Speaking Like a Brahmin: Social Aspects of a Register of Spoken Telugu
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Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2013-03-15 Speaking Like a Brahmin: Social Aspects of a Register of Spoken Telugu Bradley B. Miller Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Linguistics Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Miller, Bradley B., "Speaking Like a Brahmin: Social Aspects of a Register of Spoken Telugu" (2013). Theses and Dissertations. 3517. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3517 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Speaking Like a Brahmin: Social Aspects of a Register of Spoken Telugu Brad B. Miller A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts Janis B. Nuckolls, Chair Dirk Elzinga Wendy Baker Smemoe David Eddington Department of Linguistics and English Language Brigham Young University March 2013 Copyright © 2013 Brad B. Miller All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Speaking Like a Brahmin: Social Aspects of a Register of Spoken Telugu Brad B. Miller Department of Linguistics and English Language, BYU Master of Arts Among sociological studies in South Asia, frequent reference is made to caste as one of the greatest motivating factors in establishing, reinforcing, and creating social structure. This system of social hierarchy has, however, undergone drastic shifts and changes over the past decades (Dirks, 2001: 5) resulting in ‘caste’ as a term used to systematize concepts of social identity, community, and organization in India. The Brahmin caste, in particular, has undergone drastic changes as a result of social and political influence from without as well as from within, resulting in a conflict of identity (Bairy, 2010: 233). As a direct result of this conflict of caste identity, many individuals respond, act, and interact in ways that confirm, reject, or (re)establish their own individual identity within the greater scheme of their caste. The current study will examine specific ways in which Telugu Brahmins use linguistic markers to index socially acceptable, cultural ideologies. It will be explained how the use of lexical borrowings, markers of politeness and honorification, and emphatic aspiration index historical ideologies of Brahmin-ness. In indexing these ideologies, Brahmins identify with and associate their own actions in relation to traditional notions of those qualities assumed to be inherent in the Brahmin caste. Furthermore, meta-linguistic discourse will be examined, showing that recognition, acknowledgment of, and (mis)interpretation of a ‘Brahmin register’ is used to both mark intra-caste solidarity and reinforce social stereotypes about the caste. Keywords: register, caste, social hierarchy, Brahmin, Telugu ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are far too many people who have helped and offered support as well as suggestions in order to make this thesis what it has become. To begin, I wish to thank Dr. Janis Nuckolls, without whose help, encouragement, suggestions, and advice I would not have considered linguistics as a possible profession. It is because of her mentorship that I began this journey, and it is because of her always-beneficial advice that I have conducted the research I have. I can never fully repay her for the time and devotion she put into my studies and work, though I wish I could. Furthermore I wish to thank Dr. Charles Nuckolls whose passion for Indian culture and Telugu inspired me to broaden my horizons and expand my field of understanding to include the complex, and awe-inspiring beauty that is South Asian society and culture. With his help, Dr. MV Krishnayya was also instrumental in suggesting my current topic of analysis. Without his suggestions, my research would have been aimless and unnecessarily broad. I genuinely appreciate his continued guidance and friendship, as well as his natural ability to observe, mimic, and understand others. As a student, I must recognize the many professors who have endured my often repetitive ramblings about those topics of research that interest me. I would specifically like to thank Drs. Dirk Elzinga, David Eddington, Wendy Baker Smemoe, Heather Willson, Greg Thompson, Deryle Lonsdale, and William Eggington. Their encouraging suggestions and comments, as well as their vested interest in my education and research have been invaluable. Many others in the Linguistics and Anthropology Departments at Brigham Young University deserve my thanks as well. I also wish to acknowledge one person who in spite of countless meetings, discussions, deadlines, and pestering emails, has continuously helped me in my studies. LoriAnne Spear has never once complained about the difficulties I presented her, and for that and her kind and generous support I will be forever indebted. Support for my graduate studies, travel abroad, research, and thesis write-up has come primarily from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-0750759. Finally I wish to thank my family who have been my source of inspiration and support through all of the work this has required. My wife especially has remained a strong source of support through countless, seemingly never-ending days of worry, concern, change, and revisions as I have gone through this process. Without her support none of this would have been possible. I will forever be grateful to her for always believing in me. I dedicate this thesis to mi princesa ecuatoriana. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Images and Figures viii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1. Introduction 1 1.2. On Caste, History, and the Brahmin Tradition 2 1.2.1. The evolution of caste 2 1.2.2. The ancient Brahmin tradition 7 1.2.3. The genesis of the Modern Brahmin 12 1.3. Religion and Linguistic Variation 18 1.4. Style, Register, Dialect, and Indexicality 19 1.5. Methodology 22 1.5.1. Data Collection 22 1.5.2. Data translation and analysis 25 1.6. Outline of Thesis Structure 26 Chapter 2: Language Information 28 2.1. Introduction 28 2.2. Telugu 29 2.2.1. A spoken language 29 2.2.2. Linguistic influence 30 2.3. Sanskrit 34 2.4. Borrowings and Caste 38 2.4.1. Incorporated borrowings 40 2.4.2 Occupation specific borrowings 41 2.4.3. Scolding terminology 44 vi 2.5. Conclusion 48 Chapter 3: Markers of Politeness as Indicative of Status 49 3.1. Introduction 49 3.2. Previous work 50 3.2.1. Honorific pronouns and forms of address 50 3.2.2. Grammatical markers of politeness 52 3.2.3. Honorific registers and social stereotypes 54 3.3. Honorifics and politeness in Telugu 55 3.3.1. Pronouns 56 3.3.1.1. First-person pronouns 56 3.3.1.2. Second-person pronouns 58 3.3.1.3. Third-person pronouns 60 3.3.2. Politeness and Vocative Markers 63 3.3.2.1. (Im)polite referential suffixes 63 3.3.2.2. Vocative markers 65 3.3.2.3. Vocative Pronouns 65 3.3.2.4. Vocative Suffixes 66 3.3.4. Family relations and terms of endearment 68 3.4. Conclusion 70 Chapter 4: Aspiration as Indicative of Caste 72 4.1. Introduction 72 4.2. Past descriptions 73 4.2.1. Style-centric analyses 73 4.2.2. Caste as an influencing factor 80 vii 4.3. Telugu Phonemic System 83 4.4. Phonological Aspiration 84 4.4.1. Aspirated words 85 4.4.2. Formal speech/High stle 88 4.5. Emphatic aspiration 90 4.5.1. Orthographically represented aspiration 93 4.5.2. Non-orthographically represented aspiration 95 4.6. Aspiration indexing caste 99 4.7. Conclusion 104 Chapter 5: Meta-linguistic Awareness of Caste Markers 106 5.1. Introduction 106 5.2. Speech and Caste Association 107 5.3. Speech as Indicative of Cultural Values 115 5.4. Individual Understanding of Caste Identity 128 5.5. Conclusion 138 Chapter 6: Social Aspects of a Register 139 References 142 Appendix A - ‘Ascribed Status’ 152 Appendix B - ‘They talk like that’ 161 Appendix C - ‘In your question lies the answer’ 171 Appendix D - ‘Can you tell?’ 173 viii LIST OF IMAGES AND FIGURES Image 2.1. - Andhra Pradesh 27 Figure 2.2. - Telugu Dialect Areas by District 29 Image 2.3. - Map of Telugu Dialect Areas 30 Figure 2.4. - Standardized Transliteration of Telugu Vowels 31 Figure 2.5. - Standardized Transliteration of Telugu Consonants 32 Figure 2.6. - Education/Scientific Borrowings 39-40 Figure 3.1. - First Person Pronouns 54 Figure 3.2. - Second Person Pronouns 56 Figure 3.3. - Third Person Pronouns 57 Figure 4.1. - Proto-Dravidian Consonants 69 Figure 4.2. - Educated Telugu Consonantal Phonemes 70 Figure 4.3. - Phonemes of Formal Spoken Telugu - High Speech Style 73 Figure 4.4. - Aspirated Consonants of Telugu 79 Figure 4.5. - Aspirated sounds ordered by frequency 86 Figure 4.6. - Brahmin Speaker Demographics 86 Figure 4.7. - Aspirated consonant sample frequency 87 1 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1. Introduction Among sociological studies of India, caste is perhaps one of the leading topics of discussion. For hundreds of years, the concept of caste has fascinated the western world, as can be seen in the multitude of books and articles written on the subject. Because of its highlighted role among sociological research, it has also taken an almost elevated role within sociolinguistics as the exemplary model for social stratification and subsequent linguistic variation. Gumperz (1958: 668; 1961: 976; 1964: 137) was perhaps one of the first to use linguistic variables to show the interface of caste and language, specifically as they deal with social interaction. Unfortunately, beyond Gumperz, scientifically sound research on this interface has been rather limited to either passing reference to Gumperz and caste-based variation or individual case studies by a small handful of others (Miranda, 1976: 77; Rao & Ruback, 1986: 177; Sastry, 1994: 11; Suseendirarajah, 1978: 312; etc.).