Dialect of Cochin (Marathi Dialect Texts)

A small pocket of a Marathi dialect is found in Cochin, far to the south of the present major area of this Indo-Aryan language, in the midst of the Dravidian block. It is spoken by the Gaud Sarasvat community as their home language. This form of speech is closely connected with the Konkani dialect of the South Kanara district and thus forms one extreme end of this language which is spread along the western coast of India, covering the states of Maharashtra, Mysore and Kerala.

The following dialectal material was collected from an educated speaker of the language. He is a young man of thirty years and is educated in Malayalam and English. He speaks both these languages fluently and has studied Sanskrit as his special subject. Most of his time he has lived in Cochin proper. At home he speaks usually the form of speech represented in these stories. He has given them in the usual colloquial style. They were recorded on tape and then transcribed from them.

The stories given here are well-known. They are known to him from different sources including European literature as well. Hence they cannot be used for the purpose of a folklore study of either the inhabitants of Cochin or even of the small community which speaks this dialect. Their usefulness is confined only to their linguistic study.