SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS - Centre for Language Studies

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The respondents were also asked to indicate how they would tell the home origin of a speaker by simply listening to him. 69.4% indicated that they would be able to tell by the speaker’s accent and pronunciation of words. It was clear in the actual surveys, however, that the respondents had difficulties finding suitable words in the vernacular to describe accent or pronunciation. It is possible, therefore, that this figure could be higher. Another question attempted to solicit information on where the best Chiyao is spoken. This is a very important question because the information it provides may be used to select a widely accepted dialect of Chiyao that could be codified and elevated to standard dialect. The results are shown in Table 1 below: TABLE 1: WHERE THE BEST CHIYAO IS SPOKEN Place Mangochi Machinga Mozambique Makanjira Zomba Chiradzulu Salima Namwera Katuli Jalasi Dedza Blantyre Chimwala Mulanje Mchema Don’t know % Respondents 59.6 10.6 8.1 4.9 3.6 2.4 1.7 1.2 1.2 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.2 3.5 As the results in Table 1 show the Mangochi variety of Chiyao was felt by 59.6% of the respondents to be the best dialect. This figure was followed by 10.6% of the respondents who felt that the dialect spoken in Machinga is the best. It was interesting to note during 16
the survey that people from outside Mangochi did not feel that their own Chiyao was good enough compared to the Mangochi dialect. Very often people tend to be linguacentric and feel that their own dialect is the best. This was not the case here. A crosstabulation of the respondents’ home origin on the one hand and their choice of what they consider to be the best dialect of Chiyao, on the other, indicates that one’s home origin did not influence one’s choice of good Chiyao. For instance, with the exception of 187 respondents from Mangochi who felt that their own dialect is the best, the rest were from Machinga, Zomba, Blantyre and Dedza. Notice that it is mostly Southern region districts that chose Mangochi dialect while the Central districts involved in the survey chose Machinga dialect as the best. Part of the reason why the Mangochi dialect was favoured is that a lot of the Yao feel that Mangochi is close to Mozambique, the original home of the Yao people, and has, somewhat maintained the original dialect. As a matter of fact, 8.1% of the respondents cited the dialect spoken in Mozambique as the best. This choice too underscores the point that proximity to or continued contact with one’s original home matters in cases of dialect maintenance. There were few respondents (4.9%) who felt that the best Chiyao was spoken in Makanjira because of its proximity to Mozambique. This small group viewed the Chiyao spoken at Mangochi boma as being less than “perfect” because of the influence of urban life and its associated multilingualism. Related to the question of the best dialect of Chiyao discussed above, respondents were also asked to assess whether the Chiyao dialect they spoke was heavily influenced by other languages. A little more than half of them (51.0%) felt that their Chiyao was a hybrid dialect while 45.2% thought they spoke good Chiyao. The rest either did not know or did not respond to the question. This pattern, again, is a little surprising because generally people tend to have very strong and positive attitudes towards their own language or dialect. Although, there is no declared or written standard Chiyao against which respondents assessed their own idiolects, it seems possible that they compared it against some perceived and idealized dialect. Chichewa was cited by 41.1% of the respondents as the language that has affected those who claimed that their Chiyao has been mixed with other languages. The choice of Chichewa is not very surprising since this is the only language in Malawi that is spoken widely as a national language and used in the school system. A number of reasons were given as to why Chiyao got mixed up with Chichewa and, indeed, other languages. The chief reason, however, was the effect of ethnolinguistic 17
Page 1 and 2: SOCIOLOLINGUISTIC SURVEYS OF FOUR M
Page 3 and 4: 4.5.1 TEACHER’S RESPONSES 23 4.5.
Page 5 and 6: A Note from the Director on Socioli
Page 7 and 8: 1 INTRODUCTION The availability of
Page 9 and 10: instance, a mother tongue literacy
Page 11 and 12: level of understanding, whether the
Page 13 and 14: In relation to religions affiliatio
Page 15: there is l and w are repalced by d
Page 19 and 20: Above form 4 1 3 0.5 Other 3 0.3 Th
Page 21 and 22: REASONS GIVEN Easy communication Mo
Page 23 and 24: Chilomwe Chisena Chinkhonde English
Page 25 and 26: 50. It has been observed that those
Page 27 and 28: Chichewa. This has arisen from the
Page 29 and 30: the most crucial informants because
Page 31 and 32: and pressing issues to handle e.g.
Page 33 and 34: Table 13: District Acceptance Of Ch
Page 35 and 36: The figures above clearly indicate
Page 37 and 38: Teachers were also requested to ind
Page 39 and 40: Rumphi 75.0 25.0 Mzimba 84.7 11.1 N
Page 41 and 42: Bay Table 24 shows that English is
Page 43 and 44: preferred language is Chilambia (17
Page 45 and 46: Rumphi 17.3 Pure Tumbuka 6.7 Henga
Page 47 and 48: Pure 1.5 Mmbelwa 1.5 Euthini 1.5 Ka
Page 49 and 50: Chichewa is the most favoured langu
Page 51 and 52: Respondents were also requested to
Page 53 and 54: Table 43: Whether To Be Taught In C
Page 55 and 56: % Resdpondentys District Chichewa C
Page 57 and 58: N/A 19.5 On the corollary question
Page 59 and 60: Table 53 shows that most pupils pre
Page 61 and 62: TRA = Translation NMT = Not mother
Page 63 and 64: Table 60: Language To Be Used In Ne
Page 65 and 66: Rumphi 41. 4 Mzimba 23. 9 Nkhata Ba
Page 67 and 68:
case for Nkhata Bay is that Chitong
Page 69 and 70:
Table 68 reveals that there is an i
Page 71 and 72:
Chitumbuka, the same cannot be said
Page 73 and 74:
(vii) (viii) To establish whether t
Page 75 and 76:
the villagers would also ask the re
Page 77 and 78:
Chiradzulu 1 0.3 Mozambique 22 6.2
Page 79 and 80:
Undecided 1 0.3 The results present
Page 81 and 82:
There were 19 cases of respondents
Page 83 and 84:
On the question of whether the resp
Page 85 and 86:
Chitakhwani 2 6.9 Chikokhola 2 6.9
Page 87 and 88:
5.5.4.1 SUMMARY Although this categ
Page 89 and 90:
6 CHISENA SURVEY 6.1 BACKGROUND TO
Page 91 and 92:
ii) proficiency in Chisena and othe
Page 93 and 94:
Table 80: Age Groups Age Group Freq
Page 95 and 96:
Age Group Frequency % 09 20 4.9 1
Page 97 and 98:
Tengani 11 2.7 Nsanje 35 8.6 Phodzo
Page 99 and 100:
The majority of the pupils have cle
Page 101 and 102:
6.5.2.3 VARIETIES Asked bout where
Page 103 and 104:
mentioned the Nsanje variety, anoth
Page 105 and 106:
6.5.4 “OTHER” RESPONDENTS’ RE
Page 107 and 108:
grammars and dictionaries. (iv) The
Page 109:
109
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