teaching is only in part of the community. Level A2
supports an EGIDS level of 5 (developing on the other conditions).
The attitude of Akha speakers to their own language was shown to be very strong.
People in all religious communities are strongly motivated to speak the language.
Members of the Christian community, especially the Baptist community are strongly
motivated to read and write Akha, particularly for reading the Akha Bible and
hymnal. Furthermore, Akha is used in written form in the Baptist community, for
reports, invitation letters, minutes of meetings, etc. Since some members of the
community see the benefit reading and writing but many in the community do not,
the most appropriate motivation level is M2. This level supports an EGIDS level of 5
(developing on the other conditions).
Although Akha is recognised as an official minority ethnic group by the government,
the language in education creates an environment that is not supportive of Akha
literacy. Burmese is the official language of instruction in government schools, and
children are forced to learn Burmese language and literacy. So children generally
start learning to read and write Burmese before learning literacy in their mother
tongue, Akha. This makes learning more difficult for Akha children, particularly in
85
the first few years of school and leads to greater dropout rates of Akha children
before the end of secondary school. Furthermore if someone has already become
literate in Burmese, they probably feel less of a need for literacy in Akha. Since
government policy allows development of Akha but is not making any investment in
its development, an Environment level of E2 is most appropriate. This level supports
an EGIDS level of 5 (developing on the other conditions).
Finally the issue of differentiation was discussed. It was shown that although Akha
people speak many different languages, they don’t speak other languages very well.
Only small percentages speak Burmese well. But they believe that over the next 20
years Akha people will be speaking seven different languages, Akha, Burmese,
Chinese, Shan, Lahu, Thai and English. Generally these can be considered as additive
bilingualism in certain domains, primarily trade and business. Since there are
accepted norms for the use of the written form in certain situations, the most
appropriate level on the Differentiation scale is D2. The level supports an EGIDS
level of 5 (developing on the other conditions).
In the preceding paragraphs each of the FAMED conditions supports an EGIDS level
of 5. We can say that the five conditions are equally strong and there is no weaker
condition to lower the overall level. So the levels of the FAMED conditions agree
with the overall EGIDS level of 5 as described in section 4.2. So for the medium-
term, the overall level of EGIDS 5 is sustainable. The SUM says that for long term
sustainability, the language needs to achieve sustainable literacy, EGIDS level 4. This
section shows that effort would be needed in the FAMED conditions to move
towards EGIDS 4 in each condition.
This chapter has examined both research questions of the study ‘from the top down’,
that is looking at the language as a whole. In the following chapter, both research
questions are again investigated but from the ‘bottom up’, that is looking at
language use in specific areas of life.
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Chapter 5
Analysis of Bodies of Knowledge Data
In this chapter the Bodies of Knowledge data is analysed to present further insights
to both of the research questions of this thesis, namely the vitality level of Akha
(RQ1) and is the extent to which the current level is sustainable (RQ2).
5.1 Description of Data Before presenting the analysis, the following subsections give a description of the
BoK categories and the format of the BoK data.
5.1.1 BoK Categories In Table 21 the BoKs were categorised as ‘Inside’ or ‘Outside’. However, during the
data collection it became clear that another category was needed, namely ‘Inside-
Outside’ for BoKs that were a mixture of knowledge from within the community and
from outside. The new categorisation is shown in Table 45.
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Table 45 Description of BoKs by Category
Inside Inside-outside Outside
Num Description Num Description Num Description
5 Community events-funeral 4 Law 1 Transportation
6 Art/music-traditional 16 Food-drinks 2 Technology
7 Community events-wedding 28 Religious-
singing
3 Community
development
8 Community events-new year
festival
11 Farming
9 Community events-thanks
giving
18 Health-medicine
10 Community life 19 Self-advancement
12 Family 20 Business and trade
13 Farming-raising animal
14 Farming-traditional 22 Housing- modern
15 Food-basic food 27 Art/music-modern
17 Heath-herb
21 Housing-traditional
23 Craft-women
24 Craft-man
25 Religious-Christian formality
26 Religious-hymnal
There are 28 individual BoKs listed in the three categories: 16 Inside; 9 Outside and
3 Inside-Outside BoKs. The reaon why three BoKs (#4; #16 and #28) were
categorised as Inside-Outside was that the participants got confused to assess the
level for those BoKs because they thought those pictures show a combination of
knowledge that is from within the community and from outside of the community.
The picture used to represent BoK No 4 is shown in Figure 12.
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Figure 12 Picture of BoK No. 4: Law
For BoK No. 4, Law, many of the participants thought that the knowledge is from
outside but some participants, especially from the Nam Pan area, thought that since
many of the leaders from that area are Akha, they can use Akha for any case that
happened in their area and the Akha leaders can handle for them. Another reason is
that Akha village leaders have enough power to handle some cases that happened in
the village. The villagers tend to listen and obey the village leader and they do not
want to go to the court if possible. So they never go to the police or court for small
cases that can be done in the village by village leaders. No matter what kind of case
has happened in the village, they go to the village leader and inform him first. Then
the village leaders decide if it can be handled in the village or if there is a need to go
to the administration of the quarter or district level, or police and the court.
89
The picture representing BoK No. 16, Food and drink, is shown in Figure 13.
Figure 13 Picture of BoK No. 16
As can be seen in Figure 13, the picture itself was made up of smaller pictures of
water, tea, branded alcoholic drinks and branded soft drinks. The participants saw a
distinction between water and tea on the one hand and the branded drinks on the
other. Water and tea are drinks that they associate with the community – they are
more ‘local’ products, whereas the branded drinks are obviously produced far away
from the community. It was not intentionally done to make this BoK Inside-Outside
when the tool was designed. As it is named “Food and drink” the picture was
intended to represent types of drink. However when it was shown to the village
participants, they considered the knowledge to be combined in the same picture. So
it was reclassified as Inside-Outside for analysing.
The picture for BoK No. 28, Religious-singing, is shown in Figure 14.
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Figure 14 Picture of BoK No. 28
As shown in Table 21, this was originally intended to be an Inside BoK because Akha
Christians regularly sing songs at church. However, the keyboard is not a traditional
Akha instrument, so it also has some outside elements. In addition Akha young
people sing many modern songs in Burmese at Church, so the combination of inside
and outside information led to this BoK being considered as Inside-Ouside.
5.1.2 BoK Data Format The data was from three different areas, Keng Tung, Tachileik and Nam Pan area,
and from seven Akha villages, two villages from the Akha zah community, two
villages from the Catholic community, and three villages from the Baptist
community.
The BoK data was collected using charts based on levels for each of the FAMED
conditions. When the participants had classified the pictures, the chart was
photographed to capture the information. The chart headings were numbered 1, 2,
3… to make them easy to understand by the participants. The first stage of data
processing was to identify the EGIDS levels of the various columns on the charts
used to collect the data.
The full data from Seu Nyeh village is shown in Table 46, below. The numbers in the
columns represent the EGIDS level for the given FAMED condition. The full data for
all villages can be found in Appendix H.
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Table 46 BoK data from Seu Nyeh Akha village
BOK # Function Acquisition Motivation Environment Differentiation
1 7 7 6b 7 6b
2 7 7 6b 7 6b
3 6a 6b 6a 5 6a
4 7 7 6b 7 6b
5 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
6 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
7 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
8 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
9 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
10 7 6b 6b 7 6a
11 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
12 6a 6b 6b 7 6a
13 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
14 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
15 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
16 6a 6a & 79 6b 7 6a & 6b10
17 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
18 7 7 6b 7 6b
19 7 7 4 5 6b
20 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
21 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
22 7 7 6b 7 6b
23 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
24 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
25 5 5 5 6a 5
26 5 4 5 6a 5
27 6a 6a 6a 5 6b
28 6a 5 5 6a 5
As the table shows, there is a large amount of data for each village. The analysis in
the following section will attempt to identify and explain patterns in the data.
9 Picture 16 was made up of 4 images of different types of drinks. The drinks that are made in the
community (i.e. water and tea) were categorised as 6a whereas drinks that were produced outside of the
community (i.e. branded alcoholic and soft drinks) were categorised as level 7. 10
As the explanation for footnote 9, the drinks that are made in the community (i.e. water and tea) were
categorized as 6a whereas drinks that were produced outside of the community (i.e. branded alcoholic
and soft drinks) were categorized as level 6b.
92
5.2 Results The analysis of the BoK data for each of the FAMED conditions will be presented in
the following sections. Since the FAMED conditions were used in section 4.3 as a
framework for assessing the sustainability of Akha language vitality, the results
presented there will be compared and discussed in the corresponding subsections of
this section. For example, the results of section 4.3.1 which look at the functions of
Akha when the language is considered as a whole will be compared to the functions
levels of Akha for specific BoKs.
5.2.1 Function In this section the BoK analysis of the Function condition is described. A general
description of the meaning of the different levels for Function was given in section
2.4.1 In this section the results are analysed by village and BoK category (Inside;
Outside; Inside-Outside). The data for all Inside BoKs for all villages is presented in
Table 47. The numbers in the data columns in the table represent the EGIDS levels
as described in Table 4
Table 47 EGIDS Function Levels for all Inside Bodies of Knowledge by Village
BoK Baptist Catholic Akha Zah
Category No. Label Bar Aa Gaw tsum BarLeh Seu Nyeh Panaw HuNaw HoKyin
Inside
5 ComEvt1 5 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6b
6 Art/Mus2 6a 6b 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
7 ComEvt2 5-6a11 4 6a 6a 4 6a 6a
8 ComEvt3 6a 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
9 ComEvt4 5 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
10 ComLife 6a 5 6a 7 6a 6a 6a
12 Family 6a 5 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
13 Farming 2 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
14 Farming 3 6a 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
15 Food 2 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
17 Health 2 6a 5 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
21 Housing2 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
23 Craft 1 6a 6b 6a 6a 6b 6b 6a
24 Craft 2 6a 6b 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
25 Religion2 4 4 5 5 4 6b 6b
26 Religion3 4 4 5 5 4 6a 6b
11
Picture 7 is a picture of a wedding. The wedding in Bar Aa village is considered to be between 5 and
6a since some aspects of the wedding such as the ceremony use Akha written materials.
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According to the data in the above table, the function level of each Inside BoK is
quite similar in the Baptist villages: most Inside BoKs are at level 6a and a few of
them are level 5 or 4. However Gaw Tsum village is a bit different and it is a bit
higher level, level 4 and 5 for many of the BoKs as they have an Akha literacy class
in the village and have some literacy books written in Akha related to some of the
Inside BoKs. The situation of Catholic Akha villages, Seu Nyeh and Panaw, is almost
the same. However there are some parts of BoKs that are a bit different within Inside
BoKs. It seems the use of Akha in the religious domain in Panaw is stronger than in
Seu Nyeh because the level of the religious BoK for Panaw is 4 while the level of Seu
Nyeh is 5. One of the reasons why they have some differences within in the Catholic
community is that the villages are located in different areas. Also the pastor from the
Seu Nyeh villages is Non-Akha while Panaw village’s pastor is Akha. The data for
Akha zah villages is not very much different for Inside BoKs. Almost all of the Inside
Boks are 6a and a few are 6b. Overall for Inside BoKs the BoKs which show the
greatest variation between villages relate to religion. The Christian villages generally
have level 4 or 5 for the two Inside Religious BoKs whereas the Akha Zah has level
6b or 6a. The main reason for this is that Christians have written Scriptures whereas
Akha Zah generally does not have written materials for Akha Zah traditional
practices. The results for Outside and Inside-Outside BoKs are presented in Table 48.
Table 48 EGIDS Function Levels for all Outside Bodies of Knowledge by Village
BoK Baptist Catholic Akha Zah
Category No. Label Bar Aa Gaw
tsum
Bar
Leh
Seu
Nyeh
Panaw Hu
Naw
Ho
Kyin
Outside
1 Transport 6a 6a 9 7 6a 6a 6b
2 Technology 6a 7 9 7 6a 6a 6b
3 ComDev 6a 6b 9 6a 6a 6a 6b
11 Farming 1 6a 6b 9 6a 6a 6a 6a
18 Health 1 7 7 9 7 6b 6a 6b
19 SelfAdv 7 7 6b 7 7 7 7
20 Busi/Trade 7 6a 6a 6a 6b 6a 6b
22 Housing1 7 6a 7 7 6a 6a 6b
27 Art/Mus1 6b 5 7 6a 6b 7 6b
Inside
Outside
4 Law 7 7 9 7 6a 6a 7
16 Food 1 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
28 Religion 1 4 5 5 6a 4 6a 6b
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The level of Outside BoKs is generally lower compared to the Inside BoKs. The
highest level for outside BoKs is 6a, and the lowest level is 9. The data shows that in
some villages some of the BoKs that were from outside the culture have been
adopted into the culture and the Function level suggests that they have become
Inside BoKs. They used those outside BoKs in their daily lives and they adopted it
from a neighbouring language to be their own. On the other hand some villages still
consider them as outside BoKs. For example Bar Leh reports level 9 for 5 out of 9 of
the Outside BoKs. Even though they are using and seeing a particular BoK, somehow
they feel that those things do not belong to their language and come from others.
To describe the BoKs in the Inside-Outside category is complicated. The participants
sometimes got confused for these BoKs when collecting the data. They were not sure
whether those three BoKs were from within in the community or not. So the levels
of those BoKs are also quite different. For BoK #4 ‘Law’, many people consider it as
very low level such as 7 or 9. However there are two villages, Panaw and Hu Naw
that consider it as 6a. BoK #16 ‘Food 1’, is considered as 6a by every village
consistently. For BoK #28 ‘Religious 1’, it makes sense that all the Christian villages
except for Seu Nyeh, consider it as higher level such as 4 and 5. Then Akha zah
consider it as 6a and 6b since the religious picture was represented as Christian
religious activity.
The results presented in section 4.3.1 showed that the pattern of language use in
religious and home domains are very strong. It is not surprising that the BoK data
presented in this section for Function also shows the same thing. The levels for BoKs
relating to religion (BoK nos. 2; 3; 28) are 4 or 5 in the Christian villages and 6b or
6a in the Akha zah villages. For family (BoK no. 12) the levels were 6a with one 5
in Gaw Tsum. The BoK analysis adds extra insights because of the greater detail it
uses. With regard to Function, the main advantage of the BoK analysis is that it
inherently investigates both oral and written use of the language, since the
difference between oral use and written use of the language is a distinguishing
feature between levels 6a and 5 on the EGIDS scale.
5.2.2 Acquisition In this section the BoK analysis of the Acquisition condition is described. Section
4.3.2 gave an overview of the situation of Akha literacy including the availability of
available written materials and orthography issues. The EGIDS acquisition levels for
all Inside BoKs are presented in Table 49.
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Table 49 EGIDS Acquisition Levels for all Inside BoKs by village
BoK Baptist Catholic Akha Zah
Category No. Label Bar Aa Gaw tsum BarLeh SeuNyeh Panaw HuNaw Ho Kyin
Inside
5 ComEvt1 4 5 6a 6a 6a 6a 6b
6 Art/Mus2 6a 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
7 ComEvt2 4 5 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
8 ComEvt3 6a 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
9 ComEvt4 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
10 ComLife 6a 6a 6a 6b 6a 6a 6a
12 Family 6a 6b 5 6b 6a 6a 6a
13 Farming 2 6a 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
14 Farming 3 6a 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
15 Food 2 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
17 Health 2 6a 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
21 Housing2 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
23 Craft 1 6a 6b 6a 6a 7 6b 6a
24 Craft 2 6a 6b 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
25 Religion2 4 4 5 5 6a 6b 6b
26 Religion3 4 4 5 4 6a 6a 6b
For the Inside BoKs, the Baptist villages of Bar Aa and Gaw Tsum have higher levels
especially for religious BoKs. Both of these two villages considered it as level 4 since
they have some documents and books for religious things. They also have some
books for health, farming and community events. So the levels of those parts of BoK
are higher than other BoKs. However Bar Leh village is very much different
compared to the other two Baptist villages. They have lower levels for most of the
Inside BoKs. The author found that they do not have books as much as the other two
villages do even though it is also a Baptist village. As mentioned in section 3.3.2, Bar
Leh village is located in Nam Pan area and the village has not been Christian for
many years, so they do not have such a long history of literacy teaching as the other
villages. Also they have not yet got the full range of literacy materials that have
been produced.
The results of the Catholic and Akha zah villages are not very different for the Inside
BoKs. Almost all of the Inside BoKs are at the same level 6a, which means they
acquire the language orally but do not use any written materials. But some levels are
6b and one is 7 for BoK No. 23, Craft 1. They feel that they do not see handicrafts
being produced in their village anymore. Even though the craft BoK is knowledge
from inside their culture, many of the villagers no longer do it because other
96
products using newer technology or mass-produced things have replaced traditional
handicrafts. So the levels for this BoK are very low. The Acquisition levels for
Outside and Inside-Outside BoKs are given in Table 50.
Table 50 EGIDS Acquisition Levels for Outside and Inside-Outside BoKs by
village
BoK Baptist Catholic Akha Zah
Category No. Label Bar Aa Gawtsum BarLeh SeuNyeh Panaw HuNaw HoKyin
Outside
1 Transport 6a 6a 7 7 6a 6a 6b
2 Technology 6a 6a 7 7 6a 6a 6b
3 ComDev 6a 6a 7 6b 6a 6a 6b
11 Farming 1 6a 6a 7 6a 6a 6a 6b
18 Health 1 7 6a 7 7 6a 6a 6b
19 SelfAdv 7 7 7 7 9 6b 7
20 Busi/Trade 7 7 6a 6a 7 6a 6b
22 Housing1 7 7 7 7 6a 6a 6b
27 Art/Mus1 5 5 7 6a 7 6b 6b
Inside
Outside
4 Law 9 6a 6a 7 6a 6a 7
16 Food 1 6a 6a 6a 6a+7 6a 6a 6a
28 Religion 1 4 4 5 5 6a 6a 6b
Regarding the Outside BoKs, there were only two villages that said one of the
Outside BoKs, Art/Music 1, is level 5. These two villages are the Baptist villages, Bar
Aa and Gaw Tsum. So it means they learn the music from the Church and the level
of this BoK is higher than the other villages. Many of them said it is level 6a, 6b, and
7. And there is only one village, Panaw that said one of the BoKs, Self-advancement,
is level 9. It seems to them that self-advancement is not a BoK that they expect to
engage with. Normally it is to be expected that the levels for these Outside BoKs will
be lower since the BoKs come from outside and the people are not very familiar with
them as they are with Inside BoKs.
For Inside-Outside BoKs there are no written books that can play a part in
acquisition except for BoK No. 28, Religious 1, for the Christian community. It is
clear that the Christian community has books such as the Bible, hymnal and some
other religious books to acquire different aspects of their religion. Bar Aa village
chose level 9 for the BoK No. 4, Law, and other villages chose level 6a and 7. BoK
No. 16, Food 1, is rated at level 6a by all the villages, but Seu Nyeh village rated it
as 6a+7. They said there are two different parts included in the picture; one from
within the community and one from outside. So they have two levels for BoK No.16,
Food 1.
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Section 4.3.2 gave a discussion of acquisition from the point of view of the language
as a whole. In that section the focus was on the Akha orthographies, written
materials, and the Akha literacy program. As mentioned in 4.3.2.3 the Akha literacy
class is based in the Christian community especially in the Baptist community. The
levels for BoKs 25, 26 and 28, and Religious 1-2-3, are higher in Christian villages
than other villages. These results agree with the findings of section 4.3.2 which
show the greatest support for acquisition in the religious domain. The analysis of
BoKs presented in this section adds extra detail. In particular, those BoKs that have
weak scores suggest areas where more written materials are needed. So the BoK
analysis is a way of identifying areas of need for corpus planning and materials
development.
5.2.3 Motivation In this section the BoK analysis of the Motivation condition will be described. The
results will be compared to those presented in section 4.3.3 where motivation was
investigated in terms of ethnic identity and perceived advantages of Akha literacy
proficiency. Section 2.4.3, Table 9, has the definition of each level for this
Motivation condition. The motivation levels for all Inside BoKs are given in Table
51.
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Table 51 EGIDS Motivation Levels for all Inside BoKs by Village
BoK Baptist Catholic Akha Zah
Category No. Label Bar Aa Gaw
tsum
Bar
Leh
Seu
Nyeh
Panaw Hu
Naw
Ho
Kyin
Inside
5 ComEvt1 4 6a 5 6a 6a 6a 6a
6 Art/Mus2 6a 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
7 ComEvt2 4 4 5 6a 6a 6a 6a
8 ComEvt3 6a 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
9 ComEvt4 4 4 5 6a 6a 6a 6a
10 ComLife 6a 6a 5 6b 6a 6a 6a
12 Family 6a 5 6a 6b 6a 6a 6a
13 Farming 2 6a 5 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
14 Farming 3 6a 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
15 Food 2 6a 5 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
17 Health 2 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
21 Housing2 6a 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
23 Craft 1 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 7 6a
24 Craft 2 6a 4 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
25 Religion2 4 4 4 5 4 6b 6a
26 Religion3 4 4 4 5 4 6b 6a
The data show that the three Baptist villages have similar results for Inside BoKs for
this Motivation condition. The other four villages, two Catholic villages and two
Akha zah villages have similar results. In the Christian community they are strongly
motivated to use the language in the religious domain. They rated it as level 4 and
one village, Seu Nyeh, rated it as level 5. The level 4 is the highest vitality for the
Akha community for any BoK for any of the FAMED conditions. The Baptist
community is the group who show the strongest use of the written form of the
language especially in matters relating to the Church. They use the Akha writing and
reading system at the church and religious meetings. The pastor has to use Akha to
preach and also to communicate with the ABC. They have to do reporting by writing
in Akha.
According to this data the Baptist community also have a higher level, i.e. lower
numbers on the EGIDS scale, for the Community events and Art/music. Since most
of the community events are led by pastors or religious leaders, they found it is
higher than the other BoKs because the pastors always use Akha for those events and
have some written materials related with those things.
99
The other four villages, two Catholic villages and two Akha zah villages, have almost
the same results except for Religion 2-3, for Seu Nyeh and Panaw villages. Only
these two parts of Inside BoKs have level 5 and 4 for the two villages but all the
other Inside BoKs are 6a, a few 6b and one 7. Hu Naw village rated BoK No. 23,
Craft 1, as level 7. It seemed to them that many people in younger generations no
longer know about the handicrafts since they have been replaced by other clothing
and nobody does those handicrafts in the village anymore. The results for Outside
and Inside-Outside BoKs are presented in Table 52.
Table 52 EGIDS Motivation Levels for Outside and Inside-Outside Boks by
Village
BoK Baptist Catholic Akha Zah
Category No. Label Bar Aa Gaw
tsum
Bar
Leh
Seu
Nyeh
Panaw Hu
Naw
Ho
Kyin
Outside
1 Transport 6a 6b 6b 6b 6a 6a 6b
2 Technology 6a 6b 6b 6b 6a 6a 6b
3 ComDev 6a 6b 6b 6a 6a 6a 6b
11 Farming 1 6a 6a 6b 6a 6a 6a 6b
18 Health 1 7 6a 6b 6b 6a 6a 6b
19 SelfAdv 7 6b 5 4 7 7 7
20 Busi/Trade 7 6b 6a 6a 6a 6a 6b
22 Housing1 9 6b 6b 6b 6a 6a 6b
27 Art/Mus1 5 4 6b 6a 6b 6a 6b
Inside
Outside
4 Law 9 6b 6a 6b 6a 6a 7
16 Food 1 6a 6a 6b 6b 6a 6a 6a
28 Religion 1 4 4 4 5 4 6b 6a
For the Outside BoKs many of the results are level 6a, 6b, and 7 for every village.
Only Bar Leh and Seu Nyeh villages rated BoK No. 19, self-advancement, as level 5
and 4 respectively. As expected the Outside BoKs for every condition is lower than
that for Inside BoKs. The people are less motivated to use the language for the
Outside BoKs than the Inside BoKs.
For the Inside-Outside BoKs for this Motivation section, BoK No. 4, Law, was rated
as levels 6a, 6b, 7 and 9. The low scores for this BoK show that the law is regarded
as something set by the government in Burmese and therefore coming from outside
the community. BoK No. 16, Food 1, is rated as level 6a and 6b. Akha is used orally
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for this BoK but not in written form. BoK No. 28, Religion 1, is rated as 4 and 5 in
the Christian villages, and 6a and 6b in the Akha zah villages.
It is interesting to compare the results of section 4.3.3 and those presented in this
section. The results in Table 37 showed that almost one third of the individual
participants interviewed mentioned advantages in the religious domain for being
able to read and write Akha. This is also reflected by the EGIDS scores in the BoK
analysis which are highest for the religious BoKs. Section 4.3.3 also showed that
participants have a strong identity as Akha. This is in keeping with the scores for
BoK Nos. 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 25, and 26 which have to do with community life, family
and religion. The detail provided by the BoK data gives extra insights. For example,
the case of BoK No. 23 which was rated in Hu Naw reflects a change in culture in
the village as people move away from practising traditional handicrafts in favour of
buying ready-made items from outside the community.
5.2.4 Environment In this section the BoK analysis of the Environment condition is described. For this
condition the level of the BoKs are not very different so all categories of BoK (Inside,
Outside, and Inside-Outside) are discussed together. Section 2.4.4, Table 10, has the
definition of each level for this Environment condition. The results for all BoKs are
presented in Table 53.
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Table 53 EGIDS Environment Levels for all BoKs by Village
Category BoK Baptist Catholic Akha zah
Inside
No
.
Label Bar
Aa
Gaw
tsum
Bar
Leh
Seu
Nyeh
Panaw Hu
Naw
Ho
Kyin
5 ComEvt1 5 4 5 5 4 5 4
6 Art/Mus2 5 5 5 5 5 4 5
7 ComEvt2 5 4 5 5 5 4 5
8 ComEvt3 5 5 5 5 5 4 5
9 ComEvt4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
10 ComLife 5 5 5 7 5 4 5
12 Family 5 5 5 7 5 5 5
13 Farming 2 5 4 5 5 5 5 5
14 Farming 3 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
15 Food 2 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
17 Health 2 6a 5 5 5 5 5 5
21 Housing2 5 6a 5 5 5 5 5
23 Craft 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
24 Craft 2 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
25 Religion2 4 6a 5 6a 5 5 5
26 Religion3 5 6a 5 6a 5 4 5
Outside
1 Transport 5 5 5 7 5 5 5
2 Technology 5 5 5 7 5 5 5
3 ComDev 5 5 5 5 5 4 4
11 Farming 1 5 4 5 5 5 5 5
18 Health 1 5 4 5 7 5 4 4
19 SelfAdv 5 6a 5 5 5 4 4
20 Busi/Trade 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
22 Housing1 5 4 5 7 5 5 6a
27 Art/Mus1 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Inside-
Outside
4 Law 5 4 5 7 5 5 5
16 Food 1 5 5 5 7 5 & 6a 5 5
28 Religion 1 5 6a 5 6a 5 4 5
Most of the BoKs are rated as EGIDS level 5 in this condition, no matter whether the
BoK is Inside, Outside, or Inside-Outside. Bar Leh village rated all of the BoKs as
level 5. Likewise Hu Naw and Panaw villages also rated almost all of the BoKs as
level 5, with a few BoKs rated as level 4. However there is one part of BoKs, BoK No.
16, Food 1, was which considered as level 5 and 6a by Panaw village. Bar Aa village
also consider all of the BoKs as level 5 except for BoK No. 25, Religion 2 (level 4)
102
and BoK No. 17, Health 2 (level 6a). So the environment for people in these villages
to use their language is generally perceived as quite fair for every BoK, and there is
no opposition to them to develop their language. Overall many of the villages
considered all of the Boks as level 5, and at least 6a, but Seu Nyeh village rated
some of the BoKs as level 7. To explain the results it is helpful to consider the
location and background of Seu Nyeh village. The village is situated near the main
road and many business people pass by their village. Most of them speak Chinese,
and also there are some Chinese business people living in the village. So it makes the
environment of Seu Nyeh village to be lower level, level 7, for this condition.
For the Gaw Tsum village, some BoKs, Community event, Farming, Health, Housing,
and Law, are considered as EGIDS level 4. The main reason for having the higher
levels for these BoKs is having the literacy books for it and they know what they
obtain from that. According to the participants they have fellowship with some of
the NGO workers or civil servants as well, when they have community events in the
village. They invite them and have fellowship with them. And they receive some
awareness trainings for farming and health in the village. So the villagers had the
knowledge of the farming and health as they got trained. Likewise, the other
villages also have some BoKs that are rated as EGIDS level 4 showing they have a
supportive environment.
As shown in Table 10 in Section 2.4.4, the EGIDS level 5 corresponds to
Environmental level E2. This level is defined as follows: “The external policy
environment encourages the development of this language, but the policy-making
bodies are making no investment in the implementation of such policy.” As the
definition says, the government does not have any opposition to the Akha language
development and they are encouraging and supporting in some BoKs even though
not for all.
The discussion of environment in section 4.3.4 was focussed on language issues in
the education system. The official language of instruction in government schools is
Burmese and other ethnic group languages and not allowed for formal instruction.
However although the formal education system is important from a sustainability
point of view, it is not the only thing to consider. The BoK data for Environment
shows that the environment is generally perceived as not against language
development.
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5.2.5 Differentiation In this section the BoK analysis of the final FAMED condition, Differentiation is
presented. Section 2.4.5, Table 11, has the definition of each level for this
Differentiation condition. The results for Inside BoKs are presented in Table 54.
Table 54 EGIDS Differentiation Levels for all Inside BoKs by Village
BoK Baptist Catholic Akha Zah
Category No. Label Bar Aa Gaw
tsum
Bar
Leh
Seu
Nyeh
Panaw Hu
Naw
Ho
Kyin
Inside
5 ComEvt1 5.512 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
6 Art/Mus2 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
7 ComEvt2 5.5 6a 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
8 ComEvt3 4 6a 5 6a 6a 6a 6a
9 ComEvt4 5.5 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
10 ComLife 5.5 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
12 Family 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
13 Farming 2 6a 6a 5 6a 6a 6a 6a
14 Farming 3 6a 6a 5 6a 6a 6a 6a
15 Food 2 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
17 Health 2 6a 4 6a 6a 5 6a 6a
21 Housing2 6a 7 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
23 Craft 1 4 7 6a 6a 7 6a 6a
24 Craft 2 4 7 6a 6a 6b 6a 6a
25 Religion2 5.5 4 5 5 5 6a 6a
26 Religion3 5.5 4 5 5 5 6a 6a
The data in the table shows some variation between different BoKs and also between
different villages for the same BoK. Ho Kyin village rated all the Inside BoK as
EGIDS level 6a. In other words, they use Akha orally for all the Inside BoKs but do
not use the written form. Hu Naw village also consider all of the Inside BoKs as level
6a except for three BoKs, BoK No. 6, 7, and 15. For this village the level of these
three BoKs are higher than any others. Every village has high levels for religion
except for the Akha zah villages, Hu Naw and Ho Kyin. In this condition it is a bit
strange to see the results of Gaw Tsum village. Normally the level of Gaw Tsum is
higher than other villages in other FAMED conditions. However the lowest level,
level 7, among all the villages for the Inside BoKs for Differentiation is in the Gaw
Tsum village. Three BoKs, BoK No. 21, 23, and 24 are rated as level 7 by Gaw Tsum.
12
The 5.5 means the level is more than level 6 but not level 5. It is in between level 5 and 6a.
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Pa Naw village also rated BoK No. 23 as level 7. These BoKs are Housing and Craft.
Actually these BoKs are well known by Akha people as their own cultural things.
However since those things are not seen very often in some of the villages, many
people are losing the vocabulary for those BoKs. The results for Outside BoKs are
presented in Table 55.
Table 55 EGIDS Differentiation Levels for Outside or Inside-Outside Boks by
Village
BoK Baptist Catholic Akha Zah
Category No. Label Bar Aa Gaw
tsum
Bar
Leh
Seu
Nyeh
Panaw Hu
Naw
Ho
Kyin
Outside
1 Transport 6b 6b 9 6b 6a 6a 6b
2 Technology 6b 6b 9 6b 6a 6a 6b
3 ComDev 6a 5 7 6a 6a 6a 6b
11 Farming 1 6a 7 7 6a 6a 6a 6b
18 Health 1 6b 6b 9 6b 6b 6a 6b
19 SelfAdv 9 6b 5 6b 6b 6a 6a
20 Busi/Trade 6b 5 5 6a 5 5 6b
22 Housing1 6b 6b 9 6b 9 7 6b
27 Art/Mus1 4 4 7 6b 9 6a 6b
Inside
Outside
4 Law 9 4 6a 6b 6b 6a 7
16 Food 1 6a 6a 6a 6a & 6b 6a 5 6a
28 Religion 1 4 4 5 5 5 6a 6a
For the Outside BoKs, the level of each BoK is lower than that for the Inside BoKs as
expected. Bar Leh gave noticeably low levels for the Outside BoKs; level 9 for BoK
No. 1, 2, 18, and 22, then level 7 for BoK No. 3, 11, and 27. But there are two BoKs,
BoK No. 19 and 20, which Bar Leh rated as level 5. On the other hand Hu Naw
considered all of the Outside BoKs as level 6a, except for two BoKs, BoK No. 20 and
22, level 5 and 7 respectively. Ho Kyin village rated all of the Outside BoKs as level
6b except for BoK No. 19. To those BoKs that considered as level 6a, they are being
used orally very well in the village. Even though these BoKs are Outside BoKs, they
adopted them and use them as their language. So they considered them as level 6a.
Other than that most of the BoKs are considered as 6b and even lower than that for
this condition.
As expected, Inside-Outside BoKs are complicated. BoK No. 28, ‘Religion’ is rated as
level 4 and 5 in the Christian villages but as level 6a by the Akha zah villages. BoK
No. 16, Food 1, is rated as level 6a by most of the villages and level 5 by Hu Naw
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village. BoK No.4, Law, is considered as many different levels such as level 4, 6a, 6b,
7, and 9. So a satisfactory conclusion for this one category cannot be formulated
clearly.
In Section 4.3.5 the Differentiation condition was discussed in depth by considering
proficiency and use of LWCs Burmese, Shan and Chinese. When these LWCs were
used, it was generally for business or social interactions. Proficiency was generally
quite low so the communication tasks the LWCs were being used for were generally
at the more basic end of the spectrum. The BoK analysis is in keeping with this
because it shows strong oral use of Akha in most Inside BoKs (level 6a) and use of
Akha in written form for some BoKs in some villages.
5.2.6 Summary of Results for FAMED Conditions The data in Table 56 presents an overview for each village of how the EGIDS levels
compare for each of the FAMED conditions. This is important because the overall
vitality level is determined by the weakest condition (the biggest number/lowest
EGIDS level in the chart). Conditions with weaker levels help to identify where
resources should be targeted in order to strengthen the vitality. Because data was
collected from many BoKs, it is not easy to summarise the data in a compact way.
The values in the table give the modal level, that is, the level that occurred most
frequently. For example, the first cell is the most frequently occurring level among
all 16 of the Inside BoKs for the Function condition in Bar Aa village.
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Table 56 Modal EGIDS Levels for Inside and Outside BoKs by Village and
Condition
BoK Village Religion Function Acquisition Motivation Environ-
ment
Differen-
tiation
In
side
Bar Aa
Baptist
6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Gaw
Tsum
4 4 4 5 6a
Bar Leh 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Seu Nyeh
Catholic
6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Panaw 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Hu Naw Akha
zah
6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Ho Kyin 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Out
side
Bar Aa
Baptist
6a,713 6a,7 6a 5 6b
Gaw
Tsum
6a,7 6a 6b 5 6b
Bar Leh 9 7 6b 5 9
Seu Nyeh
Catholic
7 7 6a,6b 5 6b
Panaw 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Hu Naw Akha
zah
6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Ho Kyin 6b 6b 6b 5 6b
For Inside BoKs the results are very consistent from village to village, apart from
Gaw Tsum which generally has higher values. All villages have 6a as the most
common level for Differentiation and 5 for Environment. For Function, Acquisition
and Motivation six villages have 6a whereas Gaw Tsum has level 4.
The Outside BoKs are generally lower and show much greater variation. Since the
domains of home and religion are particularly significant for language vitality, Table
57 considers only those BoKs that relate to Family (BoK No.12) Community (BoK
No.5, 7, 8, 9, 10) and Religion (BoK No.25, 26). The values shown in the table are
the modal values among these Inside BoKs.
13
The two levels, level 6a and 7 occur the same frequency for the condition.
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Table 57 Modal EGIDS Levels for Family, Community and Religious BoKs
BoK Village Function Acquisition Motivation Environ-
ment
Differen
-tiation
Family;
Community;
Religion
Bar Aa 6a 4 4 5 5.5
Gaw
Tsum
4 4 4 5 6a
Bar Leh 6a 6a 5 5 6a
Seu
Nyeh
6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Panaw 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Hu Naw 6a 6a 6a 4, 5 6a
Ho Kyin 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
According to the above table, the model EGIDS level for three BoKs, Family,
Community, and Religion are very much the same in every village except for Baptist
Akha villages, Bar Aa, Gaw Tsum and Bar Leh. The three Baptist villages have higher
levels for some conditions especially for Bar Aa and Gaw Tsum villages. It is telling
that the literacy rate, which pertains to the village currently, makes the levels
higher. Both of the two villages, Bar Aa and Gaw Tsum, have the same situation to
acquire the knowledge, have good motivation and environment as well. These make
the language to function very well in the community for long term and less
differentiation between other languages.
For the other villages, Catholic Akha villages and Akha zah villages have oral
sufficiency for each BoK to have level 6a for each condition, the environment
condition is exception, and almost all are level 5 though. All of the BoKs, no matter
Inside or Outside BoKs, the condition for Environment are very consistent for all of
the villages.
5.3 Results by area In this section the differences between the areas will be discussed. The results for
Nam Pan Area are shown in Table 58.
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Table 58 Modal EGIDS Levels in Nam Pan area
BoK Village Function Acquisition Motivation Environ-
ment
Differen-
tiation
Inside Bar Leh 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Seu
Nyeh
6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Hu Naw 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Outside Bar Leh 9 7 6b 5 9
Seu
Nyeh
7 7 6a,6b 5 6b
Hu Naw 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
According to the above table the levels for Inside BoKs for the three villages in Nam
Pan area, are the same. Each condition was rated as EGIDS level 6a except for
Environment which was level 5. Even though there are some different levels for each
condition the most frequent level is very consistent for the Inside BoKs.
The modal levels of the Ouside BoKs show greater variability though these are less
crucial for language vitality so will not be discussed in detail here.
The results for the Tachileik Area are presented in Table 59.
Table 59 Modal EGIDS Levels in Tachileik area
BoK Village Function Acquisition Motivation Environ-
ment
Differen-
tiation
Inside Bar Aa 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Panaw 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Outside Bar Aa 6a,7 6a,7 6a 5 6b
Panaw 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
The modal levels for Bar Aa and Panaw villages from Tachileik area are quite similar
even between Inside BoKs and Outside BoKs. These two villages are located in the
same area and are the same religion even though from different denominations,
Baptist and Catholic. Since this is from close religious group and same location, the
results or levels for each condition are very much the same. They also consider
almost the same level for Inside BoKs and Outside BoKs. However Bar Aa has the
same frequency as level 6a and 7 for Outside BoKs in the condition of Function and
Acquisition, which means the level for these two levels, are slightly lower than the
others.
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According to the results from this data they have the same motivation and
environment for both Inside BoK and Outside BoK. They also have the same or
similar levels for other conditions as well. It is telling that the Outside BoKs are
familiar to them and they are adopting those BoKs in the village.
The results for the Keng Tung Area are presented in Table 60.
Table 60 Modal EGIDS Levels in Keng Tung area
BoK Village Function Acquisition Motivation Environ-
ment
Differen-
tiation
Inside Gaw
Tsum
4 4 4 5 6a
Ho Kyin 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Outside Gaw
Tsum
6a,7 6a 6b 5 6b
Ho Kyin 6b 6b 6b 5 6b
The two villages from Keng Tung area, Gaw Tsum and Ho Kyin, have different
modal levels for each condition depending. Gaw Tsum has very high levels for Inside
BoKs whereas Ho Kyin generally has lower levels. The reason for the big difference
in levels between these two villages is religious background. While Gaw Tsum
village is a strong Christian village and has an Akha literacy class during the
summer, Ho Kyin village does not have an Akha literacy class and the villagers do
not use Akha written system and never read Akha.
The comparisons in this section of results for villages in the same area show that
levels vary particularly between Christian and Akha zah villages. This strongly
suggests that the results depend more on religion than on the geographical location.
5.4 Results by religious group This section compares villages within the same religious group from different areas.
The discussion is based on the most frequent levels of BoK for each condition. The
modal results for the Baptist villages are presented in Table 61.
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Table 61 Modal EGIDS Levels in Baptist villages
BoK Village Function Acquisition Motivation Environ-
ment
Differen-
tiation
Inside
Bar Aa 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Bar Leh 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Gaw
Tsum
4 4 4 5 6a
Outside
Bar Aa 6a,7 6a,7 6a 5 6b
Bar Leh 9 7 6b 5 9
Gaw
Tsum
6a,7 6a 6b 5 6b
In the above table, the most frequent level of Inside BoKs for Bar Aa and Bar Leh are
the same. However the level of Function, Acquisition, and Motivation are different
for Gaw Tsum village. For Gaw Tsum village, these three conditions are higher than
the other two villages. The condition of Environment and Differentiation are the
same for all of the three villages. So it can be said that Gaw Tsum village has more
written materials that are able to be read regarding with those Inside BoKs. As
mentioned above, Gaw Tsum has a literacy class which has led to literacy being
stronger in the village.
The modal results for the Catholic villages are presented in Table 62.
Table 62 Modal EGIDS Levels in Catholic villages
BoK Village Function Acquisition Motivation Environ-
ment
Differen-
tiation
Inside
Seu
Nyeh
6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Panaw 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Outside
Seu
Nyeh
7 7 6a,6b 5 6b
Panaw 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
As shown in the first two data rows, the Catholic villages have the same modal
levels for Inside BoKs. They consider all of the conditions as level 6a except for the
Environment, level 5. Panaw village even consider for Ouside BoKs the same as
Inside of BoK does. However Seu Nyeh village has different, lower level, for Outside
BoKs, especially for Function, Acquisition, and Differentiation conditions. The levels
for Inside and Outside BoKs are not very different for these villages. So this data
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shows that the Outside BoKs are not completely alien to the community. They
consider most of them as being in the community.
The modal results for the Akha zah villages are presented in Table 63.
Table 63 Modal EGIDS Levels in Akha zah villages
BoK Village Function Acquisition Motivation Environ-
ment
Differen-
tiation
Inside Hu
Naw
6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Ho
Kyin
6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Outside Hu
Naw
6a 6a 6a 5 6a
Ho
Kyin
6b 6b 6b 5 6b
The modal levels of the two villages are identical for the Inside BoKs. All of the
conditions are considered as level 6a except for Environment, level 5. Hu Naw
village also has the same levels for Outside BoKs as Inside BoKs. So the situation is
quite similar to Panaw Catholic village since it also has the same frequent level for
both Inside of BoK and Outside of BoK.
However Ho Kyin village has slightly lower levels for the Outside BoKs.
The comparisons between levels for villages of the same religion in this section
generally show the levels are quite similar, apart from Gaw Tsum village which
generally has the highest levels of any village. This suggests that religion is a very
important factor in determining vitality.
5.5 Evaluation of BoKT Since the Bodies of Knowledge Participatory Tool was developed for this present
research, in this section different aspects of the tool are evaluated. Firstly aspects of
the data collection procedure are evaluated, and secondly the scope of the data
collected is evaluated. Another way of describing these two areas is ‘how the data
were collected’ and ‘what data should be collected’.
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5.5.1 Evaluation of data collection procedure Firstly we summarise the data collection procedure. A group of people are gathered
and asked to all participate in deciding which level to assign to each of 28 BoKs for
each FAMED condition. Each body of knowledge is represented by a picture.
Participants are encouraged to discuss each BoK with each other before deciding
which level to assign it to. The decision is represented by placing the picture onto a
chart under a heading describing the level they have chosen for the BoK.
5.5.1.1 Evaluation of use of pictures to represent BoKs As this is the first time this method has been used, we need to consider whether it
was good to use pictures to represent the BoKs. The reason pictures were used
instead of a word description was to make them easier to understand by a wide
range of participants.
Using pictures to represent the BoKs was very relevant for this research. Many of the
villagers are illiterate even in Akha so they would not have been able to read it if we
had represented BoKs with written words. The participants did not have any
problem understanding that the picture represented a BoK. Furthermore, the
participants found it interesting to see the pictures for different BoKs.
There were 28 pictures altogether for this research. Since each picture was assigned
to a level for all five FAMED conditions a total of 5x28=140 decisions had to be
made by the group of participants. While some decisions were straightforward,
others involved discussions which could last several minutes. If every decision took
one minute, a total of two hours and twenty minutes would be needed, not counting
any time for changing from one FAMED condition to another. In fact, while the
participants were still unfamiliar with the procedure, decisions took longer for this
research; normally it took about one hour for the first condition, Function. Then
after they become familiar with the method it took about 30 minutes for each
condition. So it took about two hours for the other four conditions. To get through
all five FAMED conditions, it took about three hours.
However, some participants could not concentrate that long and some of them got
too tired to continue doing it. This was especially true when the data collection was
done in the evening because people were tired after their work and found it difficult
to concentrate as it got late. The meeting was held in the evening because that was
the time when most people were free, so a broad range of people were able to
participate. So from the point of view of time required, there were too many
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pictures. However, the reason so many pictures were used was to make the BoKs
more specific. Below there is further discussion about the particular pictures, but the
overall conclusion is that because of the time taken, the number of pictures should
be reduced if the BoKT is used again in future.
Sometimes the participants looked confused about putting the pictures under each
level. Sometime they argued with each other to get agreement for each picture. They
often forgot the description of each level and put the pictures under the wrong level
sometimes. They were reminded of the description very often so that it helped them
to decide where to put the pictures.
To evaluate the pictures that were used for this research, those representing the
religious BoKs (25, 26, 28) were not suitable for the Akha zah villages. Since the
pictures were all about Bible, hymn, preaching, and Church activities, they did not
represent religion for Akha zah. For the Akha zah villages it would have been better
to use pictures that represent Akha zah. This would mean that different pictures
would be used for villages from different religious traditions or subcultures created
by some other defining feature. When the researcher realised the Akha zah villagers
had problems with these pictures, she explained that they should think about
practices in Akha zah, not the things depicted in the picture.
Another picture that should be considered is for BoK 16, Food. It was the picture of
water, tea, branded soft drinks, and branded alcoholic drinks. The participants felt
there were two kinds of drink with water and tea forming one kind, and then soft
drinks and rum forming another kind. Water and tea are things that they can see
and get easily in the village. However branded soft drinks and alcoholic drinks are
made by outsiders and these things are not from inside the community. So
participants were confused when they tried to decide where to put these pictures.
Actually there should have been two separate pictures. One should be picture of
water and tea, and the other should be of soft drinks and rum.
5.5.1.2 Evaluation of ‘chart’ for displaying BoK decisions There were some things that were not ideal regarding the use of written headings.
Illiterate people couldn’t read these. In fact even people who could read would not
be actively reading them because the writing was too small to read from where they
were sitting. One way to help this aspect would be to use much bigger headings so
people could read them from further away. Another related improvement would be
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to write the headings in note form using keywords rather than full sentences to
describe the different levels. The reason written headings were used was because the
headings were mostly abstract and so it would not be possible to find pictures that
represented them that did not have potential to confuse the people.
One thing the participants quickly understood was the fact that the columns
represented points on a spectrum with the left side of the chart representing the
strongest possible language situation and the right hand side representing a weakest
possible language situation. This ordering of the columns was assisted by the
numbering of the columns from left to right with the column on the left being
number 1. These numbers were not exactly the same as EGIDS levels in order that
the participants did not get confused by the split levels such as 6a and 6b of the
EGIDS. As with the written descriptions of the levels, it would have been helpful to
use a very large font size for the numbers so that they could be read from where the
people were sitting.
5.5.1.3 Discussion of issues in deciding levels for BoK One situation that could make the decisions about which level a particular BoK
should be assigned to more difficult relates to Bodies of Knowledge that are in the
process of adopting loanwords.
Akha has many adopted words which are used in daily life. These are known easily
by most people. The borrowed words are mostly for modern technical things which
are not part of traditional Akha culture or language. For example, Akha has
borrowed words for modern building techniques, but they are adapted to Akha
phonology and so have become Akha words. Depending on the area that they are
living in, the loanwords are quite different. As an example, Akha do not have the
word for “car” so they borrow the word from neighbouring languages. Akha people
from Nam Pan area call it “tseu” [tsə˧], and Akha from Tachileik call it “Lo” [lo˧],
then Akha from Keng Tung call it “Lawli” [lɔ˨li˨]. [tsə˧] is borrowed from Chinese,
[lo˧] is borrowed from Thai, and [lɔ˨li˨] seems to be borrowed from the English
word ‘lorry’ via the missionaries who came to work among the Akha. Most of the
borrowed words from Tachileik and Keng Tung are quite similar but Nam Pan is
quite different. The Akha from Nam Pan borrow the words from Chinese mostly, and
Akha from Tachileik and Keng Tung borrow the words from Shan or Burmese
mostly.
115
One risk for BoKs that use a lot of loanwords is that people might think they are
speaking Burmese if they know that they are using Burmese loanwords. As a mother
tongue speaker of Akha, the author believes that Akha people in general do not feel
they are speaking other languages, Burmese or Shan or Chinese, just because they
use loanwords from those languages. They use only the specific words that do not
exist in Akha in the context of speaking fully grammatical Akha sentences. In their
minds they already consider these borrowed words as Akha words since they are
pronounced with Akha phonology. They become Akha words as they are used day
by day. Only young educated people switch the language into Burmese when they
talk to each other sometime.
5.5.1.4 Overall evaluation of data collection The data collection process for this research was very time consuming since there
are many pictures and each one needed to be categorised for five FAMED conditions.
It might be better if there are fewer pictures and if the pictures are clearly inside or
outside BoKs. This will help when collecting the data as well as doing analysis. As
the issues with pictures for religion taught us, pictures must be prepared that are
relevant to all the communities in the study. This might mean having more than one
picture for a particular BoK for use with different villages.
5.5.2 Evaluation of scope of BoK data collection As discussed above, it would be helpful to reduce the number of BoKs to reduce the
total time required for data collection. It is also worth asking whether all 5 FAMED
conditions need to be used in the BoK data collection. Actually there are both pros
and cons to using all the conditions. The list of some pros and cons are shown in
Table 64 below:
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Table 64 Pros and Cons to Using All FAMED Conditions
Pros • get ideas for language development activities where BoK is given
a low level for a particular condition
• if we use a lot of BoKs we get detailed information and people
are able to say more accurately that they use a particular
language for that BoK. If BoKs are too broad, then the
information might be less precise
Cons • takes a long time, people lose focus and maybe quality of
information falls
• get confused with too many things that need to be considered
Another way to consider the need for 5 FAMED conditions is to study the correlation
of the scores for the various pairs of conditions. However it is beyond the scope of
this thesis to do this kind of statistical analysis.
It is perhaps too much to ask to determine a single set of BoKs that should be used
for every study. Certain key BoKs that correspond to important domains such as
family and religion should be included. However, the exact number should be
determined by other factors. One advantage the author had in this study was that
she was a member of the community and fluent in the language. Where the
researcher does not have this level of fluency, a smaller number of BoKs would be
preferable.
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Chapter 6
Conclusions
This thesis examines the vitality of Akha in Myanmar with the Sustainable Use
Model. In this chapter a summary of the findings, conclusions, applications of the
research results, and suggestions for further work will be provided.
6.1 Overview of the study This study provides the most detailed assessment to date of language vitality for
Akha in Myanmar. Understanding the factors involved in language vitality will be
helpful for getting support from the community for language development initiatives
in the future. The thesis is also pioneering the use of the SUM, particularly the use of
data on Bodies of Knowledge, to add insights to more conventional questionnaire
data.
This thesis’ results are based on the data from three different areas, from 18 villages,
in Eastern Shan State. Two fieldwork trips were taken between April-July 2014. The
first trip included 13 villages in Keng Tong and Tachileik townships and focused on
the literacy program run by the Akha Baptist Convention. Details about the program
and the attitudes of village leaders and teachers to Akha literacy were investigated.
The second trip focused on sociolinguistics and visited 7 villages in 3 different areas:
Nam Pan, Tachileik and Keng Tong. Two of the villages were Catholic; 2 were Akha
zah and 3 were Baptist. Altogether 186 Akha villagers participated in providing data
in some way during the two trips.
The first trip used questionnaires purposely designed to collect relevant information
from Literacy teachers, village leaders and religious leaders. The second trip also
used purpose-made questionnaires for village leaders, religious leaders and
individual participants. In addition to questionnaires, the second trip used a
purpose-made participatory tool called the Bodies of Knowledge Participatory tool.
This was used in a group setting to allow a range of participants to discuss issues to
provide a consensus answer. The two types of data complement each other in
answering the two main research questions that shaped the study. Conclusions
relating to each of these research questions are provided in the following section.
118
6.2 Conclusions Relating to the Research Questions In this section the research questions are restated and conclusions presented.
6.2.1 Research Question 1: What is the current level of
vitality of Akha in Myanmar? By the results of this analysis and from the personal experience of the author it can
be said that the predominant language used by Akha people in their daily life is
Akha. They are also passing down the language to their children and grandchildren.
Thus the vitality of Akha is at least EGIDS 6a ‘Vigorous’.
Many villages have Akha literacy classes but these are mostly all church-based and
in the Christian (mainly Baptist) community. The literacy classes are run in the hot
season school break and last between one and three months. Even though the oral
transmission is strong, since the literacy teaching is not spread through the whole
Akha community the EGIDS level of Akha in Myanmar is level 5 ‘Developing’.
One noticeable finding is that within the Christian community there is widespread
use of reading, especially reading of Christian religious materials at church, but in
comparison very limited use of writing. This suggests that even within EGIDS level
5, there might be 2 sublevels: 5b ‘Reading’ and 5a ‘Reading and Writing’. Sublevel
5b reflects a more passive use of the written form whereas sublevel 5a reflects a
more creative use worthy of a higher status. Since most people who use literacy
skills, use them mainly for reading, Akha would be classified as the lower sublevel
5b. So even within the Christian community the vitality of the language would be
strengthened if people wrote things more often.
6.2.2 Research Question 2: What evidence is there that the
current level of vitality of Akha in Myanmar is sustainable? There is evidence from both the questionnaire data and the Bodies of Knowledge
data to answer this research question. The FAMED conditions provide a frame of
reference for evidence about sustainability.
The language has many functions orally in the community, especially in religious
and home domains. Evidence for this can be seen by the Function levels: for BoKs
relating to religion (BoK nos. 25; 26; 28) the levels are 4 or 5 in the Christian
119
villages and 6b or 6a in the Akha zah villages. For family (BoK no. 12) the levels are
all 6a apart from Gaw tsum (Baptist) village which has level 5.
While there is strong support for acquisition of the oral form of the language
throughout the Akha community, support for acquisition of Akha literacy is mainly
limited to the Baptist community, although even among Baptist villages only slightly
over half (70/120 [58%]) currently have a literacy class. These villages have access
to collections of written materials in ‘village libraries’. The Acquisition levels for
BoKs 25; 26 and 28, (‘Religious 1-2-3’), are higher in Christian villages than other
villages. It is telling that the analysis of the questionnaire data also shows greatest
support for acquisition in the religious domain.
People can be motivated to use the language for practically-oriented (‘instrumental’)
or socially-oriented (‘integrative’) reasons. The questionnaire data shows that the
participants have a strong identity as Akha which suggests that they will be
motivated to speak Akha to express their identity. There is a generally positive view
about Akha literacy proficiency with 76% of individuals specifying benefits to being
literate in Akha. They score at least level 6a for the BoK categories, community,
family, and religion, in the Motivation condition.
The BoK data for Environment are generally level 5 which show that the
environment is generally perceived as not against language development. Even
though the official language of instruction in government schools is Burmese and
other ethnic group languages are not allowed for formal instruction, this is only one
aspect. Akha communities are allowed to teach Akha literacy through non-formal
education.
To consider the situation of Differentiation there are three languages, Burmese,
Shan, and Chinese, that are used as LWCs. Even though they are using the LWCs to
communicate with other people, the proficiency in those LWCs is quite low since
they mostly speak only their mother tongue in the community. So Akha is generally
preferred for interaction between Akha speakers and other languages are only used
if there are particular reasons, such as being in a group where some people do not
speak Akha.
The SUM states that level 6a is sustainable orality whereas level 4 is sustainable
literacy. The SUM therefore implies that in the long term, the current level of Akha
vitality will drop to 6a unless action can be taken to raise the level to level 4. Level
4 is characterised as one where the language is spoken throughout the community
120
and literacy is sustained by a widespread system of institutionally supported
education (Lewis & Simons 2015:105). The current level of Akha vitality is 5
because it is spoken throughout the community and is used in written form by part
of the community. There is support for literacy through the Akha Baptist Convention
so within the Baptist community there is an institution that takes responsibility for
materials development and literacy education and training. It can be argued
therefore that the present level of vitality can be sustained at least in the medium
term as long as the ABC continues its present support.
In order to raise the vitality level to EGIDS level 4, it would be necessary to have a
much broader program of literacy education and training including all communities
not just Baptist. While the BoK analysis of this research identified certain areas
where extra materials should be developed, there is still scope for existing materials
to be more widely circulated and used. This is perhaps one reason why many of the
BoKs were at level 6a in some villages rather than level 5 although the fact that
some villages were at level 5 shows what can be achieved. The tendency for people
who are literate in Akha to use their literacy ability for reading but not for writing is
another area where efforts could be made to encourage people to increase their
Akha writing.
Let’s get back to the hierarchy of sustainable use figure to see where Akha language
situation is. Since Akha language is considered as EGIDS level 5, this level is not
sustainable. So they need to move up to EGIDS level 4, sustainable literacy.
121
Figure 15 Hierarchy of Sustainable Use (Source: Lewis and Simons 2015:148)
6.3 Implications of the research results This study helps to know the language situation, and it helps the community to see
which steps they need to start working on to strengthen language vitality. The
results of this study suggest ways in which the situation could be strengthened in
both breadth and depth. Both of these will be necessary if the vitality is to be
sustained and achieve a step up to level 4 on the EGIDS.
6.3.1 Going deeper The results for the BoKs identify areas where the use of Akha might be strengthened
by the production of certain reading materials in Akha. These include the following
BoKs: Community (BoK No. 5, 7, 8, 9, 10), Farming (BoK No. 13, 14), Health (BoK
No. 17) and Religion (BoK No. 25, 26).
In addition to materials which address the Acquisition condition, other initiatives
could be taken to target the other four FAMED conditions.
122
6.3.2 Going broader Since Akha use is already strongly used orally and there is a literacy program at
least in part of the community, i.e. the Baptist community, there is a strong platform
from which to build further literacy efforts. The obvious potential for growth is to
the remaining 50/120 [42%] of Baptist villages that currently do not have a literacy
class. However, extending to the other religious communities would also be
necessary to achieve sustainable literacy in the whole Akha community. This would
move towards the requirement of EGIDS level 4 in which the written form of the
language is used by the whole community.
Another way that the present level of literacy could be broadened is to teach all year
round rather than just during the school break. This would have resource
implications in terms of personnel but would also require curriculum development.
If this is achieved it will provide more Akha education so a broader range of topics
can be included which will provide greater scope for learning in the mother tongue.
This would also have the potential to give Akha learners more confidence to write in
Akha, an important step in raising the present level as mentioned above. Also the
greater the number of people who develop deeper literacy skills in Akha, the easier
it will be for future generations to learn because there will be greater opportunity
for children to learn from family members rather than having to rely on literacy
classes. These activities will make the current level more sustainable, even if Akha
doesn’t achieve EGIDS level 4.
6.4 Suggestions for further work There are four other countries where Akha people are living: China, Thailand, Laos,
and Vietnam. One obvious area for further research would be to assess the vitality of
Akha for the populations in those countries so that the results can be compared.
When doing the research for those areas, the research tools or questionnaires should
be as similar as possible to the tools that were used for this research so that the
results will be comparable. Knowing more about the vitality and the factors affecting
it in each country will be helpful to work for Akha language development in each
location
123
6.4.1 Specific ideas for choosing the areas To choose the areas or villages to do research in each country, the distance (both
time and geographical length) between town and villages should be considered. And
also it should be considered to include the Akha speech communities in town. The
language situation from the villages in town and villages in remote areas may be
different.
To think about the different religions is also important when choosing the areas or
villages for further research. The same number of villages from different religions
should be chosen in each area. According to this research religious affiliation is the
main factor that causes differences in language use and literacy. Most of the
Christian villages in this study are running a literacy class but not in the villages of
other religions.
6.4.2 Improvements to the BoKT The use of pictures for the BoK research is a very good resource. So the pictures for
BoKs research need to be improved. The pictures will also need to be adjusted
depending on the country or area to be surveyed. Another important thing is to have
separate pictures for the religious things depending on the religious group. For
example; the religious materials like a Bible or a hymnal are not understood for non-
Christian villages. So other related pictures that show their religious images would
be more suitable and understandable for participants to help them to give more
accurate answers.
124
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129
Appendix A
INDIVIDUAL SOCIOLINGUISTIC QUESTIONNAIRE
Interview 12 people (3 older women, 3 younger women, 3 older men, 3 younger
men) in each village.
Oral Informed Consent
INFORMED CONSENT: Given: □□□□ Not Given: □□□□
NOTE: If the subject does NOT give consent, number this questionnaire and go on to the
next subject. It is important to keep this “rejected” questionnaire in the numbering so we
know how much non-response there was.
Instructions
• If you have to explain the question, make sure you do NOT suggest an
answer. Note in your notebook (near the answer) that you had to
explain the question.
• Shaded items are NOT to be read aloud.
• Items in parentheses ( ) give information about when or how to ask a
question. Items in brackets [ ] require a choice depending on whatever is
appropriate.
• Write exactly what the subject answers.
Question Answer
1. Questionnaire Number
2. People Group
3. Interview Location
4. Interviewer Name
5. Date (Day / Month / Year)
6. Time (Morning or Evening)
7. Language of Elicitation
8. Language of Response
9. Interpreter Name (if
needed)
130
SUBJECT DEMOGRAPHICS
English Akha
10. Name Tsawˇ myahˇ
11. Gender Qhaˬ dzeˇ zaˬ/zaˬ miˬ zaˬ
12. How old are you? Aˇ qoꞈ aˇ myaˆ qoꞈ qawˆ le?
13. What is your religion?
a. (Religion)
b. (if Christian) Are you Baptist or
Catholic?
Aˬ jeˬ zahˇ sahˇ qoꞈ htawˬ le?
a. (zahˇ sahˇ qoꞈ)
b. (Kha li zaˬ pyeuꞈ lawˬ naˇ) Iˇ cuꞈ shawˇ-eu
Kha li za la? (maˬ) Goˬ dawˬ zaˬ lahˇ la?
14. What is (was) your work? Aˬ jeˬ gaˇ mˇ dzaˬ le?
15. Up to what level of education did you
complete? Sahˬ boꞈ aˇ myaˆ danˇ keuˆ ya dzaw-euˬ le?
16. Where were you born? Nawˇ aˬ gaˇ dehꞈ le-euˬ le?
17. Where did you grow up? Aˬ gaˇ-ahˇ jawˇ-awˇ huiˬ laˇ-euˬ le?
18. How long have you lived in this
village?
Phu heu phu-ahˇ jawˇ laꞈ-euˬ aˇ myah ni myahˇ
laˇ-euˬ le?
19. Have you lived outside this village for
more than a year? Where? When?
How long did you live there? Why?
Htiˬ qoꞈ taꞈ-ehˇ dzehˬ ni phu heu phu-ahˇ maˬ
ngeuˇ-ehˇ yawˬ gaˇ yawꞈ aˇ gaˇ jawˇ yaꞈ haw-
euˬ le? aˬ gaˇ? aˇ myah? aˇ myah ni jawˇ yaꞈ-
euˬ le?
20. What language did you speak first
(including your own mother tongue?)
Nawˇ aˬ jeˬ-euˬ dawp jeˬ hu ngehˬ dzaw-euˬ le?
(nawˬ-euˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ dawˬ ahˇ leˇ-ehˇ)
21. What other languages can you speak
now? Nymˬ-mˇ nui jeˬ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ phaˇ ngeh nya le?
22. Of all the languages you speak, which
language do you speak best?
(including mother tongue)
Nawˇ ngeh nya-eu dawˬ yawˬ jeˬ na luꞈ laꞈ
qhoeˇ aˬ jeˬ-euˬ dawˬ ngehˬ nya dzehˬ le?
(nawˬ-euˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ dawˬ ahˇ leˇ-ehˇ)
a. … second best? a. naˬ baꞈ nyiꞈ ngehˬ nya dzehˬ-eu dawˬ
__________
b. … third best? b. naˬ baꞈ smˇ ngeh nya dzehˬ-eu dawˬ __________
131
23. Where was your father born? Nawˬ da aˬ gaˇ dehꞈ leˬ-euˬ la?
a. What people group is your father
from?
Nawˬ da aˬ jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ la?
b. What language did your father usually
speak to you when you were a child?
Nawˇ yaw nyiˇ gheh ngeh, nawˬ da nawˬ-ahˇ aˬ
jeˬ dawˬ ngehˬ mehˬ nehˬ la?
24. Where was your mother born? Nawˬ ma aˬ gaˇ dehꞈ leˬ-euˬ la?
a. What people group is your mother
from?
Nawˬ ma aˬ jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ la?
b. What language did your mother
usually speak to you when you were a
child?
Nawˇ yaw nyiˇ gheh ngeh, nawˬ ma nawˬ-ahˇ
aˬ jeˬ dawˬ ngehˬ mehˬ nehˬ la?
*** Screening criteria okH;ckpvkH;eSifhrukdufnDyguokH;ckpvkH;eSifhrukdufnDyguokH;ckpvkH;eSifhrukdufnDyguokH;ckpvkH;eSifhrukdufnDyguxkdxkdxkdxkd Subjects uuuukdrokH;ygeSifhk drokH;ygeSifhk drokH;ygeSifhk drokH;ygeSifh
25. (if married) Now I’m going to ask you about
your spouse. Where was your husband/wife
born?
(nymˇ dah baw naˇ) Nawˬ-euˬ zaˬ miˬ
zaˬ/qhaˬ dzeˇ zaˬ aˬ gaˇ dehꞈ le-euˬ
la?
a. What people group is your husband/wife from? Aˬ yawꞈ aˬ jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ la?
b. What language did your husband/wife first
speak when s/he was a child?
Aˬ yawꞈ yaw nyiˇ gheh ngeh aˬ jeˬ
dawˬ jeˬ hu ngehˬ dzaw-euˬ la?
DOMAINS OF LANGUAGE USE
English Akha
27. What languages do you speak… Nawˇ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ deuˬ neh ngehˬ chawˬ le….
a. … with your parents? a. nawˬ da/ma nehˬ-ehˇ
b. …with your grandparents? b. nawˬ phiˬ/bawˇ nehˬ-ehˇ
c. …with your siblings? c. nawˬ-euˬ mehˇ nmˇ nehˬ-ehˇ
d. (if married) …with your spouse? d. (nymˇ dahˬ baw naˇ) miˬ sawˇ zaˬ yaw
khaˬ
e. (if have children) …with your children? e. (zaˬ jawˇ naˇ) nawˬ-euˬ zaˬ deuˬ nehˬ-ehˇ
f. (if old and have children) …with your
grandchildren / nieces / nephews?
f. (oeˬ phaˬ/ma jawˇ naˇ) nawˬ-euˬ oeˬ
phaˬ/ma nehˬ-ehˇ
132
g. So, in your house, what language do you
use the most?
g. Iˇ khahˇ jawˇ naˇ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ zmˬ myaˬ
dzehˬ le?
h. …at the market with Akha people? h. lehˆ-ahˇ, Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ deuˬ nehˬ-ehˇ
i. …at the market with non-Akha people? i. lehˆ-ahˇ, Aˬkhaˬ maˬ ngeuˇ-eu deuˬ nehˬ-
ehˇ
j. …at a funeral? j. tsawˇ shiˇ nymˇ, yaw bui-ahˇ …
k. …at a village meeting? Phu laꞈ qhoeˇ mehˬ bawˬ bawˬ ngeh..
l. …with a government worker/official? Miˇ qhahˬ sahˬ phaˬ (aˬ soˇ yaˆ) gaˇ mˇ-eu
tsawˇ haˬ nehˬ-ehˇ
28. What language do you use to pray (on
your own)?
Nawˇ htiˬ ghaˬ tehꞈ-ehˇ guiˬ lahˬ shaˇ naˇ aˬ
jeˬ dawˬ neh shaˇ le?
29. What language Bible do you read? Aˬ jeˬ Jaˇliꞈ gui le?
a. How often do you read it? a. Aˇ myah khaˬ htiˬ poˆ gui le?
b. Is it easy or hard to understand? b. Goˆ shaw-eu ghaˇ duˬ yaw awˬ (maˬ) yaw
shaˬ nya loˇ?
c. (if not ‘easy’) Why? Because it is the Bible
or because of the language?
c. (maˬ awˬ naˇ) aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh? Jaˇ liꞈ baˬ daˬ
nehˬ la? (maˬ) dawˬ baˬ da neh la?
30. In what language(s) are your favourite
Christian songs/hymns?
Aˬ jeˬtsawˇ jeuˬ-euˬ Kha li zaˬ dawˬ chaˇ/chaˇ
dawˬ-ahˇ nawˇ ya leˇ dzehˬ nya?
133
ATTITUDES TOWARD LWC LITERATURE
English Akha
31. Can you read Shan (with
understanding)?
a. (If yes) show Shan text and ask them to
read it aloud
b. Observation: Speed (Fast; Medium;
Slow)
c. Observation: Mistakes (Every sentence;
half of sentences; none)
d. How often do you read Shan? (Every
week; every month; other - specify)
e. (If no) Would you like to be able to read
Shan better?
Nawˇ Biˬchmˬ sahˬ boꞈ gui nya ma loˇ? (ghoˆ
siˬ nya-awˇ)
a. (gui nya naˇ) Biˬchmˬ sahˬ boꞈ boꞈ htaˬ-eu
sahˬ boꞈ biꞈ nehˬ-awˇ hteˇ saˇ bi gui doˆ haw-
awˬ.
b. haw htaˬ-eu: gui-eu (yaw khawˇ-ehˇ, tsaˬ
tsaˬ ni, yaw lawˆ lawˆ-ehˇ)
c. haw htaˬ-eu: yaw lehˬ (yawˬ cehˆ na luꞈ,
htiˬ paˆ, htiˬ pawꞈ-iˬ)
d. Biˬchmˬ sahˬ boꞈ aˇmyah khaˬ-ahˇ htiˬ poˆ
gui le?
e. (maˬ gui nya naˇ) nawˇ Biˬchmˬ sahˬ boꞈ
gui nya dzehˬ mawꞈ miˇ-a loˇ?
32. Can you read in Burmese (with
understanding)?
a. (If yes) show Burmese text and ask them
to read it aloud
b. Observation: Speed (Fast; Medium;
Slow)
c. Observation: Mistakes (Every sentence;
half of sentences; none)
d. How often do you read Burmese?
(Every week; every month; other –
specify)
e. (If no) Would you like to be able to read
Burmese better?
Nawˇ Mam sahˬ boꞈ gui nya ma loˇ? (ghoˆ siˬ
nya-awˇ)
a. (gui nya naˇ) Mam sahˬ boꞈ boꞈ htaˬ-eu
sahˬ boꞈ biꞈ nehˬ-awˇ hteˇ saˇ bi gui doˆ haw-
awˬ.
b. haw htaˬ-eu: gui-eu (yaw khawˇ-ehˇ, tsaˬ
tsaˬ ni, yaw lawˆ lawˆ-ehˇ)
c. haw htaˬ-eu: yaw lehˬ (yawˬ cehˆ na luꞈ,
htiˬ paˆ, htiˬ pawꞈ-iˬ)
d. Mam sahˬ boꞈ aˇ myah khaˬ-ahˇ htiˬ poˆ
gui le?
e. (maˬ gui nya naˇ) nawˇ Mam sahˬ boꞈ gui
nya dzehˬ mawꞈ miˇ-a loˇ?
INTEREST IN LITERACY
33. Do you have printed materials at home? Iˇ khahˇ-ahˇ gui-eu sahˬ boꞈ jaˆ ma loˇ?
a. (If yes) What kind of books do you
have?
a. (jaˆ naˇ) aˬ joˆ-ehˇ gheh-eu sahˬ boꞈ deuˬ
jaˆ le?
b. (If yes) What languages are they written
in?
(jaˆ naˇ) aˬ jeˬ sahˬ boꞈ neh boꞈ htaˬ-euˬ la?
134
ATTITUDES TOWARD AKHA LITERATURE
English Akha
34. Are the young people proud of your
language?
a. (if no) Why not?
Zaˬ guˬ deuˬ Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ ngehˬ-eu laˬ
qhaˬ chehˇ-awˇ nui qhahˇ shiˇ meh loˇ?
a. (maˬ shiˇ naˇ) aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh
35. Are the young people proud of being Akha?
a. Yes or no
b. (if no) Why not?
Zaˬ guˬ deuˬ Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ pyeuꞈ-eu laˬ
qhaˬ chehˇ-awˇ nui qhahˇ shiˇ meh loˇ?
a. nui qhahˇ shiˇ/maˬ shiˇ
b. (maˬ shiˇ naˇ) aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh
36. Can you read in Akha (with understanding)?
a. (If yes) show Akha text and ask them to read it
aloud
b. Observation: Speed (Fast; Medium; Slow)
c. Observation: Mistakes (Every sentence; half of
sentences; none)
d. How often do you read Akha? (Every week;
every month; other – specify)
e. What Akha materials do you read?
f. (If no) Would you like to be able to read Akha
better?
Nawˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ gui nya ma loˇ?
(ghoˆ siˬ nya-awˇ)
a. (gui nya naˇ) Aˬkha sahˬ boꞈ boꞈ htaˬ-
eu sahˬ boꞈ biꞈ nehˬ-awˇ hteˇ saˇ bi gui
doˆ haw-awˬ.
b. haw htaˬ-eu: gui-eu (yaw khawˇ-ehˇ,
tsaˬ tsaˬ ni, yaw lawˆ lawˆ-ehˇ)
c. haw htaˬ-eu: yaw lehˬ (yawˬ cehˆ na
luꞈ, htiˬ paˆ, htiˬ pawꞈ-iˬ)
d. Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ aˇ myah khaˬ-ahˇ htiˬ
poˆ gui le?
e. Aˬ joˆ-ehˇ gheh-eu Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ
gui le?
f. (maˬ gui nya naˇ) nawˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ
boꞈ gui nya dzehˬ mawꞈ miˇ-a loˇ?
37. Can you write Akha? Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ boꞈ nya ma loˇ?
38. Which Akha alphabet do you prefer Unify
Akha Orthography or Akha Way orthography?
Show examples of each
a. Orthography
b. Why?
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ aˇ mawˇ aˬ geu hmˬ
nawˇ ya leˇ dzehˬ nya, UAO (maˬ)
KHAS?
a. sahˬ boꞈ aˇ mawˇ aˬ yawꞈ jeˬ yawꞈ
ghoˆ haw mehˬ-eu
b. aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh
135
39. Do you see any advantage in being able to
read and write Akha?
a. Yes or no
b. (if yes) What advantage?
c. (if no) Why not?
Aˬ khaˬ sahˬ boꞈ siˬ nya-eu guiˬ lahˬ
baw-awˇ gaˇ dahˇ tsoeˬ miˇ-a loˇ?
a. tsoeˬ/maˬtsoeˬ
b. (tsoeˬ naˇ) aˬ jeˬ gaˇ dahˇ tsoeˬ nya?
c. (maˬ tsoeˬ naˇ) aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh gaˇ dahˇ
maˬ tsoeˬ nya?
ETHNOLINGUISTIC IDENTITY
English Akha
40. Do you think of yourself first as Akha,
Burmese, or something else?
Yawˬ haˇ yawˬ ha Aˬkhaˬ pyeuꞈ mawꞈ nya
loˇ, Mam pyeuꞈ mawꞈ nya loˇ, maˬ ngeuˇ naˇ
yawˬ jeˬ yawꞈ tsawˇ jeuˬ pyeuꞈ mawꞈ nya loˇ?
41. What parts of being Akha would you
like to see your children continue? □□□□ “Examples given.” Note in your
notebook if you have to give the “for
example” below.
For example: customs, dress, housing
style, food, language, festivals, religion,
or anything else you can think of.
a. List answers
b. Why?
Nawˬ-euˬ zaˬ-ahˇ aˬ joˆ gheh-eu phehˇ tsahˇ-
ahˇ Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ htiˬ ghaˬ loꞈ-ehˇ haw mawˇ
mawꞈ nya?
Yaw jeˬ ma jeˬ: dm-eu ghaˬ-eu, dehꞈ-eu jawˇ-
eu, nymˇ aˇ ghehˇ, dzaˬ-eu dawˇ-eu, dawˬ,
yaw bui bui-eu, zahˇ sahˇ qoꞈ, hawˇ-eu nui
jeˬ…..
a. ehˇ qoꞈ laꞈ-eu jeˬ boꞈ-awˬ
b. aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh heu loꞈ-ehˇ mawˇ mawꞈ nya?
42. Other than speaking Akha, how are
Akha people different from non-Akha
people? □□□□ “Examples given.” Note in your
notebook if you have to give the “for
example” below.
For example: customs, dress, housing style,
food, festivals, religion, or anything else you
can think of
Dawˬ ngehˬ-eu taꞈ-ehˇ buˬ-iˇ-awˇ, nui jeˬ aˬ
chawˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ nehˬ-ehˇ aˬ dui Aˬkhaˬ aˬ jeˬ
beu gaˇ la?
Yaw jeˬ ma jeˬ: dm-eu ghaˬ-eu, dehꞈ-eu jawˇ-
eu, nymˇ aˇ ghehˇ, dzaˬ-eu dawˇ-eu, dawˬ,
yaw bui bui-eu, zahˇ sahˇ qoꞈ, hawˇ-eu nui
jeˬ…..
136
BILINGUALISM
English Akha
43. Overall, how well do you speak
Shan?
1. A little 2. Enough to get by 3. Well
Nyehꞈ dzahˬ-awˇ ehˇ ngeh, nawˇ Biˬchmˬdawˬ aˇ
naˆ ni ngehˬ nya le?
1. ui cuiˆ 2. tsaˬ tsaˬ ni 3. yaw muiˬ-ehˇ
44. How many times a week do you
typically speak Shan?
a. What do you use Shan for?
Htiˬ jaw-ahˇ aˇ myaˆ poˆ Biˬchmˬ dawˬ ngehˬ le?
a. Aˬ jeˬ ghaˇ duˬ Biˬchmˬ dawˬ ngehˬ le?
45. Would you like to be able to speak
Shan better?
a. (If yes) Why?
Biˬchmˬ dawˬ ngehˬ nya dzehˬ mawꞈ miˇ-a loˇ?
a. (ngehˬ nya dzehˬ mawꞈ naˇ) aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh
ngehˬ nya dzehˬ mawꞈ nya?
46. Overall, how well do you speak
Burmese?
1. A little 2. Enough to get by 3. Well
Nyehꞈ dzahˬ-awˇ ehˇ ngeh, nawˇ Mam dawˬ aˇ
naˆ ni ngehˬ nya le?
1. ui cuiˆ 2. tsaˬ tsaˬ ni 3. yaw muiˬ-ehˇ
47. How many times a week do you
typically speak Burmese?
a. What do you use Burmese for?
Htiˬ jaw-ahˇ aˇ myaˆ poˆ Mam dawˬ ngehˬ le?
a. Aˬ jeˬ ghaˇ duˬ Mam dawˬ ngehˬ le?
48. Would you like to be able to speak
Burmese better?
a. (If yes) Why?
Mam dawˬ ngehˬ nya dzehˬ mawꞈ miˇ-a loˇ?
a. (ngehˬ nya dzehˬ mawꞈ naˇ) aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh
ngehˬ nya dzehˬ mawꞈ nya?
49. Overall, how well do you speak
Chinese?
a. 1. A little 2. Enough to get by 3. Well
Nyehꞈ dzahˬ-awˇ ehˇ ngeh, nawˇ Laˬbuiˬ dawˬ aˇ
naˆ ni ngehˬ nya le?
1. ui cuiˆ 2. tsaˬ tsaˬ ni 3. yaw muiˬ-ehˇ
50. How many times a week do you
typically speak Chinese?
a. What do you use Chinese for?
Htiˬ jaw-ahˇ aˇ myaˆ poˆ Laˬbuiˬ dawˬ ngehˬ le?
a. Aˬ jeˬ ghaˇ duˬ Laˬbuiˬ dawˬ ngehˬ le?
51. Overall, how well do you speak
Thai?
1. A little 2. Enough to get by 3. Well
Laˬbuiˬ dawˬ ngehˬ nya dzehˬ mawꞈ miˇ-a loˇ?
a. (ngehˬ nya dzehˬ mawꞈ naˇ) aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh
ngehˬ nya dzehˬ mawꞈ nya?
137
CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE USE AND LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE
English Akha
52. Normally, what language do the children
in this village speak first?
Phu heu phu-ahˇ jawˇ-eu zaˬ deuˬ aˬ jeˬ
dawˬ jeˬ hu ngehˬ dzaw la?
53. Do you think the young people (from
your group) in this village speak your
language well?
Phu heu phu-ahˇ jawˇ-eu Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ guˬ
deuˬ Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ yaw muiˬ-ehˇ ngeh nya
meh lehˇ noeˬ miˇ-a loˇ?
a. (if not) Why not? a. (maˬ noeˬ naˇ) aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh
b. (if not) How do you feel about this?
b. (maˬ noeˬ naˇ) gaˇ kawˆ heu nehˬ-ehˇ taꞈ
leˇ-awˇ nawˬ-ahˇ aˬ joˆ-ehˇ noeˬ nya?
54. What language do the children (from
your group) in this village speak when
they play together?
Phu heu phu-ahˇ jawˇ-eu Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ deuˬ
niˇ gha ngeh aˬ jeˬ dawˬ ngeh la?
a. (If not mother tongue) How do you think
about this? Is it good or bad?
a. (Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ maˬ ngehˬ naˇ)
Nawˇ aˬ joˆ-ehˇ noeˬ nya?
Muiˬ nga loˇ/maˬ muiˬ nga loˇ?
55. Twenty years from now, what languages
do you think children in this village will
be speaking?
Aˬ khaˇ nya taꞈ 20 qoꞈ naˇ-aˬ, zaˬ heu deuˬ
aˬ jeˬ dawˬ ngehˬ-eu phaˬ lehˇ nawˇ noeˬ
nya?
56. Do you have any questions or comments
for me?
Nui jeˬ naˇ haˬ mawꞈ-eu jeˬ (maˬ) ehˇ byah
mawꞈ-eu jeˬ jaˆ le loˇ?
138
Interviewer Observations
Ideally, answer these questions right away. If you cannot do that, try to do so
as soon as you can, perhaps at the end of each day’s work.
English Akha
57. Were there any distractions or interruptions
that interfered with the flow of the
interview or seemed to influence some of
the responses?
Laꞈ taˆ phaw naˇ haˬ leꞈ-euˬ gaˇ kawˆ deuˬ
laꞈ qhoeˇ ehˇ qoꞈ-eu ghaˬ yaw muiˬ-ehˇ
maˬ ehˇ qoꞈ nya-ehˇ ngeuˬ leˇ-eu htiˬ gaˇ
na jaˆ hta loˇ?
58. Did the subject seem shy or fairly confident
about expressing his/her opinions?
Ehˇ qoꞈ-eu ghaˬ-ahˇ haw ngeh aˬ yawꞈ
noeˬ-eu jeˬ-ahˇ maˬ ehˇ doˆ choeˇ-ehˇ
shaˬ-eu ya mawˇ-euˬ le loˇ?
59. Were there any questions that seemed to
work really well? Which questions? Why?
Naˇ haˬ-eu ghaˇ duˬ zawˇ muiˬ-eu gaˇ
kawˆ deuˬ ahˇ gaˇ ya mawˇ hteˬ loˇ? Naˬ
baˆ aˇ myaˆ? Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh?
60. Were there any questions that seemed to
not work well? Which questions? Why?
Naˇ haˬ-eu ghaˇ duˬ maˬ muiˬ-eu gaˇ kawˆ
deuˬ ahˇ gaˇ ya mawˇ hteˬ loˇ? Naˬ baˆ aˇ
myaˆ? Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh?
61. Other observations about the interview? Nui jeˬ mawˇ-euˬ jaˆ naˇ
139
Appendix B
KNOWLEDGEABLE INSIDER SOCIOLINGUISTIC
QUESTIONNAIRE
ENTER THE ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING AHEAD OF TIME IN YOUR
NOTEBOOK:
SUBJECT DEMOGRAPHICS
English Akha
9. What is your name? Nawˬ-euˬ tsawˇ myahˇ aˬ joˆ-ehˇ khuˇ le?
10. Gender Qhaˬ dzeˇ zaˬ/zaˬ miˬ zaˬ
11. How old are you? Aˇ qoꞈ aˇ myaˆ qoꞈ qawˆ le?
12. What is your religion? Aˬ jeˬ zahˇ sahˇ qoꞈ htawˬ le?
13. Up to what level of education did
you complete? (or) Have you ever
attended monastery school? For
how many years?
Sahˬ boꞈ aˇ myaˆ danˇ keuˆ ya dzaw-euˬ le?
14. What is (was) your work? Aˬ jeˬ gaˇ mˇ dzaˬ le?
English Answer
1. Questionnaire Number
2. Tribal Group
3. Interview Location
4. Interviewer Name
5. Date (Day / Month / Year)
6. Time (Morning or Evening)
7. Language of Elicitation
8. Language of Response
140
English Akha
15. When you were born, what village
did you live in? Nawˇ dehꞈ le naˇ aˬ jeˬ phu-ahˇ jawˇ-euˬ le?
16. Where did you grow up? Aˬ gaˇ-ahˇ jawˇ-awˇ huiˬ laˇ-euˬ le?
17. How long have you lived here in
this village?
Phu heu phu-ahˇ jawˇ laꞈ-euˬ aˇmyah ni myahˇ laˇ-
euˬ le?
18. Have you lived anywhere else for
more than a year? Where? When?
How long did you live there?
Htiˬ qoꞈ taꞈ-ehˇ dzeh ni yawˬ gaˇ yawꞈ aˇ gaˇ jawˇ
yaꞈ haw-euˬ le? aˬ gaˇ? aˇ myah? aˇ myah ni jawˇ
yaꞈ-euˬ le?
19. What language did you speak first? Aˬ jeˬ-euˬ dawˬ jeˬ hu nawˇ ngehˬ dzaw-euˬ le?
20. What other languages do you
speak? Nui jeˬ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ phaˇ ngeh nya le?
21. Of all the languages you speak,
which language do you speak best?
Nawˇ ngehˬ nya-eu dawˬ yawˬ jeˬ na luꞈ laꞈ qhoeˇ aˬ
jeˬ-euˬ dawˬ ngehˬ nya dzehˬ le?
a. … second best? a. naˬ baꞈ nyiꞈ ngehˬ nya dzehˬ-eu dawˬ __________
b. … third best? b. naˬ baꞈ smˇ ngeh nya dzehˬ-eu dawˬ __________
TRIBAL GROUP INFORMATION
English Akha
22. What do other people call your language
and people group?
Nui jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ deuˬ nawˬ-eu dawˬ hawˇ
nawˬ-eu tsawˇ haˬ-ahˇaˬ joˆ-ehˇ khuˇ la?
a. What do these names mean? Aˇ myahˇ heu aˬ jeˬ loꞈ-ehˇ dawˬ tcuiꞈ jaˆ
htaˬ?
b. How do you feel about these names? Aˇ myahˇ heu nehˬ-ehˇ taꞈ leˇ-awˇ nawˬ-ahˇ
aˬ jeˬ loꞈ-ehˇ noeˬ nya?
23. How long has your tribal group lived in
your home village? for example: 30
years, 50 years, 100 years
Nawˬ-euˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ phu heu phu-ahˇ jawˇ
laꞈ-eu aˇ myaˆ qoꞈ byah laˇ-euˬ la? Yaw jeˬ
ma jeˬ: 30qoꞈ, 50qoꞈ, 100qoꞈ
24. Where did your tribal group originally
come from?
Nawˬ-euˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ heu aˬ gaˇ neh dahˬ beh-
awˇ jawˇ kha leꞈ-eu la?
25. Where did your tribal group live before
they lived here?
Jawˇ duˬ heu tsahˇ-ahˇmaˬ jawˇ le ngeh aˬ
gaˇ jawˇ yaꞈ-awˇ phawˇ le-euˬ la?
26. Why did your tribal group move to this
village?
Aˬ jeˬ gheh miˇ neh phu heu phu-ahˇ phawˇ
le-euˬ la?
141
VILLAGE NAME AND POPULATION
English Akha
27. What is the official name of this village? Miˇ qhahˬ sahˬ phaˬ neh myahˇ htaˬ-eu phu
heu phu tsawˇ myahˇ aˬ joˆ-ehˇ khuˇ la?
a. What Village Group, Township, District,
and Division is it in?
Aˬ geu aˇ tsahˬ (ရပကက၊ ေကျးရာအပစ), myoˆ
nehˬ hawˇ-eu khaˬ yaiˬ laꞈ qhoeˇ ahˇ la?
28. Does this village have any alternate
names?
Phu myahˇ heu myahˇ uˬ taˆ nui jeˇ phaˇ
khuˇ-eu jaˆ hte loˇ?
a. (if so) What are the alternate names? (jaˆ naˇ) nui jeˬ aˬ joˆ-ehˇ khuˇ la?
29. How many houses are in this village? Phu heu phu laꞈ qhoeˇ tsawˇ zawꞈ aˇ myaˆ
zawꞈ jawˇ la?
30. What is the total number of people in this
village? (adults and children)
Phu heu phu laꞈ qhoeˇ tsawˇ haˬ dawˬ tawˆ
aˇ myaˆ ghaˬ jawˇ la? (zaˬ deuˬ hawˇ-eu
tsawˇ qaˆ deuˬ)
31. Is this village made up of all your people
or are there other people groups living
here as well?
Phu zaˬ dawˬ tawˆ Aˬkhaˬ tehꞈ meh loˇ?
(maˬ) nui jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ jiˇ jawˇ kheuˬ htaˬ-eu
la loˇ?
a. (if others, too) What are all the groups
who live here?
(nui jeˬ ji jawˇ naˇ) Aˬ jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ deuˬ la?
b. (if mixed, ask for each group)
(Group)… How many houses?
(jawˇ kheuˬ jawˇ so htaˬ-euˬ law naˇ) Aˬ geu
jeuˬ aˇ myaˆ zawꞈ jawˇ la?
c. (if mixed, ask for each group) About how
long have they lived here?
(jawˇ kheuˬ jawˇ so htaˬ-euˬ law naˇ) Aˬ yawꞈ
maꞈ deuˬ jawˇ laꞈ-euˬ aˇ myah ni myahˇ laˇ-
euˬ la?
INTERMARRIAGE
English Akha
32. Is it common for Akha people from
this village to marry non-Akha
speaking people?
Aˬkhaˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ nui jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ-ahˇ miˬ zaˬ laˬ
smˇ miˇ iˇ-eu myaˬ meh loˇ?
a. Yes or No a. ngeuˇ (maˬ) maˬ ngeuˇ
b. (if yes) What non-Akha speaking
people do they marry?
b. (ngeuˇ naˇ) aˬ jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ nehˬ-ehˇ yuˇ la?
33. If an Akha man from this village
marries a non-Akha woman…
Phu heu phu-ahˇ jawˇ-eu qhaˬ dzeˇ zaˬ htiˬ ghaˬ aˬ
chawˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ zaˬ miˬ htiˬ ghaˬ-ahˇ sheuˬ dahˬ
dzaˬ-eu law naˇ…….
142
English Akha
a. Where do they live? (in Akha area or
outside)
a. Aˇ yawꞈ maꞈ aˬ gaˇ jawˇ la? (Aˬkhaˬ jawˇ-eu jawˇ
duˬ-ahˇ la (maˬ) yaw gaˇ yawꞈ la)
b. Usually, what language do their
children end up speaking?
b. Aˇ saˬ saˬ laˇ ngeh aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ-euˬ zaˬ deuˬ aˬ
jeˬ dawˬ ngehˬ la?
c. Why? c. Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh?
d. (If not Akha) Can they also still
speak Akha?
d. (Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ maˬ ngeuˇ law naˇ) Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ
Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ ngehˬ nya meh siˬ laˬ?
e. How many men do this: few, some,
half, most, or all?
Qha dzeˇ zaˬ deuˬ aˇ myaˆ ni heu loꞈ-ehˇ pyeuꞈ luꞈ
la? tsawˇ theˬ, ui cuiˆ, htiˬ paˆ, myaˬ htiˬ paˆ, dawˬ
tawˆ.
SCHOOL
English Akha
34. Is there a school in this village? Phu heu phu laꞈ qhoeˇ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw nymˇ
jaˆ meh loˇ?
a. (if yes) What levels are taught in the
school?
a. (jaˆ naˇ) Aˇ myaˆ danˇ keuˆ ni jaˆ la?
b. (if yes) How many of the Akha children
attend the school? (1) all (2) most (3) half
(4) some (5) very few
b. (jaˆ naˇ) Aˬ khaˬ zaˬ deuˬ aˇ myaˆ ni sahˬ
boꞈ dzaw-iˇ la? (1) dawˬ tawˆ (2) myaˬ htiˬ
paˆ (3) htiˬ paˆ (4) ui cuiˆ naˆ (5) htiˬ ghaˬ
naˆ
c. (if yes) What is the language of instruction? c. (jaˆ naˇ) Sahˬ boꞈ dzaw nymˇ-ahˇ mehˬ-
eu sahˬ boꞈ aˬ jeˬ sahˬ boꞈ la?
d. (if yes) What language groups attend this
school?
d. (jaˆ naˇ) Aˬ jeˬ aˇ jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ deuˬ
dzaw laˇ la?
e. (if yes) Which language group is the
majority at the school?
e. (jaˆ naˇ) Sahˬ boꞈ dzaw nymˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ
aˬ jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ myaˬ dzehˬ la?
f. (if yes) What language(s) do the Akha
schoolchildren use with each other?
f. (jaˆ naˇ) Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ deuˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw
nymˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ ngehˬ la?
35. Do any Akha children go to any other
villages/towns for school?
Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ deuˬ aˬ chawˬ phu-ahˇ (maˬ) aˬ
chawˬ meuˬ-ahˇ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-iˇ-eu jawˇ
meh loˇ?
a. (if yes) Where? a. (jawˇ naˇ) Aˬ gaˇ?
143
English Akha
b. if yes) What levels do they go for?
b. (jawˇ naˇ) Aˬ geu tiˆ ghaˇ duˬ dzaw-iˇ-eu
la?
36. About how many years of education do
Akha children from this village usually
complete? (primary, middle, or secondary?)
Phu heu phu-ahˇ jawˇ-eu zaˬ deu myaˬ htiˬ
paˆ sahˬ boꞈ aˇ myaˆ danˇ keuˆ ni dzaw
keuˆ la?
LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE
English Akha
37. Are there people in this village
who can only speak Akha?
Phu heu phu laꞈ qhoeˇ Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ htiˬ jeˬ maˬ
ngeuˇ naˇ maˬ ngehˬ nya-eu tsawˇ haˬ jawˇ meh loˇ?
a. (if yes) Which types of people?
(e.g. which gender, ages,
occupations)
a. (jawˇnaˇ) Aˬ joˆ-ehˇ gheh-eu tsawˇ haˬ deuˬ la?
(yaw jeˬ ma jeˬ: qhaˬ dzeˇzaˬ/zaˬ miˬ zaˬ, aˇ qoꞈ, gaˇ)
38. Are there people in this village
who can speak Akha, but not very
well?
Phu heu phu laꞈ qhoeˇ Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ ngehˬ nya gaˇ
neh yaw muiˬ phaˬ-ehˇ maˬ ngeh nya-eu tsawˇ haˬ
jawˇ meh loˇ?
a. If yes, Which types of people?
(e.g. which gender, ages,
occupations)
a. (jawˇ naˇ) Aˬ joˆ-ehˇ gheh-eu tsawˇ haˬ deuˬ la?
(yaw jeˬ ma jeˬ: qhaˬ dzeˇ zaˬ/zaˬ miˬ zaˬ, aˇ qoꞈ,
gaˇ)
b. If yes, what language(s) do they
speak well?
b. (jawˇ naˇ) Aˬ jeˬ dawˬ aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ yaw muiˬ
phaˬ-ehˇ ngehˬ nya la?
39. Are there people in this village
who cannot speak Akha at all?
Phu heu phu laꞈ qhoeˇ Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ htiˬ pawꞈ-iˬ maˬ
ngehˬ nya-eu tsawˇ haˬ jawˇ-a loˇ?
a. (if yes) Which types of people?
(e.g. which gender, ages,
occupations)
a. (jawˇ naˇ) Aˬ joˆ-ehˇ gheh-eu tsawˇ haˬ deuˬ la?
(yaw jeˬ ma jeˬ: qhaˬ dzeˇ zaˬ/zaˬ miˬ zaˬ, aˇ qoꞈ,
gaˇ)
b. (if yes)What language(s) do they
speak well?
b. (jawˇ naˇ) Aˬ jeˬ dawˬ aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ yaw muiˬ
phaˬ-ehˇ ngehˬ nya la?
40. Normally what language do the
children in this village speak first?
Phu heu phu-ahˇ jawˇ-eu zaˬ deuˬ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ jeˬ hu
ngehˬ dzaw la?
144
LWCs
English Akha
41. What are the languages of wider
communication spoken in this area?
Miˇ choeˇ heu choeˇ-ahˇ jawˇ-eu tsawˇ haˬ deuˬ
aˬ jeˬ dawˬ ngehˬ myaˬ dzehˬ la?
42. Apart from Akha, what other
languages are important in this
region?
Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ taꞈ-ehˇ dzehˬ leˇ naˇ aˬ yeˇ huiˬ-eu
nui jeˬ dawˬ aˬ jeˬ-a?
43. Do any other groups use Akha as a
second language, for example, for
trade? (If they don’t know, ask about
Akeu.)
a. If yes Which groups?
b. What do they use Akha for?
Nui jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ deuˬ jeˬ gaˆ jeˬ kha mˇ-eu ghaˇ
duˬ Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ ngehˬ meh loˇ? (aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ
maˬ siˬ nya naˇAˇkheuˇ tsawˇ jeuˬ gaˇ kawˆ naˇ
haˬ-awˬ)
a. (ngehˬ-eu jawˇ naˇ) aˬ jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ deuˬ la?
b. Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ aˬ jeˬ ghaˇ duˬ Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ
ngehˬ la?
44. What groups of Akha people can speak
Shan well? (For example, which
gender, ages, occupations, village)
Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ laꞈ qhoeˇ Biˬchmˬ dawˬ yaw muiˬ
phaˬ-ehˇ ngehˬ nya-eu deuˬ aˬ geu deuˬ-a. (yaw
jeˬ ma jeˬ: qhaˬ dzeˇ zaˬ/zaˬ miˬ zaˬ, aˇ qoꞈ, gaˇ,
phu)
a. Why do those types of people speak
Shan well?
a. Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh Biˬchmˬ dawˬ yaw
muiˬ-ehˇ ngehˬ nya la?
45. What groups of Akha people cannot
speak Shan very well?
Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ deuˬ laꞈ qhoeˇ Biˬchmˬ dawˬ yaw qaˆ-
ehˇ maˬ ngehˬ nya-eu deuˬ aˬ geuˬ deuˬ la?
a. Why can’t those types of people speak
Shan very well?
a. Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh Biˬchmˬ dawˬ yaw
qaˆ-ehˇ maˬ ngehˬ nya la?
46. What groups of people can speak
Burmese well? (For example, which
gender, ages, occupations)
Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ deuˬ laꞈ qhoeˇ Mam dawˬ yaw muiˬ
phaˬ-ehˇ ngeh nya-eu deuˬ aˬ geu deuˬ la? (yaw
jeˬ ma jeˬ: qhaˬ dzeˇ zaˬ/zaˬ miˬ zaˬ, aˇ qoꞈ, gaˇ)
a. Why do those types of people speak
Burmese well?
a. Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh Mam dawˬ yaw
muiˬ phaˬ-ehˇ ngehˬ nya la?
47. What groups of people can’t speak
Burmese very well?
Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ deuˬ laꞈ qhoeˇ Mam dawˬ yaw qaˆ-
ehˇ maˬ ngehˬ nya-eu deuˬ aˬ geu deuˬ la?
a. Why can’t those types of people speak
Burmese very well?
a. Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh Mam dawˬ yaw
qaˆ-ehˇ maˬ ngehˬ nya la?
145
48. What groups of people can speak
Chinese well? (For example, which
gender, ages, occupations)
Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ laꞈ qhoeˇ Laˬbuiˬ dawˬ yaw muiˬ
phaˬ-ehˇ ngehˬ nya-eu deuˬ aˬ geu deuˬ-a. (yaw
jeˬ ma jeˬ: qhaˬ dzeˇ zaˬ/zaˬ miˬ zaˬ, aˇ qoꞈ, gaˇ,
phu)
b. Why do those types of people speak
Chinese well?
a. Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh Laˬbuiˬ dawˬ yaw
muiˬ-ehˇ ngehˬ nya la?
49. What groups of people can’t speak
Chinese very well?
Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ deuˬ laꞈ qhoeˇ Laˬbuiˬ dawˬ yaw qaˆ-
ehˇ maˬ ngehˬ nya-eu deuˬ aˬ geuˬ deuˬ la?
b. Why can’t those types of people speak
Chinese very well?
a. Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh Laˬbuiˬ dawˬ yaw
qaˆ-ehˇ maˬ ngehˬ nya la?
CONTACT
English Akha
50. Akha people from which villages
visit this village?
Aˬ geu phu-ahˇ jawˇ-eu Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ deuˬ phu heu
phu-ahˇ dawˬ deh gha laˇ-a?
a. (for each village) How often do
they come?
(1) at least once a day
(2) at least once a week
(3) at least once a month
(4) at least once every 6 months
(5) about once a year or never
a. (aˬ yawꞈ phu yawꞈ) aˇ myah khaˬ-ahˇ htiˬ poˆ laˇ-
a?
(1) qhaˇ hteˬ-eu htiˬ nah htiˬ poˆ
(2) qhaˇ hteˬ-eu htiˬ jaw htiˬ poˆ
(3) qhaˇ hteˬ-eu htiˬ siˬ htiˬ poˆ
(4) qhaˇ hteˬ-eu 6 siˬ htiˬ poˆ
(5) htiˬ qoꞈ htiˬ poˆ loˇ (maˬ) htiˬ jawˇ-iˬ maˬ laˇ-a
b. Why do they come? b. Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ laˇ la?
CONTACT WITH SHAN
English Akha
51. Do Shan people ever come here? Biˬchmˬ tsawˇ haˬ heu gaˇ yawˬ
jawˇ na laˇ meh loˇ?
a. (if yes) Where do they come from? a. (laˇ naˇ) Aˬ yawꞈ maˬ aˬ gaˇ
neh laˇ la?
146
English Akha
b. (if yes) How many times per year do they come?
(1) at least once a day
(2) at least once a week
(3) at least once a month
(4) at least once every 6 months
(5) about once a year or never
b. (laˇnaˇ) Htiˬ qoꞈ aˇ myaˆ poˆ
laˇ-a?
(1) qhaˇ hteˬ-eu htiˬ nah htiˬ
poˆ
(2) qhaˇ hteˬ-eu htiˬ jaw htiˬ
poˆ
(3) qhaˇ hteˬ-eu htiˬ siˬ htiˬ poˆ
(4) qhaˇ hteˬ-eu 6 siˬ htiˬ poˆ
(5) htiˬ qoꞈ htiˬ poˆ naˆ (maˬ)
htiˬ jawˇ-iˬ maˬ laˇ-a
c. (if yes) What do they come to do? c. (laˇ naˇ) Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ aˬ jeˬ
jahˇ laˇ hta?
52. When you speak with Shan people, what language do
you use with each other?
Answer needs to be (1) I switch to his variety, (2) he
switches to my variety, (3) we both switch our varieties
slightly, (4) we both use our own varieties, (5) we change
to use a different language (such as Burmese).
Biˬ chmˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ nehˬ-ehˇ
nawˇ dawˬ ngehˬ chawˬ ngeh
aˬ jeˬ dawˬ neh ngehˬ le?
(1) Ngaˇ aˬ yawꞈ-euˬ dawˬ
ngehˬ ma
(2) Aˬ yawꞈ ngaˬ-euˬ dawˬ
ngehˬ meh
(3) Nyiˬ ghaˬ luꞈ yaw ha-euˬ
dawˬ yawˬ ha a lawˆ lawˆ-ehˇ
ngehˬ ahˇ kheuˬ gheh ma.
(4) Nyiˬ ghaˬ luꞈ yawˬ ha-euˬ
dawˬ yawˬ ha ngehˬ ma.
(5) Nui jeˬ dawˬ neh ngeh
chawˬ ma (Mam dawˬ)
a. (if not your language) Why don’t you speak to them in
your language?
a. (nawˬ-euˬ dawˬ neh maˬ
ngehˬ naˇ) Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh nawˬ-
euˬ dawˬ neh aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ-ahˇ
maˬ ngrhˬ chawˬ le?
147
English Akha
53. When you hear Shan, how much do you understand:
(1) everything, (2) most, (3) half, (4) some, (5) none?
Biˬ chmˬ dawˬ ngehˬ gaˇ nawˇ
ya gaˬ ngeh aˇ naˆ ni ghoˆ siˬ
nya le?
(1) dawˬ tawˆ (2) myaˬ htiˬ paˆ
(3) htiˬ paˆ (4) ui cuiˆ (5) htiˬ
pawˆ-iˬ maˬ ghoˆ siˬ nya nya
AKHA LITERACY
English Akha
54. Can you read Akha? Nawˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ gui nya ma loˇ?
55. Can you write Akha? Nawˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ boꞈ nya ma loˇ?
52. Do you see any advantage in being able to
read and write Akha?
a. Yes or no
b. (if yes) What advantage?
c. (if no) Why not?
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ boꞈ nya gui nya-eu
jeˬ-aˬ, gaˇ dahˇ tsoeˬ-eu jeˬ ngeuˇ meh
loˇ?
a. ngeuˇ (maˬ) maˬ ngeuˇ
b. (ngeuˇ naˇ) Aˬ jeˬ gaˇ dahˇ tsoeˬ la?
c. (maˬ ngeuˇ naˇ) Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh maˬ
ngeuˇ la?
53. Are there any printed materials in the Akha
language available in this village?
Phu heu phu laꞈ qhoeˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ
neh ya doˆ htaˬ-euˬ sahˬ boꞈ gui-eu jeˬ
jaˆ meh loˇ?
a. (if yes) What kinds of materials?
a. (jaˆ naˇ) Aˬ jeˬ loꞈ-ehˇ gheh-eu phaˇ
dmˬ deuˬ (gui-eu jeˬ) la?
54. Would you like to have more Akha literature?
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ neh jahˇ htaˬ-eu phaˇ
dmˬ heu myaˆ maˬ tseˇ geuꞈ mawꞈ miˇ-a
loˇ?
a. (if yes) For what purpose? a. (geuꞈ mawꞈ naˇ) Aˬ jeˬ ghaˇ duˬ geuꞈ
mawꞈ nya?
148
English Akha
55. Which Akha alphabet do you prefer, Unified
Akha Orthography, or Akha Way
orthography?) Show examples of each.
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ aˬ geu jeˬ-ahˇ nawˇ ya
leˇ dzehˬ nya? Byah di Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ
(UAO) la, (maˬ) qhahˬ gm Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ
boꞈ (KHAS)la? Sahˬ boꞈ aˇ mawˇ qhoeˇ
nyiˬ jeˬ yaw jeˬ ma jeˬ boꞈ mehˬ laꞈ
sheˇ!
a. Why? a. Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh
56. (If there’s a literacy class) Do you encourage
your children/grandchildren/nieces and
nephews to attend the class to learn to read
and write Akha?
57. (If no literacy class) If a class started in the
village teaching how to read and write Ahka,
would you encourage your
children/grandchildren/nieces and nephews to
attend?
(Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzawˬ-eu jaˆ lawˬ naˇ)
Nawˬ-eu zaˬ, oeˬ phaˬ oeˬ ma hawˇ-eu
nawˬ-eu htiˬ phaˬ htiˬ qhahˇ-ahˇ Aˬkhaˬ
sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-eu ghaˇ duˬ ghaˬ biꞈ neh
ma loˇ?
(Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-eu maˬ jaˆ lawˬ
naˇ) Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-eu dahˬ beh-
awˇ phah laˇ naˇ nawˬ-eu zaˬ, oeˬ phaˬ
oeˬ ma hawˇ-eu nawˬ-eu htiˬ phaˬ htiˬ
qhahˇ-ahˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-eu ghaˇ
duˬ ghaˬ biꞈ neh ma loˇ?
58. Do you see any advantages of having Akha
literacy classes after school time each week?
Aˬ soˇ yaˆ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw nymˇ-ahˇ, Mam
sahˬ boꞈ dzaw ghaˬ ngeh, yawˬ jaw na
luˆ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ mehˬ-eu jaˆ law nmˇ-
aˬ, yaw muiˬ meh (gaˇ dahˇ tsoeˬ meh)
lehˆ noeˬ miˇ-a loˇ?
a. (If yes) what advantages? (noeˬ naˇ) Aˬ jeˬ loꞈ-ehˇ muiˬ (gaˇ dahˇ
tsoeˬ) la?
149
English Akha
b. (If not) why not? (maˬ noeˬ naˇ) Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh gaˇ dahˇ
maˬ tsoeˬ la?
59. What percentage of Akha parents encourage
children to attend those classes?
Aˬ da aˬ ma deuˬ % aˇ myaˆ ehˇ ghaˬ ni
aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ-euˬ zaˬ-ahˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ
dzaw-iˇ-eu ghaˇ duˬ ghaˬ biꞈ nehˬ la?
INTERVIEWER OBSERVATIONS
Ideally, answer these questions right away. If you cannot do that, try to do so
as soon as you can, perhaps at the end of each day’s work.
English Akha
60. Were there any distractions or interruptions
that interfered with the flow of the interview
or seemed to influence some of the
responses?
Laꞈ taˆ phaw naˇ haˬ leꞈ-euˬ gaˇ kawˆ deuˬ
laꞈ qhoeˇ ehˇ qoꞈ-eu ghaˬ yaw muiˬ-ehˇ
maˬ ehˇ qoꞈ nya-ehˇ ngeuˬ leˇ-eu htiˬ gaˇ na
jaˆ hta loˇ?
61. Did the subject seem shy about expressing
his/her opinions?
Ehˇ qoꞈ-eu ghaˬ-ahˇ haw ngeh aˬ yawꞈ
noeˬ-eu jeˬ-ahˇ maˬ ehˇ doˆ choeˇ-ehˇ shaˬ-
eu ya mawˇ-euˬ le loˇ?
62. Were there any questions that seemed to
work really well? Which questions? Why?
Naˇ haˬ-eu ghaˇ duˬ zawˇ muiˬ-eu gaˇ kawˆ
deuˬ ahˇ gaˇ ya mawˇ hteˬ loˇ? Naˬ baˆ aˇ
myaˆ? Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh?
63. Were there any questions that seemed to not
work well? Which questions? Why?
Naˇ haˬ-eu ghaˇ duˬ maˬ muiˬ-eu gaˇ kawˆ
deuˬ ahˇ gaˇ ya mawˇ hteˬ loˇ? Naˬ baˆ aˇ
myaˆ? Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh?
64. Other observations about the interview? Nui jeˬ mawˇ-euˬ jaˆ naˇ
150
Appendix C
RELIGIOUS LEADER QUESTIONNAIRE
C.1 Christian Leader Interview Questionnaire
Use with at least one church leader from each denomination in each village.
English Answer
1. Questionnaire Number
2. Tribal Group
3. Denomination
4. Interview Location
5. Interviewer Name
6. Date [Day / Month / Year]
7. Time [morning / afternoon/ night]
8. Language of Elicitation
9. Language of Response
SUBJECT DEMOGRAPHICS
English Akha
10. What is your name? Nawˬ-euˬ tsawˇ myahˇ aˬ joˆ-ehˇ khuˇ le?
11. Gender Qhaˬ dzeˇ zaˬ/zaˬ miˬ zaˬ
12. How old are you? Aˇ qoꞈ aˇ myaˆ qawˆ le?
13. Where were you born? Aˬ gaˇ dehꞈ le-euˬ le?
14. What ethnicity are you? Aˬ jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ le?
15. What languages do you speak? Aˬ jeˬ dawˬ deuˬ ngehˬ nya le?
16. [if not Akha] Can you speak some
Akha?
[Aˬkhaˬ maˬ ngeuˇ naˇ] Nawˇ Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ ngehˬ nya
ma loˇ?
a. [if yes] In which situations do you
speak Akha? Example: preaching,
praying, visiting, meetings,
fellowship, festivals, funerals..etc.
[ngeuˇ naˇ] Nawˇ Aˬ khaˬ dawˬ aˬ joˆ-ehˇ gheh-eu
phehˇ tsahˇ-ahˇ ngehˬ le? Yaw jeˬ ma jeˬ: dawˬ mehˬ
mehˬ-eu, guiˬ lahˬ shaˇ-eu, dawˬ deh gha-eu, mehˬ
bawˬ bawˬ-eu, chawˬ chawˬ taꞈ-eu, pawˇ-ehˇ gheh-
eu, tsawˇ shiˇ yaw bui
17. What is your position in the Kha li zaˬ aˇ muˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ aˬ jeˬ gaˇ tuˆ htehˬ htaˬ-
151
church? euˬ le?
18. Have you attended a Bible
school?
If yes, Which Bible school did you
attend?
Nawˇ Jaˇliꞈ dzaw nymˇ-ahˇ Jaˇliꞈ dzaw haw maˬ loˇ?
[dzaw-euˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ Jaˇliꞈ dzaw nymˇ-ahˇ dzaw yaꞈ-
euˬ le?
19. How long have you been in
ministry among the Akha?
Miˬyehˇ gaˇ mˇ laꞈ-euˬ aˇ myaˆ qoꞈ byah laˇ-euˬ le?
20. What are the biggest obstacles
you face in your ministry?
Miˬyehˇ gaˇ mˇ-eu aˇ yamˬ laꞈ qhoeˇ qhaˇ qaˆ dzehˬ-
eu shaˬ-eu zahˬ-eu jeˬ aˬ jeˬ ya htahˬ phuˬ nya?
CHURCH INFORMATION
English Akha
21. In this village, how many
members are there in the church?
Kha li zaˬ aˇ muˇ heu muˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ tsawˇ zawꞈ aˇ myaˆ
zawꞈ byah la?
22. [if village has a mix of
Christians and Akha zah] How
well do the Akha zah and
Christians get along in this
village?
[phu laꞈ qhoeˇ Kha li zaˬ hawˇ-eu Aˬkhaˬ zahˇ htawˬ-eu
deuˬ lehˇ jawˇ kheuˬ htaˬ-euˬ law naˇ] Phu heu phu laꞈ
qhoeˇ jawˇ-eu Kha li zaˬ deuˬ hawˇ-eu Aˬkhaˬ zahˇ
htawˬ-eu deuˬ htiˬ kawˆ loꞈ-ehˇ aˬ joˆ-ehˇ chawˬ chawˬ
taꞈ la?
23. Are there any church leaders
who are not Akha in this village?
If Yes, What is their position?
Kha li zaˬ aˇ muˇ heu hmˬ-euˬ aˬ yuiꞈ aˬ tsuˬ deuˬ laꞈ
qhoeˇ Aˬkhaˬ maˬ ngeuˇ-eu deuˬ jiˇ kheuˬ-a loˇ? [kheuˬ
naˇ] Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ-euˬ gaˇ aˇ tiˆ aˬ geu jeˬ-a?
24. Have any people in this village
attended Bible school? If yes, How
many? Which school?
Phu heu phu laꞈ qhoeˇ Jaˇliꞈ dzaw-euˬ tsawˇ haˬ jawˇ-a
loˇ? [jawˇ naˇ] Aˇ myaˆ ghaˬ jawˇ la? Aˬ jeˬ Jaˇliꞈ dzaw
nymˇ-ahˇ dzaw-euˬ la?
LANGUAGE USE
English Akha
25. What language Bibles are used in your
church?
Uˬ duˬ htahˬ nymˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ aˬ jeˬ Jaˇliꞈ zmˬ le?
a. [if more than one] Which Bible is used
most?
[htiˬ jeˬ maˬ tseˇ zmˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ Jaˇliꞈ zmˬ myaˬ
dzehˬ le?
26. How well does this congregation
understand these Bibles? [a] Completely
[b] Most [c] Half [d] A little [e] Not at all
Kha li zaˬ aˇ muˇ deuˬ Jaˇliꞈheu deuˬ-ahˇ aˇ naˆ
ni ghoˆ shaw nya la? [a] htiˬ siˬ liˇ [b] myaˬ
htiˬ paˆ [c] htiˬ paˆ [d] ui cuiˆ [e] htiˬ pawꞈ-iˬ
maˬ ghoˆ shaw nya-a.
27. What languages do preachers use
when they preach in your church?
Kha li zaˬ aˇ muˇ heu hmˬ-ahˇ mehˬ-eu dawˬ
mehˬ mehˬ-eu saˬ laˬ deuˬ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ neh mehˬ-
a?
a. [if more than one] Which language is
used most?
[dawˬ htiˬ jeˬ maˬ tseˇ zmˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ dawˬ
myaˬ myaˬ zmˬ la?
152
b. [if not Akha] Why don’t you use Akha? [Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ maˬ ngeuˇ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh
Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ maˬ ngehˬ la?
c. [if use Akha] How effective is it? Does
everyone understand it?
[Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ ngehˬ naˇ] Aˇ naˆ ni gaˇ dahˇ tsoeˬ
la? Yawˬ ghaˬ na luꞈ ghoˆ shaw nya meh
loˇ?
28. What languages are used for opening
prayer in your church?
Nawˬ-euˬ Kha li zaˬ aˇ muˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ aˇ dahˬ
beh-eu guiˬ lahˬ shaˇ-eu ghaˇ duˬ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ
neh shaˇ-a?
[if more than one] Which language is used
most?
[dawˬ htiˬ jeˬ maˬ tseˇ zmˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ dawˬ zmˬ
myaˬ dzehˬ la?
a. [if not Akha] Why don’t you use Akha? [Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ maˬ zmˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh
Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ maˬ zmˬ la?
29. What languages are used for singing in
your church?
Nawˬ-euˬ Kha li zaˬ aˇ muˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ
neh Miˬyehˇ-ahˇ ja cheuˬ-eu chaˇ dawˬ chaˇ la?
a. [if more than one] Which language is
used most?
[dawˬ htiˬ jeˬ maˬ tseˇ zmˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ dawˬ zmˬ
myaˬ dzehˬ la?
b. [if not Akha] Why don’t you use Akha? [Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ maˬ ngeuˇ zmˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh
Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ maˬ zmˬ la?
30. What languages are used to make
announcements in your church?
Bi siˬ bi gaˬ-eu ghaˇ duˬ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ ngehˬ la?
a. [if more than one] Which language is
used most?
[dawˬ htiˬ jeˬ maˬ tseˇ zmˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ dawˬ
zmˬ myaˬ dzehˬ la?
b. [if not Akha] Why don’t you use Akha? [Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ maˬ ngeuˇ zmˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh
Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ maˬ zmˬ la?
31. What languages are used during
fellowship times [conversations between
church members]?
Kha li zaˬ aˇ muˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ htiˬ ghaˬ htiˇghaˬ
chawˬ chawˬ taꞈ-eu dawˬ ngehˬ chawˬ ngeh aˬ
jeˬ dawˬ neh ngeh chawˬ la?
a. [if more than one] Which language is
used most?
[dawˬ htiˬ jeˬ maˬ tseˇ zmˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ dawˬ
zmˬ myaˬ dzehˬ la?
b. [if not Akha] Why don’t you use Akha? [Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ maˬ ngeuˇ zmˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh
Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ maˬ zmˬ la?
32. What languages are used by the youth
in your church?
Kha li zaˬ aˇ muˇ zaˬ guˬ deuˬ uˬ duˬ htahˬ nymˇ
laꞈ qhoeˇ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ ngehˬ la?
a. [if more than one] Which language is
used most?
[dawˬ htiˬ jeˬ maˬ tseˇ zmˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ dawˬ
zmˬ myaˬ dzehˬ la?
b. What languages are used for singing by
the youth?
Zaˬ guˬ deuˬ Miˬyehˇ-ahˇ ja cheuˬ-eu dawˬ
chaˇchaˇ ngehˬ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ neh chaˇ la?
153
AKHA BIBLE
English Akha
33. Do you own an Akha Bible? Nawˇ Aˬkhaˬ Jaˇliꞈ jaˆ ma loˇ?
a. [if no] What keeps you from buying a
Akha Bible?
[maˬ jaˆ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh Aˬkhaˬ Jaˆliꞈ maˬ zeuˇ
pyeuꞈ-eu le?
b. [if yes] Is it easy to use? If not, what
is inconvenient about it?
[jaˆ naˇ] Aˬkhaˇ Jaˇliꞈ zmˬ-eu yaw awˬ miˇ-a loˇ?
Maˬ awˬ naˇ, aˬ geu deuˬ maˬ awˬ-eu nya?
c. [if yes] How often do you use it?
[1] regularly, [2] sometimes, [3] I don’t
use it.
[jaˆ naˇ] Aˬkhaˬ Jaˇ liꞈ aˇ naˆ ni zmˬ le? [1] yawˬ
jawˇ na luꞈ [2] htiˬ poˆ na
[3] htiˬ jawˇ-iˬ maˬ zmˬ
d. [if yes] Why do you use it so much/
so little?
[jaˆ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh Aˬkhaˬ Jaˇliꞈ hteu myaˆ
myaˆ-ehˇ [maˬ] hteu naˆ tehꞈ-ehˇ zmˬ le?
34. Is the Akha Bible available for
purchase in this village?
Phu heu phu laꞈ qhoeˇ Aˬkhaˬ Jaˇliꞈ zeuˇ za nya
meh loˇ?
a. [If not] Where can you go to buy it? [maˬ za naˇ] Aˬ gaˇ ya zeuˇ-iˇ-a?
35. Do you encourage people from your
church to buy one?
Nawˬ-euˬ Kha li zaˬ aˇ muˇ-ahˇ jawˇ-eu tsawˇ haˬ
deuˬ-ahˇ Jaˇliꞈ zeuˇ-eu ghaˇ duˬ ghaˬ biꞈ nehˬ haw
maˬ loˇ?
a. Why? Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh?
36. Do you use books or bibles in any
other languages when preparing
sermons?
Nawˇ dawˬ mehˬ mehˬ-eu ghaˇ duˬ lehˬ hmˬ ngeh
nui jeˬ sahˬ boꞈ neh boꞈ htaˬ-eu sahˬ boꞈ deuˬ
[maˬ] Jaˇliꞈ gui ma loˇ?
a. [If yes] What other languages? [gui naˇ] Nui jeˬ aˬ jeˬ sahˬ boꞈ gui le?
37. Are there any other Christian
materials in Akha that you would like
to have available?
Kha li zaˬ-ahˇ taꞈ-eu Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ nehˬ boꞈ htaˬ-
eu nui jeˬ mˇ myawˬ deuˬ za mawꞈ-eu jeˬ jaˆ nya
loˇ?
a. [If yes] What materials? [If necessary
give examples: modern songs, Sunday
School books]
[jaˆ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ mˇ myawˬ kheu kha deuˬ? [gheh
nya naˇ yaw jeˬ ma jeˬ ehˇ nehˬ laꞈ-awˬ: dawˬ chaˇ
yaw shuiꞈ, Sunday school sahˬ boꞈ]
BURMESE BIBLE
English Akha
38. Do you own a Burmese Bible? Nawˇ Mam Jaˇliꞈ jaˆ ma loˇ?
a. [if yes] Is it easy to use? If not, what
is inconvenient about it?
[jaˆ naˇ] Mam Jaˇliꞈ zmˬ-eu yaw awˬ miˇ-a loˇ?
Maˬ awˬ naˇ, aˬ geu deuˬ maˬ awˬ-eu nya?
b. [if yes] How often do you use it?
[1] regularly, [2] sometimes, [3] I don’t
use it.
[jaˆ naˇ] Aˬkhaˬ Jaˇ liꞈ aˇ naˆ ni zmˬ le?
[1] yawˬ jawˇ na luꞈ [2] htiˬ poˆ na [3] htiˬ jawˇ-iˬ
maˬ zmˬ
c. [if yes] Why do you use it so much/
so little?
[jaˆ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh Aˬkhaˬ Jaˇliꞈ hteu myaˆ
myaˆ-ehˇ [maˬ] hteu naˆ tehꞈ-ehˇ zmˬ le?
154
AKHA LITERACY
English Akha
39. Can you read Akha? Nawˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ gui nya ma loˇ?
40. Can you write Akha? Nawˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ boꞈ nya ma loˇ?
41.Do you see any advantage in being able to
read and write Akha?
a. Yes or no
b. [if yes] What advantage?
c. [if no] Why not?
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ boꞈ nya gui nya-eu gaˇ
dahˇ tsoeˬ ngaˇ-a lehˇ mawˇ miˇ-a loˇ?
a. mawˇ/maˬ mawˇ b. [mawˇ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ
loꞈ-ehˇ gaˇdahˇ tsoeˬ-eu la? c. [maˬ mawˇ
naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh gaˇ dahˇ maˬ tsoeˬ-eu
la?
43. Are there any printed materials in the Akha
language available in this village?
Phu heu phu laꞈ qhoeˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ
neh yaˬ doˆ htaˬ-eu sahˬ boꞈ deuˬ jaˆ meh
loˇ?
a. [if yes] What kinds of materials? [jaˆ naˇ] Aˬ joˆ-ehˇ gheh-eu sahˬ boꞈ deuˬ
jaˆ la?
44. Would you like to have more Akha literature? Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ neh boꞈ htaˬ-eu jeˬ heu
myaˆ maˬ tseˇ jaˆ mawꞈ miˇ-a loˇ?
a. [if yes] For what purpose? [jaˆ mawꞈ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ ghaˇ duˬ jaˆ mawꞈ
nya?
45. Which Akha alphabet do you prefer, Unified
Akha Orthography, or Akha Way orthography?]
Show examples of each.
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ aˇ mawˇ aˬ geu hmˬ-ahˇ
nawˇ ya leˇ dzehˬ nya? [Byah di, [maˬ]
Qhahˬ gm] Yaw jeˬ ma jeˬ boꞈ mehˬ laꞈ-
awˬ.
a. Why? Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh?
46. [If there’s a literacy class] Do you encourage
your children/grandchildren/nieces and nephews
to attend the class to learn to read and write
Akha?
47. [If no literacy class] If a class started in the
village teaching how to read and write Akha,
would you encourage your
children/grandchildren/nieces and nephews to
attend?
[Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-eu jaˆ lawˬ naˇ]
Nawˬ-euˬ aˬ buˇ aˬ li, oeˬ phaˬ oeˬ ma,
hawˇ-eu nawˬ-eu htiˬ phaˬ htiˬ qhahˇ
deuˬ-ahˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-iˇ-eu ghaˇ
duˬ ghaˬ biꞈ ma loˇ?
[Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-eu maˬ jaˆ lawˬ
naˇ] Phu heu phu-ahˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ
dzaw-eu jaˆ laˇ lawˬ naˇ, nawˬ-euˬ aˬ buˇ
aˬ li, oeˬ phaˬ oeˬ ma, hawˇ-eu nawˬ-eu
htiˬ phaˬ htiˬ qhahˇ deuˬ-ahˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ
boꞈ dzaw-iˇ-eu ghaˇ duˬ ghaˬ biꞈ ma loˇ?
48. Do you see any advantages of having Akha
literacy classes after school time each week?
Aˬ soˇ yaˆ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw nymˇ-ahˇ, Mam
sahˬ boꞈ dzaw ghaˬ ngeh, yaw jaw na luˆ
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ mehˬ-eu jaˆ law nmˇ-aˬ,
yaw muiˬ meh [gaˇ dahˇ tsoeˬ meh] lehˆ
noeˬ miˇ-a loˇ?
155
a. If yes, what advantages? [noeˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ loꞈ-ehˇ muiˬ [gaˇ dahˇ
tsoeˬ] la?
b. [If not] why not? [maˬ noeˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh gaˇ dahˇ
maˬ tsoeˬ la?
49. What percentage of Akha parents encourages
children to attend those classes?
Aˬ da aˬ ma deuˬ [%] aˇ myaˆ ehˇ ghaˬ ni
aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ-euˬ zaˬ-ahˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ
dzaw-iˇ-eu ghaˇ duˬ ghaˬ biꞈ nehˬ la?
INTERVIEWER OBSERVATIONS
Ideally, answer these questions right away. If you cannot do that, try to do so
as soon as you can, perhaps at the end of each day’s work.
English Akha
50. Were there any distractions or interruptions
that interfered with the flow of the interview or
seemed to influence some of the responses?
Laꞈ taˆ phaw naˇ haˬ leꞈ-euˬ gaˇ kawˆ deuˬ
laꞈ qhoeˇ ehˇ qoꞈ-eu ghaˬ yaw muiˬ-ehˇ maˬ
ehˇ qoꞈ nya-ehˇ ngeuˬ leˇ-eu htiˬ gaˇ na jaˆ
hta loˇ?
51. Did the subject seem shy about expressing
his/her opinions?
Ehˇ qoꞈ-eu ghaˬ-ahˇ haw ngeh aˬ yawꞈ noeˬ-
eu jeˬ-ahˇ maˬ ehˇ doˆ choeˇ-ehˇ shaˬ-eu ya
mawˇ-euˬ le loˇ?
52. Were there any questions that seemed to
work really well? Which questions? Why?
Naˇ haˬ-eu ghaˇ duˬ zawˇ muiˬ-eu gaˇ kawˆ
deuˬ ahˇ gaˇ ya mawˇ hteˬ loˇ? Naˬ baˆ aˇ
myaˆ? Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh?
53. Were there any questions that seemed to not
work well? Which questions? Why?
Naˇ haˬ-eu ghaˇ duˬ maˬ muiˬ-eu gaˇ kawˆ
deuˬ ahˇ gaˇ ya mawˇ hteˬ loˇ? Naˬ baˆ aˇ
myaˆ? Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh?
54. Other observations about the interview? Nui jeˬ mawˇ-euˬ jaˆ naˇ
C.2 Akha zah Leader Interview Questionnaire
Use with at least one religious leader in each village.
English Answer
1. Questionnaire Number
2. Tribal Group
3. Religion
4. Interview Location
5. Interviewer Name
156
English Answer
6. Date [Day / Month / Year]
7. Time [morning / afternoon [ne le] / night]
8. Language of Elicitation
9. Language of Response
10. Interpreter Name [if needed]
SUBJECT DEMOGRAPHICS
English Akha
11. What is your name? Nawˬ-euˬ tsawˇ myahˇ aˬ joˆ-ehˇ khuˇ le?
12. Gender Qhaˬ dzeˇ zaˬ/zaˬ miˬ zaˬ
13. How old are you? Aˇ qoꞈ aˇ myaˆ qawˆ le?
14. What is your religion? Aˬ jeˬ zahˇ sahˇ qoꞈ htawˬ le?
15. Up to what level of education did you
complete? Sahꞈ boꞈ aˇ myaˆ danˇ keuˆ ya dzaw-euˬ le?
16. What is [was] your work? Aˬ jeˬ gaˇ mˇ le?
17. Where were you born? Aˬ gaˇ dehꞈ le-euˬ le?
18. What ethnicity are you? Aˬ jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ le?
19. What languages do you speak? Aˬ jeˬ dawˬ deuˬ ngehˬ nya le?
20. What languages can you read? Aˬ jeˬ sahˬ boꞈ boꞈ nya le?
21. What is [was] your position in the Akha
religious?
Aˬ khaˬ zahˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ aˬ jeˬ htawˬ htaˬ-euˬ
le? [eg, nyiˇ phaˬ, dzoeˬ ma, ba giˬ]
22. How long have you been religious leader
in the Akha?
Aˬ khaˬ zahˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ aˬ yuiꞈ aˬ tsu geuꞈ laꞈ-
euˬ aˇ myah qawꞈ laˇ le?
23. How did you become the religious
leader?
Aˬ joꞈ-ehˇ gheh-awˇ zahˇ mehˬ-eu aˬ yuiꞈ aˬ
tsu pyeuꞈ laˇ-euˬ le?
24. Which written language was used at that
school?
Nawˇ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw nymˇ-ahˇ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw
ngeh aˬ jeˬ sahˬ boꞈ neh ya dzaw-euˬ le?
AKHA ZAH LEADER INFORMATION
English Akha
25. How many religious leaders are
there in this village?
Phu heu phu laꞈ qhoeˇ zahˇ mehˬ-eu aˬ yuiꞈ aˬ tsu aˇ
myaˆ ghaˬ jawˇ la?
26. What are their positions? Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ aˬ jeˬ htawˬ htaˬ-euˬ la? [eg; boeˇ maw,
shaˆ ma]
157
FESTIVALS
English Akha
27. What kind of religious festivals
do you hold with more than one
village?
Gui phu nya phu htiˬ kawˆ loꞈ-ehˇ dzoeˇ leˇ-awˇ
lawˇ-eu aˬ phoeˬ aˬ jeˬ aˬ phoeˬ jaˆ la?
a. [if yes] Where are they held? [jaˆ naˇ] Aˬ gaˇ lawˇ la? Aˬ geu phu-ahˇ lawˇ la?
b. [if yes] How often are they held in
a year?
[jaˆ naˇ] htiˬ qoꞈ aˇmyaˆ poˆ lawˇ la?
c. [if yes] What people groups and
villages attend?
[jaˆ naˇ] Aˬ geu phu-ahˇ jawˇ-eu tsawˇhaˬ hawˇ-eu aˬ
jeˬ tsawˇ jeuˬ deuˬ aˬ phoeˬ lawˇ gaˇ laˇ la?
d. [if yes] At these festivals, what
languages do people use with each
other?
[jaˆ naˇ] jeˬ heu loꞈ-ehˇ aˬ phoeˬ lawˇ/gaˇ htahˇ phaˇ
gaˇ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ ngehˬ la?
LANGUAGE USE
English Akha
28. Which kinds of religious activities do you do?
Example: medidating, preaching, teaching,
praying, reciting/chanting, visiting, festivals,
funerals, etc.
Zahˇ gaˇkawˆ nehˬ-ehˇ taꞈ leˇ-awˇ aˬ
jeˬ aˇ jeˬ jahˇ-eu jaˆ le? [eg; nehꞈ htoˇ
htoˇ-eu, nyiˇ phaˬ shiˇ-eu, lawˇ-eu
shehˇ-eu….]
29. What languages do they use when they do for
religious things?
Zahˇ heuˬ deuˬ jahˇ ngeh aˬ jeˬ dawˬ
neh ngehˬ la?
30. What languages are used when they
recite/chant?
Nehꞈ htoˇ htoˇ ngeh aˬ jeˬ dawˬ neh
htoˇ la?
31. What languages are used for announcements? Bi siˬ bi gaˬ ngeh aˬ jeˬ dawˬ neh bi siˬ
bi gaˬ la?
32. What languages are used for festivals? Yaw muiˬ yaw ja ghaˇ duˬ yaw bui bui
ngeh aˬ jeˬ dawˬ ngehˬ la?
33. What languages are used for funerals? Tsawˇ shiˇ yaw bui bui ngeh aˬ jeˬ je
shiˇ yaw b
34. What languages are used for visiting? Dawˬ deh gha ngeh aˬ jeˬ dawˬ ngehˬ
la?
35. What languages are used when talking in your
family?
Nymˇ jiˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ dawˬ ngehˬ chawˬ
ngeh aˬ jeˬ dawˬ neh ngehˬ chawˬ le?
36. What languages are used for [other
activities]?
Nui jeˬ gaˇ kawˆ deuˬ jahˇ ngeh aˬ jeˬ
dawˬ ngehˬ la?
158
English Akha
37. For all your religious activities, which
language is used most?
Naw maꞈ-euˬ zahˇ jahˇ-eu laꞈ qhoeˇ
myaˬ htiˬ paˆ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ neh ngehˬ le?
38. Which of these languages is easy for the Akha
villagers to understand?
Phu zaˬ deuˬ ghaˇ duˬ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ neh
ngeh naˇ ghoˆ shaw nya dzehˬ la?
39. Which of these languages is hard for the Akha
villagers to understand?
Phu zaˬ deuˬ ghaˇ duˬ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ neh
ngeh naˇ ghoˆ shaw nya yaw shaˬ la?
LITERATURE
English Akha
40. What kinds of religious literature are
used in your village?
Zahˇ gaˇ kawˆ nehˬ-ehˇ taꞈ leˇ-awˇ aˬ jeˬ sahˬ
boꞈ deuˬ jaˆ la?
41. What languages are the literature
materials in?
Sahˬ boꞈ qhoeˇ deuˬ aˬ jeˬ sahˬ boꞈ neh boꞈ
htaˬ-euˬ la?
42. Who can read these languages? Sahˬ boꞈ heu deuˬ aˬ suˇ ghaˬ gui nya hta?
43. Is it easy or hard for the Akha villagers
to understand these languages?
Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ deuˬ ghaˇ duˬ gui-eu yaw awˬ
nga loˇ/yaw shaˬ nga loˇ?
44. What kind of alphabet would be best for
Akha? UAO or KHAS?
Sahˬ boꞈ aˬ geu hmˬ-aˬ, Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ deuˬ ghaˇ
duˬ muiˬ dzehˬ nga? UAO or KHAS
45. Why? Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh… muiˬ dzehˬ la?
46. [If appropriate] Why are you using the
Akha literature so little in your religious?
Zahˇ gaˇ kawˆ nehˬ-ehˇ taꞈ leˇ-awˇ aˬ jeˬ miˇ
neh Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ zmˬ-eu yaw cuiˆ la?
47. What would help the people in your
village use the Akha literature more for
their religious life?
Zahˇ gaˇ kawˆ nehˬ-ehˇ taꞈ leˇ-awˇ Aˬkhaˬ
sahˬ boꞈ zmˬ myaˬ dzehˬ laˇ ni aˬ joˆ-
ehˇchaw ba nya la?
INTERVIEWER OBSERVATIONS
Ideally, answer these questions right away. If you cannot do that, try to do so
as soon as you can, perhaps at the end of each day’s work.
English Akha
48. Were there any distractions or
interruptions that interfered with the flow of
the interview or seemed to influence some of
the responses?
Laꞈ taˆ phaw naˇ haˬ leꞈ-euˬ gaˇ kawˆ deuˬ laꞈ
qhoeˇ ehˇ qoꞈ-eu ghaˬ yaw muiˬ-ehˇ maˬ ehˇ
qoꞈ nya-ehˇ ngeuˬ leˇ-eu htiˬ gaˇ na jaˆ hta
loˇ?
49. Did the subject seem shy about expressing
his/her opinions?
Ehˇ qoꞈ-eu ghaˬ-ahˇ haw ngeh aˬ yawꞈ noeˬ-
eu jeˬ-ahˇ maˬ ehˇ doˆ choeˇ-ehˇ shaˬ-eu ya
mawˇ-euˬ le loˇ?
159
50. Were there any questions that seemed to
work really well? Which questions? Why?
Naˇ haˬ-eu ghaˇ duˬ zawˇ muiˬ-eu gaˇ kawˆ
deuˬ ahˇ gaˇ ya mawˇ hteˬ loˇ? Naˬ baˆ aˇ
myaˆ? Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh?
51. Were there any questions that seemed to
not work well? Which questions? Why?
Naˇ haˬ-eu ghaˇ duˬ maˬ tsaˬ-eu gaˇ kawˆ
deuˬ ahˇ gaˇ ya mawˇ hteˬ loˇ? Naˬ baˆ aˇ
myaˆ? Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh?
52. Other observations about the interview? Nui jeˬ mawˇ-euˬ jaˆ naˇ
160
Appendix D
TEACHER INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE
Oral Informed Consent
SUBJECT DEMOGRAPHICS
English Akha
9. What is your name? Nawˬ-euˬ tsawˇ myahˇ aˬ joˆ-ehˇ khuˇ le?
10. Gender Qhaˬ dzeˇ zaˬ/zaˬ miˬ zaˬ
11. How old are you? Aˇ qoꞈ aˇ myaˆ qoꞈ qawˆ le?
12. What is your religion? Aˬ jeˬ zahˇ sahˇ qoꞈ htawˬ le?
13. Up to what level of education did you
complete? [or] Have you ever attended monastery
school? For how many years?
Sahˬ boꞈ aˇ myaˆ danˇ keuˆ ya dzaw-euˬ
le?
14. What is [was] your work? Aˬ jeˬ gaˇ mˇ dzaˬ[yaꞈ] le?
15. When you were born, what village did you live
in?
Nawˇ dehꞈ le naˇ aˬ jeˬ phu-ahˇ jawˇ-euˬ
le?
16. Where did you grow up? Aˬ gaˇ-ahˇ jawˇ-awˇ huiˬ laˇ-euˬ le?
17. How long have you lived here in this village? Phu heu phu-ahˇ jawˇ laꞈ-euˬ aˇ myah ni
myahˇ laˇ-euˬ ma?
English
1. Questionnaire Number
2. Tribal Group
3. Interview Location
4. Interviewer Name
5. Date [Day / Month / Year]
6. Time [Morning or Evening]
7. Language of Elicitation
8. Language of Response
161
English Akha
18. Have you lived anywhere else for more than a
year? Where? When? How long did you live there?
Htiˬ qoꞈ taꞈ-ehˇ dzeh ni yawˬ gaˇ yawꞈ
aˇgaˇjawˇ yaꞈ haw-euˬ le? aˬ gaˇ? aˇ
myah? aˇ myah ni jawˇ yaꞈ-euˬ le?
19. What language did you speak first? Aˬ jeˬ-euˬ dawˬ jeˬ hu nawˇ ngehˬ dzaw-
euˬ le?
20. What other languages do you speak? Nui jeˬ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ phaˇ ngeh nya le?
21. Of all the languages you speak, which language
do you speak best?
Nawˇ ngeh nya-eu dawˬ yawˬ jeˬ na luꞈ
laꞈ qhoeˇ aˬ jeˬ-euˬ dawˇ ngehˬ nya
dzehˬ le?
a. … second best? a. naˬ baꞈ nyiꞈ ngehˬ nya dzehˬ-eu
dawˬ__________
b. … third best? b. naˬ baꞈ smˇ ngeh nya dzehˬ-eu dawˬ
__________
AKHA LITERACY PROGRAM
English Akha
22. How many students attend
the Akha literacy class?
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-eu dzaw zaˬ aˇ myaˆ ghaˬ jawˇ la?
23. What ages are the students? Dzaw zaˬ aˬ geu shehˆ la?
24. What language do you use to
explain things in the class?
Dzaw zaˬ deuˬ-ahˇ aˬ jeˬ dawˬ neh nawˇ ehˇ mehˬ nehˬ-eu
le?
25. When did the class start in
this village?
Phu heu phu-ahˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-eu aˇ myah dahˬ
beh-awˇ phah-euˬ la?
26. How many hours per day do
you teach in the class?
Htiˬ nah-euˬ naˬ liˬ aˇ myaˆ laꞈ mehˬ le?
27. How many weeks per year
do you teach the class?
Htiˬ qoꞈ-euˬ aˇ myaˆ jawˬ meh le?
28. What materials do you use? Aˬ jeˬ mˇ myawˬ kheu kha deuˬ [materials] zmˬ le?
29. Do you feel that you have
enough types of materials?
a. [If No] What additional
materials would you like to
have?
Sahˬ boꞈ mehˬ gaˇ zmˬ-eu kheu kha [materials] jaˆ kuꞈ
ma lehˇ noeˬ miˇ-a loˇ?
a. [maˬ jaˆ kuꞈ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ kheu kha deuˬ loˬ nya?
162
English Akha
30. Do the students read Akha
outside of the class?
Sahˬ boꞈ dzaw nymˇ heu gaˇ uˬ taꞈ-ehˇ nui gaˇ-ahˇ dzaw
zaˬ deuˬ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ gui meh loˇ?
31. Do the students write Akha
outside of the class?
Sahˬ boꞈ dzaw nymˇ heu gaˇ uˬ taꞈ-ehˇ nui gaˇ dzaw zaˬ
deuˬ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ boˬ meh loˇ?
32. How well are the students
able to read Burmese?
Dzaw zaˬ deu Mam sahˬ boꞈ aˇ naˆ ni gui nya hta?
33. How well are the students
able to write Burmese?
Dzaw zaˬ deu Mam sahˬ boꞈ aˇ naˆ ni boꞈ nya hta?
ATTITUDES
English Akha
34. Are there
children in the
village who do NOT
attend the literacy
class?
a. [If Yes] what
percentage do NOT
attend?
b. [If Yes] Why do
these children NOT
attend?
Phu laꞈ qhoeˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ maˬ dzaw laˇ-eu zaˬ deuˬ jawˇ meh
loˇ?
a. [jawˇ naˇ] Aˇ myaˆ ehˇ ghaˬ ni jawˇ la?
b. [jawˇ naˇ] Zaˬ heu deuˬ aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh maˬ dzaw laˇ la?
35. Do the students
in the class believe
there is any benefit to
reading Akha?
a. [If Yes] What?
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-eu gaˇ dahˇ tsoeˬ meh lehˇ dzaw zaˬ deuˬ
jah meh loˇ?
a. [jah naˇ] Aˇ jeˬ gaˇ dahˇ tsoeˬ-a lehˇ jah hta?
36. Do the parents of
students in the class
believe there is any
benefit to reading
Akha?
a. [If Yes] What?
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-eu gaˇ dahˇ tsoeˬ meh lehˇ dzaw zaˬ deuˬ-
euˬ aˬ da aˬ ma deuˬ jah meh loˇ?
a. [jah naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ gaˇ dahˇ tsoeˬ-a lehˇ jah hta?
163
English Akha
37. Do people in the
village generally
think it is good to
have the Akha
literacy class?
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-eu jaˆ laˇ-eu-aˬ muiˬ ngaˇ-a lehˇ phu zaˬ
deh zaˬ deu noeˬ meh loˇ?
38. You ever meet
any opposition to the
class?
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw gaˇ laˆ tsoeˬ laˇ-eu jeˬ jaˆ-a loˇ?
39. Do you see any
advantages of having
Akha literacy classes
after school time
each week?
Aˬ soˇ yaˆ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw nymˇ-ahˇ, Mam sahˬ boꞈ dzaw ghaˬ
ngeh, yaw jaw na luˆ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ mehˬ-eu jaˆ law nmˇ-aˬ,
yaw muiˬ meh [gaˇ dahˇ tsoeˬ meh] lehˆ noeˬ miˇ-a loˇ?
a. If yes, what
advantages?
[noeˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ loꞈ-ehˇ muiˬ [gaˇ dahˇ tsoeˬ] la?
b. [If not] why not? [maˬ noeˬ naˇ] Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh gaˇ dahˇ maˬ tsoeˬ la?
40. What percentage
of Akha parents
encourage children to
attend those classes?
Aˬ da aˬ ma deuˬ % aˇ myaˆ ehˇ ghaˬ ni aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ-euˬ zaˬ-ahˇ
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-iˇ-eu ghaˇ duˬ ghaˬ biꞈ nehˬ la?
INTERVIEWER OBSERVATIONS
Ideally, answer these questions right away. If you cannot do that, try to do so
as soon as you can, perhaps at the end of each day’s work.
English Akha
41. Were there any distractions or
interruptions that interfered with the flow of
the interview or seemed to influence some of
the responses?
Laꞈ taˆ phaw naˇ haˬ leꞈ-euˬ gaˇ kawˆ deuˬ
laꞈ qhoeˇ ehˇ qoꞈ-eu ghaˬ yaw muiˬ-ehˇ maˬ
ehˇ qoꞈ nya-ehˇ ngeuˬ leˇ-eu htiˬ gaˇ na jaˆ
hta loˇ?
42. Did the subject seem shy about
expressing his/her opinions?
Ehˇ qoꞈ-eu ghaˬ-ahˇ haw ngeh aˬ yawꞈ noeˬ-
eu jeˬ-ahˇ maˬ ehˇ doˆ choeˇ-ehˇ shaˬ-eu ya
mawˇ-euˬ le loˇ?
164
43. Were there any questions that seemed to
work really well? Which questions? Why?
Naˇ haˬ-eu ghaˇ duˬ zawˇ muiˬ-eu gaˇ kawˆ
deuˬ ahˇ gaˇ ya mawˇ hteˬ loˇ? Naˬ baˆ aˇ
myaˆ? Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh?
44. Were there any questions that seemed to
not work well? Which questions? Why?
Naˇ haˬ-eu ghaˇ duˬ maˬ muiˬ-eu gaˇ kawˆ
deuˬ ahˇ gaˇ ya mawˇ hteˬ loˇ? Naˬ baˆ aˇ
myaˆ? Aˬ jeˬ miˇ neh?
45. Other observations about the interview? Nui jeˬ mawˇ-euˬ jaˆ naˇ
165
Appendix E
LITERACY MANAGER QUESTIONNAIRE
Overview of Akha in Myanmar
1. How many churches in ABC? ABC laꞈ qhoeˇ Kha li zaˬ aˇ muˇ aˇ myaˆ muˇ
jaˆ la?
2. How many use Akha for their services? Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ-eu gaˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ Aˬkhaˬ dawˬ aˇ
naˆ ni zmˬ la?
3. How many members in ABC in total
[approximately]?
ABC laꞈ qhoeˇ aˇ muˇ zaˬ (tsawˇ haˬ) dawˬ
tawˆ aˇ myaˆ byah la? (yehˬ chehˬ chehˬ haw-
eu)
4. What percentage of Christian adults are
literate in Akha?
Kha li zaˬ laꞈ qhoeˇ tsawˇ qaˆ deuˬ aˇ myaˆ ehˇ
ghaˬ ni Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ siˬ nya-eu la?
5. Where did they learn to read/write
Akha?
Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ aˬ gaˇ dzaw-euˬ
la?
6. What percentage of Akha zah adults are
literate in Akha?
Aˬkhaˬ zahˇ htawˬ-eu deuˬ laꞈ qhoeˇ tsawˇ qaˆ
deuˬ aˇ myaˆ ehˇ ghaˬ ni Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ siˬ
nya-eu la?
7. Where did they learn to read/write
Akha?
Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ aˬ gaˇ dzaw-euˬ
la?
8. Of the villages you know about, how
many send their children to schools where
Akha children are over 70% of the total
number of students?
Nawˇ siˬ nya-eu phu deuˬ laꞈ qhoeˇ, dzaw zaˬ
daw tawˆ luꞈ-euˬ 70% dzehˬ ni Aˬkhaˬ zaˬ
pyeuꞈ ngeh, aˬ ma aˬ da deuˬ aˇ myaˆ ehˇ ghaˬ
ni aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ-euˬ zaˬ deuˬ-ahˇ sahˬ boꞈ bi
dzaw-iˇ la?
Akha Literacy Program
9. How many villages have a literacy class
during the hot season break?
Jawˇ la yamˬ-ahˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ mehˬ-eu phu
aˇ myaˆ phu jaˆ la?
10. Can you give me a list of which villages
have been part of the program at some
time?
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ mehˬ-eu jaˆ yaꞈ haw-eu phu
deuˬ jaˇ laˇ biꞈ nehˬ laꞈ nya meh loˇ?
11. Which of these had a class this year? Heu deuˬ laꞈ laeuˬ laꞈ qhoeˇ tcuiꞈ nuiˆ qoꞈ jaˆ-
eu phu deuˬ aˬ g
12. When did the program start?
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ mehˬ-eu aˇ myah dahˬ beh-euˬ
la?
166
13. How many students are involved
altogether?
Dzaw zaˬ deuˬ aˇ myaˆ ni byah la?
14. Can you give me a list of titles of
reading materials?
Gui dzaw-eu sahˬ boꞈ deuˬ aˇ myaˆ ni jaˆ la?
Jaˇ laˇ biꞈ nehˬ laꞈ nya meh loˇ?
15. How can students practice Akha
literacy outside of the literacy class?
Dzaw nymˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ maˬ ngeuˇ taꞈ naˇ dzaw
zaˬ deu sahˬ boꞈ gui dzaw nya-eu jawˇ duˬ aˬ
gaˇ jaˆ hta?
16. Does each village with a literacy class
have a village library?
Phu yawˬ phu na luꞈ sahˬ boꞈ chehˇ jiˇ (library)
jaˆ meh loˇ?
17. Is there any opposition to the Akha
literacy program?
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw gaˇ laˆ tsoeˬ laˇ-eu jeˬ jaˆ-
a loˇ?
18. Are there plans to extend the classes to
more villages?
Phu deuˬ-ahˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ mehˬ-eu jaˆ dzehˬ
laˇ ni gaˇ kawˆ kawˆ htaˬ-eu jaˆ hte loˇ?
19. What prevents you from extending to
new villages?
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-eu phu deuˬ myaˬ dzehˬ
laˇ ni jahˇ gaˇ laˆ tsoeˬ laˇ-eu jeˬ aˬ jeˬ-a?
20. How are new teachers trained? Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ mehˬ-eu saˬ laˬ yaw shuiꞈ aˬ
joˆ-ehˇ mehˬ doˆ le?
Institutions
21. What institutions exist to ensure the
long-term availability to train Akha
literacy teachers?
Mehˬ hu phaw Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ mehˬ-eu saˬ laˬ
mehˬ pyeuꞈ nya-eu dzaw nymˇ aˬ geu nymˇ jaˆ
la?
22. List the types of places which provide
access to literacy education in Akha. [e.g.
Akha Bible college [partial]; Akha
literacy program; …]
Akha Baptist Convention
Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ dzaw-eu ghaˇ duˬ gaˇ mˇ zaˬ deuˬ
chu doˆ nya-eu jawˇ duˬ boꞈ mehˬ laꞈ-awˬ. (yaw
jeˬ ma jeˬ: Aˬkhaˬ Jaˇliꞈ dzaw nymˇ, Aˬkhaꞈ sahˬ
boꞈ dzaw nya-eu aˬ siˬ aˬ seˬ(Akha literacy
program))
23. Does the church have a policy to train
literacy trainers?
Kha li zaˬ aˇ muˇ laꞈ qhoeˇ thenˬ danˇ mehˬ-eu
saˬ laˬ mehˬ pyeuꞈ-eu jaˆ meh loˇ?
24. What language is used at Officers’
meetings?
Aˬ yeˇ huiˬ-eu mehˬ bawˬ bawˬ ngeh aˬ jeˬ dawˬ
neh bawˬ dzaˬ-a?
25. What language are minutes of
meetings written in?
Mehˬ bawˬ bawˬ-euˬ gaˇ kawˆ deuˬ boꞈ ngeh aˬ
jeˬ sahˬ boꞈ neh boꞈ htehˬ htaˬ la?
26. What language is used in written
communications by ABC [eg invitations
to meetings or events]?
ABC laꞈ qhoeˇ sahˬ boꞈ boꞈ chawˬ taꞈ ngeh aˬ jeˬ
sahˬ boꞈ neh boꞈ la? (yaw jeˬ ma jeˬ: mehˬ bawˬ
ghaˇ duˬ khuˇ-eu sahˬ boꞈ, htiˬ jeˬ jeˬ aˬ yeˇ huiˬ-
eu jeˬ jahˇ-eu)
27. What percentage of pastors train at
the Akha bible school [i.e. what
Yaw bo yaw sahˇ aˇ myaˆ ehˇ ghaˬ ni Aˬkhaˬ
Jaˇliꞈ dzaw nymˇ-ahˇ dzaw la? (Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ
167
percentage study in Akha?] neh aˇ myaˆ ehˇ ghaˬ ni dzaw la?)
28. Is it possible to do an MDiv or MTh at
the Akha bible school?
Aˬkhaˬ Jaˇliꞈ dzaw nymˇ-ahˇ M.Div (maˬ) M.Th
dzaw za nya meh loˇ?
29. [If not] where do people go to do
these?
(maˬ za naˇ) Aˬ yawꞈ maꞈ aˬ gaˇ dzaw-iˇ la?
30. Details about Akha bible college
literacy teaching
Aˬkhaˬ Jaˇ liꞈ dzaw nymˇ-ahˇ Aˬkhaˬ sahˬ boꞈ
mehˬ-eu gaˇ kawˆ yaw duꞈ duꞈ-ehˇ ehˇ nehˬ laꞈ-
awˬ.
168
Appendix F
BACKGROUND RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE
Demographics
1. What is the population of Akha in Myanmar?
2. Approximately what percentage are Christian?
3. Approximately what percentage are Akha zah?
Akha Cultural Committee
4. Describe the Akha Cultural Committee
5. What activities do they organise?
6. What orthography do they promote?
7. Do they have much influence?
8. What do they think about Akha MLE?
History of Akha Language Development
9. How long has Akha been written?
10. Describe a bit about different Akha orthographies
11. When was the bible translated?
12. When was the church established?
13. List as many non-Christian books as you can in Akha. [Maybe there sould be 3
categories:
(a) Christian books
(b) non-Christian content but written by Christians
(c) non-Christian content written by non-Christians
Government Policy
14. Is the orthography accepted by the govt?
15. Is Akha allowed to be taught after school hours in govt schools?
16. Is this being done?
(a) Why not?
17. Are there any plans to do this?
(a) Why not?
18. What body [e.g. Shan State parliament] has power to decide about what languages are
taught in schools [in Shan State]?
19. What is the policy of the Shan parliament towards use of Akha teaching in schools?
20. What is the policy of local authorities to use of Akha?
21. Do they ever write official documents or announcements in Akha? [The govt pays the
Khuen cultural committee in KTG to translate and print announcements into Khuen]
169
Akha Community
22. Is the community divided or united?
23. Are there institutions that hold the community together?
24. What ongoing issues are there those cause the community to be divided?
Early Childhood Care and Development
25. Do any ECD programs use Akha?
(a) If No, Why not?
(b) If Yes, Who runs these programs and what materials do they use?
Material creation
26. Could you use AdaptIt to translate materials from Lahu into Akha?
170
Appendix G
BOOK TITLES IN AKHA MINI LIBRARY
No. Book Title Author Total page
1. Akha sayings and riddles Ahdo and Mary 18
2. Faith of Peter Ahba 23
3. Oh my God! Ah Dah 26
4. Instant Story_2 Ahdo 22
5. Jesus was born Ahdo 22
6. Delicious food Ahkheu 26
7. Elephant and bee Bulu 22
8. Childcare Angelo 23
9. Mosquito the source of diseases Gahbya 22
10. Parental responsibility Gido 26
11. Handicraft Huitsa 26
12. Grandfather Ja Mui 22
13. Sign language Lawda 14
14. Mi nah who loves animals Mary 30
15. The winner Natale 30
16. Two Pots Solomon 22
17. Folktale level 1 book 5 Mary 31
18. Folktale level 1 book 6 Lawda 22
19. Folktale level 1 book 7 Ahba 22
20. Folktale level 1 book 8 Lawda 22
21. Five Fishes Ahdah 30
22. Moon Ahdo 38
23. Folktale level 3 book 1 Lawda 38
24. Eight Brothers Huitsa, Solomon 30
25. A tiger who wants to fight man Ahdo 22
26. Folktale level 2 book 10 Lawda 18
27. Ahba’s orchid Natale 19
28. Six ways to impoverishment Samyeu Ghoemeh 30
29. Elephant, Monkey San Zee 27
30. No imitation San Zee 26
Total 749
171
Appendix H
BOK DATA FROM EACH VILLAGE H.1 BoK data from Seu Nyeh village
BOK # Function Acquisition Motivation Environment Differentiation
1 7 7 6b 7 6b
2 7 7 6b 7 6b
3 6a 6b 6a 5 6a
4 7 7 6b 7 6b
5 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
6 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
7 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
8 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
9 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
10 7 6b 6b 7 6a
11 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
12 6a 6b 6b 7 6a
13 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
14 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
15 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
16 6a 6a + 7 6b 7 6a + b
17 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
18 7 7 6b 7 6b
19 7 7 4 5 6b
20 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
21 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
22 7 7 6b 7 6b
23 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
24 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
25 5 5 5 6a 5
26 5 4 5 6a 5
27 6a 6a 6a 5 6b
28 6a 5 5 6a 5
172
H.2 BoK data from Bar Leh village
BOK # Function Acquisition Motivation Environment Differentiation
1 9 7 6b 5 9
2 9 7 6b 5 9
3 9 7 6b 5 7
4 9 6a 6a 5 6a
5 6a 6a 5 5 6a
6 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
7 6a 6a 5 5 6a
8 6a 6a 6a 5 5
9 6a 6a 5 5 6a
10 6a 6a 5 5 6a
11 9 7 6b 5 7
12 6a 5 6a 5 6a
13 6a 6a 6a 5 5
14 6a 6a 6a 5 5
15 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
16 6a 6a 6b 5 6a
17 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
18 9 7 6b 5 9
19 6b 7 5 5 5
20 6a 6a 6a 5 5
21 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
22 7 7 6b 5 9
23 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
24 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
25 5 5 4 5 5
26 5 5 4 5 5
27 7 7 6b 5 7
28 5 5 4 5 5
173
H.3 BoK data from Hu Naw village
BOK # Function Acquisition Motivation Environment Differentiation
1 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
2 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
3 6a 6a 6a 4 6a
4 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
5 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
6 6a 6a 6a 4 5
7 6a 6a 6a 4 5
8 6a 6a 6a 4 6a
9 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
10 6a 6a 6a 4 6a
11 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
12 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
13 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
14 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
15 6a 6a 6a 5 5
16 6a 6a 6a 5 5
17 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
18 6a 6a 6a 4 6a
19 7 6b 7 4 6a
20 6a 6a 6a 5 5
21 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
22 6a 6a 6a 5 7
23 6b 6b 7 5 6a
24 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
25 6b 6b 6b 5 6a
26 6a 6a 6b 4 6a
27 7 6b 6a 5 6a
28 6a 6a 6b 4 6a
174
H.4 BoK data from Panaw village
BOK # Function Acquisition Motivation Environment Differentiation
1 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
2 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
3 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
4 6a 6a 6a 5 6b
5 6a 6a 6a 4 6a
6 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
7 4 6a 6a 5 6a
8 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
9 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
10 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
11 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
12 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
13 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
14 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
15 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
16 6a 6a 6a 5+6a 6a
17 6a 6a 6a 5 5
18 6b 6a 6a 5 6b
19 7 9 7 5 6b
20 6b 7 6a 5 5
21 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
22 6a 6a 6a 5 9
23 6b 7 6a 5 7
24 6a 6a 6a 5 6b
25 4 6a 4 5 5
26 4 6a 4 5 5
27 6b 7 6b 5 9
28 4 6a 4 5 5
175
H.5 BoK data from Bar Aa village
BOK # Function Acquisition Motivation Environment Differentiation
1 6a 6a 6a 5 6b
2 6a 6a 6a 5 6b
3 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
4 7 9 9 5 9
5 5 4 4 5 5.5
6 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
7 5+6a 4 4 5 5.5
8 6a 6a 6a 5 4
9 5 4 4 5 5.5
10 6a 6a 6a 5 5.5
11 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
12 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
13 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
14 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
15 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
16 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
17 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a
18 7 7 7 5 6b
19 7 7 7 5 9
20 7 7 7 5 6b
21 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
22 7 7 9 5 6b
23 6a 6a 6a 5 4
24 6a 6a 6a 5 4
25 4 4 4 4 5.5
26 4 4 4 5 5.5
27 6b 5 5 5 4
28 4 4 4 5 4
176
H.6 BoK data from Ho Kyin village
BOK # Function Acquisition Motivation Environment Differentiation
1 6b 6b 6b 5 6b
2 6b 6b 6b 5 6b
3 6b 6b 6b 4 6b
4 7 7 7 5 7
5 6b 6b 6a 4 6a
6 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
7 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
8 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
9 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
10 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
11 6a 6b 6b 5 6b
12 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
13 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
14 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
15 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
16 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
17 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
18 6b 6b 6b 4 6b
19 7 7 7 4 6a
20 6b 6b 6b 5 6b
21 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
22 6b 6b 6b 6a 6b
23 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
24 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
25 6b 6b 6a 5 6a
26 6b 6b 6a 5 6a
27 6b 6b 6b 5 6b
28 6b 6b 6a 5 6a
177
H.7 BoK data from Gaw Tsum village
BOK # Function Acquisition Motivation Environment Differentiation
1 6a 6a 6b 5 6b
2 7 6a 6b 5 6b
3 6b 6a 6b 5 5
4 7 6a 6b 4 4
5 4 5 6a 4 6a
6 6b 4 4 5 6a
7 4 5 4 4 6a
8 4 4 4 5 6a
9 6a 6a 4 5 6a
10 5 6a 6a 5 6a
11 6b 6a 6a 4 7
12 5 6b 5 5 6a
13 6a 4 5 4 6a
14 4 4 4 5 6a
15 6a 6a 5 5 6a
16 6a 6a 6a 5 6a
17 5 4 6a 5 4
18 7 6a 6a 4 6b
19 7 7 6b 6a 6b
20 6a 7 6b 5 5
21 6a 6a 4 6a 7
22 6a 7 6b 4 6b
23 6b 6b 6a 5 7
24 6b 6b 4 5 7
25 4 4 4 6a 4
26 4 4 4 6a 4
27 5 5 4 5 4
28 5 4 4 6a 4
178
Appendix I
PICTURES USED TO REPRESENT BODIES OF
KNOWLEDGE
Lawˬ liˬ, saiˬ kehˬ Caꞈ kheu kha-ahˇ taꞈ-eu mˇ myawˬ deuˬ
Phu deh huiˬ laˇ mahˇ laˇ-eu phaw
Miˇ qhahˬ zahˇ-ahˇ taꞈ-eu gaˇ deuˬ
1 2
3 4
179
Htahˬ diˬ boe loe chehˇ lehˇ ui ni nyeh-eu
Tsawˇ shiˇ yaw bui
Oeˇ mˇ miˬ kheuˬ gheh-eu Qoꞈ shuiꞈ khaˇ htahˇ phaˇ-eu
5 65
7 8
180
Hawˬ shuiꞈ dzaˬ-eu
Nymˇ jiˇ zaˬ deuˬ
Phu aˬ yuiꞈ ghaˬ phu zaˬ deuˬ-ahˇ miˇ qhahˬ zahˇ gaˇ kawˆ ja mehˬ-eu
Jaˆ ghaˬ beuˆ-eu hawˇ-eu caˆ neh yaˇ tsehˬ-eu
9 10
1112
181
Jeˬ zaˬ chu-eu Kha dzaˬ/dawˇ-eu
Dzaˬ-eu dzaˇ deuˬ Dawˇ-eu jeˬ
131 14
15 16
182
Gaˬlaˬ jaˆ ghaˬAˬkhaˬ jaˆ ghaˬ
Dehꞈ-eu jawˇ-eu aˇ tiˆ goˇ laˇ-eu ghaˇ duˬ
Ahˬ dzaˬ zeuˇ dzaˬ-eu
17 18
1920
183
Dahˇ taˆ tcoˆ-eu nymˇ Meuˬ-ahˇ tcoˆ-eu nymˇ
Laꞈ myawˬ laꞈ muˆ mˇ-euLaꞈ myawˬ laꞈ muˆ mˇ-eu
21 22
23 24
184
Uˬ duˬ htahˬ-eu zahˇ sahˇ qoꞈ gaˇ kawˆ
Miˬyehˇ-ahˇ chaˇ-awˇ ja cheuˬ-eu (modern Christian song)
Chaˇ sahˬ boꞈ
Laˆ luˇ laˆchehˇ-eu (modern music)
25 26
27 28
185
Appendix J
PROCEDURE FOR BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE
PARTICIPATORY TOOL
Equipment needed
- pieces of paper with subject areas indicated by pictures as well as written on
them (eg Traditional farming)
- For each of the FAMED conditions
- a piece of card with the heading (Function; Acquisition; Motivation;
Environment; Differentiation)
- pieces of card with numbers (1, 2, 3….) and describing the different levels
- large piece of card on which to chart the decisions of the group under the
different headings
- spare pieces of paper
- marker pens
Procedure
- Ask the village leader to gather people who are knowledgeable about
different aspects of life in the village. A range of ages is preferable, as well as
different types of people: male and female; older and younger
- Explain that we are interested in what language people use for different
subject areas and how they learn about that subject.
- Set up the Function heading and letters as a framework to organise the pieces
of papers with the subject areas on them.
- Go through an example of how to classify traditional farming for Function.
(May need to talk about traditional farming first and then ask them which
category it fits in.)
186
- Explain that we have some other subject areas that we would like them to
help us classify. Go through all subjects for Function and classify them.
- Take a photo of the pieces of paper when they have been all categorised
- Write down in a notebook the levels for each BoK picture for each condition .
- Repeat the process for Acquisition; Motivation; Environment; Differentiation
187
RESUME
Name: Ah Suhn Ghoemeh
Date of Birth: 28 July 1982
Place of Birth: Myanmar, Keng Tung.
Institutions Attended: 2002-2005, Law, Taunggyi University
2012-2015, Linguistics, Payap University