Among the Noiri varieties Barutiya and Noiri Dungra Bhili and Noiri

2.3 Results and analysis

The lexical similarity for the wordlists under consideration is shown in table 5. Varieties having the same name are listed together in the chart. All but three wordlists are named according to what the person from whom it was elicited called hisher language. The village name is also attached to the language name. The numbers represent the similarity percentages among the wordlists. For example, the lexical similarity between the wordlists elicited in Chillare and Mathwad is 87 percent. Table 5. Lexical similarity percentage matrix Noiri-Chillare 94 Noiri-Pannali 88 86 Noiri-Astambha 81 83 87 Noiri-Gomon 91 88 97 88 Barutiya Bhilori-Mundalwad 87 86 83 83 85 Dungra Bhili-Mathwad 78 78 77 77 81 84 Dungra Bhili-Ambadungar 64 68 62 58 64 61 60 Nahali-Toranmal 50 52 54 50 57 48 45 52 Kotli-Papiner Narayanpur 47 51 53 50 55 47 47 55 75 Kotli Adivasi Bhili-Taradi 49 52 48 45 51 48 46 54 60 68 Gujari-Taradi 50 53 51 47 54 50 53 54 52 56 73 Gujarati 50 52 52 48 53 48 49 55 57 65 64 64 Marathi 41 44 41 40 45 40 41 48 50 53 55 69 67 Hindi 15 18 18 17 19 17 16 19 18 19 17 18 19 21 Nihali Korku-Tembhi 15 18 19 17 19 17 16 18 17 19 16 18 21 21 94 Tukaithad-Korku 18 21 20 20 20 19 19 20 19 21 20 19 22 20 31 30 Nihali-Jamod

2.3.1 Among the Noiri varieties

Noiri-Chillare southeast, Noiri-Pannali northeast and Noiri-Gomon northwest stand for the geographical extremes of the language. The lexical similarity among Noiri varieties ranges from 81 to 94 percent. Among Noiri varieties, Chillare, Pannali and Astambha form a relatively tight cluster 86–94 percent. A similar relationship is seen between Astambha and Gomon 87 percent. The wordlist from Chillare demonstrates the highest lexical similarity with Pannali 94 percent and the lowest with Gomon 81 percent. However the lexical similarity of Astambha shows an equidistant relationship with other Noiri varieties 86–88 percent.

2.3.2 Barutiya and Noiri

The Barutiya wordlist shows a close relationship with all Noiri wordlists 88–97 percent. 16 Though there is only one Barutiya wordlist, the percentage of this wordlist with other Noiri wordlists is higher than the percentages within Noiri wordlists. It is clear from the informal interview that they have only minute differences in the language. 17 Nevertheless, they are well aware of these differences. Even then they are able to identify themselves as belonging to one community. 16 The previous survey’s matrix contains lexical similarity percentages that are slightly different from those in table 5. This is due to the word sets for each lexical item being grouped slightly differently in the two surveys. 17 Noiras substitute n where Barutiya speakers use l, e.g., ka goinu Noiri and ka goilu Barutiya meaning ‘Where did you eat?’

2.3.3 Dungra Bhili and Noiri

The range of lexical similarity relationship between Dungra Bhili and Noiri wordlist is 77 to 87 percent. The range is widened due to the unchecked Dungra Bhili Ambadungar wordlist. If this wordlist is not included, the range of lexical similarity between Dungra Bhili and Noiri is 83 to 87 percent. Noiri Chillare and Pannali wordlists have closer relationship to Dungra Bhili wordlist than Astambha and Gomon wordlists do. But geographically Astambha and Gomon are closer to Dungra Bhili, though the area is separated by the river Narmada. For a better understanding about the linguistic relationship between Dungra Bhili and Noiri, intelligibility testing was done in two wordlist sites, Chillare and Astambha, which is discussed in the next chapter.

2.3.4 NahaliNihali varieties