The Malvi-speaking people of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan: a sociolinguistic profile

The purpose of this sociolinguistic research among the Malvi-speaking people was to assess the need for vernacular language development. Responses of Malvi speakers to sociolinguistic questionnaires indicated strong vitality of the language. Bilingualism testing in Hindi, confirmed by observations, showed that women, older people, and the uneducated could especially benefit from mother tongue materials and literacy work. Wordlist comparisons indicated potential intelligibility among several different dialects of Malvi. Dialect intelligibility testing showed adequate comprehension of the selected Ujjaini variety among speakers of other dialects.