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{{Short description|Irish administrator and linguist in British India (1851-1941)}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=March 2026}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sir George Abraham Grierson
| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|OM|KCIE|size=100%}}
| image = George A Grierson NPGx78693.jpg
| caption = Grierson in June 1920, photo from the [[National Portrait Gallery, London]].
| birth_date = {{birth date|1851|01|07|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Dublin]], Ireland
| death_date = {{death date and age|1941|03|09|1851|01|07|df=yes}}
| death_place =
| other_names =
| known_for = [[Linguistic Survey of India]]
| occupation = [[Linguist]]
| relatives =
| spouse =
| website =
| footnotes =
}}
'''Sir George Abraham Grierson''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OM|KCIE|FBA}} (7 January 1851 – 9 March 1941) was an Irish administrator and linguist in [[British Raj|British India]]. He worked in the [[Indian Civil Service (British India)|Indian Civil Service]] but an interest in [[philology]] and linguistics led him to pursue studies in the languages and folklore of India during his postings in Bengal and Bihar. He published numerous studies in the journals of learned societies and wrote several books during his administrative career but proposed a formal linguistic survey at the Oriental Congress in 1886 at Vienna. The Congress recommended the idea to the British Government and he was appointed superintendent of the newly created [[Linguistic Survey of India]] in 1898.

Grierson continued the work until 1928, surveying people across the British Indian territory, documenting spoken languages by recording voices and written forms. He was responsible for documenting information on 179 languages, defined by him through a test of [[mutual unintelligibility]], and 544 dialects which he placed in five language families. He published the findings of the Linguistic Survey in a series that consisted of 19 volumes.

==Biography==
Grierson was born in [[Glenageary]], [[County Dublin]]. His father and grandfather ([[George Grierson (printer)|George Grierson]]) were well-known Dublin printers and publishers. His mother Isabella was the daughter of Henry Ruxton of Ardee. He was educated at [[St. Bees School]], and from the age of 13 at [[Shrewsbury School|Shrewsbury]]. He then went up to [[Trinity College, Dublin]], where he was a student of mathematics. Grierson qualified for the [[Indian Civil Service (British India)|Indian Civil Service]] in 1871 ranking twenty-eighth for the year. He continued studies at Trinity College for two probationary years where he was influenced by [[Robert Atkinson (philologist)|Robert Atkinson]], professor of oriental languages. He took a deep interest in languages, won prizes for studies in [[Sanskrit]] and [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] before leaving for the [[Bengal Presidency]] in 1873.<ref name=ria-dict>{{cite book| last1 = McGuire| first1 = James| last2 = Quinn |first2 = James |year=2009|title=Dictionary of Irish Biography|volume= III|location=Dublin|publisher= Royal Irish Academy-Cambridge University Press|isbn = 9780521633314}}</ref> First posted to [[Bankipore]] (Patna) in Bihar, he became Magistrate and Collector at [[Patna]] and still later in 1896, Opium Agent for [[Bihar]]. He married Lucy Elizabeth Jean, daughter of Maurice Henry Fitzgerald Collis, a Dublin surgeon, in 1880 but they had no children.<ref name=odnb>{{cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/33572|author1=Turner, R.L. (revised by John D. Haigh)|editor1-first=John D|editor1-last=Haigh|chapter=Grierson, Sir George Abraham (1851–1941)|title= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|volume=1|year= 2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|year=1941|title=Obituary: Sir George Abraham Grierson, O.M.; 7 January, 1851-7 March, 1941.|journal=Man|volume=41|pages=62–63|jstor=2793347|author=[J. L. M.]}}</ref>

Grierson attended the Oriental Congress in 1886 at Vienna and proposed the idea of a formal linguistic in India. Grierson was a delegate of the Royal Asiatic Society along with Dr [[Theodor Duka]], [[Albert Étienne Jean Baptiste Terrien de Lacouperie|Albert Terrien de Lacouperie]], [[Cecil Bendall]], and [[Robert Needham Cust|R. N. Cust]].<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1 January 1887|title=VI. Seventh International Oriental Congress|url=http://journals.cambridge.org/article_S0035869X00019353|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |series=New Series |volume=19|issue=1|pages=185–189|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00019353|s2cid=250349868 |issn=1474-0591|url-access=subscription}}</ref> At the Congress it was noted that the number of Indian languages was unknown with estimates varying from 20 to 250. A resolution was passed urging the Government to undertake a 'deliberate systematic survey of the languages of India.' The signatories included [[Karl Bühler]], [[Max Müller]], [[Monier Monier-Williams|Monier Williams]] and Grierson. The recommendation was made to the British Government and in 1898 he was appointed Superintendent of the newly formed Linguistic Survey of India. For the survey a standard set of materials was sought. He had government officials collect material for every language, dialect, and subdialect, going from village to village and sampling across the classes and sexes. He provided forms and instructional material to his correspondents.<ref name=patil>{{cite book|author=Pandit, Prabodh B. | chapter=The linguistic survey of India - perspectives on language use|pages=71–85| chapter-url=http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED104170.pdf#page=77 |year= 1975 |editor=Ohannessian, Sirarpi |editor2=Charles A Ferguson |editor3=Edgar C. Polome|title=Language surveys in developing nations: papers and reports on sociolinguistic surveys|place= Arlington, Va.|publisher= Center for Applied Linguistics}}</ref> He sought a version of the parable of the prodigal son, oral narratives and a predefined list of 241 words and phrases (this list had been made by Sir George Campbell in 1866). The parable was chosen because 'it contains the three personal pronouns, most of the cases found in the declension of nouns, and the present, past, and future tenses of the verb'.<ref>{{cite journal|year=2002|title=George Abraham Grierson, 1851–1941|journal=Hermathena|issue=172|pages=39–55|jstor=23041283|first=Siddhartha|last=Sen }}</ref> The survey classified the languages of 290,000,000 people.<ref>{{cite news|title=Sir George Grierson| newspaper=Birmingham Daily Post| date=10 March 1941|page=6|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000619/19410310/142/0006|via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1900 he moved to England "for convenience of consulting European libraries and scholars".<ref>Thomas and Turner, p. 3.</ref> By 1903 most of the data had come in and he retired from the Indian Civil Service. He spent the following thirty years editing the enormous amount of material gathered<ref name=ria-dict/> and worked briefly in collaboration with the Norwegian linguist [[Sten Konow]] (who contributed to volume III on Tibetan languages).<ref name=odnb /> On 8 May 1928 the completion of the Linguistic Survey of India was celebrated at the [[Criterion Restaurant]] by the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland with Lord Birkenhead proposing the toast.<ref>{{cite journal|title= Sir George Grierson and the "Linguistic Survey of India"| journal=The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland| issue=3| year=1928| pages= 711–718 }}</ref>

Grierson published scholarly works throughout his career: on the dialects and peasant life of Bihar, on [[Hindi]] literature, on [[bhakti]], and on [[linguistics]]. His contemporaries noted both his lack of sympathy for [[Advaita Vedanta]], which he regarded as "pandit religion," and his "warm appreciation of the monotheistic devotion of the country folk".<ref name=odnb /><ref>Thomas and Turner:p. 11.</ref> He also published on literary texts and writers, including a paper on [[Kalidasa]] in 1877.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Gode |first=P. K. |title=Sir George Abraham Grierson (1852-1941) |date=1939 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41688849 |journal=Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute |volume=21 |issue=3/4 |pages=310–311 |jstor=41688849 |issn=0378-1143}}</ref>

Most of Grierson's later work deals with linguistics. In a celebratory account of his life, [[Frederick William Thomas (philologist)|F. W. Thomas]] and [[Ralph Lilley Turner|R. L. Turner]] refer to the extensive publications of the Linguistic Survey of India as "a great Imperial museum, representing and systematically classifying the linguistic botany of India".<ref>Thomas and Turner:p. 18.</ref>

Grierson died in [[Camberley]], Surrey, England at Rathfarnham, the house he built and named after his grandfather's castle in Dublin.<ref name=odnb />

==Honours==

* 1894: Appointed CIE
* 1912: Knighted as a Knight Commander of the [[Order of the Indian Empire]] (KCIE)
* 1917-1939: Fellow of the [[British Academy]]
* 1927: President of the [[Gypsy Lore Society]]<ref name="odnb" />
* 1928: Appointed to the [[Order of Merit]] (OM)
* 1929: Awarded the [[Sir William Jones|Sir William Jones Gold]] Medal and the Campbell Memorial Medal from the [[Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal]] (now The Asiatic Society).<ref name=":0" />
* 1902: [[Honorary doctorate|Honorary]] [[Doctor of Letters|Doctorate of Letters]] (D.Litt.) from the [[University of Dublin]].<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times|title=University intelligence|date=2 June 1902|page=9|issue=36783}}</ref>

Grierson was an honorary member of the [[Nagari Pracharini Sabha]] at Benares.<ref>{{cite book |author=Anonymous |url=https://archive.org/stream/GriersonCommemoration/Grierson-Commemoration#page/n9/mode/2up |title=Grierson Commemoration Volume. |publisher=The Linguistic Society of India |year=1936 |place=Lahore |page=2}}</ref> He was an honorary fellow of the [[Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal]], the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, the Modern Language Association, Linguistic Society of India, and the [[Bangiya Sahitya Parishat]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=mountains>{{Cite web |last=Majeed |first=Javed |date=2023-11-21 |title=The mountains and hills of South Asia's languages and dialects |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/focus/news/the-mountains-and-hills-south-asias-languages-and-dialects-3474936 |access-date=2024-04-28 |website=The Daily Star |language=en}}</ref> He received several other honorary degrees from the universities of Halle, Cambridge, Oxford, and Bihar.<ref name="odnb" /> A literary award of India, the [[Dr. George Grierson Award]], was named in his honour in 1989.

==Selected publications==
Grierson was a prolific writer. On his 85th birthday, an article was contributed in his honour and published by the School of Oriental Studies which included a list of Grierson's publications occupying 22 pages.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Turner|first=R. L.|date=1941|title=Sir George A. Grierson, O.M., K.C.I.E.|jstor=25221815|journal=The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|volume=73|issue=4|pages=383–386|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00097823|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=White|first=Edith M.|date=1936|title=Bibliography of the Published Writings of Sir George A. Grierson|jstor=608043|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London|volume=8|issue=2/3|pages=297–318}}</ref>
* {{cite book|author=Grierson, George Abraham| title=Linguistic Survey of India| url=https://archive.org/details/LSIV0-V11|place=Calcutta|publisher=Government Press|year=1898–1928}}
* {{cite book|author=Grierson, George Abraham| title=Bihar Peasant Life, Being a Discursive Catalogue of the Surroundings of the People of That Province, With Many Illustrations From Photographs Taken By the Author. Prepared Under Orders of the Government of Bengal.|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924072688025|place= London|publisher= Trübner & Co.|year=1885}}
* Grierson, George Abraham. ''Seven Grammars of the Dialects and Subdialects of the Bihari Language (1883–87)'' 3 vols. {{ISBN|81-7835-451-9}}
*{{cite book|last=Grierson|first=Sir George Abraham |title=The Pisaca languages of north-western India|url=https://archive.org/stream/pisacalanguageso00grie#page/n5/mode/2up|year=1906|publisher=The Royal asiatic Society, London}}
* Grierson George Abraham, ''[[Linguistic Survey of India]],'' 11 Vols. in 19 Parts
* {{cite book|author=Grierson, George Abraham|url=https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofkash01grieuoft#page/n5/mode/2up| title=A Dictionary of the Kashmiri Language|place= Calcutta|publisher= Asiatic Society of Bengal|year= 1916}}
* {{cite book|author=Grierson, George Abraham|url=https://archive.org/stream/ishkashmizebakiy00grieuoft#page/n5/mode/2up|title= Ishkashmi, Zebaki and Yazghulami. An Account of Three Eranian Dialects.|place= London|publisher= Royal Asiatic Society|year= 1920}}
* {{cite book|title=Lalla-Vakyani|author1= Grierson, Sir George|author2=Barnett, Lionel D. Barnett|url=https://archive.org/details/lallavakyani014969mbp|place=London|year= 1920|publisher=Royal Asiatic Society}}
* The Lay of Alha: A Saga of Rajput Chivalry as Sung by Minstrels of Northern India, SAMP early 20th-century Indian books project, Editor Sir George Abraham Grierson, Translated by William Waterfield, Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1923
* Grierson, George Abraham 1909. Gleanings from the Bhakta-Mala. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society: 607–644.
* Grierson, George Abraham 1910. Gleanings from the Bhakta-Mala. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society: 269–306.
* Grierson, George Abraham 1910. Gleanings from the Bhakta-Mala. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society: 87–109.
*Grierson, George Abraham, 2007, [https://www.amazon.in/dp/B08NZTWTWT Kachhi Ji Bhasa VIgnanik Vadhod (ક્છી જ્ી ભાસા વ̃ગ્ નાનીક્ વાધૉડ઼્)], Translated in [[Kachhi language|Kachhi Language]] from Linguistic Survey of India, Volume 8, Part 1 (1919) by Manilal Gala, Vadhod PIrkasan: 1–122.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Grierson|first=George Abraham|title=Kachhi Ji Bhasa VIgnanik Vadhod|publisher=Vadhod PIrkasan|year=2007|isbn=|location=Kachh|pages=1–122|language=kac|translator-last=Gala|translator-first=Manilal|asin=B08NZTWTWT |asin-tld=in}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Herbert Hope Risley]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* Thomas, F. W. and R. L. Turner. 1941. ''George Abraham Grierson 1851–1941''. London: Humphrey Milford Amen House, E.C.
* Thomas, F. W., and R. L. Turner. 1942. George Abraham Grierson 1851–1941. Proceedings of the British Academy, 28:283–306.

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
* [https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&version=1.2&query=%28%28dc.creator%20all%20%22Linguistic%20survey%20of%20India%22%20or%20dc.contributor%20all%20%22Linguistic%20survey%20of%20India%22%29%29&suggest=2 BNF Gallica] - digitized gramophone recordings from the Linguistic Survey of India
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170704231551/http://dsal.uchicago.edu/lsi/ Digital South Asia Library - partly defunct] - gramophone recordings from the Linguistic Survey of India (LSI)
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=George Abraham Grierson |sopt=t}}
* [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp60908/sir-george-abraham-grierson?search=sas&sText=george+abraham+grierson Photos of Sir George Abraham Grierson]
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[[Category:Linguists from the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:British Indologists]]
[[Category:Irish people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:People from Glenageary]]
[[Category:1851 births]]
[[Category:1941 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at St Bees School]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of Merit]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
[[Category:Indian Civil Service (British India) officers]]
[[Category:British civil servants in British India]]
[[Category:Irish colonial officials]]

George Abraham Grierson - Revision history

Infycle Technologies at 18:22, 19 March 2026