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Abstract
There is a “non-honorific” register of speech in Khmer that, on one hand, is the language of intimacy, but on the other is viewed as unpleasant sounding, disrespectful, and immoral. Although this register has positive valuations among close intimates, Dr. Cheryl Yin’s larger project asks: why are some Cambodians avoiding the “non-honorific register”? Based on research funded in part by CKS, her work argues that urban, socially-mobile Cambodians today want to distance themselves from language that is increasingly viewed as immoral and unmodern. This talk focuses on one chapter from my book manuscript investigating debates surrounding the non-honorific register in Christian settings. When the Bible was first translated into Khmer, “God” was translated using the non-honorific first-person pronoun អញ (anh, or “I/me”) to refer to Himself. In newer Bible translations, his pronoun was altered to យើង (yeung, or “we”). She examined Khmer Bible translations, interviewed Cambodian Christians, and conducted participant observation at various churches in Cambodia to understand why some Christian Cambodians prefer the newer Bible translations and why others continue to hold onto the older ones. These debates among Christians mirror debates occurring in several domains of Cambodian society about how people used to refer to each other and themselves in the past vs. how people should speak today. She coined the term “moral circle of honorification” to describe the expansion of moral concern toward others through language, which can only be understood in light of Cambodia’s tumultuous history and rapid economic development in the last few decades. As more Cambodians become middle class, they are more likely to feel insulted when someone uses the non-honorific register, believing they deserve an expanded moral circle of honorification. Ultimately, these contestations about language are also contestations about hierarchy, respect, and Cambodian national identity in the 21st century. Arguments about how Cambodians ought to refer to each other and themselves are essentially arguments about what it means to be Cambodian today.
Bio
Speaker: Dr. Cheryl Yin is a CKS Dissertation Research Fellow in 2014 and an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Carleton College in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. A linguistic anthropologist with expertise in Cambodia and Khmer (Cambodian) language, she is currently revising her book manuscript Language & Morality: Being Modern in Early 21st Century Cambodia (working title). Her research argues that contestations about Khmer (Cambodian) language are ultimately contests about how to (re)define Cambodian national identity after decades of turmoil followed by accelerated economic growth. Cheryl was born and raised in Long Beach, CA, and is a first-generation scholar, earning her BA from Pitzer College before receiving her MA and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Prior to Carleton, she was Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies from 2021 to 2023.
Moderator: Professor Magnus Fiskesjö is originally from Sweden. He has long been fascinated with Cambodia and its history but he visited Cambodia for the first time only in 2012. He received his education in Sweden, Denmark, China, and the US, where he completed his doctoral studies in Anthropology and Asian Studies at the University of Chicago. His doctoral work focused on the history and political anthropology of the Wa people of Myanmar and China. Before his PhD, he worked in Sweden’s foreign service and was stationed in Beijing and Tokyo. Later he served as the Director of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, in Stockholm, Sweden, one of Europe’s foremost museums with Asian art and archaeology. During this period, he began to take an active interest in the politics of heritage and the issue of repatriations from Western museum collections.
