24 June 2025

The Story of the Green Chili Pepper

A glimpse of an oral tradition belonging to some mountain dwellers of southern India

This lecture revisites Dravidian sociolinguistics and dialectology, as well as the study of verbal arts in minority peasant communities in southern India. By unveiling the recording and field data of a funny story that was told to me in 1998 in a joyous evening of storytelling, I will initiate the first step of a new research and publication project, which is supported by INALCO (Paris).

After providing a synopsis of the story of the green chilli pepper, we will explore the oral tradition from which it originates, focusing on the voices of highlanders in the Idukki and Theni districts of central Kerala and central Tamil Nadu. Next, by listening to a few extracts, we will discover some salient linguistic features of a 'Tamiloid type', which are distinct from modern spoken Tamil. Finally, we will grasp something of the story's magic, while analysing its topoi and its primary and secondary meanings. In addition, we will gain insight into the ritual actions portrayed, which hail from either local or pan-Indian traditions. We will also explore the 'emic' perspective on the funny of the narrative.

The Tamilex monthly seminar will take place on 24 June 2025, at 10:30 CET. This will be hybrid event; for the Zoom link, please contact Charles Li(charles.li"AT"uni-hamburg.de).