A Sociolinguistic Survey Among the Dhurwa of Madhya Pradesh and Orissa
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Digital Resources Journal of Language Survey Report 2021-034 A Sociolinguistic Survey among the Dhurwa of Madhya Pradesh and Orissa D. Selwyn Joseph and Selvi Joseph A Sociolinguistic Survey among the Dhurwa of Madhya Pradesh and Orissa D. Selwyn Joseph and Selvi Joseph SIL International® 2021 Journal of Language Survey Report 2021-034 2021 SIL International® ISSN: 2766-9327 As a peer-reviewed journal for original research articles, SIL Electronic Survey Reports (ISSN: 1559-1417) has been well-known since 1999. The SIL journal title was changed to Journal of Language Survey Reports, starting with the first issue in 2021. Fair-Use Policy: Documents published in the Journal of Language Survey Reports series are intended for scholarly research and educational use. You may make copies of these publications for research or instructional purposes (under fair use guidelines) free of charge and without further permission. Republication or commercial use of Journal of Language Survey Reports or the documents contained therein is expressly prohibited without the written consent of the copyright holder. Orphan Works Note: Data and materials collected by researchers in an era before documentation of permission was standardized may be included in this publication. SIL makes diligent efforts to identify and acknowledge sources and to obtain appropriate permissions wherever possible, acting in good faith and on the best information available at the time of publication. Series Editor Angela Kluge Managing Editor Eric Kindberg Copy Editor Eleanor J. McAlpine Compositor Bonnie Waswick Abstract This report concerns the use of the various languages spoken by the Dhurwa people of Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh and Koraput district of Orissa. The report was produced from data collected between January and March in the year 1986. During the survey, researchers Mr. D. Selwyn Joseph and Mrs. Selvi Joseph made three field trips and collected the needed information. Most of the distances were covered by cycles, although some locations were accessible only by walking even, on occasion, by climbing mountains. The first trip was made mainly to become familiar with the geographical location of the Dhurwa people. The village of Bade Kavali served as a base for the first trip. The researchers collected wordlists and texts in and around that base of operations. Gehumpadar served as a base for the second trip, and Jagdalpur as a base for the third trip. The authors and their colleague, Mr. PKD, visited test points and did the intelligibility testing in those three areas. As a result of this survey the authors strongly recommend literature development in the Dhurwa language. The comprehension of the Nethanar dialect is wide, and that dialect is also accepted by the people of other dialects. So it seems best for the Nethanar dialect to serve as central for a language development project. There is a need of reading and writing literature in the Oriya script for the benefit of the one-third of the Dhurwa people who are in the Koraput district of Orissa. Around ninety percent of the Dhurwa people speak Dhurwa as their mother tongue. Comprehension of other languages is not high among the Dhurwa-speaking Dhurwas. So it seems important to encourage language development in their vernacular. It seems profitable for Bhatri-speaking Dhurwas to have a Bhatri language development project and for the Halbi-speaking Dhurwas to have a project in Halbi. Regarding literacy and education, there is a definite need in the Orissa area, the Tiriya area, the Nethanar area, and the Dharba area. In the Kukanar area schools are functioning and the literacy rate is comparatively high. (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 1 Introduction 1.1 Goals 1.2 Location of the Dhurwa in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa 1.3 Monolingual Dhurwa-speaking Dhurwas 1.4 Non Dhurwa-speaking Dhurwas 1.4.1 Oriya-speaking Dhurwas 1.4.2 Bhatri-speaking Dhurwas 1.4.3 Halbi-speaking Dhurwas 2 Dialects of Dhurwa 2.1 Tiriya dialect 2.2 Nethanar dialect 2.3 Dharba dialect 2.4 Kukanar dialect 2.5 Intelligibility among the Dhurwa dialects 2.6 Standard and widely understood dialects of Dhurwa 3 Bilingualism 3.1 Bilingualism in Hindi 3.2 Bilingualism in Oriya 3.3 Bilingualism in Bhatri 3.4 Bilingualism in Halbi 4 Language use and attitudes 4.1 Concerning the vernacular 4.2 Concerning Hindi, the state language 4.3 Concerning Halbi, the lingua franca 4.4 Concerning Bhatri 4.5 Concerning Madia 5 Recommendations 6 Methodology 6.1 General 6.1.1 Personal interviews 6.1.2 Personal visits 6.1.3 Wordlist and questionnaire 6.2 Recorded text testing 6.3 Bilingualism 6.3.1 Hindi and Dhurwa 6.3.2 Oriya and Dhurwa 6.3.3 Bhatri and Dhurwa 6.3.4 Halbi and Dhurwa 6.4 Language use and attitudes 7 Trip summary 7.1 Trip one 7.2 Trip two 7.3 Trip three Appendix A: Questionnaires Appendix B: Wordlist Appendix C: Maps References iv 1 Introduction The purpose of the survey was to assess the need for literature development in the Dhurwa language. 1.1 Goals 1. To know the level of bilingualism in Hindi, Oriya, Halbi and Bhatri. 2. To find out the dialect differences which exist in Dhurwa. Dhurwa is one of the central Dravidian languages and it is widely spoken by Dhurwas who inhabit parts of Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh and Koraput district of Orissa. The Dhurwa area starts from Kavapal (15 kms. away from Jagdalpur towards the southwest) in Jagdalpur tahsil of Bastar district and goes up to Murthonda (3 kms. northwest of Sukma) in Konta tahsil of Bastar district. The Dhurwa area also covers the western border of Koraput district of Orissa parallel to the Bastar district area. The exact population of Dhurwas is still unknown. We believe the population to be around 100,000. This figure includes Dhurwa people who no longer speak the Dhurwa language. About ninety percent of Dhurwa people still speak Dhurwa as their mother tongue, whereas ten percent have shifted to other languages. In the peripheral areas the Dhurwa people are influenced either by the lingua franca, Halbi, or the adjacent languages of Bhatri or Oriya. Most of the Dhurwa people have some knowledge of Halbi as a second language. I reached these conclusions after taking a census in the villages that I visited. Regarding the villages that I could not visit, I gathered information from the inhabitants of the villages that I was able to contact. Though there are slight differences in the Dhurwa language from village to village, there are four distinct dialect varieties. Each of these dialects is widely understood by speakers of the other Dhurwa dialects. They have a positive attitude toward the vernacular and it is widely used. Knowledge of Hindi, the state language, and Halbi, the lingua franca, is considered to be prestigious. The methodology in section 6 discusses how these conclusions were reached. 1.2 Location of the Dhurwa in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa The geographical location of the Dhurwa people1 is clearly given in map 1 (Appendix C). It is believed that the Dhurwa people originally belonged to Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh and later migrated into the Koraput district of Orissa.2 About two-thirds of the Dhurwa live in Bastar and one-third live in Orissa. The Dhurwa people are forest dwellers. In Bastar they are found in Jagdalpur and Konta tahsils and in a few villages of Dantewada tahsil. In Orissa they live close to the western border of Koraput district. The Dhurwa population is most dense in the central part of this area. 1.3 Monolingual Dhurwa-speaking Dhurwas Most of the Dhurwa are bilingual, but children and those who do not have contact with outsiders are monolingual in Dhurwa. Ninety percent use the Dhurwa language as their mother tongue. In Orissa, the Dhurwa-speaking Dhurwas extend from Gadagat in the north to Malkangiri in the south. In Madhya Pradesh, they extend from Kavapal in the northeast to Murthonda in the south. Dhurwa people are found in forest reserve areas; they are also found in the plains. In Orissa, the main concentration of Dhurwa people is found in the Tellurna, Tulsi, Charat Budhil, and Malkangiri areas. In Madhya Pradesh, the Dhurwa people are concentrated in the Tiriya, Nethanar, Koleng, Dharba, Tongpal, Marenga, Southinar, 1 Burrow and Bhattacharya (1953) give orientation to the possible dialect differences in the Dhurwa language. The Dhurwa language was formerly known as the Parji language. With the help of their maps we had a rough idea of the location of Dhurwa inhabitants. 2 Thusu (1968), The Dhurwa of Bastar, was very helpful in knowing the Dhurwa villages. 1 2 Kodripal, Kokkavada, Pushpal, Kindhervada, Talnar, Bududhi, Ganjenar, Kukanar, Pakel, and Murthonda areas. The population is most dense in the Kukanar, Pushpal, and Guma areas. 1.4 Non Dhurwa-speaking Dhurwas Many areas are in contact with Halbi, the lingua franca of Bastar district, and a few other areas are in contact with either Hindi, the state language, or with Bhatri or Oriya. In the peripheral areas of the Dhurwa region, the influence of the second language is so great that the Dhurwa people have forgotten their mother tongue. 1.4.1 Oriya-speaking Dhurwas The Dhurwa people of Orissa who live on the border of the Dhurwa area speak Oriya.