SIL International Publications

The Garos of Bangladesh: A Sociolinguistic Survey

Relation Text: 
SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2012-007
Statement of Responsibility: 
Kim, Amy, Seung Kim, Sayed Ahmad and Mridul Sangma
Issue Date: 
2012
Abstract: 

The Garo people of Bangladesh, who often refer to themselves and their language as "Mandi," actually speak a variety of mother-tongue languages. Within Bangladesh, the chief varieties are Abeng, A'tong, Brak, Chibok, Dual, and Megam. This survey report gives an account of the sociolinguistic research that took place among speakers of each of these varieties. The goals of the research included investigating linguistic variation within and among each of these six varieties, exploring Mandi speakers' attitudes towards their own and other varieties, and assessing the long-term viability of each variety. The degree of intelligibility in Abeng by speakers of other Mandi varieties was measured, as were Mandi speakers' abilities in other languages. Fieldwork for this research took place from April through June 2005, during which time wordlists, questionnaires, and a story recorded in Abeng were used as the primary research tools.

Extent: 
212 pages
Subject: 
Survey Report
Language Surveys
Country: 
Bangladesh
Content Language: 
Nature of Work: 
Domain SubType: