The Sociolinguistic Situation of Banjara Speech Community in India

Author: Upender Maloth (Central University of Karnataka India)
Speaker: Upender Maloth
Topic: General sociolinguistics
The (SCOPUS / ISI) SOAS GLOCAL CALA 2019 General Session

Abstract

Banjara is the term commonly used for the different varieties of Banjara speech community throughout India. It is majorly spoken in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and many others in India. Banjara is also known as Lambada, Lambadi, Lambani, Sugali, etc. It belongs to Indo-Aryan language family but geographically majority of the community spread in the southern part of India where the Dravidian languages are dominantly spoken.

Sociolinguistic situation of India can be described as a multilingual and multicultural. As India is a multilingual and multicultural country in nature, the minority languages are in a serious threat to be extinct. Therefore, there is an urgent requirement to have a serious look at the reliable information about the situation of minority languages in India and to react accordingly on the documentation and preservation of them. This is an attempt to study the present condition of Banjara language in the rural and urban situations in India. The motivation behind taking up this research is to investigate language use patterns and language attitudes towards Banjara. This study sheds light on whether Banjara is stable language in terms of intergenerational transmission or not. This study also investigates the effect of urbanization on the transmission of language to the next generation. It also discusses the factors that affect their alternative opinion in choosing languages of their own.

This study is convinced with a methodology which comprises of questionnaire, interviews and personal observations. This study is analyzed based on the collected data. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used to arrive at an accurate conclusion of the study.

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