Significance of dialect in upcountry Tamil short stories

Abstract

Language is an excellent medium of communication for the man to communicate his thoughts and feelings. Language has begun in the form of gestures and has eventually developed into a form of sound and speech where today it has become a symbol of a nation. Languages are commonly used in both spoken and written varieties. The earliest of these varieties is the spoken variety which helps to convey human emotions through speech. Spoken variety of a language can be classified into various dialects based on the social status, caste and region. Both spoken and written varieties of language are evident in literature. Since the emergence and development of Tamil prose literature, regional dialect has begun to gain significance in the literary world. The spoken variety of language has become an essential part of the literary world because it speaks of the lives of the common people. Spoken language gives the power to people to genuinely express their emotions when they encounter each social problem and the ways they have overcome them. At the same time, spoken variety has the potential power to highlight the peculiarities of a group of people who speak this language and distinguish their identity in society. On the above basis, the purpose of this article is to examine the influence of spoken variety of the language used in the upcountry Tamil short stories and underlying reasons for such an influence. This article is based on an analytical research methodology with special reference to six short stories from the collection of “Malaiyaga sirukadhaigal” as primary data. This article helps to understand the peculiarities of the spoken language of the upcountry Tamil people and to know the significance of the spoken variety in upcountry Tamil short stories.