Phonological Differences in Three Hindi Dialects

Abstract

There has been a great deal of interest latelyl in the application of structural techniques to problems of dialect comparison.2 Studies in this field are rendered difficult, however, by the fact that many of the existing surveys were planned at a time when the phonemic principle was still insufficiently understood and questionnaires lacked examples illustrating points which were later found to be of great importance. As a result, many of the field records available at present are inadequate for complete phonemic analysis.3 If a geographical study is to yield enough structurally relevant information, it must be based on advance knowledge of the major phonemic and phonetic features characteristic of the region. A structural linguistic survey in an area not previously studied might therefore consist of two stages: (a) a preliminary series of phonological studies at selected points in the area, using informant methods of the type employed in studies of a single dialect, with a classification of dialect differences found; and (b) a detailed geographical survey with the aid of questionnaires to determine the spread of the features discovered in the preliminary study. The present paper concerns the first of these stages. It consists of two parts. The first deals with the phonology of three neighboring village dialects of Western Hindi; the second undertakes a classification of differences among the three dialects which might furnish criteria for selecting items for a geographical questionnaire. The studies were made in Rankhandi Village, (Tahsil [subdistrict] Deoband in Saharanpur District, United Provinces), Sivaya (Tahsil Ghaziabad, Merut District, U.P.), and Kalraun (Karnal District, East Punjab); see the map at