Linguistic Survey of India
- Linguistic Survey of India
The Linguistic Survey of India, often referred to as the LSI, is a comprehensive survey of the languages of British India, describing 364 languages and dialects [ [http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-342414/Linguistic-Survey-of-India "Linguistic Survey of India", "Britannica Online"] ] . It was a project of the British Raj conducted between 1894 and 1928, under the direction of George A. Grierson, an official of the Indian Civil Service.
An on-line [http://www.joao-roiz.jp/LSI/ searchable database of the LSI] is available, providing an excerpt for each word as it appeared in Grierson's original publication, in .pdf format. In addition, the British Library has gramophone recordings in its [http://www.bl.uk/collections/sound-archive/accents.html#ling Sound Archive] which document the phonology.
New Survey
The 1991 census of India found 1,576 "mother tongues" with separate grammatical structures and 1,796 languages classified as "other mother tongues". Calls for a more complete and exact Linguistic Survey of India soon followed. It was noted that Grierson's works had relied on untrained field workers and neglected the former province of Burma, Madras and the then princely States of Hyderabad and Mysore. The result was that South India was under-represented in the LSI [ [http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/16/stories/2006111603050600.htm Sharath S. Srivatsa, "New Linguistic Survey of India to begin in April next year", "The Hindu" (November 16, 2006)] ] [ [http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1236858.php "New linguistic survey from April 2007", "Monsters and Critics" (Dec 26, 2006)] ] .
The Government of India has announced an ambitious project to expand and revise the Linguistic Survey of India. In the 11th five-year plan (2007-12) Rs. 2.8 billion was sanctioned for the project. It has been classified into two sections: a New Linguistic Survey of India and a Survey of Minor and Endangered Languages. Under the auspices of the [http://www.ciil.org/ Central Institute of Indian Languages] in Mysore, and under the direction of Udaya Narayana Singh, the project is expected to involve over 54 universities, 2,000 investigators and 10,000 linguists and language specialists working over a period of ten years. [ [http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/16/stories/2006111603050600.htm Sharath S. Srivatsa, "New Linguistic Survey of India to begin in April next year", "The Hindu" (November 16, 2006)] ] .
Resources
* [http://www.joao-roiz.jp/LSI/ Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India - The searchable database]
* George Abraham Grierson, "Linguistic Survey of India," 11 Vols. in 19 Parts. Delhi, Low Price Publ. (2005) ISBN 8175363614
References
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