This book 'Convergence and Language Shift in a Linguistic Minority -- A Sociolinguistic Study of Tamils in Bangalore City ' is intended to give an idea about the Tamil spoken by the Iyengars and Mudaliars whose mother tongue is Tamil. These people have migrated from Tamilnadu to Bangalore many generations ago. Owing to lesser use of their mother tongue in day-to-day interaction and also due to the pressure exerted by the dominant language of the area (Kannada), the Tamil spoken by these people has undergone considerable changes. The changes are observed in phonological, morphological and syntactic levels and the attested changes in their Tamil are shown to be due to the influence of Kannada.

 

            This study consists of three parts. Part-I presents the salient features of Tamil spoken by the Iyengars. Part - II presents the coherent features of Tamil spoken by the Mudaliars, and Part-III presents a comparison of the two identifying the processes and variables of convergence and language shift. Though there are many Tamil speaking communities living in Bangalore , only these two communities are selected for this study because of the deviant linguistic behaviour of these two communities.

 

            Methods of study are described in the respective parts. In general the methods of data collection included the administration of questionnaires and direct interviews with the informants during which questions pertaining to language use were asked. As far as possible the informants were asked to converse in Tamil and the whole conversation was recorded. Family conversation in Tamil was encouraged and recorded.

 

            There were two types of questionnaires administered, namely,

1. Words and sentence lists consisting of approximately 300 functional words and 500 sentences prepared in such a way as to cover almost all the grammatical categories.

2. Through guided narrations of incidents and socio-cultural events, etc., information regarding language use in different domains, were elicited.

 

Through the latter elicitation method, useful data could be collected because the informants engaged themselves in more natural conversations.

 

Following is the sample of the questionnaire administered for following collecting the socio-cultural information’s and also the language data.

 

1.      Place of residence:

a) Rural [  ]             b) Urban [  ]                 c) Semi-urban [  ]

2.      Place of birth:

a) Respondent:                                           c) Mother:

b) Father:                                                   d) Spouse:

3.      Whether migrated:

Yes [  ]                   No [  ]              Not known [  ]

4.      If 'Yes', please state:

a) Earlier place of residence:

b) Year of migration:

c) Purpose of migration:

5.      Do you visit your native place?

Frequently [  ]                     Occasionally [   ]                      Never [   ]

6.      If 'Yes', please state the purposes:

a) To look after the ancestral property:

b) To visit relatives:

c) Business:

d) Any other reason:

7.      Your neighbours are the speakers of:

a) Your language

b) Other languages:

8.      What was the first language that you learned to speak:

9.      If more then one, which do you consider to be your mother tongue:

 

10.  Where did you acquire your mother tongue:

a) At home:

b) In the neighbourhood:

c) School:

 

11.  What other languages do you know:

	Languages	Read	Write	Speck	Understand
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)

 

12.  How often do you speck in your mother tongue with the following?

	Most Frequently	Frequently	Rarely	Never
(a) Grand-father
(b) Grand-mother
(c) Father
(d) Mother
(e) Spouse
(f) Children
(g) Grand-children
(h) Sisters/Brothers
(i) Servants
(j) Neighbours
(k) Relatives
(l) Friends at home
(m) Friends at school
(n) Place of work

 

13.  Is the use of languages other than mother tongue increasing at home?

Yes [   ]                  No [   ]

14.  If 'Yes', which languages(s):

 

 

15.  If your mother tongue taught/used in the schools/colleges:

	Lower primary	Primary	Middle	College
(a) As a subject
(b) As medium of instruction

 

16.  Are those schools/colleges run by:

a) Your won community:

b) The Government:

c) Any other:

17.  If your tongue is not taught in the school, do you have any other arrangements to tech it?

a) At home by the parents:

b) In other institutions, teaching your language exclusively:

c) By engaging a tutor:

18.  Is the script in which your language is written taught to your children?

19.  If schools are opened for teaching your language, will you support it?

a) By sending your children:

b) By encouraging other members of your community:

c) By providing financial help:

d) By providing self-service:

20.  Are there any newspapers/magazines in your languages?

Yes [   ]                  No [   ]

21.  If 'Yes', do you subscribe to it?

a) Dailies:

b) Weeklies:

c) Monthlies:

22.  Who read these magazines/newspapers?

a) Grand-parents:

b) Parents:

c) Wife/Husband:

d) Neighbours:

e) Self:

f) Any other:

23.  You do not subscribe because:

a) You do not know the script:

b) You cannot afford:

c) You are not interested:

24.  If you do not subscribe, do you read them at:

a) Community Hall:

b) Library:

c) Neighbour's house:

d) Place of work:

25.  Do you subscribe for the dailies/magazines coming out in other languages?

Yes [   ]                  No [   ]

26.  If 'Yes', for which language paper/magazine?

 

BIO - DATA

1. Name of the respondent                          :

2. Age                                                                    :

3. Sex                                                                    :

4. Education                                                           :

5. Occupation                                                         :

6. Community                                                         :

7. Economic status                                      :

other observations

1.      Nature of contact:

a) Duration of language contact:

b) Intensity:

2.      Language use:

a) Use of L₁ and its domains:

b) Use of L₂ and its domains:

3.      Attitudes:

a) Mutual attitudes of L₁ and L₂ groups - Positive and Negative:

b) Attitude towards mixing:

c) Attitude towards the usefulness of eth contact language:

                        i) Advantages for social mobility / economic improvement

                        ii) Prestige: overt and convert

4.      Convergence - Languages involved:

a) Direction: Uni/bi-directional:

b) Degree:

c) Convergence over a particular span of period:

      i) Older generation

      ii) Younger generation

 

5.      How frequently do you meet the speakers of other langu8ages?

Languages	Very often	Daily	Monthly	Rarely	No contact
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

 

6.      Do you generally mix other languages when you speak your mother tongue? If 'Yes', kindly tick among the following you mix.

(i) Only words [   ]              (ii) Parts of sentences [   ]

7.      Which languages do you like more among the languages in this place? Give reasons:

a) Socio-cultural reasons:

b) Economical reasons:

c) Personal reasons:

d) Any other reasons:

8.      Do you think that learning the dominant language in the area is advantageous and prestigious?

Yes [   ]                  No [   ]             No opinion [   ]

9.      If 'Yes', give reasons.

Tick from among the following:                                Yes      No       No opinion

a) It is the language spoken by the majority :            [   ]       [   ]       [   ]

b) It helps in having better job opportunities:            [   ]       [   ]       [   ]

c) It helps in performing the professional duties:       [   ]       [   ]       [   ]

d) Any other reasons :                                                        

10.  Do you think that the language spoken by you is different from the language spoken by your grand-parents-

Yes [   ]                  No [   ]             No opinion [   ]

11.  Can you narrate a small incident happened in your life?

12.  Can you tell a small story in your mother tongue?

 

For each study 12 samples were collected, one each from 12 informants who were categorized under three variables, viz.,

1.      Period of stay

2.      Economic status, and

3.      Education

The informants were selected from different localities of Bangalore City covering both sporadic and concentrated localities of the communities under study.

 

            The analysis of the data included the comparison of the data with the Tamilnadu Tamil phonological morphological and lexical patterns. The innovative features, addition or reduction at different linguistic levels owing to the influence of the dominant language, were attested separately. Such features were compared with the informants coming under the other variables in order to find out variation in usage.

 

            In general, the following are the items covered:

1)     Review of related studies

2)     Locales of the present study

3)     Socio-linguistic setting

4)     Distribution and language use

5)     History and migration of the communities

6)     Sample of coverage

7)     Data collection techniques utilized

8)     Sampling technique and variables selected

9)     Analytical technique and methodology

10) Convergent features in the phonological level

11) Convergent features in the morphological level

12) Comparison of the two communities as regards convergence and language shift prevalent in their use of Tamil

 

The third part of this book on comparison deals with the possible reasons for the disparity in language loyalty and attitude of the two communities towards their mother tongue and its use in various domains. It also discusses the nature of contact the communities keep with Tamilnadu and their reading habits of Tamil vis-à-vis the trends in convergence and language shift.

 

Problems faced in data collection are dealt with separately.