Study on Dialect Continuum in Gujarati Population

Abstract

The outcomes render a vast scope for the identification of the individuals from their voice through the technical methods. This would definitely contribute to the society wherever there is a necessity for the same. The main segmental study conducted on acoustic characteristics of the vowel quality and quantity reveals the fact that the vowel quality of each subject dialect is distinguishable while comparing it with Standard Gujarati dialect and this distinction is unique to the dialectal accent. Though it was found that there are similarities of vowel quality among the regional dialect speakers there are still certain grey areas of overlapping zones that need to be redressed. However, by considering all the factors related to vowel quality of the dialect, it is proved to be an more effective feature for profiling of speakers. These features of vowel quality can also be cooperated with the features of prosody. The comparative study of dialectal segment and suprasegment of the phonological systems facilitated to prepare a portrait that Gujarati Phonology contains enough variety to enunciate English up to the international standards easily. Gujarati consonant system comprises of almost all the phonemes of the English consonant system. In addition, Gujarati articulates a larger number of plosive, nasal, and affricate consonants. Gujarati Phonology produces eight vowels as against twelve in English. All the short vowels are properly produced in Gujarati. The problem is only at producing long vowels and diphthongs. Gujarati as a language does contain the variety of the long vowels but this is observed only in orthography. During speech production, long vowels are not produced as a matter of habit. Babu Suthar dedicated his fiction Nindraviyog to the vowels and consonants, which are used in orthography but not produced in speech. He mentions, You are the victims of our mouth the first metaphysical machine evolved by itself.