Mrinalini Watson
LING 566: Professor Klein
Research Methods
February 8, 2015
Questioning attrition of minor languages in India
The attrition of minor languages in India is a different process from that
experienced by other world languages in multilingual environments because of
India’s unique linguistic ecology. Attrition is a natural consequence of languages
being in contact and can be observed in any part of the world. However, India’s
multilayered ethno-cultural identity creates an environment that uniquely impacts
the country’s linguistic environment. The geographic area that forms India was
originally divided into a number of independent kingdoms, which were united by
the British Empire. To the British, Indians might have been monochromatic,
however even today the people of each state continue to retain the cultural and
linguistic identities that they had prior to the British unification effort. In addition to
the regional and communal identities Indians also have a national identity, which
forms a secondary or tertiary layer to their cultural persona. All these cultural
layers influence an Indian’s linguistic identity.
Not being multilingual in India is unusual. According to the 2001 Census of
India, the country is home to more than 1700 languages and dialects from six
language families. Of these, at least 28 languages, that are not considered a dialect of
Hindi, have more than a million speakers each. Almost every Indian is exposed to
multiple languages from birth, so communicating in more than one language is the
norm. Of the six main language families in India, most Indians speak one or more
languages from four of the language families; with Indo-Aryan languages being the
largest group. The network of Indo-Aryan language families is so vast and the
languages so closely related that the Indian government only recognizes a fraction
of the languages as official languages, relegating the rest to dialect status. This
marginalization of the minor languages is having a dramatic effect in homogenizing
India’s cultural identity. Marwari, a language spoken by the community of people
whose ancestors were from the state of Rajasthan, is a linguistic example of the
consequence of this kind of socio-political action. In spite of having approximately
30 million speakers, according to the 2001 Census of India, this language is
considered a dialect of Hindi; not an official language even though it has more than a
million speakers. In the Marwari (also the name of the people who speak the
language) diaspora within India, this marginalized status in conjunction with the
perceived socio-economic disadvantages of speaking the language has prompted
members of this community to shift away from speaking their heritage language,
opting instead for Hindi, Indian-English or the language of the State to which they
have immigrated. The long-term effect of these choices is acculturation away from
Marwari traditions and consequently loss of knowledge related to things like
traditional foods and cultural practices. To understand the status of Marwari
language use in the Marwari diaspora investigation should be conducted into
whether:
1)
… functional aspects of language attrition in the form of language shift in
the Marwari diaspora within India, are indicative of language attrition in
other minor language communities of India?
2)
… language use by the Marwari diaspora within urban Indian cities is
shifting towards Hindi, English or the state language and what, if any,
functional uses of the heritage language are being retained by the
community?
3)
… language affiliation of the Marwari diaspora is tied to their cultural
identity and what aspects of their cultural identity are being transferred
to the new language?