INDUSTRIOUSNESS, SLEEP, AND LANGUAGE: THE DAN LAI PEOPLE
The Dan Lai ethnicity in Vietnam, as a minority ethnic group of several thousand people in total, is dispersed across several regions, but mostly in the non praire terrans of the country, and within Con Cuong, Nghe An province.
The minority ethnic group once resided in the flatlands around the upper Giang River, within the Pu Mat National Park, but then shifted to its current set of locations.
The Dan Lai community has brought forward many aspects of its cultural heritage across generations, one of which is the habit of extended sleep. The intention behind such extensive amounts of sleep is to avoid animosity and conflict with community, nature, and the world.
Despite having a lifestyle of abumdant sleep and seclusion, the industriousness of the Dan Lai is iconic throughout Vietnam and the larger region. It is through this industriousness that the Dan Lai moniroty ethnic community has managed to sustain itself over centuries.
the Vietnamese government has begun to increase its attention on groups such as the Dan Lai, that is, to protect their heritage, to document their cultural practices, and to establish programs for retaining their languages and hence for increasing the use of such language in school instruction.
The Vietnamese government has also had aassistance for this contribution from other regions globally, and from a number of sectors, not least of which is the academic sector, which has sought to document and sustain the language practices of the Dan Lai minority ethnic community.
The Dan Lai speak a variety of the Vietic language, within a larger Austroasiatic macrofamily. The Austroasiatic languages are traditionally divided into two or three divisions.
The two-branch structure is as follows: 1) Mon-Khmer languages including Khasi, Palaungic, Khmuic, Mang, Vietic, Katuic, Bahnaric, Pearic, Khmer, Mon, Asli, and Nicobarese and 2) Munda languages.
The three-branch division is 1) Mon-Khmer, 2) Munda, and 3) Nicobarese languages.