Reading Working Papers in Linguistics 4 (2000) - The University of ...

SOCIOLINGUISTIC VARIATION AND CHANGE IN URBAN INDIA
U.S. and Reid (1976) and Mees (1977 cf. Romaine 1984:92-3) in Britain,
too, have reported patterns of social class stratification in the speech of
children aged 10-12. The correlation of children’s age and social class
membership with speech habits is an issue that needs further research.
A finding of the utmost interest, however, was the significant effect of
class membership across caste groups (refer to the discussions of statistical
results for (N), (Aspi_M_F), and (LEX) above). The significant interaction
effect strengthens my inference regarding sociolinguistic change in progress.
I found that class differences tend to produce visible linguistic differences
within the non-Brahmin caste groups; within the Brahmin caste, though,
effect of class on speech is often minimal. Middle class children of the
Backward caste group approached the categorical standard score very
closely and in two cases ((Aspi_M_F) and (LEX)) they even outscored the
Brahmin children. The distinctness of caste and class as analytical categories
in examining linguistic variation in urban India was strongly argued for in
section 2. Their separation in this investigation is vindicated by the evidence
of the class effect across caste groups.
Conclusion
The sociolinguistic study of the Pune adolescents has demonstrated (1) that
traditional caste identity correlates with different rates of diffusion of the
standard dialect features and (2) that the interaction of caste and class must
be recognised and studied explicitly in Indian sociolinguistics as a social
factor with linguistic correlates. Status-based explanations for linguistic
maintenance/shift derived from western studies using stratified distribution
models have often correlated a higher position in the social class hierarchy
with a greater use of the standard linguistic features (Labov 1966 and 1972).
The linguistic behaviour of the high caste Marathas and the remaining non-
Brahmin castes has shown that such explanations cannot be extended to the
caste set-up. The Pune results can be better interpreted within the multidimensional
historical and social space provided by the ‘acts of identity’
model of language variation and change.
References
Apte, M. (1962). ‘Linguistic Acculturation and its Relations to Urbanization and Socio-
Economic Factors’ in Indian Linguistics, 23. 5-25.
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