Sociolinguistic situation Clause Samples

Sociolinguistic situation. Sarikoli is surrounded by unrelated languages. The political border between China and the Central Asian countries limits Sarikoli speakers’ contact with speakers of other Pamir languages to the west, while increasing their relative contact with speakers of Turkic languages. Xinjiang is the homeland of tens of millions of speakers of Turkic languages, including Uyghur, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Uzbek, and Tatar. Mandarin Chinese is also increasing in prominence due to education policies and socioeconomic pressures. Besides the Tajik ethnicity, the three largest ethnic groups living in the county of Varshide are Han (the Chinese majority), Uyghur, and Kyrgyz, but they constitute an extremely small portion of the overall population of the county. The Hans and ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ come to Varshide to run small businesses, a trade which the Tajiks rarely get involved in. The Uyghurs come from various places in Xinjiang, especially Kashgar, the nearest city in China which is 300 kilometers northeast of Varshide. The ▇▇▇▇ come from much more distant places all over China. The Kyrgyz are generally farmers and herders, just like the Tajiks, and they are close to their homeland because they belong to the Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture and Kekyor, the Kyrgyz village in Varshide. Currently, each of the 10 main villages besides the county seat has a small elementary school, and the county seat has a very large elementary school with thousands of students, which provides room and board for students from other villages. Elementary school education is six years, followed by three years of middle school and three years of high school. The only middle school in the entire county is located in the county seat, and is also a boarding school with thousands of students. There are no high schools in Varshide, so students must leave Varshide and go to cities such as Kashgar, Urumqi, or other cities in Xinjiang or Innerland China to pursue higher education. Rather than the national-level Law on Nine-Year Compulsory Education, Varshide complies with southern Xinjiang’s Law on Twelve-Year Compulsory Education, so all Tajik children must leave their hometown and spend at least three years in a generally Han- or Uyghur-speaking city. The majority of students attend the No. 6 High School and No. 2 High School in Kashgar, but the top students are granted the privilege of receiving their high school education in a city in east- ern China on a government scholarship. Tajik students who attend high school ...