Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1.
Introduction
2.
Aditi Ghosh
53
their opinion and attitudes may reveal a thing or two about the
status of Bengali as a language in its homeland.
100 copies of a language questionnaire were distributed to
informants with a request to complete and return them. In case of
informants who are not very conversant with English, the surveyor
interviewed them. Altogether 74 of them responded.
AGE
SEX
EDUCATION
Student
Housewife
Employed
Business/selfemployed
< 20
20-40
>40
Male
Female
Under-graduate
Graduate
Post-graduate and
above
32%
13%
45%
10%
23%
41%
36%
53%
47%
53%
19%
28%
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55
3.
Mother
Father
Spouse
Sibling
Son
Daughter
Grand parent
Grand child
2.
Fluent
17%
39%
50%
31%
40%
34%
10%
11%
Quite well
22%
26%
15%
18%
17%
24%
19%
11%
Some
6%
8%
15%
14%
11%
15%
0%
0%
A little
20%
8%
10%
21%
6%
3%
29%
22%
None
35%
19%
10%
16%
26%
24%
42%
56%
a) At Home with:
All the time
Mother
1%
Father
2%
Sibling
4%
Servants
51%
Other
8%
Often
6%
5%
5%
13%
30%
Sometimes
17%
18%
18%
20%
31%
Never
76%
75%
73%
16%
31%
Sometimes
10%
17%
15%
Never
48%
73%
7%
Colleagues (O)
Classmates (B)
6%
37%
8%
19%
25%
25%
61%
19%
Classmates (O)
Boss/authority (B)
Boss/ Authority (O)
Client (B)
Client (O)
0%
51%
15%
35%
0%
0%
18%
19%
40%
24%
38%
13%
12%
5%
18%
62%
18%
54%
20%
58%
C) In other situations:
With acquaintances
With Bengali friends
With non-Bengali
friends
With a taxi driver etc.
All the
time
12%
51%
5%
Often
Sometimes
Never
19%
14%
9%
44%
23%
25%
25%
12%
61%
26%
22%
34%
18%
In a local shop
Shopping complex
38%
21%
22%
17%
35%
35%
5%
27%
Restaurant
Bank
Local hospital
Party/ Gathering
16%
25%
37%
14%
15%
25%
21%
19%
27%
25%
28%
36%
42%
25%
14%
31%
3.
Sometimes
44%
28%
45%
46%
42%
Never
28%
58%
27%
24%
38%
Aditi Ghosh
5.
57
Always
3%
3%
Often
9%
6%
Sometimes
14%
20%
Never
74%
71%
3%
4%
7%
3%
2%
4%
7%
2%
8%
16%
22%
28%
87%
76%
64%
67%
Letters to family
Letters to friends
Other documents
7.
3%
4%
1%
Often
3%
4%
7%
Someti
mes
4%
6%
15%
Never
90%
86%
77%
Strongly
agree
Mostly
agree
60%
24%
Neither
agree /
disagree
10%
31%
51%
45%
27%
20%
20%
4%
2%
39%
26%
15%
20%
41%
39%
18%
2%
40%
33%
23%
4%
4%
23%
34%
39%
27%
29%
19%
25%
Disagree
6%
Bengali is absolutely
unavoidable in Kolkata
I would feel embarrassed if I
could not speak Bengali in
Kolkata
With Bengali native
speakers, I mostly converse
in Bengali
With Bengali native
speakers, I mostly converse
in Hindi.
With Bengali native
speakers, I mostly converse
in English.
Bengali native speakers
mostly converse in Bengali
with me.
Bengali native speakers
mostly converse in Hindi
with me.
Bengali native speakers
mostly converse in English
with me.
Speaking in more than one
language is great
20%
19%
22%
39%
29%
18%
19%
34%
49%
18%
19%
14%
12%
13%
30%
45%
8%
12%
26%
54%
39%
24%
27%
10%
7%
19%
34%
40%
4%
24%
34%
38%
84%
11%
5%
0%
4.
Trends
Aditi Ghosh
59
5.
Limitations
6.
Conclusion
References
Weinriech, U. 1963. Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton & Co.
Crystal, D. 2005, The Language Revolution, UK &USA, Polity.