reported questionnaire results indicate that Muthuvan people, especially the young, generally understand Malayalam better than Tamil. However, many old people understand Tamil better.
The self-reported questionnaire among Mannan subjects shows that most of them feel they are able to comprehend conversation in Malayalam. It was observed that the educated of the community and those
who have high contact with outsiders especially young people and men are more bilingual in Malayalam. However, one cannot be objectively certain how much of the community would be able to
fully understand complex materials written in Malayalam.
6 Summary of Findings
6.1 Muthuvan
6.1.1 Lexical similarity study
This survey’s study of lexical similarity has shown that, although the Muthuvan language may be influenced by Malayalam and Tamil, it does not have a high degree of similarity to those languages or
any other language spoken in the region. This study has reinforced reports by both published sources and by the Muthuvan people themselves
that two speech varieties of Muthuvan are spoken in the region, namely Tamil Muthuvan Eastern dialect and Malayalam Muthuvan Western dialect. However, dialect intelligibility testing was necessary to
assess the degree of variation between these varieties.
6.1.2 Dialect intelligibility
The comprehension testing showed that many Tamil Muthuvan and Malayalam Muthuvan subjects could understand simple narrative stories recorded in each other’s speech variety, although some had difficulty.
The Malayalam Muthuvan subjects generally understood the Tamil Muthuvan story a little better than the Tamil Muthuvan subjects understood the Malayalam Muthuvan story. The influence of Malayalam and
Tamil on the language of the stories was recognised by subjects from both groups. However, it did not appear that many subjects had negative attitudes towards either variety.
The results of the study indicate that Tamil Muthuvan and Malayalam Muthuvan people speak somewhat different speech varieties without much difficulty in understanding each other. There is a slight
indication that the Tamil Muthuvan variety may be more comprehensible to the whole Muthuvan community than the Malayalam Muthuvan variety. The Tamil Muthuvan text was accepted and
understood by most subjects in another Tamil Muthuvan village without much difficulty.
6.1.3 Bilingualism study
6.1.3.1 Malayalam Recorded Text Testing
Many Muthuvan subjects did quite well on the Malayalam RTT, showing good understanding of a simple narrative story. However, these results strongly suggest the need for a more in-depth assessment of the
bilingual proficiency of this group, to confirm whether Malayalam materials may fulfil the literary needs of the entire community. This is due to the fact that an RTT can only accurately measure lower levels of
bilingualism.
6.1.3.2 Questionnaire and observations
It was observed that most Muthuvan people are not very bilingual in Malayalam. This was especially true of the old, the uneducated and females. The educated and those who have high contact with Malayalis
primarily males are more bilingual in Malayalam than the rest of the community. The self-reported
questionnaire results indicate that Muthuvan people, especially the young, generally understand Malayalam better than Tamil. However, many old people understand Tamil better.
6.1.4 Language use, attitudes and vitality study
