___Description of Gumperz' and Wilson's Kupwar study_____________

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UP: <[LINK]>

In a landmark ethnolinguistic study, John Gumperz and Robert

Wilson have studied public language interaction in Kupwar village

in southern India. From their observations they have constructed

a series of variable feature scales for elements of grammar and

lexicon by collecting and sorting data from speakers who they had

assigned to one of four ethnolinguistic categories:

_Kannada_-speaking Jains and Lingayats, _Urdu_-speaking Muslims,

_Marathi_-speaking landless and untouchables, and a few

_Telegu_-speaking rope makers (who were factored out of the

study). The Jains are the majority group and they and the

Muslims are the "two land-owning and cultivating groups."

_Marathi_ is the principal official and literary language and

serves as the main language for inter-group communication. Most

Kupwar men are bi- or multi-lingual. The social makeup is

stable, and all but the Telegu ropemakers have been in the area

for centuries. Gumperz and Wilson want to know why this

situation of language contact has not resulted in one language

becoming dominant, perhaps shifting radically in structure, as

historical linguists and some creolists would assume.