Research Articles

The opportunity and challenge of language documentation in India

---

Abstract

Documentation of endangered languages in different parts of the world, as different from the field notes and publications of linguists, has been taking place since a decade. The professional linguists are involved in this new enterprise, but, unlike in the past, the language communities are taken to be their partners. The documentation work at different places and by different people differs in the extent of the use of technology and in the professional orientation of those who do the documentation. I shall describe the opportunities and challenges for the documentation of languages in India, which has a long history of inscriptions in languages used by the royalty. There are three institutions with the Central government, Language Division of the Census, Calcutta, Anthropological Survey of India, Calcutta and Central Institute of Indian languages (CIIL), Mysore, which do linguistic work of different kinds that have a bearing on language documentation and preservation. The Language Division is responsible for the analysis and classification of language data of the Census and it is bound by administrative and political decisions of the government about the nature of the data reported to the public. The Anthropological Survey, as part of its recording and study of tribal...

Keywords: language documentation, endangered languages, India, mother tongues, history, Language Division of the Census, Anthropological Survey of India, Central Institute of Indian languages, CIIL, politics, cultural context

How to Cite:

Annamalai, E., (2003) “The opportunity and challenge of language documentation in India”, Language Documentation and Description 1, 159-167. doi: https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd312