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[[File:George A Grierson NPGx78693.jpg|thumb|The man behind the survey, Grierson, in June 1920. Photo from the [[National Portrait Gallery, London]].]]
The '''Linguistic Survey of India''' ('''LSI''') is a comprehensive survey of the [[language]]s of [[British India]], describing 364 languages and [[dialect]]s.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-342414/Linguistic-Survey-of-India "Linguistic Survey of India", ''Britannica Online'']</ref> The Survey was first proposed by [[George Abraham Grierson]], a member of the [[Indian Civil Service (British India)|Indian Civil Service]] and a linguist who attended the Seventh International Oriental Congress held at Vienna in September 1886. He made a proposal of the linguistic survey and it was initially turned down by the Government of India. After persisting and demonstrating that it could be done using the existing network of government officials at a reasonable cost, it was approved in 1891. It was however formally begun only in 1894 and the survey continued for thirty years with the last of the results being published in 1928.

An on-line searchable database of the LSI<ref>See [https://dsal.uchicago.edu/lsi/ DSAL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170704231551/http://dsal.uchicago.edu/lsi/ |date=2017-07-04 }}</ref> is available, providing an excerpt for each word as it appeared in Grierson's original publication. In addition, the [[British Library]] has [[gramophone record]]ings in its sound archive<ref>See [http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpsubject/socsci/socioling/soundrec/sociolingsound.html British Library Sound Archive]</ref> which document the [[phonology]].

== Method and critiques ==
Grierson made use of Government officers to collect data from across India. He made forms and guidance material for the officers who gathered the information. There were numerous problems in ensuring uniformity of data gathering and clarity of understanding. One officer noted the difficulty even of noting the name of the language from a household. Interviewees would name their language after their caste.<ref name=patil>{{cite book |author=Pandit, Prabodh B. |chapter=The linguistic survey of India - perspectives on language use |pages=71–85 |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>

The maps and boundaries indicated by Grierson have often been used by political groups seeking reorganizations of state boundaries.<ref name=patil />

== List of volumes ==
The list of volumes published by Grierson from 1898 to 1928 are:
* I. Part I Introduction
:Part II Comparative Vocabulary of Indian Languages
* II [[Mon–Khmer languages|Mon–Khmer]] & [[Tai languages|Tai]] Families
* III Part I Himalayan Dialects, North Assam Groups
:Part II Bodo–Naga & Kochin Groups of the [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burman Languages]]
:Part III [[Kuki-Chin languages|Kuki-Chin]] & Burma Groups of the Tibeto-Burman Languages
* IV. [[Munda languages|Munda]] & [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian Languages]]
* V. [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan Languages]], (Eastern Group)
:Part I [[Bengali-Assamese]]
:Part II [[Bihari languages|Bihari]] & [[Oriya language|Oriya]]
* VI Indo-Aryan Languages, Mediate Group ([[Eastern Hindi]])
* VII Indo-Aryan Languages, Southern Group ([[Marathi language|Marathi]])
* VIII Indo-Aryan Languages, North-Western Group
:Part I [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]] & [[Lahnda languages|Lahnda]]
:Part II [[Dardic languages|Dardic]] or Pisacha Languages (including [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]])
* IX. Indo-Aryan Languages, Central Group
:Part I [[Western Hindi]] & [[Panjabi language|Panjabi]]
:Part II [[Rajasthani language|Rajasthani]] & [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]
:Part III [[Bhil languages|Bhil Languages]] including [[Khandesi language|Khandesi]], Banjari or [[Lambadi language|Labhani]], Bahrupia Etc.
:Part IV [[Pahari languages|Pahari Languages]] & Gujuri
* X. [[Iranian languages|Eranian Family]]
* XI. "[[Gipsy language|Gipsy]]" Languages

==Subsequent surveys==
A second Linguistic Survey of India project was initiated by the Language Division of Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India in 1984. This project is ongoing and at the end of year 2010 approximately 40% of the survey has been completed. This survey has a limited objective to trace the changes in the linguistic scenario after Grierson’s study.<ref>[http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011-common/2Sikkim%20pg-i-xvii%20pg-1-23.pdf "Preface, Linguistic Survey of India Sikkim Part-I", ''Language Division, Office of the Registrar General'', INDIA, (November, 2009)]</ref> Several professional linguists have criticized the project for repeating Grierson's methodological mistakes – like choosing local language teachers or government officials as informants rather than laypersons for collecting the linguistic data.

The 1991 census of India found 1,576 "[[mother tongue]]s" 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 State]]s of [[Hyderabad State|Hyderabad]] and [[Mysore]]. The result was that South India was under-represented in the LSI.<ref name="hindu.com">[https://web.archive.org/web/20061203000103/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)]</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/20120717184713/http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1236858.php "New linguistic survey from April 2007", ''Monsters and Critics'' (Dec 26, 2006)]</ref>

The Government of India announced an ambitious project to expand and revise the Linguistic Survey of India. In the [[Eleventh Five-Year Plan (India)|Eleventh Five-Year Plan]] (2007–12) Rs. 2.8 billion was sanctioned for the project. It was classified into two sections: a New Linguistic Survey of India and a Survey of Minor and Endangered Languages. Under the auspices of the Central Institute of Indian Languages<ref>[http://www.ciil.org/ Central Institute of Indian Languages] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041213203632/http://www.ciil.org/ |date=2004-12-13 }}</ref> in Mysore, and under the direction of Udaya Narayana Singh, the project was expected to involve over 54 universities, 2,000 investigators and 10,000 linguists and language specialists working over a period of ten years.<ref name="hindu.com"/>

An April 2010 article in the online Times of India<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110811055356/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-04-04/vadodara/28117996_1_survey-report-institute-of-indian-languages-conduct Darshana Chaturvedi, "Phase 1 of survey to map Himalayan languages to begin soon", ''The Times of India'' (April 4, 2010)]</ref> mentions that the above project has been abandoned but then announces a new initiative following up on the original Grierson survey: the [[People's Linguistic Survey of India]] (PLSI) under the auspices of an NGO called the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre, and with [[G N Devy|Ganesh N. Devy]] as Chairperson. The project will begin with a survey of Himalayan languages. Rajesh Sachdeva, director of CIIL at the Bhasha Confluence, said the exercise of New Linguistic Survey of India had to be abandoned with “the government developing cold feet”, in the fear that this survey may lead to revival of [[linguicism]] or [[linguistic imperialism]].<ref>[http://infochangeindia.org/Media/Languages-of-India/The-case-for-a-linguistic-survey.html Anosh Malekar, "The case for a linguistic survey", ''Infochange: media,'' August 1, 2011] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927215058/http://infochangeindia.org/Media/Languages-of-India/The-case-for-a-linguistic-survey.html |date=September 27, 2011 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Linguistic history of India]]

==Further reading==
* George Abraham Grierson, ''Linguistic Survey of India,'' 11 Vols. in 19 Parts. Delhi, Low Price Publ. (2005) {{ISBN|81-7536-361-4}}
* {{Cite book|last=Majeed|first=Javed|title=Colonialism and Knowledge in Grierson’s Linguistic Survey of India|date=2018-08-31|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-429-79937-2|language=en}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.joao-roiz.jp/LSI/ Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India - The searchable database]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170704231551/http://dsal.uchicago.edu/lsi/ Gramophone recordings ] from the Linguistic Survey of India, containing more than 240 audio files and the corresponding transcriptions. (1913–1929)
* [https://archive.org/details/LSIV0-V11 All volumes of the Linguistic Survey of India (1898-1928)]

[[Category:Surveys]]
[[Category:Languages of India]]
[[Category:Linguistic history of India]]
[[Category:Linguistic research in India]]

{{Source Wikipedia}}

Linguistic Survey of India - Revision history

WikiJoy at 09:28, 12 July 2021