Abstract

The South Asian region is characterized by notable linguistic diversity seen in the wide range of functional variety in language use. Therefore, language shift has become a common yet complex phenomenon. Several studies on language shift and maintenance among Indigenous languages in India focus on the causal factors that facilitate the shift. However, most of the studies neglect to address language perception and ideology in rural and urban settings that facilitate the shift. Therefore, this study examines the issue of language shift and maintenance in the Lambani community in Dharwad, Karnataka, India, with a focus on language perception and ideology in both rural and urban contexts. Lambani is an Indigenous community that is shaped by various facilitating factors such as historical and geographical influences, socio-economic conditions, and cultural traditions, among others. The existing literature on the Lambani community primarily focuses on sociocultural aspects, revealing a significant gap in research on their language, Gormati, and underscoring the need for the sociolinguistic approach to better understand and preserve this language. In congruence with Fishman and Coulmas’ theory of language usage, the study adopted a qualitative approach, utilizing semistructured in-depth personal as well as focus-grouped interviews. The findings indicate that migration, dominant governmental policies, and disruption in intergenerational transmission due to the lack of domains of language usage accelerated language shift within the community. The study identifies that the factors influencing the choice, usage, perception, and ideology of speakers in different contexts affect the dynamics of the Gormati language within the Lambani community.