Language superdiversity among ethnic minority communities in southeast Vietnam

ABSTRACT Our research investigates multilingual practices and communication among ethnic minority communities in the southeast of Vietnam, where globalization and migration have led to dramatic changes in all aspects of socioeconomic life. A range of empirical data collected through interviews, questionnaires and direct observation of interviewees in their daily interactions helps to determine what languages or language varieties they are speaking and how they are speaking with them. Our aim is to present how rich linguistic superdiversity is in the region. The findings show that in everyday social interactions, speakers move dynamically and creatively between fragments from a number of languages to fulfil a variety of strategic and communicative functions in appropriate domains of use. The flexible use of named languages, including the national vernacular, Vietnamese, as well as ethnic minorities’ languages and other language varieties, offers new insights into the complexity of language superdiversity and signifies a need to review post-multilingualism issues in Vietnam in the twenty-first century.