Dialect Intelligibility Between Ladakhi and the Bhoti Varieties of Lahul Valley
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DigitalResources Electronic Survey Report 2019-007 Dialect Intelligibility between Ladakhi and the Bhoti Varieties of Lahul Valley Brad Chamberlain Dialect Intelligibility between Ladakhi and the Bhoti Varieties of Lahul Valley Brad Chamberlain SIL International® 2019 SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2019-007, September 2019 © 2019 SIL International® All rights reserved. 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. ii Abstract This dialect intelligibility study among the Bhoti varieties of Lahul Valley (Himachal Pradesh) and Ladakhi from Leh, Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir) was undertaken by the Indian Institute for Cross Cultural Communication (IICCC). The survey was conducted in July and August 1997 and follows on data gathered during the Lahul Valley survey the previous year (Chamberlain and Chamberlain 2019). The survey found that the Stod Bhoti variety is the best understood and most widely accepted language variety throughout Lahul Valley. (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 Abstract 1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose 1.2 Goals 1.3 Methods 2. Dialect intelligibility study 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Intelligibility testing 2.2.1 Intelligibility testing results 2.2.2 Summary of intelligibility testing results 2.3 Post-RTT questionnaire 2.3.1 Post-RTT questionnaire results 2.3.2 Summary of Post-RTT questionnaire results 3. Language attitudes study 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Language attitudes results 3.3 Summary of language attitudes results 4. Summary and recommendations Appendix A: Recorded Text Tests Appendix B: RTT Results Appendix C: Questionnaire Responses References iii 1. Introduction “A Sociolinguistic Survey of Lahul Valley, Himachal Pradesh”1 (Chamberlain and Chamberlain 2019), states that the Bhoti people of Lahul Valley have a strong connection with Ladakhi people, culturally, racially, and linguistically. For a discussion of the geography and people of Lahul Valley, refer to Chamberlain and Chamberlain 2019. The geography and people of Ladakh are examined in “A Sociolinguistic Profile of Ladakhi”2 (Webster and Webster 1992). In the Lahul Valley Report, it was established that the Bhoti people of Lahul will not be served by materials developed in the other Lahul Valley languages, including Hindi. Sources suggest that language materials developed in Leh Ladakhi might serve the Bhotis of Lahul. Thus the intelligibility between these two linguistic varieties required investigation. 1.1 Purpose This project was conducted to identify the language variety which best serves the Bhoti-speaking people of Lahul Valley, Himachal Pradesh. 1.2 Goals This survey had several goals: 1. To locate Bhoti language boundaries within Lahul Valley. 2. To identify a central variety among the Bhoti varieties spoken in Lahul. 3. To discover the Bhoti-speaking people’s attitude towards their own language variety in the written form. 4. To assess the Lahul Bhoti people’s understanding of the Leh Ladakhi speech variety. 5. To determine the Lahul Bhoti people’s attitudes towards the Ladakhi language and people. 1.3 Methods The following methods were used to achieve those goals: 1. Based on data gathered during previous Lahul Valley and Ladakh surveys, sites were selected to represent the various Bhoti varieties of the region. 2. A questionnaire was administered to Lahul Bhoti speakers to assess their attitude towards the Ladakhi people and language. 3. Recorded Text Tests (RTT) were conducted between the main Lahul Bhoti language communities to assess the dialect intelligibility of these varieties. Also, this helped locate a central Bhoti variety within Lahul valley. 4. An RTT text from Leh, Ladakh was tested among the Lahul Bhoti communities to assess intelligibility of the Ladakhi language among Lahul Bhoti speakers. 5. Post RTT questions were asked to determine Lahul Bhoti people’s attitudes towards the various Lahul Bhoti varieties, and the Leh Ladakhi variety. 1 Referred to as Lahul Valley Report for the remainder of this paper. 2 Referred to as Ladakhi Report for the remainder of this paper. 1 2 2. Dialect intelligibility study 2.1 Introduction The Lahul Valley Report identifies three regions in Lahul Valley inhabited by Bhoti people: Stod Valley, Mayar Valley, and Khoksar Valley. These regions are separated from one another by geographic barriers. A lexical similarity study was conducted which compared standardized wordlists from these varieties. The data reveal that the Bhotis in the three regions may well be able to understand one another, but further testing is required. The Ladakhi Report found that language development based in Leh would serve the majority of the Ladakhi-speaking people. In the Lahul Valley Report, a wordlist from Leh was compared with wordlists from Lahul Valley. The Bhoti varieties of Lahul Valley shared a 68–79 percent lexical similarity with the Leh wordlist. This, combined with strong positive attitudes among the Bhoti-speakers of Lahul towards the Ladakhi people, suggested that further dialect intelligibility testing is necessary between Ladakhi and the Lahul Bhoti varieties. Dialect intelligibility testing was conducted between Leh Ladakhi and varieties representing each of the three Lahul Bhoti regions. For this discussion, the varieties will be referred to as follows: Ladakh: Leh Ladakh Mayar: Changut Village, Mayar Valley, Lahul Stod: Darcha Village, Stod Valley, Lahul Khoksar: Khoksar Village, Khoksar Valley, Lahul 3 Maps of the three Lahul Bhoti regions surveyed Map hand-drawn by Brad Chamberlain. 4 Map hand-drawn by Brad Chamberlain. For a discussion of the Recorded Text Testing (RTT) procedures used during this intelligibility testing, refer to Appendix A. The Ladakhi text was collected to test in each of the three locations. However, no other text was tested in Ladakh. Due to attitudes and population size (55,000 Ladakhi speakers vs. 2,500 Lahul Bhoti speakers) Lahul is not the appropriate place to base a language project for reaching all the Ladakhi speakers. Similarly, a hometown test was collected in Mayar Valley, in order to validate test subjects there. The Mayar text was not played in other locations. Due to the site’s remoteness and small population it seemed unlikely that Mayar Valley would be the proper location for a language project meant to reach the entirety of Lahul Valley. 2.2 Intelligibility testing 2.2.1 Intelligibility testing results The results of intelligibility testing among the Bhoti varieties of Lahul and Ladakhi are shown below. In general, RTT scores of 80 percent or higher with accompanying low standard deviations are interpreted to indicate that subjects from the test point dialect display adequate understanding of the recorded variety. However, RTT scores below 60 percent are interpreted to indicate inadequate intelligibility. 5 Table 1. Lahul Bhoti and Ladakhi intelligibility testing results X = Average score Std = Standard deviation N = Number of subjects Stod Subjects Khoksar Subjects Mayar Subjects Ladakh Subjects X = 99.2 X = 85 X = 73.8 Stod Text Std = 2.89 Std = 6.45 Std = 11.3 Not tested N = 12 N = 13 N = 12 X = 92.9 X = 98.8 X = 62.5 Khoksar Text Std = 6.56 Std = 3 Std = 11.4 Not tested N = 12 N = 13 N = 12 X = 97.9 Mayar Text Not tested Not tested Std = 5.79 Not tested N = 14 X = 71.3 X = 20 X = 15.4 X = 100 Ladakh Text Std = 15.1 Std = 20.8 Std = 9.4 Std = 0 N = 12 N = 13 N = 12 N = 15 In these results, only two RTT scores (not including Hometown validation scores) are above 80 percent. The Stod Valley subjects scored 92.9 percent on the Khoksar text, and the Khoksar subjects scored 85 percent on the Stod Valley text. In both cases, the standard deviation is fairly low. These results suggest that the Khoksar and Stod people should be able to share materials developed in either location. The Mayar Valley subjects scored lower on the Khoksar text (62.5 percent) than they did on the Stod text (73.8 percent). In both cases the standard deviation was fairly high (11.3 and 11.4 percent). These results suggest that the Mayar Valley subjects would be better served by material developed in Stod Valley, than in Khoksar. However, 73.8 percent is not high enough to confirm that they will be served by the Stod variety. Among the three Lahul locations, the people from Stod Valley had the highest score of the Ladakh text, with a score of 71.3 percent. The accompanying high standard deviation of 15.1 suggests that some people scored well on the Ladakh text (probably because of exposure to Ladakhi, since Stod Valley is near to Ladakh), while others did poorly. From these numbers, it is possible that literature developed in Ladakh could be used by some people in Stod Valley, though not by all. The people of Mayar and Khoksar scored low on the Ladakh text. In Khoksar, the average score was 20 percent. The accompanying high standard deviation (20.8) suggests that a few scored moderately on the text, while others scored extremely low. One subject scored 70 percent. All other Khoksar subjects scored less than 40 percent on the Leh test. In Mayar, the average score on the Ladakh text was only 15.4 percent.