A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF MAGAR (As Spoken in Myagdi District) A thesis Submitted To The Central Department of Linguistics The Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences Tribhuvan University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for The master's degree in Linguistics By Kasi Raj Gautam Second year exam roll no. 5638 T.U. Regd. No. 1765-99 Central Department of Linguistics Kathmandu, Nepal 2010 Letter of recommendation Date: 2067 This is to certify that Mr. Kasi Raj Gautam has completed this dissertation on the topic A Sociolinguistic Study of Magar (As Spoken in Myagdi District) under my guidance and supervision. I recommend this dissertation for evaluation. ___________________________ Mr. Lekhnath Sharma Pathak Lecturer Central Department of Linguistics Tribhuvan University Kathmandu, Nepal 2 Letter of Approval This is to certify that A Sociolinguistic Study of Magar (As Spoken in Myagdi District) a dissertation submitted by Mr. Kasi Raj Gautam in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master's degree in Linguistics has been duly approved for acceptance. ______________________ Dissertation Supervisor ______________________ External Examiner ______________________ Head of the Department Date: 2067 3 Acknowledgements First of all, I am profoundly indebted to my respected supervisor Mr. Lekhnath Sharma Pathak, Lecturer of Central Department of Linguistics, T.U., Nepal for his scholarly and insightful guidelines, constant encouragement, co-operation and constructive suggestions for successful accomplishment of the present thesis. I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude and honor to Dr. Dan Raj Regmi, Head of Central Department of Linguistics. I am very much thankful to him for his valuable remarks, guidelines and insightful comments. Dr. Nirmal Man Tuladhar, Professor of Central Department of Linguistics, deserves my special thanks as an external supervisor who provided constructive suggestions, invaluable support of accomplishment of thesis. I would like to express my gratefulness to Prof. Dr. Yogendra Prasad Yadav, former Head of Central Department of Linguistics and Dr. Madhav Prasad Pokhrel, Professor of Central Department of Linguistics who gave the broad vision of language I needed for the study. I wholeheartedly would like to express my thankfulness to Mr. Ram Raj Lohani, Mr. Balram Prasain, Mr. Bhim Lal Gautam, Mr. Krishna Prasad Parajuli, Mr. Krishna Prasad Chalise, Mr. Bhim Narayan Regmi, Mr. Krishna Paudel and other faculty members of Central Department of Linguistics, T.U., Kirtipur for their direct and indirect academic prosperity and moral support. I heartily thank my language teachers Sat Prasad Roka, Yam Bahadur Pun, Chandra Bahadur Budhathoki, Asha Pun, Laxmi Kumari Roka, who constantly provided me their valuable time for eliciting data and other things related to my dissertation. I am also indebted to all other informants whose names have not been mentioned here and who helped me to provide information about the Magar language and culture. I offer my deep gratitude to Director of the Linguistic Survey of Nepal for providing sociolinguistic questionnaire. I am indebted to the authors whose ideas are cited and adopted in this thesis. My deepest debt of gratitude is to my colleagues and students of Mangala Shikshya Campus and Dawning English Secondary Boarding School, Babiyachaur, Myagdi. They encouraged me to follow my dreams. Moreover, I am very grateful to my brother Dipendra and other family members for their constant help to accomplish the present work. Finally yet most importantly, thanks are reserved to Bishow for photos. Kasi Raj Gautam 4 Abstract The main goal of this study is to assess the socio-linguistic situation of the Magar language spoken in Myagdi district. This study has employed different field based sociolinguistic tools such as sociolinguistic questionnaires, interviews, observation for the collection of the information for the sociolinguistic situation of the language. This study has been organized into six chapters. The first chapter presents the introduction; the second chapter deals with the Magar language and people; third chapter describes the methodology used in study; chapter four and five presents the sociolinguistic data and analysis and finding; chapter six finally summarizes, recommends and concludes this work of research. The references and appendices are listed at the back of the thesis. The major findings of the study comprise (i) The Magar language is spoken by only a few number of speakers, that is 770119 (ii) There is no standardization of language in any way (iii) It is potentially endangered language because of lack of intergenerational transmission, use in mass media and medium of instruction. (iv) Magar people are both bilingual and multilingual. Most of them speak Nepali, Magar, Chhantyal and English. (v) Only religious activities and daily communication are two domains in which Magar is used. (vi) They have positive attitude towards their language and language of others. (vii) They celebrate the Dashain, Tihar, Sanskranti and other tribal festivals for worshipping clan deities and other gods and goddess. 5 Table of contents Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv List of tables viii List of figures ix List of maps x List of photos xi Abbreviations xii Chapter 1: Introduction 1-5 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Statement of the problem 2 1.3 Objectives of the study 2 1.4 Review of literature 2 1.4.1 Literature review related to the Magar language 2 1.4.2 Literature review related to sociolinguistic survey 3 1.5 Significance of the study 4 1.6 Limitations of the study 5 1.7 Organization of the study 5 Chapter 2: Magar people and language 6-25 2.0 Outline 6 2.1 Geographical introduction 6 2.2 Glotonym 9 2.3 Origin and history 9 2.4 Genetic affiliation 12 2.5 Magar society and their social practices 13 2.5.1 House and living style 13 2.5.2 Food system 14 2.5.3 Dressing 15 2.6 Economic activity of the society 16 2.7 Social and family structure 17 2.8 Kinship terms 17 6 2.9 Tradition and culture 18 2.9.1 Birth 18 2.9.2 Rice feeding ceremony (Putdhadai) 18 2.9.3 Hair shaving ceremony (Chhewar) 19 2.9.4 Marriage 19 2.9.5 Death rites 20 2.9.6 Festivals 20 2.10 Education, literacy and Literacy Traditions 22 2.11 Population distribution 23 2.12 Summary 25 Chapter 3: Methodology 26-28 3.0 Outline 26 3.1 Data collection 26 3.1.1 Tools 26 3.1.2 Sampling procedures 27 3.2 Data Analysis 28 3.3 Summary 28 Chapter 4: Language attitude and language use 29-40 4.0 Outline 29 4.1 Data on Language Attitude 29 4.2 Data on language use 33 4.3 Summary 40 Chapter 5 : Language endangerment, multilingualism, bilingualism and lexical similarities and differences 41-51 5.0 Outline 41 5.1 Data on Language Endangerment 41 5.2 Data on bilingualism / multilingualism 45 5.3 Lexical similarities and differences 49 5.4 Summary 52 Chapter 6: Findings, summary and conclusion 53-58 6.0 Outline 53 6.1 General summary 53 7 6.2 Main Findings 54 6.2.1 Socio-cultural Status 54 6.2.2 Language attitude 54 6.2.3 Language use 55 6.2.4 Bi/multilingualism 55 6.2.5 Language Endangerment 56 6.3 Conclusion 57 6.4 Recommendations 57 References 59-61 Appendices 8 List of tables Table 2.1 : Government and private schools and colleges in survey areas 22 Table 2.2 : Regionwise Population of Magar by Mother Tongue 23 Table 2.3 : VDC wise Magar Native Speakers in Survey District 24 Table 3.1 : Overview of tools and its focus 26 Table 3.2 : Sampling of Population 27 Table 4.1 : Feeling of native speakers while speaking their mother tongue 29 Table 4.2 : Problems showing being an L1 speaker 30 Table 4.3 : Problem due to an L1 speaker 31 Table 4.4 : Language used in community gathering 31 Table 4.5 : Feeling of mother tongue against other languages 32 Table 4.6 : Language use 33 Table 4.7 : Language use 34 Table 4.8 : Language use 35 Table 4.9 : Language use 35 Table 4.10 : Language use 36 Table 4.11 : Use of languages for kith and kin 37 Table 4.12 : Language used for different genres 38 Table 4.13 : Use of languages with mother tongue speakers 38 Table 4.14 : Use of languages with the non-mother neighbours 39 Table 5.1 : The condition of endangerment 41 Table 5.2 : Language endangerment 43 Table 5.3 : Bilingualism 45 Table 5.4 : Bilingualism 46 Table 5.5 : Bilingualism 47 Table 5.6 : Bilingualism 47 Table 5.7 : Lexical similarities and differences 49 9 List of figures Figure 4.1 : Feeling of native speakers while speaking their mother tongue 29 Figure 42 : Problems showing being an L1 speaker 30 Figure 4.3 : Language used in community gathering 31 Figure 4.4 : Feeling of mother tongue against other languages 32 Figure 4.5 : Language use 33 Figure 4.6 : Language use 34 Figure 4.7 : Language use 35 Figure 4.8 : Language use 36 Figure 4.9 : Language use 37 Figure 4.10 : Use of languages with mother tongue speakers 39 Figure 4.11 : Use of languages with the non-mother neighbours 40 Figure 5.1 : The condition of endangerment 42 Figure 5.2 : Language endangerment 43 Figure 5.3 : Bilingualism 45 Figure 5.4 : Bilingualism 46 Figure 5.5 : Bilingualism 47 Figure 5.6 : Bilingualism 48 10 List of maps Map 2.1 : The boundary showing the VDC's of Myagdi district 7 Map 2.2 : Map of Nepal showing district area 8 Map 2.3 : Map of Nepal showing Magar speaking area 11 11 List of photos Photo 2.1 : A typical Magar house in Myagdi district 14 Photo 2.2 : An Elderly Female in Traditional Magar Dress 15 Photo 2.3 : Women in Traditional Magar Dress 16 Photo 2.4 : Magar People in Cultural Programme 21 Photo 2.5 : Magar People in Rodhi 21 Photo 2.6 : Magar People in Religious Ceremony 22 12 Abbreviations CBS – Central Bureau of Statistics CUP – Cambridge University Press LinSuN – Linguistic Survey of Nepal CDL – Central Department of Linguistics VDC – Village Development Committee TU – Tribhuvan University 13 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Background This study is an attempt to analyze the socioilinguistic study of the Magar language (As spoken in Myagdi District).