1.
Introduction:
The present paper discusses a few aspects of linguistic convergence and
language shift among the Kudumbis, a Konkani speaking linguistic minority
settled in Kerala. They call this
language as `Kudumbi'. This group
has a history of four centuries in the
land
of
Kerala
. Kudumbis
and other Konkani speaking groups like Gowda Saraswath Brahmins, Vaisyas and
Sonars have migrated from Goa during the later half of the 16th
century due to the religious persecution of the Portuguese and settled down at
first in three places viz., Mancheswaram (Cannanore district), Cochin (Ernakulam
district) and Purakkad (Alleppy district) along the costal line of Kerala in
1562 AD1. Later they
shifted to the interior areas of Kerala. The
Travancore Archaeological records show that the Kudumbis settled in
Trivandrum
were brought from
Goa
in the 18th century by
Marthanda Varma, the Raja of Travacore to provide `beaten rice' to the palace.
Still they are continuing the same work and the surrounding Malayalis
call them as "idiyammar" (those who beat) because of this profession.
1961 census records the language spoken by Kudumbis under two heads;
Kudumbi (7840) and Mooppan (473). Now
the total Kudumbi population in Kerala is over 12,0002.
Linguistic convergence quite often takes place when two or more speech
communities maintain prolonged contact within abroad field of communication and
there can be cross currents of cultural diffusion also.
Kudumbi speech community has been in prolonged contact with the Malayalis
in diverse areas of communication. The
alternate use of these languages in various domains in day to day communication,
there is a possibility that features of each of these systems tend to diffuse
into the other system. Though the
linguistic barriers to diffusion are not absolute, in this situation of
extensive bilingualism, even the grammatical system can be affected.
Extreme cases of such language contact situations may result in the
formation of a single underlying grammar for the language in contact as in the
case of the Kupwar village study3. From the studies of such diffusion
processes some striking cases of grammatical borrowing were revealed even among
genetically unrelated languages. As
Emeaneau (1974) points out, generally lexical items are borrowed most frequently
and in certain cases borrowing can extend to all other aspects of the language
system, phonological, grammatical and syntactic.
In Kudumbi situation, the minority group is learning the language of the
majority. Generally the preservation
or displacement of the ancestral language would depend upon the socio-economic
conditions of the minority community which comes into contact with the majority
community. The Kudumbis belong to
the lower socio-economic group where most of the people are labourers.
The group provides an interesting paradigm of the nature of convergence
and language shift within the Konkani speaking caste groups each having a
different relation to the dominant culture.
In this situation the convergence is uni-directional and is towards the
majority language. The younger
generation is getting more and more educated and there has been an increased
contact with the dominant group and as a result a transitional stage is noticed
and the language is losing its force. They
themselves are disowning their language and claiming Malayalam as their mother
tongue due to various socio-political reasons.
This would be an instance of the loss of the ancestral language in a
lower socio-economic group by the conscious effect of the community itself.
2.
Convergent features in Kudumbi:
An attempt is made here to know a few convergent features identified in
Kudumbi with the Malyalam structure, in the phonological, grammatical and
lexical levels. In all these levels
the convergence is towards the majority language, Malayalam.
2.1.
Phonological level
In the phonological level, one could find a number of phonemes of
Malayalam in the phonemic inventory of Kudumbi.
The presence of alveolar stop / t /, palatal nasal / n / palatal lateral
/ l / and dental nasal / n/ in the Kudumbi speech reflect the influence of
Malayalam on Kudumbi which are not available in Konkani.
As in Malayalam, the difference between alveolar and dental nasal, is
maintained very clearly in Kudumbi. Further,
the homorganic clusters such as /nc/ /nt/ are present in Kudumbi due to these
Malayalam phonemes. The labio dental
fricative /f/ also identified in Kudumbi which may be due to the influence of
colloquial Malayalam.
/ t / occurs as geminated in word medial position
e.g. / tetta /
`wrong'
/ kattĔ/
`paddy'
/n/ occurs word initially and medially
/nerE/
`line'
/pa:nə/
`leaf'
/n/
occurs word medially with homorganic stop
/konjƏli/
`handful'
/mullanni/
`raddish'
/
l / occurs intervocalically
/palƏ/
`fruit'
/taalcĖ/
`depth'
/f/
occurs word initially
/faaryƏ/
`wife'
/fuulr/
`flower'
/faati/
`back'
The
loss of phonological features of Konkani is attested in Kudumbi due to the
influence of Malayalam. Nasalization
and aspiration are clear features in Konkani but are almost lost in Kudumbi.
Loss
of aspiration :
Eg.
Konkani
Kudumbi
ph > f phaati
faati
`back'
bh > b bhaabdu
baabdu `cart'
bhaat
baat
`paddy'
dh > d dhuuy
duuyi `wash'
jh > j jhoodu
joodu `storm'
gh > g ghood
good `house'
mh > m mhoovu
moovu `honey'
nh > n nhaa
naa
`both'
Loss
of nasalization :
Konkani
Kudumbi
muyi
muuyi 'ant'
coddu
cou
`child'
addE
adde `beam'
olle
olle
`big'
2.2.
Grammatical level
Many convergent features are identified in grammatical level.
The grammatical suffixes of Malayalam are being used in Kudumbi.
2.2.1.
Number
One of the striking features of grammatical convergence is the use of
Malayalam plural suffixes in Kudumbi. Three
plral suffixes /kanri/ (M) /kaar/, /gale/ (M) /Kal/ and /maara (M) /maar/ are
identified in Kudumbi speech. The
occurrence reflects the Malayalam pattern and the direction of convergence is
towards Malayalam.
Malayalam has the plural suffix /kaar/.
Kudumbi uses the same marker with slight phonemic alternation.
Kudumbi
Malayalam
kuuttəkaari
kuuttu kaar
`friends'
totto kaari
toottakkaar `
gardner
'
The
plural marker /kal/ of Malayalam has been taken to Kdumbi as /galƏ/
Konkani
Kudumbi
Malayalam
haat-Ə
haat.galə
kayakal `hands'
diis-Ə
diisu.galə
divasankal `days'
The
plural marker /maar/ of Malayalam is being used a /maaə/ in
Kudumbi.
Konkani Kudumbi
Malayalam
Puut-maarə
putranman
`sons'
bəyni.y
boyni – maarə
sahoodarimaar `sisters'
baayl-ə
baayl-maaə pennunnal
`women'
The
loss of the Konkani plural marker / y /
is attested in Kudumbi. The neuter
gender plural marker is optional in Malayam.
Kudumbi has taken the same pattern.
Konkani
Kudumbi
Malayalam
Boylaccogaadiyə boyia
gaadi
kaalavandi
`bullock cart'
cear kud-ə
caarikudu
naalu muRi
`four room'
2.2.2.
Case suffixes
A few Malayalam case suffixes are attested in Kudumbi.
Accusative
The accusative case suffix ne/e of Malayalam is being used in Kudumbi in
the place of /-ni/, the accusative suffix in Konkani.
Konkani
Kudumbi Malayalam
Putta-ni
putta-ne
putrane `son' (acc.)
Paksiyā-ni
paksi-ne
paksiye `bird' (acc.)
Genitive
The
genitive case marker – ude of Malayalam is being used in Kudumbi.
Konkani
Kudumbi
Malayalam
rukhaa-lē
rukhaa-de marattinte `of tree'
Dative
/kƏ/
is the dative case marker in Konkani. Kudumbi
uses the Malayalam dative case suffix /nu/.
Konkani
Kudumbi
Malayalam
RaamaakƏ
raaman
raamanu `rama (dat)
SiitaakƏ
siitaau
sittakku `sita (dat)
Locative
The
Malayalam locative case marker /-il/ is found in Kudumbi speech.
Konkani
Kudumbi Malayalam
renaant
kaadilu
kattil `in forest'
pondaakƏ
pondeelu
cuvattil `down'
2.2.3.
Formation of fractions
In Konkani, Fractions are formed by the preposition of allomorphs of/ardhƏ
/ `half'. In Kudumbi speech,
fractions are formed by post-posing the allomorph of /ardhƏ / `half' as in
Malayalam pattern.
Eg: Konkani
Kudumbi Malayalam
Savaayi
eekk-kaalu
onneekal `1 ¼'
Sarayi d
dooni-kaalu
rantee kal `2 ¼'
PavnƏdooni
dooi-mukkalu
randee mukkal `2 ¾'
2.2.4.
Compound
verbs
A
few verbs are identified in the Kudumbi speech which are taken from Malayalam.
tornu
kari
torakkuka
`to open'
jooli
kari
jooli ceyyuke
`to work'
tiirtƏ
kari
tiirkkuka
`to finish'
2.3
Lexical level
The
lexcon of Kudumbi speech reflects a number of borrowings from Malayalam.
Two types of lexical borrowings are attested in this situation 1) word
along the meaning is borrowed without phonological changes. 2) word along with
the meaning is borrowed with phonological changes.
1)
without phonological changes
eg. Kalukkoolu
`rafter'
olukku
`flow'
colali
`epilepsy' etc.
2)
with phonological changes
Kudumbi
Malayalam
saapu
saspam `curse'
val Ə
`anklet'
guudo
kuutu `cage'
etc.
It
is observed that when certain words are borrowed from Malayalam they accept the
word according to the general morphological pattern of the language.
When proper nouns are borrowed it is found that they make it either
masculine/feminine.
Kudumbi
Malayalam
Meese (fem.) meesa (neu.)
`table'
Val Ə (mas.) vala
(neu.)
`anklet'
A
few items are found borrowed to Kudumbi with semantic changes also.
vattam
`square'
vattam `circle'
muudavu
`fog'
mudd
`cloud'
3.
A few obdrvations on cultural diffusion :
Close
contact and intermingling of societies having different traditions cause
cultural diffusion. The Kudumbi
community in Kerala has a 400 years tradition in the land and a positive and
receptive attitude towards the Kerala culture and many of the aspects of it have
become a part and parcel of their day today life.
Other Konkani communities like GSBs in Kerala have their own temples and
their culture is highly related to these institutions.
In this domain,, they preserve their language also.
The Kudumbis do not have their own temples and they are sharing the
temples of Malayalis and have accepted the Kerala system of worshiping Serpant
God, Bhadrakali etc. The other
Konkani communities still keep in touch with their oldest Kuladevata temples in
Goa
while the Kudumbis are not aware of
their oldest temples and they do not have any contact.
In food habits also we can observe a wide difference between Kudumbis,
and other Konkani speaking groups in Kerala. Kudumbis have accepted all the food
habits of Keralites and the use of house-hold articles confined to Kerala
culture. In the observation of
festivals we can notice this wide difference between Kudumbis and GSBs.
GSBs observe the festivals like `Yugaadi', Yariyalpurnima' `Ganesh
Chaturthi' etc, all of them are unknown to Kerala culture.
While the Kudumbis do not observe any of these festivals but are confined
to the Kerala festivals like `Onam', `Vishu' etc. and have an appreciation
towards these festivals. Earlier the
Kudumbis community has some peculiar system of wearing dresses (especially
women). Now they have rejected this
and Kudumbi women wear clothes like other Malayali women.
The other Konkani speaking communities do not inter marry with Malayalis,
while Kudumbis have accepted intercaste marriages with Malayalis in certain
places and have adopted the Kerala Hindu system of marriage.
Generally kinship terms would be preserved in the language even after a
great loss of the structural pattern. Other
Konkani speaking communities are preserving all of their kinship terms while the
Kudumbis have adopted many of the terms from Malayalam like `amma' (mother) `aliya'
(brother-in-law) ceettan/annan `brother, naattun (sister-in-law) maama (uncle)
etc. In personal names also a wide
difference can be seen between GSBs and Kudumbis.
GSBs have their own personal names (with surnames like Bhat, Mallya, Kini,
Pai, Kamat etc.) While Kudumbis are
accepting the personal names of Malayali Hindus.
These factors of cultural diffusion are highly related to the linguistic
convergence and language loss among this linguistic minority.
4.
Language shift :
Language
maintenance/shift and acculturation among the linguistic minorities in Indian
situation can be basically ascertained on the greatest psychological, social and
cultural distance kept by these immigrant groups from the institutions,
processes and values of the dominant society.
And this separatism or closeness can be seen which is reflected by the
indices of socio-economic status of the immigrant community.
Being in the lower socio-economic class,
there are several factors involved in the process of language shift among the
Kudumbis. Contact in the field of
education or schooling is an important factor in maintaining the ancestral
language. While in many of the
states in
India
, there are facilities for minority
children to learn their mothertongue atleast upto the primary level.
But this group has no such facility.
Kudumbi children are studying in Malayalam medium and it is observed that
the older generation who do not have their formal education in Malayalam use
mother tongue in the domain of home while the children studying in Malayalam
medium show a high tendency to speak Malayalam even at home. In child-hood, a
child learns to speak Kudumbi and Malayalam simultaneously from parents and
neghbourhood respectively and he is forced to use Malayalam in most of the
domain. Since the Malayalam speaking communities never speak Konkani, the
Malayalam, Kudumbis learning is in no way affected or influenced.
On the other hand, they learn Kudumbi from their own community which is
under constant influence of Malayalam. So,
this influence of the domiant language is being transmitted from generation to
generation with an acceleration and the result is the loss of the ancestral
language. The functional utility of
the language seems to be a crucial factor among many of the factors which lead
to extensive bilingualism and language shift.
The urge to compete with people of the dominant language and to improve
their economic conditions for acceptability and upward mobility, the learning of
the regional language becomes essential, which leads to extensive bilingualism
and finally to language shift. Other
factors like non-standardization of the language (mother tongue) lack of
supporting institutions for the upliftment of the language, economic
instability, lack of common orthography, lack of use in mass media, feeling of
inferiority about their own language etc. are some of the causes of language
shift among the Kudumbis. The
language tables of census of 1951, 1961 and 1971 do not show much increase in
the population of Konkani speaking communities in Kerala.
The main reason for this is that the Kudumbi community is consciously
giving their mother tongue as Malayalam. Since
they belong to the lower socio-economic group, they are trying to get themselves
included in the official list of `scheduled caste' of Kerala, the changing of
social linguistic identity (with political influence also) through organized
compagins is leading to the loss of the ancestral language and finally language
shift, giving way to the dominant language in their day to day communication.
Foot
Note:
1.
Travancore State Archieves records
2.
Information received from All Kerala Kudumbi Association
3.
Gumperz, 1971.
Bhattacharya, S. (1975)
Linguistic convergence in the Dravido,
Munda culture area. ISDL. 4.2.
Fishman J.A. (1971)
Language in socio cultural change
Stanford
U.
Press.
Gumperz J.J. & Wilson R. (1971)
Convergence and creolization: A case study from the Indo-Aryan
Dravidian Border in
India
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Katre S.M. (1964)
Formation of Konkani
Konkani Bhasha Prachar Sabha (1979)
"Souvenior of the All
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Konkani
Sahitya Parishat
,
Cochin
– 12th Session held on 11-12 Feb. 79.
Pandit, P.B. (1972)
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as a sociolinguistic area
University
of
Pune
, Pune.
Southworth F.C. & Apte M.L. (ed) (1974)
Contact and convergence in South Asian Languages, IJDL. 3.1.
State Archives Dept.
"The Konkani Community in Kerala"
(reprint)
Testimonium in Konkani in Nagari Script
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Celophon:
The author is thankful to Dr. M.V. Sreedhar for
His comments during the
preparation of this paper.