THE PEOPLE

LANGUAGES

The study of languages is an integral part of the study of the people and their culture. The sociological implications, of the language spoken by an individual or a group of individuals are very important from the functional point of view. Among many other factors, social intercourse between various groups of population is conditioned by the language they speak. By and large, the rural as well as semi-urban society has still not transcended the language barrier. Individuals mix more freely within their linguistic group than outside. The comparatively more homogenous character of the rural society is generally due to its unilingual pattern.

The Census authorities (1961) have defined mother-tongue as a language spoken by the person's mother to him in his childhood or mainly spoken in the house. In the Census statistic dialects have been included in the main languages on the basis of Grierson's Classification. The following table gives the Census statistics of the-speakers of various mother-tongues in the district in 1961. Statistics of only the principal mother-tongues are given, whereas the minor languages are grouped under 'others'.

TABLE No. 14

STATISTICS OF MOTHER-TONGUE IN DHULIA DISTRICT IN 1961

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The distribution of languages as between rural and urban areas in 1961 is given below: ―

Marathi is the principal language of the district with 59.30 per cent of the persons using it as a medium of expression. Bhilli language which ranks second in numerical superiority is the mother tongue of 27.7 per cent, of the population. This language is spoken by the Bhils who form a considerable section of the total population. Urdu, Gujarati and Hindi follow next in that order. The proportion of speakers of these three languages is higher in urban areas.

The comparative numerical strength of the languages during the Censuses of 1901, 1951 and 1961 is given below:―

The proportion of Marathi speakers decreased from 69.97 per cent, in 1901 to 59.30 per cent in 1961 [Census Hand Book, Dhulia District, 1961.]. This sizeable decrease is mainly attributable to the fact that the Bhil tribes which had reported Marathi as their mother-tongue in 1901, reported themselves Bhilli mother-tongue speakers in 1951 and 1961. The reduction in the proportion of Marathi speakers met with a corresponding rise in the proportion of Bhilli speakers during 1951 and 1961. It may, however, be noted that Bhilli can at best be regarded as a dialect of Marathi with a currupt mixture of Gujarati and, probably, Hindi. The percentage of Gujarati also met with a slight decrease from 5.39 per cent in 1901 to 4.69 per cent in 1951 and 4.36 per cent in 1961. Hindi speakers who accounted for 7.20 per cent in 1901 were reduced to 1.80 per cent in 1951 and 2.17 per cent in 1961. This is attributable to the Fact that the statistics of Urdu speakers were included in those of Hindi speakers in 1901. Urdu was given an independent status in 1951 and 1961, and hence the reduction in the number of Hindi speakers- The slight increase of Urdu speakers in 1961 over that in 1951 is not due to increase in Muslim population, but due to the that that more Muslims returned themselves as Urdu speakers in 1961. Marathi, the principal language in the district, is understood by almost all the people, even though only 59.30 per cent are returned as Marathi mother-tongue speakers.

The Marathi spoken in the district, and especially in the rural areas, differs considerably from the language spoken in other districts of western Maharastra. It differs from pure Marathi, as it is understood, in the use of words, expression as well as in intonation. The Marathi language spoken by the rural masses is known as Ahirani. which can be described as a local dialect of Marathi with admixture of Gujarati, Hindi and Prakrt varients. The name Ahirani seems to owe its origin to the Ahir dynasty which ruled over this area. Even after the end of the Ahir dynasty, there were several sections of the people who prefixed the word Ahir before their caste name. As among the carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, fishermen, tailors, weavers, etc., the Ahir element was distinctly found in all castes including Brahmans and Marathas. This Ahir element was so predominant that the local Marathi dialect was called Ahirani. [Dr. Grierson remarks that " it cannot be classed as a dialect of Marathi: it is probably a form of Gujarati."]

Popular evidence has furnished sufficient testimony to the tact that Ahirani is only the local dialect of Marathi though the influence of Gujarati, Hindi and the Prakrt languages is obviously present in its form. In the course of the last about five decades the form and mode of the language have drifted towards Marathi spoken in Maharastra.

The following extracts from the Khandes Gazetteer, published in 1880, throw light on the Ahirani dialect of Marathi.

"In their homes the bulk of the people speak a dialect known as Khandesi, Ahirani, [The name Ahirani is probably derived from that of the Abhirani mentioned by the latest Prakrit grammarians as a dialect spoken by cowherds and others in the country near the western coast about Gujarat. Prof. R. G. Bhandarkar, M.A., Hon., M. R. A. S.] or Dhed Gujari a curious mixture of Gujarati, Marathi, Nemadi, and Hindustani. Though from its construction it looks like a compromise between the modern Gujarati, Marathi, and Hindi, this dialect is the offspring of several old Prakrt varieties Magadhi, Saurastri, Saurseni, Lati, Maharastri, Paisaci, and Apabransa or Bhakha. Except a few ballads and songs recorded by the Khandes Bhats, this is entirely a spoken language. It discards the cerebrall and substitutes for it the palatal semivowely thus black is kaya not kala. Resembling Marathi and Gujarati in the more general grammatical forms, Ahirani presents several peculiarities in declension and conjugation. The plural is formed by adding the suffixes, not as in Gujarati and Marathi by a change in the word itself; thus bhit, wall, becomes bhitas, walls [Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency, Khandesh District, pp. 42-46,]. Gases are formed by suffixes. Thus, for the accusative and dative le is added; for the instrumental ni vari ghai; for the ablative, thin ; for the genitive, na, ni, na; and for the locative, ma and mazar. Masculine and neuter nouns ending in a, change a into e in the plural when case terminations are applied. Feminine nouns preserve, however, the final a in the plural before case terminations. Masculine nouns ending in a, i, u, and o, do not undergo any change, and the case terminations are applied to the final letter of the original Word. A notable exception in a is bhingota, a bee, which changes its ta to tya before any case terminations are affixed to it. Another exception in u is ju, louse, which becomes java and keeps the double plural form juvas to which case terminations are affixed. Pronouns both personal and relative are the same as in Marathi but their case forms-differ. Except for the difference of case forms, the first and second personal pronouns form their plurals in the same way as the Marathi. On the other hand, the third personal pronoun and the relatives insert as an s in the plural before the case terminations. The demonstrative this differs from the Marathi. The ha, hi and he of the latter become java in the masculine, and hai in the faminine and neuter. The interrogative or indefinite Kon suffers no change in its crude form, but the indefinite pronominal particle kay takes kasa as its crude form to which the case terminations are added. Though curious the conjugation of verbs is, with but few exceptions, regular. The present tense has one form for the singulars of all persons and another for the plurals the terminations being s and tas respectively, thus kar, to do, has karas and kartas. These seem to be derived from the old Prakrt present participle karant, further corrupted to karat. In Marathi, also, the present tense is formed from the present participle, but to distinguish the persons the old personal terminations are appended to it, while in Khandesi they are not. In Gujarati the old present participle is used to form the past conditional, and no terminations are applied to distinguish the persons. The t of the participle is however softened to s in the Khandesi. In the plural kartas which corresponds to the Marathi karitat the second t is softened. The past tense is formed by adding n, the terminations being nu and nut for the first person, and na and nat for the second and third persons, singular and plural, respectively. To Marathi this n is unknown, but it is used in northern Gujarati, as in bandhano for bandhayo 'bound' dithano for dekhayo 'seen', and in some verbs in the Braj Bhasa, as kina 'done' dina 'given', and lon, ' taken'. The n is generalised from such old Prakrt forms as dinna 'given' for 'datta' (Sansk.) luna 'cut' for luna (Sansk.), and bhinna divided' for bhinna (Sansk.).

The future has su and sut for the first, shi and shal or shat for the second and i and tin or til for the third persons singular and plural. The s of the first and second persons seems to be the old Prakrt ss  and Sanskrt sya . In Gujarati it is preserved in all the persons. The Marathi l is dropped or rather not affixed, except in the optional plural forms of the second and third persons. The irregular karmani prayoga of the Marathi and Gujarati, which requires the verb to agree in gender and number with the object, is found in Ahirani- Thus, ' a house was built by Ram ', Ramani ghar bandh ; a book was read by a Brahman, Brahmanni pothi vachi. Adjectives vary in form according to the number and gender of the nouns they qualify, but not according to their case inflections as in Marathi. The Ahirani conjunctions an and tin correspond to the Marathi ani and va and the Gujarati ane and ne. There is a peculiar word for moreover, akhor. The adverbs of place are: here, athe, the (Sansk. atra); there, tathe, tatha (Sansk. tatra); where kathe, Katha and koth (Sansk kutra). The adverbs of time are: when (relative), javhaya, jadhaya, and jodhal, corresponding to the Sanskrt yada ; then, tavhaya, tadhala (Sansk. tada); when (interrogative), kavhaya, Kadhaya (Sansk. Kada.). The adverbs of manner correspond to the Marathi forms. Some peculiar words are in use derived neither from Gujarati nor from Marathi. Among these may be noticed andor a boy, ander a girl,, bak towards, ibak hither, tibak thither, pan near dhura until and mayav alas!

Among themselves the Western Satpuda Bhils speak a dialect of Gujarati, while those further east use a form of Nemadi. Most of them know a little Hindustani or Marathi and employ it in speaking to Europeans or men from the plains, to whom their own dialect is unintelligible. A very marked local tendency is to drop every possible consonant. Liquids go first as in Koi for Koli, Mai for Mali; they are often followed by sibilants, as in raita for rasta, and by gutturals as Vaijo for Vaghdev. The lower one goes in the social scale the more marked is the provincialism. It is probably-due to the influence of the aboriginal races among whom the peculiarity is most marked.

Except of Bohoras who speak Gujarati, the home tongue of almost all Khandes Musalmans is Hindustani."

Bilingualism.

Besides their own mother-tongue a considerable number of persons speak subsidiary languages. The census enumerates these persons under the sub-head bilingual population. There has been a steady growth in this group during the last few decades. In the nature of things, the bilingual population is more concentrated in urban areas than in rural areas.

The following table gives the extent of bilingualism in the district in respect of the chief languages spoken:―

TABLE No. 15

BILINGUALISM, DHULIA DISTRICT, 1961

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Of the total population in the district, 1,11,293 persons are returned as speaking a language subsidiary to their mother-tongue. The proportion of males (81,843) is very much higher than that of the female bilingual population (29,450).

The figures of bilingual population speaking the various subsidiary languages are given below:―

Hindi (M. 39,016-F. 9,085); Marathi (M. 30,737-F. 14,695); English (M. 7,380-F. 987); Gujarati (M. 3,004-F. 1517); Bhilli (M. 101-F. 1528); Ahirani (M. 574-F. 758); Urdu (M. 581-F. 486); Marvadi (M. 139-F. 190); Sanskrt (M. 99-F. 3); Arabic (M. 33-F. 59); Telugu (M. 37-F. 46); Kannada (M. 46-F. 15); Gurumukhis (M. 4-F. 38); Gujaru (M. 18-F. 17); Tamil (M. 16-F. 3); Rajasthani (M. 16-F. 2); Punjabi (M. 12-F 5); Padvi (M. 5. F. 5); Persian (M. 7-F. 1); Bengali (M. 6-F. 1); Pawri (M. 4-F. 1)'; Sindhi (M. 2-F. 2); Malayalam (F. 3); French (M. 1-F. 1); Kokani (M. 2), Mawci (F. 2)'; Parsi (M. 2) and Nepali (M. 1).

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