Linguistic survey in final leg to document 780 languages

Over 100 years after Irish Orientalist John Abraham Grierson brought out his detailed study of Indian languages in 1900 after an effort of 28 years, the Peoples Linguistic Survey of India (PLSI), a rights-based movement is now in the final stages of bringing out the final documentation in the country.

With about 700 people involved in the massive project for three years, the project is expected to come out with 70 volumes covering all the Indian languages. Grierson had taken some 28 years to do the job, and the PLSI, without any government support, has been working on the project. An earlier project mooted by the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) in Mysore to document all the languages in the country fell through because the Registrar General of the National Population Registry had objected to it saying it was part of the Survey of India.

The project which would have cost Rs 1,500-odd crore fell through, though the CIIL had spent Rs 2 crore on training people to document the languages. Chairman of PLSI Ganesh N Devy then took up the project to document all Indian languages and dialects. Now, come September 5, and the documentation of languages will be out, in 70 volumes and of 1,672 languages in India.

But, what would have been a survey with audio and video documentation will now be only written documentation. "The project was initially mooted after Sam Pitroda had expressed the need to digitally record all Indian languages," said Maheshwariaih, a former professor of Karnatak University.

Byaari, Badaga, Sanketi may not ring a bell among most people. But, they are languages spoken in various parts of Karnataka, by smaller populations. These and many more languages, some 50 of them have been recorded in the volume on Karnataka, said Maheshwariaih, who along with his wife Rajeshwari Maheshwariaih too of the same university, led the PLSI team in Karnataka.

The project has been led nationally by Chairman of PLSI Ganesh N Devy, a former professor of English at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, who has studied Adivasi languages for 27 years. PLSI seeks to identify, document and understand these languages; especially the languages of fragile communities such as the nomadic, coastal, island, hill and forest people, added Maheshwariaih.

The PLSI is the first such survey of Indian languages after 1900. Karnataka volume (No.14 part -2, Kannada Version) is a significant contribution to the PLSI. This is a monumental document in the field of the Linguistic Survey of India.

Kannada is considered one of the oldest languages in the Dravidian group of languages along with Tamil. Now, Kannada is considered a classical language by the Government of India. Kannada is considered as one of the distinctive language for its literary contribution and received eight Jnana Peetha Awards.

Some 24 scholars from Karnataka and other states contributed their articles to the Karnataka volume. "There are at least 50 languages in the state," said Maheshwariaih, adding "The project cost us less than Rs 1 lakh in Karnataka."

First Section of this volume includes the basic demographic details of Karnataka, number of speakers, where it is spoken, genetic affiliation, antiquity, stages of Kannada's development, mutual influence of Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, Dhakkani Urdu, Arabic, Persian, English, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Konkani, among other languages. Further, it includes description of phonological, morphological, syntactic features, spoken and written variety, regional and social dialects.