Linguistic Survey Of India, 1927: Preface

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This article has been extracted from LINGUISTIC SURVEY OF INDIA SIR GEORGE ABRAHAM GRIERSON, K.C.I.E., PH.D., D.LlTT., LL.D., ICS (Retd.). CALCUTTA: GOVERNMENT OF INDIA CENTRAL PUBLICATION BRANCH 1927

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Preface

In this Volume it bus been my object to present a. summary of the results of the Linguistic Survey of India.. so far as it has been under my oharge, in a. form convenient for reference alike to professed students of language and to tbe lay reader. 'rbe descriptive portion falls into two sections. In the first, which I have named the Introduction, I bo.ve given an 8.COOWlt of previous attempts to set forth the languages of India. and of the procedure followed in the present Survey. Some of what is stated in this section will a.lso be found scattered through other volumes, but here it is all brought -tOgei;ber in one oollecteda.ccount.

The second section is an a.ttempt to bring under one view the results of the Survey and the lessons to be derived from them. Much of it has been based on the Cha.pter on the Languao<>eB of India. contributed by me to the Indian Census Report for the year 1901, but this has boon brought up to date, and a. good deal has been added to it. That chapter may, in fact, be looked upon as a first draft of this section of the volume. Written as it was nearly a quarter of a century ago, there have been found many opportunities for additions and improvements.

These two sections are followed by two collections (Majora and Minora) of Addenda and Corrigenda for the whole Survey. The first (Addenda Majora) consists of the more important additions, and, 6Spt'CiaUy, of acoounts of languages for which matorials became availa.ble after the volume referred to had gone to press. Only in this way have I been able to bring the earlier volumes up to date. The Addenda et OOrJ'igmda Minora mainly include additions of detail, corrections of misprints and of mistakes of my own, and the like. 'I'hase latter are issued loose and. are printed in such a way that they can be l'eadily cut up and inserted in their proper pla.oos in: the several volumes of the Survey. To the whole, three Appendixes bve been added.

The first is a. classiUed list of all the languages of India., in which the statistics of the Survey ha.ve been compared with those of the Census of 1921. The second Appendix is a li8t of those Indian languages of which gmm~phone records are available in this country and in Paris, and the 't hird is au Index of all the names referring to Ia.nguages of India. that I have been able to collect. I hope that the last will be found a useful work of reference for anyone who may desire to identify ans.me with whichhe is not f.a.milial'. It also forms an Index to the, contents of Volumes IT to XI of the Survey itself. A second part of this volume is now in the press.

It is a compamtive vocabnlal"y of 168 selected words in about 368 different la.nguages and dialects, and will, I hope, be found useful by students of langlla.:,<>-es. A third part is being prepared by the competent pen of Professor Turner of the

School of Oriental Studies. It will be a Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan

LMtguages, for tbe special use of philologists. It will appear in due course, a.ndwill complete tbe survey.

It is with 80 feeling of gmtitude for having been permitted. to finish 80 work extending .over thirty yea.rs that. after ~riting this Prefac-e, the pen will be laid doWD. Without any . .pretended. modesty I confess that no one is more than myself aware of the deficiencies of the Survey, nor, on the other hand, need I plead guilt)' to a vain boasl; wilen I claim , tlmt what has been done in it for India. has been doue for liO othol:' cou ntr)' in the world. Such 88 il; is, I bid it adieu, sure of .)'mpat~)' with my mistakes, and of appreciation of wha.t in it is 'Worthy, on the p rt of those lovers of India. ",1m lire comFetent to put itl! merit and its defects to test.