the settlements are in interior locations that are out of contact and lack educational facilities, the Muthuvan may remain in a generally monolingual situation. Based on these observations, it appears that
the succeeding generations may speak their traditional mother tongue.
4.5 Conclusion
The language use questionnaire results among Muthuvan people show that they use their mother tongue often in the important domains of home, village and religion. Mother tongue language use of Muthuvan
among the children also appears to be strong. Malayalam and Tamil appear to be mainly used for education and contact with Malayalis, Tamiliyans and people from other tribal communities.
The study of language attitudes makes it appear that Muthuvan people have an attitude that favours the maintenance of their mother tongue. Even though they appreciate the use of the LWC, they do not
look down on their language in any way. Both Tamil Muthuvan and Malayalam Muthuvan people seem to generally appreciate their own language variety.
The results from language vitality study show the likely continuation of the mother tongue. Many children are first learning to speak their mother tongue and are exposed to the LWC when they go to
school. The majority of Muthuvan subjects are against inter-marriage with other communities. This opinion could serve to insulate their community from the potential influence towards language shift. A
majority of the subjects believe that the younger generation will continue to speak their mother tongue.
In short, the language use, attitudes and vitality study has shown that the Muthuvan language is vitally used and that they have a positive attitude towards their mother tongue. As a result of this study,
it would appear that a major language shift might not occur in the near future. Observations of the language community concur with these questionnaire results.
4.6 Mannan questionnaire results and analysis
4.6.1 Language use
The results of the language use questionnaire are summarised in table 15. All 47 subjects responded to each question.
Table 15. Domains of Mannan language use
Qn Domains MT
Both LWC
2a With Parents
40 85 7 15 -
2b With their children 32 68 12 26
3 6 2c
With village friends 32 68 14 30
1 2 2d With outsiders
1 2 -
46 98 2e
Private prayer 43 92 3 6
1 2 3c
By children while playing 36 77 11 23 -
The mother tongue appears to be used by most of the Mannan people, either exclusively or in conjunction with Malayalam, in the home, village and religious domains. Although a number of people
use both their mother tongue and Malayalam in most of these domains, the majority exclusively use their own language. The questionnaire results show that most of the subjects 85 prefer to use their mother
tongue when speaking with their parents. The other subjects 7 said that they use both their mother tongue and Malayalam with their parents. Most of these seven subjects are young and educated either
primary or high school education. Two-thirds of the subjects reported that they use their mother tongue while talking with their children. A total of 12 subjects 26 reported that they use both the Mannan
language and Malayalam with their children. Most of the subjects that responded in this way are young and educated to either primary or high school levels.
In the village domain, 68 of the subjects exclusively use their mother tongue with friends, while 30 use both Mannan language and Malayalam. Again, the subjects that use both Mannan and LWC are
educated both primary and high school people. During prayer, 92 exclusively use their mother tongue. All of the subjects indicated that Mannan children speak their mother tongue, whether exclusively or in
conjunction with Malayalam, while playing with each other.
The only domain that subjects were asked about in which few said they use their mother tongue, was that of speaking with outsiders such as merchants and government officials. It is unlikely that many
outsiders know the Mannan language. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Mannan usually use Malayalam or Tamil with outsiders.
4.6.2 Language attitudes
