Standard deviation is interpreted based on the sample and test situation. A standard deviation of less than ten is interpreted as low and twelve to fifteen as high. It may be impossible and inappropriate
to set a boundary line when we interpret the average score, because it is not a test conducted in a classroom or laboratory but rather is field-administered. The rule of thumb for interpreting RTT result is
that above 80 percent is adequate intelligibility and less than 60 percent is inadequate intelligibility.
3.5 Test sites
The main objective of this study was to investigate the intelligibility of Dungra Bhili among Noiri speaking people of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The Dungra Bhili survey team had developed a
Dungra Bhili tiger story from Ambadungar village and had tested it among Barutiyas called Bhiloris by Dungra Bhili team in two locations: one in Akkalkua tahsil Sari village and the other in Dhadgaon
tahsil Asali village of Maharashtra. The same Dungra Bhili story was used in the present survey. Two RTTs, one in Chillare and one in Astambha, were administrated in this survey. Only one story had been
developed as HTT and used in both sites as a passing story. In Astambha the Dungra Bhili story was played without developing an HTT from the village. But here the story from Chillare village was used as
a passing story by translating the questions into Astambha variety.
Chillare village in Shirpur tahsil represents the southeast extreme of Noiri and hence this was chosen as the farthest test point among Noiras from the Dungra Bhili area. Based on lexical similarity
comparison, a second proposed site for the test was Gomon in Akkalkua tahsil, because it shows the least relationship to other Noiri wordlists. The survey team had developed a test tape in Gomon without
developing an HTT to do a Rapid RTT,
21
but it could not be conducted because of some procedural reasons. Astambha in Dhadgaon tahsil was selected as the next test site because it shows an equidistant
relationship with other Noiri varieties, including Gomon based on lexical study. Table 7. Tahsil, district and state of test and reference sites
Language Story name andor village name Tahsil
District State
Dungra Bhili Tiger story, Ambadungar
Kawant Vadodara
Gujarat Noiri
Pick pocketing story, Chillare Shirpur
Dhule Maharashtra
Noiri Astambha
Dhadgaon Nandurbar
Maharashtra
3.5.1 Chillare
This village is in Shirpur tahsil of Dhule district. It is located three kilometres from the Agra-Mumbai national highway. There is bus service to the village. Almost all the people in the village belong to the
Noiri community, and the language is widely spoken in the village. Researchers could not communicate to a good portion of the community without an interpreter. This is one of the Noiri villages where we
can see some educated people compared to many other Noiri villages.
3.5.2 Astambha
The village is situated about 40 kilometres from Dhadgaon, and the area is connected by road. State transport’s buses reach Asali, the nearest village, and from there people have to walk seven kilometres
through hilly roads to reach Astambha. The only other alternative is to rely on a private Jeep, which plies between Dhadgaon and Astambha once a day. This village is much behind in education and other
21
Rapid RTT is a test conducted in a village without developing an HTT because of various reasons by using a text tape already developed for another village.
facilities. Out of fifteen people who volunteered to take the test, only ten were qualified. The rest of them could not follow the procedure. There is a primary school in the village, but children are not
interested in education.
3.6 Result and analysis
