Orientalia Suecana (Oct 2023)
On orality and the sociolinguistic situation of the Kholosi community
Abstract
The present paper aims to present a sociolinguistic survey of Kholosi, an Indo-Aryan language that is in the process of being documented. It is spoken mainly in two villages, Gotāv and Kholos, in the Hormozgan province of Iran. It is entirely surrounded by Iranic languages. Data stem from interviews with the Kholosi people and linguistic information obtained by recording spontaneous texts. The results suggest that due to long-term contact with Iranic languages, not only has the Kholosi language been heavily influenced by Iranic features, but also their culture and oral traditions. The paper concludes that the Kholosi speakers have completely forgotten their oral songs and instead have adopted Iranic ones. In this respect they share a common cultural heritage with Iranic. They are narrating the same tales, e.g., Shāh Abbās and, Rostam va Sohrab, and they sing Iranic songs in Persian or Bastaki. The recent tendency toward using Persian and Bastaki with their children at home might accelerate language shift in their communities.
