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Maharashtra linguists working on a Marathi dialect atlas

This will document dialects that are on the verge of being endangered due to the rising use of English and standardised Marathi.

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It is said that dialects in Maharashtra change every few miles. However, a first-ever post-independence scientific study in the state will map local variations and dialects of Marathi. This will document dialects that are on the verge of being endangered due to the rising use of English and standardised Marathi.

"It is broadly said there are five regional varieties of Marathi namely, Konkani, Deshi, Marathwadi, Varhadi, and Vaidarbhi. But, these distinctions are not based on dialectal evidence," said Sonal Kulkarni-Joshi, Professor of Linguistics at the Deccan College, Pune, who is leading the effort.

Funded by the state's Rajya Marathi Vikas Sanstha, the institution will conduct a dialectological study of Marathi and its regional variations and prepare a dialect atlas.

A team of 12, including 10 trained on-field researchers, will fan out across Maharashtra to survey local tongues through interviews, questionnaires and audio recordings of narratives. "Judgment samples" will be chosen from rural areas of all districts with special attention to villages far from the urban agglomerations and on the state's borders.

"The study will map dialectal distinctions of Marathi," explained Kulkarni-Joshi, adding it would especially focus on documenting the grammar of these dialects, which change according to the location, time, age cohort and social strata.

Kulkarni-Joshi noted that with the spread of education, there was increased use of a focused "standardised" Marathi (praman bhasha), which led to these regional varieties being endangered as their users, especially youngsters, switched over to the "prestige variety" of the language. Despite this inevitable change, those who fell in the middle-aged and senior citizens age cohorts still maintained local dialects.

"We are trying to establish the relationship between culture and language as both are symbiotic. Many dialects in Marathi are either extinct or endangered. So, it necessary to document them," said Vasant Shinde, vice-chancellor, Deccan College. Expected to conclude by 2020, it will gauge the impact of languages like Kannada and Telugu on variations of Marathi spoken in Maharashtra's border areas.

"Linguistic methods will be used to identify major grammatical distinctions in Marathi-speaking regions. This analysis will help draw isoglosses (lines on maps marking areas with distinct linguistic features)," said Kulkarni- Joshi, adding that documentation from the study will be open-sourced.

Though it will not cover tribal languages, the institution plans to cover them similarly depending on the funding.

SURVEYS IN THE PAST

  • In the British-era, George Grierson had conducted a linguistic survey of India and regional varieties of Marathi. Between 1960- 70, Amrutrao Ghatage from the Deccan College surveyed varieties of Konkani in the Konkan and Konkani-speaking diaspora communities in areas like Kasargod and Cochin after considering Konkani as one of the main dialects of Marathi
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