Results and analysis Lexical similarity

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3.1.3 Results and analysis

Table 6 shows the lexical similarity percentage of wordlists compared in this study. According to Blair 1990:24, it can typically be concluded that two-speech varieties that have less than 60 lexical similarity are different languages. For speech varieties that have greater than 60 lexical similarity, intelligibility testing should be done to determine their relationship. In the following analysis and discussion, wordlists are grouped in different clusters based on their highest lexical similarity. The study gives more emphasis to the lexical relationships within each tribal variety and with the state languages Malayalam and Tamil, rather than the relationships of different tribal groups’ varieties with each other. Table 7 shows the ranges of lexical similarity within each cluster. Table 7. Ranges of lexical similarity within each cluster Cluster Speech varieties Range of lexical similarity A Muthuvan 77–94 B Mannan 86–96 C Urali 83 D Mala Pulayan and Paliyan 85 3.1.3.1 Cluster-A Muthuvan There are two types of Muthuvan wordlists, namely Tamil Muthuvan and Malayalam Muthuvan. All of the wordlists from Muthuvan varieties show a range from 77 to 94 of lexical similarity with each other. Within Tamil Muthuvan varieties, the percentages vary from 91 to 94 and make it clear that they are varieties of the same speech form. Malayalam Muthuvan varieties share a range of 86 to 88 lexical similarity with each other. The distances between the Malayalam Muthuvan sites are great and there does not seem to be much contact between these villages. This may be the reason for the lower degree of lexical similarity among the wordlists from Malayalam Muthuvan as opposed to Tamil Muthuvan villages. The Tamil Muthuvan wordlists share a range of 77 to 88 of lexical similarity with the Malayalam Muthuvan wordlists. This may be taken as a rough indication that they may be different speech varieties of the same language. Intelligibility testing may help clarify the situation. The wordlists collected from the Tamil Muthuvan variety show slightly greater similarity with Tamil from 62 to 67 than Malayalam 58 to 63, the state language of Kerala. On the other hand, Malayalam Muthuvan varieties show about the same resemblance to Malayalam 63 to 68 and Tamil 62 to 65. The study shows that the influence of Malayalam and Tamil can be seen in Muthuvan varieties. 3.1.3.2 Cluster-B Mannan The wordlists collected from Mannan varieties appear to be quite similar. The overall range of lexical similarity among these wordlists is from 86 to 96. It can be observed that the wordlist from Thinkalkadu shows comparatively less similarity with other Mannan varieties. The overall percentage of similarity among Mannan wordlists is higher when the Thinkalkadu wordlist is not included in the comparison ranging from 90 to 96. The Thinkalkadu wordlist shows slightly greater similarity with Malayalam 64 than other Mannan wordlists do. The influence of Malayalam might explain this variation from other Mannan wordlists. The Mannan wordlists show a range of 57 to 61 similarity with the Tamil wordlist. Although it was reported that Mannan is a dialect of Tamil, the lexical study shows that they are different languages. Likewise, the Mannan wordlists share only 56 to 64 similarity with Malayalam. These percentages are on the borderline of what is considered to be different languages 3.1.3.3 Cluster-C Urali The Urali wordlists share 83 lexical similarity with each other. They share a range of 59 to 61 of similarity with Malayalam and 54 of similarity with Tamil and show that Urali is probably a different language from Malayalam and Tamil. Compared to other groups, Urali shows the most dissimilarity with the wordlists from other groups, as almost all percentages are in the 50s. 3.1.3.4 Cluster-D Mala Pulayan and Paliyan The wordlists from Mala Pulayan and Paliyan shows more similarity to Tamil than other wordlists in this survey, with 79 and 75 respectively. This gives the impression that they are related varieties to Tamil. Although Mala Pulayan and Paliyan are different tribal communities, their wordlists show 85 lexical similarity to each other. Lexical comparison shows that the speech forms of Mala Pulayan and Paliyan are different from Malayalam 61 and 62 similarity respectively.

3.1.4 Conclusion