Studies on spelling systems and writing cultures in Wa

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K16828
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Japan Health Care College
• Principal Investigator: Yamada Atsushi 日本医療大学, 保健医療学部, 教授 (20609094)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: ワ族 / 書承文化 / リテラシー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Until recently, many people in the communities of the Yunnan area in southwest China and its adjacent region were illiterate. The society of the Wa people, a Mon-Khmer language group living in the border area between China’s Yunnan Province and Myanmar’s Shan State, is one of these communities. Their society did not have any writing tradition until the 20th century, when three spelling systems were introduced to them. Today, they are in a multi-literate society. The aim of this study is to reveal their cultural transitioning from illiteracy to literacy. We conducted some field surveys on the Wa people living in (or originated from) Yunnan province, China. Based on our field data, we contributed some papers and reports on their newly developed writing cultures, especially in their literacy about three spelling systems, documentation about writing materials and their activities and experiments related to writing cultures.

Free Research Field

言語人類学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

私たちは文字表記に囲まれて暮らしている。文字表記は明らかに後発的な文化であり、私たちも過去のある段階で文字表記と出会い、依存を深めてきたはずである。本研究では、無文字から有文字へと日常を変えつつあるワ族を通して、人間と文字表記との関係の解明に取り組んだ。ワ族社会において、文字表記やそれによって記されたテクストは「コト」を記す媒体ではなく、唯一無二の「モノ」としての特徴を垣間見せる。ICT技術が発達し、文字表記を介した情報のやり取りはますます頻繁に、かつ無自覚なものになっていくだろう。文字表記との本質的な関係を知ることは、私たちの過去から今日を省み、未来を定めることにも役立つはずである。