A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Bhatri-Speaking Communities of Central India

DigitalResources Electronic Survey Report 2017-005 A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Bhatri-speaking Communities of Central India Compiled by Dave Beine A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Bhatri-speaking Communities of Central India Compiled by Dave Beine Researched by Dave Beine Bruce Cain Kathy Cain Michael Jeyabalan Ashok Sawlikar Satya Soren SIL International® 2017 SIL Electronic Survey Report 2017-005, May 2017 © 2017 SIL International® All rights reserved Abstract This sociolinguistic survey of the Bhatri-speaking communities of Central India was carried out between February and November 1989. The goal of the survey was to assess the need for language development work and vernacular literacy programs among the Bhatri-speaking peoples of Bastar District in Madhya Pradesh and Koraput District in Orissa. Dialect intelligibility tests revealed that the whole Bhatri- speaking area can be considered one language area. Language use and attitudes questionnaires showed that the language is thriving. Bilingualism in the major languages of Hindi, Oriya, and Halbi is inadequate for people to use existing materials. Based on these findings the survey recommends that a language project be undertaken in the Bhatri community. (This survey report written some time ago deserves to be made available even at this late date. Conditions were such that it was not published when originally written. The reader is cautioned that more recent research may be available. Historical data is quite valuable as it provides a basis for a longitudinal analysis and helps us understand both the trajectory and pace of change as compared with more recent studies. Editor) Contents Tables Preface 1 Introduction 1.1 The people 1.2 The language 2 Goals of the survey 2.1 Introduction of goals 2.2 Dialect area study 2.2.1 Lexical similarity 2.2.2 Dialect intelligibility 2.3 Language use and attitude study 2.4 Pilot bilingualism study 3 Procedures 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Lexical similarity procedures 3.3 Dialect intelligibility testing procedures 3.4 Language use and attitudes study procedures 3.5 Pilot bilingualism testing procedures 4 Summary of findings 4.1 Dialect area study 4.2 Bilingualism 5 Recommendations 5.1 For translation 5.2 For further survey Appendix A: Wordlists Appendix B: Texts and questions Appendix C: Recorded Text Test data References iii Tables Table 1. Lexical similarity percentages Table 2. Number of comparisons Table 3. Dialect intelligibility scores Table 4. Bilingualism results Table 5. Questions on language use and attitudes questionnaire iv Preface A sociolinguistic survey of the Bhatri-speaking communities of Central India was initiated early in February 1989 with a consultation and short introduction to survey methods held in Jeypore. The survey proceeded through the hot season until mid-May of the same year. After a short recess, the project was resumed in September 1989 and concluded in November of that same year. There were many along the way who made the long, hot journey a more pleasant one, and whose friendship and hospitality will never be forgotten. Thanks should be expressed to Bruce and Kathy Cain for their warm introduction to the beautiful train ride, their preliminary work, and for putting up with all the questions of a new survey worker. Many of my notes made during the survey are no longer in my possession due to unfortunate circumstances. There are many other people whom I would like to thank and many other observations I could include if I still had access to that material. As it is, I have done my best to write an accurate sociolinguistic assessment of the Bhatri language. It should be noted that I alone am responsible for any mistakes or errors contained in this report. Dave Beine June 15, 1990 Kathmandu Nepal v 1 Introduction 1.1 The people The Bhatras, a “scheduled tribe” of Madhya Pradesh, are settled agriculturalists residing in the north- eastern plains of Jagdalpur Tahsil of Bastar District in the state of Madhya Pradesh.1 An even larger number live in the northern half of Koraput District of the state of Orissa.2 The Bhatras of Bastar District claim their descendency from Warangal District of Andhra Pradesh as their ancestral home and say they came to Bastar District thirty generations ago as attendants to the first king of Bastar.3 The Bhatras seem to have four endogenous clans. These are the Amnit Bhatra, Bade Bhatra, Pita Bhatra, and San Bhatra. The Amnit Bhatra are found mainly in Jeypore Tahsil of Koraput District while the San Bhatra are found primarily in Jagdalpur Tahsil of Bastar District. The Bade and Pita Bhatra seem to be found throughout the entire region. Tandon (1959:34) has suggested that these divisions can be subdivided even further. He writes, It seems that in Bastar, Bade and Pita Batra are again subdivided into a number of endogamous groups according to the region where they live. Before integration of the states took place, Jagdalpur Tahsil was divided into Parganas. The Bhatra of each Pargana were referred to by the name of the Pargana in which they resided. Even after the abolition of the Pargana system, the Pargana divisions of the Bhatra social organization still persist. He also suggests that besides this, the Bhatra are further divided into a number of exogamous, totemic, patralineal, and patralocal clans (ibid.). Although the Bade Bhatra men pride themselves as keepers of the sacred Hindu thread, many of their customs are far from Hindu. They have no restrictions against eating meat and they will not drink milk as they say that it was meant to be consumed only by the calf. Each clan has its own deity which may or may not be of Hindu origin. Although the 1981 census of India did not list a population figure for the Bhatras, the 1971 census gave a figure of 71,145. 1.2 The language The language of the Bhatra people is known as Bhatri. Bhatri [bgw] is the lingua franca of much of the area and has become the mother tongue of many of the other castes and tribes residing in the area. Many—Bhatras and non-Bhatras alike—refer to this language as Deshia (“country talk”) although one Deshia scholar explained that Deshia includes the consonantal aspiration of the neighboring Indo-Aryan languages, while Bhatri does not. For the purpose of this report we consider the two terms synonymous and will refer to both as Bhatri. The local name for Bhatri is aisi jaisi got while neighboring Halbi [hlb] is known as aia jaia got. The question has arisen how different Bhatri and Halbi really are; this will be discussed further in section 4.2. Grierson (1903) classified Bhatri as a corrupt form of Oriya [ory] with a few Marathi [mar] and Chhattisgarhi [hne] forms intermingled. He considers it a true dialect of Oriya, while considering Halbi a broken dialect of the east more closely akin to Marathi. He considered Bhatri as the link between Oriya and Halbi. Bhattacharya (1957:16) has expressed surprise that Bhatri and Halbi have been treated by Grierson as separate languages affiliated with Oriya and Marathi respectively. He has concluded that 1Although the majority of the Bhatra population is found in Koraput District of Orissa, the Orissa census lists them neither as a scheduled caste nor as a scheduled tribe. 2[In 2011, the English rendering of the state’s name was officially changed from Orissa to Odisha—Editor] 3According to Mukherji (1944), the Halbas have the same story about their origin. 1 2 Bhatri and Marathi are in fact mutually intelligible speeches. The classification of Bhatri has given rise to some controversy, yet the language has thus far remained little studied. One interesting note must be made at this point. In the 1981 census of India no reference was made to the Bhatri language. Although it is the mother tongue of thousands in the state of Orissa, it was not listed in the language tables for that state. One must make the assumption that they were simply grouped with the mother-tongue speakers of Oriya. If this is the case, it can be seen that the census- taking officials must also have viewed Bhatri as a form of Oriya. 2 Goals of the survey 2.1 Introduction of goals The goal of the survey was to clear up many of the questions concerning the Bhatri language and to assess the need for language development and vernacular literacy programs among the Bhatri-speaking peoples of Bastar and Koraput Districts. In order to meet the stated goal of this survey, many aspects of both language use and language attitudes among the Bhatri-speaking communities needed to be investigated. It was the goal of the survey to answer the following questions: 1. Are there significant dialect differences among the Bhatri-speaking communities which may necessitate more than one Bhatri language development project? (Will one Bhatri project suffice for the whole area, and if so, where would be the best place to center a project?) 2. How do the Bhatri-speaking communities feel towards other languages? (Might they need their own language development project because of certain negative attitudes towards other dialects in which vernacular literature already exists?) 3. How stable is the Bhatri language? (Are there indications of language loss or shift?) 4. Are the Bhatri-speaking communities bilingual enough to effectively use existing materials? (Can they effectively use language materials in Hindi, Oriya, or Halbi?) In order to answer these questions our survey was directed into the following three types of study: dialect area study, language use and attitude study, and bilingualism study. These are discussed below. 2.2 Dialect area study The purpose of a dialect area study is to define, in linguistically quantifiable terms, the changes which have taken place among speech varieties spoken throughout an entire geographical area, and between the social strata of a given community of speakers of the same language.

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