來源：folklife.si.edu RIGZIN Women
撰稿｜圖片：Yu Lha
編輯：CHARU迦入
My name is Yu Lha, and I am a linguist.
我的名字叫依娜， 我是一名語言學家
I grew up in a village called Siyuewu, in the Sichuan province of western China. I am ethnically Tibetan, but my mother tongue is a lesser-known language called Khroskyabs. My community of around 500 people is semi-nomadic, which means we are both farmers and herders. We grow barley, wheat, and potatoes in the valley, and in the summer, we bring our yaks up to the mountain pastures to graze.
我成長於中國西部四川省的斯躍武村。我是藏族，但我的母語是一種鮮為人知的語言，叫做綽斯甲。我們社區大約有500人，過著半遊牧的生活，所以我們既是農民又是牧民。我們在山谷裡種青稞、小麥和土豆，到了夏天，我們就把犛牛帶到山上的牧場去吃草。
The village consists of several hamlets that are sparsely located. The local stone-built houses represent the unique culture of Khroskyabs.
這個村莊由散布的幾個小聚落組成。石頭建造的當地民居代表了綽斯甲獨特的文化。
In my village, most girls stay at home and do domestic work. We are expected to be sweet and obedient. However, from a young age, I always had an urge to fight these expectations. I was a bit of a wild child. I liked to boast and show off, which children are not supposed to do. When I felt that my elders were being too strict or overbearing, I would make my opinions known. If an adult said, 「don’t do this,」 I would do it. There was something fierce in me—a kind of independence, even defiance—that led me to where I am now.
在我們村，大多數女孩都在家裡做家務。人們希望我們貼心又順從。然而，我從小就有一種衝動去挑戰這些期待。我有點兒像個野孩子。我喜歡自誇和表現自己，但這些都不是小孩應該做的。當我覺得長輩們過於嚴厲或專橫時，我會公開我的意見。如果一個大人說，「不要這樣做」，那我就會這樣做的。我內心有一種強烈的東西：或許是獨立，甚至是挑釁，指引我走到現在的位置。
My desire to be unconstrained made me a social butterfly and ultimately led me to my love of language. As a child, I found conversation exciting. I loved to talk and to listen to others talk. Stories, tongue twisters, riddles, and idioms have always fascinated me. After I started learning English, expressions like 「It’s raining cats and dogs」 gave me so much joy.
對自由的渴望使我成為了一個善於交際的人，並最終帶我走向對語言的熱愛。還是孩童時，我就覺得談話令人興奮。我喜歡說話，也喜歡聽別人說話。故事、繞口令、謎語和成語總是讓我著迷。在我開始學習英語後，像「It’s raining cats and dogs」這樣的表達方式給了我很多快樂。(英語俚語It’s raining cats and dogs，是下了傾盆大雨的意思，雖然字面意思是「下了很多貓和狗」)
We have mountains, rivers, and clouds. The yellow patches are barley and wheat that are ready for harvesting. 我們有山，有河，有雲，黃色的條狀土地裡是即將收割的青稞和小麥。
I started school at eight years old. At that time, cars were few, so I would hitchhike to the boarding school that was thirty minutes away by car. Of the 300 students, half were Tibetan and half were Han Chinese, the ethnic majority of China.
我八歲開始上學。當時車還不普遍，所以我會搭30分鐘的便車去寄宿學校。300名學生中，一半是藏族，一半是漢族。
Adjusting to life at boarding school was brutal. I didn’t speak a word of Mandarin, which was the language of instruction. To say the learning curve was steep is an understatement. Also, it was my first time living alone, and I had to learn to take care of myself. The school did not provide any food for the students. We had to cook for ourselves and bring all our food with us—rice, cooking oil, and potatoes. We even had to go to the nearby woods to collect firewood, then make a fire and cook our dinners individually. The only thing the school provided was hot black tea, so many of us would use it to cook our food, cutting down our cooking time. To this day, I can still taste that tea-flavored rice.
適應住校生活的過程很殘酷。這裡的教學語言是普通話，而我當時一個字都不會說。僅僅說學習曲線是急劇變化的，都過於輕描淡寫了。況且，那是我第一次獨自生活，我必須學會照顧自己。學校沒有給學生提供任何食物。我們得自己做飯，自帶所有食物：米、油和土豆。我們甚至需要去附近的樹林裡撿柴火，再各自生火做飯。學校唯一提供的東西就是熱茶，所以我們很多人都會用它來做飯，以削短做飯時間。直到今天，我仍然能想起那充滿茶味的米飯。
I was a good student, so when I entered my teen years, I began to think about continuing my education. I saw my older cousins working long hours to prepare for the competitive college entrance exam by memorizing textbook after textbook. I knew didn’t want to do that.
我當時成績還不錯，所以進入青春期後，我開始考慮如何繼續我的教育。我看到我的表姐表哥們為了準備高考，日夜苦讀，一本一本地背誦課本。我知道這不是我想要的。
I had always imagined myself traveling, and I knew language would be my ticket out. So when I turned seventeen, I decided to go to a different province to study English. I enrolled in an English training program in Qinghai, which involved three days of travel by bus. At that time, it was uncommon to travel so far from home—especially as a girl. My family took me to our local fortune-teller for a consultation about my choice of school. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but it must have been positive because otherwise my family would not have let me go. It also helped that the tuition was free and the school provided room and board. All I had to do was learn.
我一直憧憬著到外面的世界看看，並且知道語言將是我改變命運的門票。所以在十七歲的時候，我決定去外省學習英語。我被青海的一個英語培訓項目錄取，需要坐三天大巴才到能到達那裡。在那時，離家這麼遠的旅行是很罕見的，尤其是對一個女孩而言。臨行前，家人帶我去當地的算命先生那兒諮詢了我對於學校的選擇。我已經記不清他的回答了，但應該是樂觀的，否則我的家人也不會放心我離開。還有個好處是當時學費全免，學校還提供食宿，我所需要做的只是學習。
I was so happy there. The teachers, all foreigners, were fun, and my classmates were from rural areas like me. It was so funny—even though we were all Tibetan, we wanted to practice our lessons so we used broken English to communicate! An anthropologist named Gerald Roche taught at the school. In addition to teaching us English, he trained us in research and documentation methods. As an assignment, we had to initiate cultural documentation projects in our respective communities. I researched the Khroskyabs language and documented oral traditions in my village, which led to the publication of my book, Warming Your Hands with Moonlight.
我在新的學校很開心。所有的老師都是外教，都很有趣。我的同學都和我一樣來自農村。很搞笑的是，雖我們都是藏族人，為了多加練習，我們交流都用很爛的英語！一位名叫傑拉爾德·羅什的人類學家當時在學校任教。除了英語，他還教我們研究和記錄的方法，其中一個作業是在我們各自的社區開啟文化記錄的項目。我研究了綽斯甲語言，並記錄了我們村的口頭傳統。這段經歷和研究促成了我的第一本書《借月光暖你的手》的出版。
Yu Lha在大學期間參加國際學生的活動
Despite its 10,000 speakers, Khroskyabs was not officially recognized as a language until 2003. Although linguists call our language Khroskyabs, this is not how we refer to our language in our community. The word Khroskyabs is actually the name of a geographic area in Aba prefecture in northern Sichuan, which has come to stand for our community. As speakers, we call our language Rongskad, which means 「the farmer’s dialect」 or 「the valley dialect.」
儘管綽斯甲語的使用者有一萬人，但直到2003年，它才被官方認定為一門語言。雖然語言學家稱我們的語言為「綽斯甲」，我們自己卻不會這樣叫它。「綽斯甲」這個詞實際上是四川北部阿壩州的一個地理區域的名稱，後被用來代表我們社區。我們自己稱我們的語言為「容斯卡德」，意思是「農民方言」或「山谷方言」。
We have faced considerable linguistic pressures over the years, and our number of speakers is rapidly declining. Mandarin is the language of instruction in schools, and fluency is required to succeed academically and professionally.
多年來，我們面臨著巨大的語言壓力，這門語言的使用人數正在迅速減少。普通話是學校的教學語言，要想在學業和職業上取得成功，就必須掌握流利的普通話。
Though we are Tibetan, we are not always acknowledged as such. Some Tibetans from other areas qualify our identity by calling us Rgyalrong Tibetans. Others reject it altogether, saying that we are Rgya ma bod (neither Chinese nor Tibetan) because of our distinctive language. These views have affected the way we see our own language and ourselves. Even Khroskyabs speakers tend to have a negative view of Khroskyabs and positive view of other forms of Tibetan.
雖然我們是藏族人，但並不總是被認為是藏族。其他地區的藏族人一些稱我們為嘉絨藏族，一些則完全拒絕我們，說我們是非藏非漢，只是因為我們的語言很獨特。這些觀點影響了我們看待我們的語言和自己的方式。即便是講綽斯甲的人也傾向於對綽斯甲持負面態度，卻對其他藏語形式持肯定態度。
Ebi told me his stories about being a bear hunter when he was young. The storytelling went on for three hours. 埃比告訴我他年輕時做獵熊人的故事，故事講了三個小時。
As I predicted, language was indeed my ticket abroad. I was accepted to a pre-university course in Bangladesh, which then led to a year at the Asian University for Women in Chittagong. I could have completed my undergraduate degree in Bangladesh, but I wanted to travel farther. Thanks to one of my English program teachers, Zoe Tribur—a former fellow at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage—I was able to apply to college in the United States.
正如我所預見到的，語言成為了我出國的門票。我在孟加拉國完成了大學預科課程，然後在吉大港的亞洲女子大學學習了一年。我本可以在孟加拉國完成我的本科學位，但我想去更遠的地方。多虧了我的一位英語課程老師Zoe Tribur，一位民俗和文化遺產中心的前研究員，我才能夠申請到美國的大學。
I ended up at the University of Oregon, majoring in linguistics. Someone once told me that once I was fluent, I would begin to dream in English. I never thought it would happen, but it did! Now my dreams are a mix of English and Khroskyabs.
最終我到了俄勒岡大學，主修語言學。有人曾告訴我，一旦我能流利使用英語，我就會用英語做夢了。我從沒想過會有這一天，但它確實發生了！現在我的夢裡都混合著英語和綽斯甲 。
I go back to my village every summer. I started the Khroskyabs Language Project to create resources, which could support efforts to revitalize the Khroskyabs language. Video and audio recording is critical since our language has no writing system. I hope to one day create a writing system for Khroskyabs speakers so we may sustain our language and culture.
我每年夏天都回村裡去。我啟動了綽斯甲語言項目來創造資源，以支持復興綽斯甲語言。由於我們的語言沒有書寫機制，因此視頻和音頻記錄就變得至關重要。我希望有一天能為綽斯甲創造一個拼音／書寫機制，以維持我們的語言和文化。
I produced five short videos and uploaded them on WeChat, a popular Chinese social media platform, which allowed me to share oral traditions with our community as well as a wider online audience. Introducing Khroskyabs into the realm of social media counters perceptions of the language as outdated and obsolete. Instead, the videos establish that Khroskyabs is alive and very much relevant to the twenty-first century. So far, the response has been very positive.
我製作了五個短視頻，並上傳到了國內流行的社交媒體微信上，這讓我能夠與我們社區以及更廣泛的網友們分享我們的口頭傳統。把綽斯甲引入社交媒體領域，打破人們認為這門語言陳舊落後的偏見。這些視頻證明了綽斯甲是活著的，與二十一世紀息息相關。到目前為止，視頻收到的反饋都非常積極。
Yu Lha在俄勒岡大學的畢業照片
This video project has also given me the opportunity to contribute to my culture. As Tibetans, we love to sing and dance. However, there are no songs in Khroskyabs so we usually sing in Amdo Tibetan. I translated the lyrics of this Tibetan toasting song (to deities, parents, guests, etc.) into Khroskyabs and then recorded my performance. When it was done, I teared up. I never imagined I would sing in my mother tongue.
這個視頻項目也讓我有機會為我的文化做出貢獻。作為藏族人，我們喜歡唱歌跳舞。但沒有綽斯甲語言的歌曲，所以我們通常用安多藏語唱歌。我把這首藏語敬酒歌的歌詞（給神靈、父母、客人等）譯成了綽斯甲，並錄下了我的表演。完成後，我淚流滿面。我從沒想過我可以用母語唱歌。
Yu Lha works as a computational linguist at Apple. She holds a BA in linguistics from the University of Oregon.
Yu Lha是蘋果公司的計算語言學家。她是俄勒岡大學語言學學士。
CHARU’s Follow Up Questions
迦入專訪的補充內容
1) What are some main lessons you learned from your journey from Siyuewu Village to Apple Company? What are your reflections as you have graduated and made it into one of the most famous American company?
從斯躍武村到蘋果公司，你在這個過程中學到了什麼？從美國的大學畢業，又在一家最有名的美國公司工作，你有哪些感觸？
When I left home for America, I told people that I am going to study "linguistics", many people didn't know what it was and replied, "Why don't you study something more useful like business or education!" To be honest, neither did I knew exactly what "linguistics" was. Luckily, I was not a strong planner, so I just trusted my gut that I loved languages and I needed to explore more about languages. There were times when I doubted my decision, but I was able to go back to the "tiny voice inside me" and re-route myself.
當我離開家鄉前往美國的時候，我告訴大家我要去學習「語言學」。很多人都不知道這個專業是什麼，他們問我：「為什麼你不去學一些更有用的專業呢，商業或教育之類的？」 說實話，當時我也不太清楚「語言學」究竟是什麼。好在我不是一個特別有規劃的人，所以我選擇相信自己的直覺：我真的很熱愛語言，也想更多地探索語言。也曾有過質疑自己決定的時候，但我依然能夠聽從「自己內心那絲微弱的聲音」，並重新出發。
2) What are some current and future plans for yourself?
你對自己的現在和未來有哪些規劃？
I don't see myself doing what I am doing at Apple as a computational linguist longer than a couple years simply because I love talking to people more than talking to computers. I do love the fact that I am able to use the limited linguistic knowledge I learned from school and apply them into this job. My long-term goal is to continue doing minority language documentation and revitalization work because that's my responsibility and most importantly my passion. That said, plans are plans.
我想我並不會在蘋果公司擔任計算語言學家太久，幾年就夠了，因為與電腦相比，我其實更喜歡和人交流。能夠將在學校學到的有限的語言學知識應用到這份工作當中，我的確非常開心。但就長期目標而言，我還是希望繼續從事少數民族語言的記錄和復興，因為這是我的責任，更是我的熱情所在。不過，計劃終歸是計劃。
Yu Lha和蘋果公司的同事一起
3) If you are to give some suggestions to younger generations of Tibetans, what would you recommend and suggest?
對於藏族人中的年青一代，你有哪些建議？
I've always dreamed big and worked hard toward my dreams even when challenges arose such as flying across the Pacific Ocean to a foreign land to study or losing a lung could not stop me from getting my degree :). Despite my own persistency and hard work, the support from my family, friends and mentors was crucial for my journey of seeking higher education. I could not have the courage to go back to school again when I had a serious illness without the compassionate messages and prayers from people who love me. Life isn't fair. We all start at different levels with different resources and face different challenges. My biggest take away up till now is: dream big and live big because we don't have time for other things. I encourage young Tibetans to go explore and learn with their curious minds. Sometimes, we see and understand ourselves better when we are away from it. Yet never forget to return to our roots, whether that's place, an idea or a path.
我一直都懷著遠大的夢想，並努力奮鬥，即便這意味著要面對種種挑戰，比如跨越太平洋來到異國他鄉，甚至失去一個肺，都不能阻止我拿到大學畢業證：）。在我尋求高等教育的過程中，除了我自己的堅持和努力，來自家人、朋友和導師的支持也至關重要。在我病重的時候，如果不是這些愛我的人們一直給我發送關愛的信息，為我祈禱，我可能不會有勇氣重返校園。生活並不公平，我們從不同的起點出發，擁有不同的資源，面對不同的挑戰。我到現在最大的感悟是：要心懷遠大，並全力以赴，因為我們沒有時間浪費在其他事情上。我希望年輕藏族人可以帶著好奇的頭腦去探索和學習。有時候，我們要遠離自我，才能更好地發現和認識自我。但是，永遠不要忘記回到自己的根，不管那是一個地方，一個想法，或是一條道路。
4) Anything else you feel is important and want to share with others?
還有什麼你覺得重要的事情想要和大家分享的嗎？
Being a linguistic minority brings many inconveniences and injustices even, however, speaking another language/dialect empowered me to stand up for myself and for my community. I strive to make this world a better place by sharing my stories and listening to other people's stories at the same time because I believe that's the ultimate path for a peaceful world.
作為語言上的少數民族，這會給你帶來很多不便和不平等。但是，掌握和使用另外一種語言/方言卻使我可以捍衛自己和自己的社區。我努力通過分享自己的故事和傾聽別人的故事來讓這個世界變得更加美好，因為我堅信這是通往和平世界的根本之道。
Thank You
吶斯霍呢曲（綽斯甲語：謝謝）
næ-sʁo-ɲ-ɲə-tɕʰu
（綽斯甲語國際音標）
如需文章中提及的音頻資料，請聯繫作者
abayina@gmail.com
為我們講述您的故事，您與藏地，與牧人的故事
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文章來源：SMITHSONIAN CENTER FOR FOLKLIFE
& CULTURAL HERITAGE
folklife.si.edu
撰稿｜圖片：Yu Lha
翻譯｜修改：卓瑪 晴晏
編輯：迦入
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ཆ་རུ་ནི་འབྲོག་པའི་སྦྲ་ནག་སོགས་ཀྱི་ཁ་མཚམས་འབྲེལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་གྱི་ཡོ་བྱད་ཅིག་ཡིན་པ་དང་། ཆ་རུས་བོད་ཡུལ་ཁེ་ལས་སྣ་ཚོགས་ལ་ཁྱབ་སྤེལ་གྱི་སྡིངས་ཆ་བཞེངས་བ་དང་། བོད་ཡུལ་འཕེལ་རྒྱས་ལ་ཕྱིའི་བསམ་བློ་གསར་བ་ནང་འདྲེན་དང་ནང་གི་རིག་གནས་ཉིང་བཅུད་སྤེལ་བར་གཞོལ་བ། ཆ་འཕྲིན་དྲྭ་བའི་ཐབས་ལམ་བརྒྱུད་དེ་སྣ་མང་དང་ཕྱོགས་མང་གི་ཁེ་ལས་མཉམ་འབྲེལ་གྱི་རྣམ་པ་བསྐྲུན་པ་སོགས་ལ་འབད་དེ། བོད་ཀྱི་སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་རིག་གནས་དང་དེང་རབས་འཚོ་བར་འབྲེལ་ཟམ་འཛུགས་པ་དེའོ།།
迦入音譯自藏語ཆ་རུ།，意為「連結」，是一家位於成都的實體咖啡工作空間。迦入致力於為藏企提供創業推廣平臺，把創新思維引入藏地社區建設，以網際網路開啟多元跨界合作的商業模式，使藏文化與當代接軌。