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The Koch of Bangladesh: a Sociolinguistic Survey

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The Koch of Bangladesh: a Sociolinguistic Survey DigitalResources Electronic Survey Report 2011-023 ® THE KOCH OF BANGLADESH: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC SURVEY Seung Kim Sayed Ahmad Amy Kim Mridul Sangma THE KOCH OF BANGLADESH: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC SURVEY Seung Kim Sayed Ahmad Amy Kim Mridul Sangma SIL International® 2011 SIL Electronic Survey Report 2011-023, March 2011 Copyright © 2011 Seung Kim, Sayed Ahmad, Amy Kim, Mridul Sangma, and SIL International® All rights reserved 2 CONTENTS List of abbreviations Preface 1. Introduction 1.1. Purposes and goals 1.1.1. Study of the language varieties 1.1.2. Language attitudes and vitality study 1.1.3. Bilingualism study 1.2. Location 1.3. History and people 1.4. Language 2. Summary of findings 2.1. Study of the language varieties 2.2. Language attitudes and vitality study 2.3. Bilingualism study 3. Study of the language varieties 3.1. Procedures 3.2. Discussion of sample 3.3. Results 4. Language attitudes and vitality study 4.1. Procedures 4.2. Discussion of sample 4.3. Results 4.3.1. Language use – in spoken domains 4.3.2. Language use – in written domains 4.3.3. Language attitudes – regarding language use 4.3.4. Language attitudes – towards language classes 4.3.5. Language vitality 5. Bilingualism study 5.1. Perceived bilingualism 5.1.1. Procedures 5.1.2. Discussion of sample 5.1.3. Results 5.2. Measured Bangla bilingualism 5.2.1. Procedures 5.2.2. Discussion of sample 5.2.3. Results 6. Recommendations Bangla translations of section 1.1, section 2, and section 6 Appendix A: Wordlists Appendix B: Questionnaires Appendix C: Sociolinguistic questionnaire responses Appendix D: Bangla sentence repetition test Appendix E. Subject biodata Appendix F: Koch community information Bibliography 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CIQ = community information questionnaire MLE = multi-lingual education MT = mother tongue RPE = reported proficiency evaluation SRT = sentence repetition test 4 PREFACE As part of SIL Bangladesh’s projects to develop the minority languages of Bangladesh, we researched the Koch language community. This report is the fruit of the field research conducted in April and August 2005. The research would not have been possible without the help of many, especially Sayed Ahmad and Mridul Sangma, who worked so well and uncomplainingly alongside us to gather and input data. But we want to reserve our deepest appreciation for the people and leaders of Kholchanda, Nokshi, Uttor Nokshi, Khatachura, and Chandabhoi who extended warm welcomes and gave their cooperation. We want to thank them for making themselves available for this work, and more than that, for accepting us so readily. We remain humbled by their genuine warmth. Seung and Amy Kim Language Survey Specialists SIL Bangladesh November 2005 Dhaka, Bangladesh 5 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Purposes and goals The purpose of this sociolinguistic survey was to gather information that would be useful in planning a language development program for the Koch of Bangladesh. While SIL Bangladesh believes that the ultimate decision for undertaking such a program belongs to the Koch community, we also recognize that sometimes the initiative has to come from outside the community and that implementation is also best done through partnerships with interested experts. Thus, our purpose is to serve the Koch community and any interested partners by providing current and useful information. To meet this purpose, we approached a sociolinguistic survey of the Koch in Bangladesh with the following goals: • To investigate linguistic variation within each of the varieties and across the main varieties of Koch in Bangladesh (Tintekiya and Chapra) • To determine Koch speakers’ attitudes towards their own language variety and towards other varieties • To assess the long-term viability of Koch • To assess Koch speakers’ abilities in Bangla To accomplish these goals, this sociolinguistic survey of the Koch of Bangladesh was carried out in three interrelated parts: 1) a study of the language varieties spoken by the Koch, 2) a language attitudes and vitality study, and 3) a bilingualism study. Figure 1 gives a summary of the sociolinguistic methods used in this survey. 6 Figure 1: Overview of methods Study Method Brief description Focus Sample size • Lexical variation • 3 Tintekiya within each Koch Study of the Lexical language variety • 1 Chapra language similarity 307-item wordlist • varieties comparison Lexical similarity Koch across language • 2 A’tong varieties • Language • 36 subjects preferences from 3 • Attitudes towards villages various language Language Sociolinguistic A 24-item varieties attitudes and questionnaire questionnaire • vitality study Language use patterns • Long-term viability of Koch varieties in Bangladesh • Perceived ability in • 36 subjects Sociolinguistic A 5-item any second from 3 questionnaire questionnaire language villages Bilingualism A 15-sentence • • study SRT (Sentence Measured ability to 48 subjects test calibrated to Repetition speak Bangla from 2 RPE levels 1 to Test) villages 4+ 1.1.1. Study of the language varieties The first method, or tool, used was a 307-item wordlist taken at three Tintekiya Koch villages (Kholchanda and Nokshi in Bangladesh, plus Chandabhoi in India) and one Chapra Koch village (Uttor Nokshi in Bangladesh). Each of these lists was compared with every other in order to determine the lexical similarity between them. Each wordlist was also compared to a standard Bangla wordlist to gain an understanding of the extent of borrowing that is taking place from Bangla into the Koch varieties. See Appendix A.1 for standard procedures for counting lexical similarity. 1.1.2. Language attitudes and vitality study A sociolinguistic questionnaire was used to assess patterns of language use among the Koch, their attitudes towards their own and other languages, and the long-term vitality of each language variety. This information gives an indication as to whether the Koch community would accept and use materials translated into their own language variety or into another language variety which is highly intelligible with their own. The sociolinguistic questionnaire is given in Appendix B. 7 1.1.3. Bilingualism study A Bangla SRT was specifically developed to assess the level of bilingualism among minority language speakers in Bangladesh. This test focuses on people’s ability to speak in Bangla, although it also gives an indication of people’s Bangla comprehension ability. In addition to using the Bangla SRT to measure Koch speakers’ Bangla ability, five questions from the sociolinguistic questionnaire mentioned were used to assess how they perceive their abilities in Bangla as well as other language varieties. In addition, the Community Information Questionnaire (CIQ) was used to gather information about language vitality and the depth and breadth of bilingualism. See Appendix D.1 for standard SRT procedures; see Appendix B.3 for the CIQ and Appendix F for the community information itself. 8 1.2. Location The Koch of Bangladesh live in the plains of Sherpur district in Dhaka division, mostly near the Indian border (see Figures 2 and 3). According to one leader, the Tintekiya Koch in Bangladesh live in three subdistricts of Sherpur district (see Figure 4). Also, the Chapra Koch apparently live in only Jhinaigati subdistrict, and their largest population on this side of the border is just a kilometer north of Nokshi and is appropriately named Uttor Nokshi. We also visited a Koch village called Khatachura in Gazipur thana, but there they seemed to have largely lost the language and live in isolation from the main Koch community in Sherpur district. Figure 2: General location of the Koch in Bangladesh 9 Figure 3: Approximate location of Koch villages researched 10 Figure 4: Names of Koch villages within three subdistricts of Sherpur district Subdistrict (Thana) Village Language spoken Sribordi Hatibor Tintekiya Koch Balajori Tintekiya Koch Kharajora Tintekiya Koch Jhinaigati Jokakora Tintekiya Koch Parbor Tintekiya Koch Bakakora Tintekiya Koch Purbo Bakakora Tintekiya Koch Baluka Tintekiya Koch Dokkhin Gandigao Tintekiya Koch Uttor Gandigao Tintekiya Koch Halchati Tintekiya Koch Gajni Tintekiya Koch Nokshi Tintekiya Koch Uttor Nokshi Chapra Koch Dhaudhara Chapra Koch Khornajhara Chapra Koch Dephlai Tintekiya Koch Shalchura Tintekiya Koch Rangtia Tintekiya Koch Boro Rangtia Tintekiya Koch Nalitabari Somochura Tintekiya Koch Kholchanda Tintekiya Koch 1.3. History and people It is a great shame that we cannot write much on the specific history of the Koch people, for there are very few primary or even secondary sources written about their origins, developments, movements, accomplishments, travails—in short, all those elements that make up the unique and interesting story of any ethnolinguistic group. As a poor substitute for that story, we offer a few sketchy facts. First, a point of possible confusion should be cleared up. The Koch we surveyed are not the same as the Rajbangsi who are also sometimes called the Koch. The Rajbangsi have the Cooch (Koch) Bihar area of West Bengal, India, as their historical and contemporary center, and speak an Indo-Aryan language that is related to Bangla (Gordon 2005:384). The Rajbangsi also live in Bangladesh, mainly in Dinajpur division (Gordon 2005:322), but they are completely unrelated to the Koch of our survey. While there’s no specific resource on the origins of the Koch, it is probably that their ancestors—that is, as a part of the more general group of the Boros—moved down to present- day India/Bangladesh from northwest China long before the Indo-Aryan speaking groups (http://www.geocities.com/ndfb2001/history.htm). Their physical features seem to support this, as the Koch resemble the Chinese and other Mongoloid people groups. Thus, they were not Hindus originally, but over the years most Koch have become Hindus, thereby making them a religious as well as an ethnolinguistic minority in Bangladesh. (In fact, we have even heard people make the unsubstantiated claim that the Koch are Garos who became Hindus.) 11 Like most people in Bangladesh, the Koch make their living as farmers, either working their own land or working as day laborers.
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