Language use among the Adiwasi speakers.

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6.2 Findings.

6.2.1 The Adiwasi Communities.

6.2.1.1 Language use among the Adiwasi speakers.

Language use among the Adiwasi Garasia speakers of Bordiyala was investigated by administering a language use and attitudes questionnaire to twenty-six people. The sample included twelve women and 14 men. Four of the 14 men were considered educated third standard or above. The sample, although not representative, did include people of various ages and backgrounds. The questionnaire yielded very consistent answers; so much so that it is doubtful that a larger sample would vary significantly from the answers presented here. Before considering the answers, some clarification needs to be made concerning the perceptions of the Adiwasi in regard to their language. For whatever reason, the Adiwasi Garasia perceive their language as being village Gujarati or Adiwasi Gujarati. They do not necessarily perceive their language as being something separate from Gujarati. Mr. Amiyanand Nag wrote this in connection with administering the questionnaire: Here people know about one language. That is Gujarati. And, they dont have any other idea. Everyone whom I asked said that the language what they speak is Gujarati, but it is different from the pure one. Some said it is Adiwasi Gujarati or village Gujarati. One can see immediately how problematic administering a questionnaire can be in such a situation. When answering the questions, the people found it difficult to make a distinction between the language they speak and the state language. With this in mind, we present the results of the questionnaire in the following table. Note the following abbreviations are used: VG= village Gujarati, PG= pure Gujarati, RG= Rajput Garasia. LANGUAGE VG PG BOTH DOMAIN At Home 26 - - With speakers of: VGAG 26 - - RG 26 - - PG 24 2 - Govt. Offices 24 2 - Bus Travel 24 2 - Market 24 2 - Employment 25 1 - Among Friends 25 - 1 School 25 1 - Worship 24 - 2 Table 20 Domains of Language Use for the Adiwasi Garasia Speakers of Bordiyala. 35 One can see from the above table that Adiwasi Gujarati is used almost exclusively in every domain. In some cases there are some educated people who will use pure Gujarati with outsiders. Mr. Amiyanand Nag summarizes the findings by saying: Here in the village, people use their own language... They do not change their language whether they meet a Gujarati speaker or Rajput Garasia speaker. Particularly the illiterate will use the same language when talking to bus conductor, buying, and doing all other things. Even with government officials, they will use their own language, and it is understood by the former... But the literate always try to speak in Gujarati. Those who go out speak polished Gujarati. So, the Adiwasi Garasia use their own language, whatever it may be called, with practically everyone and in every domain. Now, there remains the nagging question of how close to Gujarati is the Adiwasi language. We should not answer that important question on the basis of the Adiwasis perceptions. Their perceptions may not be in keeping with reality. One incident illustrates this point vividly. One of the most educated Adiwasi villagers from Bordiyala had spent some time in Ahmedabad. After he returned he asked Mr. Amiyanand Nag, What language do people speak in Ahmedabad? Amiya replied, It is Gujarati only. The villager then said, No. If it were Gujarati I would have understood it. I had a difficult time understanding them. Surely, they speak Hindi One can see from this incident that something may be lacking in the Adiwasis Garasias language awareness.

6.2.1.2 Language Attitudes among the Adiwasi Garasia speakers.