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
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[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.