Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät | Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften | Regionale Fachbereiche | Seminar für Ostasienstudien | Forschung | Projekte | At the Periphery of the Sinophone World: Language Variation in the Hakka Varieties of East Timor (Timor-Leste) and West Timor (Indonesia)

At the Periphery of the Sinophone World: Language Variation in the Hakka Varieties of East Timor (Timor-Leste) and West Timor (Indonesia)

Project description

The island of Timor is home to two tiny Hakka communities, one in Indonesian West Timor, the other in independent Timor-Leste. At the periphery of Southeast Asia, they are among the most remote and poorly known Chinese-descended minorities in that region. The Hakka varieties traditionally spoken in Timor remain undescribed to this day. With the number of speakers decreasing, they are acutely endangered, making documentary efforts timely and indeed urgent. The focus of this project is on variation within the Hakka varieties of Timor. Focusing on phonology and lexis, it seeks to chart and account for language variation within both Timor Hakka varieties, examining intra- and extra-linguistic factors predicting individual linguistic variants. In addition, it aims to survey the extent of the differences that exist between the East and West Timorese varieties. This research will contribute to our understanding of two neglected areas in linguistics: firstly, Overseas Chinese language varieties, which, despite their potential to inform a range of linguistic subdisciplines, have received little attention in Western linguistics; and secondly, sociolinguistic variation, which relies on notions and principles that are mostly based on the observation of Western societies. Research on non-Western societies is therefore necessary in order to test them.

Project-related publications

“At the Periphery of Nanyang: The Hakka Community of Timor-Leste.” In: Caroline Chia & Tom Hoogervorst (eds.). Forthcoming (2021). Sinophone Southeast Asia: Sinitic Voices across the Southern Seas. Leiden: Brill.

“Cina Timor: Baba, Hakka, and Cantonese in the Making of Timor-Leste, by Douglas Kammen and Jonathan Chen”. 2021. Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia 177(2-3): 428-431. DOI