Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

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The politics of language contact in the Himalaya
edited by Selma Sonntag and Mark Turin, Cambridge, Open Book Publishers,
2019, xiii + 181 pp., ₤27.95 (hbk), ISBN 978-1-78374-705-5; ₤17.95 (pbk), ISBN
978-1-78374-704-7
Ram Ashish GiriTo cite this article: Ram Ashish Giri (2020) The politics of language contact in theHimalaya, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 41:10, 899-900, DOI:
10.1080/01434632.2020.1749770
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2020.1749770

Published online: 15 Apr 2020.

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JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
2020, VOL. 41, NO. 10, 899–910

BOOK REVIEWS

The politics of language contact in the Himalaya, edited by Selma Sonntag and MarkTurin, Cambridge, Open Book Publishers, 2019, xiii + 181 pp., ₤27.95 (hbk), ISBN 978-178374-705-5; ₤17.95 (pbk), ISBN 978-1-78374-704-7

The editors of this book deliver an interdisciplinary collection of linguistically and historicallygrounded chapters that discuss three socio-politically sensitive regions from both sides of the Himalayas – Tibet, Assam, and Nepal. The introduction points to the dearth of empirical scholarship on
the politics of language contact in these regions, sets the context for the six chapters, and outlines theapproach(es) taken by their authors.
Chapter 2 takes us several centuries back to the Ahom kingdom established in what is now Assam.
The élite hierarchy of the Assamese had a hegemonic inﬂuence on the Ahom language, and inﬂunce
that continuestoday (though in a diﬀerent form). Starting from the present, The Himalayan region –Asssam and North East India in particular – is once again at the centre of a political storm, the root
cause of which is India’s Citizenship Amendment Bill. It is inclusionary in its stated objective but
exclusionary in its intent and discriminatory in its structure, making Hindus and related sub-sectseligible for naturalisation whileexcluding Muslims, Tamils and Tibetans. The Bill, widely seen as
part of a policy of endorsing Hindu supremacy and promoting Hindu identity, attempts to convince
the Assamese Hindus that their loyalty should be with Bengali-speaking Hindus who have migrated
from Bangladesh rather than with Assamese-speaking Muslims. The indigenous Assamese are worried that Hinduisation tactics may one day destroy their distinct linguistic and cultural heritage.
Employing an historical-institutionalist theoretical approach, the author of this chapter showshow the language contact, inspired by Hinduisation, between Ahom (a Tai-Kadai language) andAssamese (Indo-Aryan) changed the local language dynamics – leading to the abandonment andeventual death of Ahom. Revivalists hope that Ahom, the principal historical source for the development of the Assamese languages, can be revitalised. Just as language contact was the cause of its
demise of the Ahom language, so new language contact with other Assamese varieties might lead toits revival.
Chapters 3 and 4 deal with Nepal, with an emphasis on language as a marker of ethnic identity
and the politics of language maintenance. Local politics are important when choices must be made in
the multilingual education programme (MLE). This programme, which follows the UNESCO philosophy of ‘the ﬁrst language ﬁrst’ (83), attempts to establish authority and authenticity through linguistic correction and systematisation. Trying to transform indigenous varieties into adequate
vehicles for school education is, of course, an imposition of language hierarchy – and so some
may argue that transformation undercuts the uniqueness of those varieties, and is an exercise inlanguage dominance.
In Tibet, recognition of minority languages has long been an issue. They have been misrecognisedas ‘bizarre dialects’, ‘enclaved languages’ or ‘extraterritorial languages’, and are declining as a result ofChinese ‘encroachments’. The authors of Chapter 1 argue that ignoring or misrepresenting locallanguages casts their speakers as ‘non-Tibetan inhabitant[s] of Tibet’ (29) on the grounds thatthey do not speak the ‘pure father tongue’ (32). Speakers of many local languages have to provetheir Tibetan identity by speaking standard Tibetan.There is a parallel here with the situation inNepal, where people speaking indigenous languages are considered to be non-Nepali, while
Nepali-speaking Indians are regarded as Nepali. The chapter provides a good explanation of the vertical hierarchy in Tibetan language-contact politics, but it does not address the horizontal relationships among indigenous languages. Chapter 5 also discusses the Tibetan linguistic context, which the900

BOOK REVIEWSauthors argue is established and maintained through coercion and consent, and in which many minority languages – now requiring both recognition and respect – are on the verge of extinction.
Chapter 6 concludes the volume, and its author outlines the complex process of language shiftthat is taking place across the region. He points out that as language revitalisation is being energised
in most Himalayan contexts, language and culture are used for social exclusion and political disenfranchisement (as shown by the situations of Nepali in Bhutan and the Rohingya in Myanmar).
Taking Nepal as a case study, the author leads us to ask if the state should support languages
other than the dominant ones, particularly within the educational context. Current Nepali practiceis problematic in several respects. Allowing a state or a community to select a language in which toteach does not take into account the fact that children may have competences (though of varyingdegrees) in more than one variety, nor – at a broader level – that school communities may not belinguistically homogenous. The policy validates the idea that languages other than the chosen one
are subordinate and, therefore, unﬁt for use in social and academic contexts.
The major themes adressed in this collection have to do with contact and shift, with hierarchy andhegemony, with mis-recognition and non-recognition, and with the loss of ethnocultural identities.
While the book presumes some knowledge of language planning and policy, it is an essential readand a valuable resource for all those concerned with matters of linguistic contact and politics,
especially within educational settings.
Ram Ashish GiriEnglish Language Centre, Monash University
giri_r_a@hotmail.com, ram.a.giri@monash.edu© 2020 Ram Girihttps://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2020.1749770

Heritage languages: a language contact approach, by Suzanne Aalberse, Ad Backus andPieter Muysken, Amsterdam, John Benjamins, 2019, xix + 302 pp., €99.00 (hbk), ISBN
978-9-02720-471-4; €36.00 (pbk), ISBN 978-9-02720-470-7
I dove into this book, very excited at the prospect of having a text for a graduate course on language
contact in a variationist sociolinguistic perspective. While it cannot be a stand-alone book for thatcourse – not having enough detail about methods – it will serve admirably as a well-rounded introduction to language contact, bringing together research perspectives that are often isolated from eachother. By combining psycholinguistics, descriptive linguistics, generative linguistics and sociolinguistics, it is a welcome and timely innovation. Students and scholars with research training in only someof these areas will get just the necessary introduction to other areas, along with guidance about where
to follow up for additional detail.
The book’s focus on ‘not just reduction, simpliﬁcation and loss, but also on addition of or changes
in linguistic features’ (vii) is a strong feature. This emphasis on speakers’ agency and creativity leaves
space for (and suggests how to study) heritage speakers’ need to perform identity work (just like allother speakers). While much of the book is devoted to ‘incomplete acquisition’ and proﬁciency
issues, via measures of quality and quantity of input, this portrayal of heritage-language (HL) variation in a positive light is a welcome approach.
The book is written in a casual, simple, accessible style. Its few ﬁgures receive little discussion inthe prose. A useful glossary is included, as well as subject and language indices. I found many errors
in the text, ranging from typos and infelicitous grammar to incorrect citations. For example, I canattest to ﬁve errors in the summary of one case study with which I’m familiar, and several instances