Digital Resources Journal of Language Survey Report 2021-032 Preliminary Sociolinguistic Survey of Thakali Jef Webster Preliminary Sociolinguistic Survey of Thakali Jeff Webster SIL International® 2021 Journal of Language Survey Report 2021-032 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 Marisa McHenry Abstract This report presents the results of sociolinguistic inquiry into the Thakali language of Nepal conducted by Jeff Webster in August 1993. The purpose of the study is to measure linguistic distance between the three Thakali varieties and to measure oral Nepali language proficiency in the Thakali homeland. Results indicate only slight variation among Thakali dialects. The Thakali variety spoken in the village of Tukche is most widely accepted and most vigorously transmitted to children. Uneducated and elderly participants in the study had difficulty in understanding all but simple spoken Nepali. However, many Thakali young people reported that Nepali was their first language, and Webster observes that language shift is evident. (This survey report written some time ago deserves to be made available even at this late date and without the usual anonymous peer-review. Conditions were such that it was not published when originally written. The reader is cautioned that more recent research may be available elsewhere. Historical data is quite valuable as they provide 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 Preface 1 Introduction 1.1 Geography 1.2 People 1.3 Language 2 Goals 2.1 Differences among Thakali varieties 2.1.1 Lexical similarity between Thakali varieties 2.1.2 Intelligibility between Thakali varieties 2.2 Bilingualism in Nepali 3 Summary of findings 3.1 Thakali speech varieties 3.2 Bilingualism in Nepali 3.3 Language use and language attitudes 4 Dialects of Thakali 4.1 Lexical similarity 4.2 Dialect intelligibility 5 Bilingualism 5.1 Sentence Repetition Testing 5.1.1 Demographic profile 5.1.2 SRT Results 5.2 Evaluation of factors affecting proficiency 5.2.1 Literacy 5.2.2 Living outside Thak Khola 5.2.3 Frequency of travel 5.2.4 Radio in the household 5.2.5 Age 5.2.6 Educated children 6 Language use and attitudes and language vitality 6.1 Regarding standard dialect 6.2 Observations regarding language vitality 7 Conclusions and recommendations 7.1 Regarding language development 7.2 Regarding further sociolinguistic research Appendix A: Wordlists Appendix B: Recorded Text Tests Appendix C: Sentence Repetition Test References iv Preface This sociolinguistic survey of Thakali was conducted primarily during a two-week period in early August 1993. This research in the Thak Khola region south of Mustang District was carried out under the auspices of the Center for Nepal and Asian Studies (CNAS) of Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu. Broadly speaking, the purpose of this survey was to investigate both the extent of second language proficiency in Nepali and the degree of difference among the different dialects of Thakali. To my knowledge, no sociolinguistic study has been done to investigate the understanding between dialects, to determine the most central dialect for literature development, and to determine community-wide proficiency in Nepali. It is our hope that this study will provide insights into these issues. Jeff Webster August 1998 Kathmandu, Nepal v 1 Introduction A brief overview of the Thakali people and language is presented here. Aside from Sherpas and Newars the Thakali have probably been studied more intensively than any other ethnic group in Nepal (see the footnote in References for some of the more important studies). Thus, no attempt will be made here to give an in-depth introduction to the Thakali. 1.1 Geography The Thakali inhabit an area called the Thak Khola, the middle reaches of the Kali Gandaki valley flanked on one side by Annapurna Himal and on the other side by Dhaulagiri Himal. Thakali settlements stretch from Tatopani village in the south to Jomsom, also known as Jomsom, in the north, all part of Mustang District, Dhaulagiri Zone to the northwest of Pokhara. Today many Thakalis have settled permanently outside the Thak Khola and are well known as excellent businessmen, especially in their operation of wayside inns called bhattis. There are two main geographic divisions among the Thakali, and three dialect divisions. Economically, politically, and socially dominant are the inhabitants of the southern region, called the Thaasaang, or alternatively, Thaaksaatsaye (Nepali: the 700 Thakali houses) or Thak Khola (Nepali: river of Thakali houses). To the north of this area is the region locally known as Yhulnghaa (Thakali) and by outsiders as Paanchgaaun (Nepali), both meaning “five villages” (Gauchan and Vinding 1979:99). This survey included Thini, Marpha, Chhairo, and Chimang villages which are part of Panchgaun, and Tukche village from the Thaasaang region. Thakalis are the most numerous ethnic group in the Thak Khola, although there are also people from various Hindu occupational castes, as well as a few from the more Tibetan Baragaun region north of Jomsom, in Thakali villages. The total population of Thakali speakers according to the 1991 census is 7,113. Only 2,229 were listed for the Thak Khola area, the rest being widely scattered over dozens of districts, no other district with more than 550 Thakalis (Government of Nepal 1993:27). Tukche is the undisputed cultural center of the Thakalis, as it was the undisputed trading center of the Thak Khola in years past. 1 2 Detailed map of Thakali survey area 3 1.2 People Thakalis comprise three ideally endogamous subgroups. The Tamang inhabit the Thaasaang area, which comprises all Thakali villages south of Marpha. There are four clans of Tamang, Gauchan, Tulachan, Sherchan, and Bhattachan (Nepali names). Thakalis in Marpha form a separate endogamous group, referred to as Puntan by other Thakalis, comprised of the clans Juharchand, Hirachand, Lalchand, and Panachand. The third subgroup is less well defined, but comprises Thini, Syang, and Chimang villages. There is no common term for this third subgroup. The Tamang claim to be the only true Thakali, though this claim to exclusivity is not unique, but is claimed to a lesser degree by the other groups as well (Gauchan and Vinding 1979:97–99). A large number of Thakalis spend the colder months outside of the Thak Khola, returning in the Spring. Many have settled outside permanently, though the proportion of permanent settlers is perhaps greatest among those from Marpha village (Gauchan and Vinding 1979:101). In Marpha, locals estimated that only half of the population of 700 still live in Marpha, the others living relatively permanently outside the Thak Khola. Increasing numbers of young people are attending boarding schools in Pokhara and Kathmandu. Large numbers have also gotten jobs in Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong. The Thakalis are traditionally traders, occupying a crucial link between Tibet and the lower hills and plains. For many years, they had a government sanctioned monopoly on the salt trade in the Thak Khola. Over the years, the Thakalis have developed into an extremely successful long-distance trading group (Bista 1987:86). The resulting wealth is now fueling their success in current business ventures, namely the tourist trade. Although today, with large numbers of Thakalis living outside of their area, there is a shortage of labor, requiring an increasing influx of Nepali-speaking people to meet the need. This increasing influence of Nepali culture is perhaps speeding up the trend of culture change in the area. At least as self-reported, the religion of the Thakalis is Buddhist. In reality, this is Buddhism with a mixture of Jhankrism, Bonpo, and more recently, Hinduism. They claim that Jhankrism, “a kind of Shamanistic cult,” is their original religion (Bista 1987:93). 1.3 Language To my knowledge, no sociolinguistic study of Thakali dialects has ever been conducted. Hari and Maibaum (1970) have written on tone in Thakali and published an extensive wordlist of Tukche Thakali (in Hale, ed. 1973). Glover’s lexicostatistic comparison of Thakali and other Tibeto-Burman languages in Nepal, using a 100-item wordlist, shows Thakali as being most closely related to Gurung and Tamang. It is 72 percent cognate with Gurung and 66 percent with Tamang (Glover 1974:13). Local opinion is essentially unanimous in distinguishing three dialects of Thakali, paralleling the three cultural subgroups discussed in section 1.2. Tukche is the center of the most prestigious and dominant dialect, generally just called Thakali. Marpha stands alone as the second dialect which is more distinct than the other two dialects. Thini, Syang, Chimang, and Chhairo are the villages where the third dialect is spoken (this includes present-day Jomsom as well).