Realizing the need for studying all the Indian languages employing the tools made available by modern linguistics, the Language Division of the Office of the Registrar General, India proposed to the Government of India for a major research project entitled Linguistic Survey of India. The proposal was accepted with modifications by the government during the Sixth Five Year Plan. Despite the fact that the project was initiated in 1981, it could not be started till 1983 due to procedural delays in recruiting the staff sanctioned for the project.
However, this project could not be carried out as was planned due to obvious infrastructural constraints. As a result, moderate progress could be achieved. In spite of the constraints mentioned above, we are happy to bring out the description of the languages and dialects spoken in the state of Orissa, first in the series under the title, Linguistic Survey of India-Orissa. Simultaneously field survey, analysis and report writing on the languages and dialects spoken in the states of Bihar, Sikkim, Rajasthan, West Bengal and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli are in progress.
The following points may be mentioned by way of explaining the methodology adopted in this survey. First, the then Deputy Registrar General (Language) Dr. B. P. Mahapatra visited many of the Departments of Linguistics functioning in the Indian Universities, held discussions with the linguists serving there about the final design of the survey to be conducted by the Language Division. It may be pertinent to mention here that although the original proposal envisaged the simultaneous survey of all languages of the country, later it was decided that the survey would be carried out state by state in view of certain unavoidable constraints and to begin with the state of Orissa was taken up.
Next, steps were taken to design the tools for the survey. Software for use in the survey such as questionnaire: word list, sentence list and a story in English as connected text were finalized. The questionnaire constructed exclusively for use in this survey, contained questions pertaining to demographic, linguistic and sociolinguistic aspects. The word list containing five thousand words, the sentence list containing nine hundred sentences of different patterns were constructed and finalized. The story for getting it translated into the languages surveyed was also selected. Thus all these four software were used as tools in the field survey.
Selection of the informants for the survey was done through the Orissa Directorate of Census Operations and in consultation with the State Government officials. Introduction letters about the officials carrying out the survey were sent to the Directorate and also to the District Magistrates of various districts where field survey was carried out, and the cooperation and assistance of the government officials was solicited. These steps served the purpose of establishing a good rapport with the informants which ultimately resulted in the elicitation of good and reliable data on the languages under survey. The officials who collected data, trained linguists as they were, could do justice to their work and collected adequate amount of data for the survey. Informants for this survey were selected from among the adult speakers of the languages. Primary and secondary school teachers who were considered well versed with the language under study served as mediators between the researchers and the informants. This, in a way, helped a lot in getting cooperation from the informants and eventually good amount of data were elicited from them.
Elicitation of the data for the survey was done in a friendly atmosphere. Since a good amount of rapport was established by the researchers with the informants through government officials and teachers, practically, there was no problem in the collection of data, once the selection of the informants had been finalized. Two to three persons were selected to serve as informants for each of the language/dialect that was studied. The interview session consisted of the collecting word lists, sentence lists and also getting the story translated and transcribed into the language. The whole of the interview was recorded using tape recorders, the recordings of which were transcribed in the field, using narrow phonetic transcription based on the International Phonetic Script. The data transcribed thus were subjected to phonemisation process for the purpose of making phonemic inventory and analysis for the purpose of making grammatical and syntactic descriptions. The findings and conclusions of the analysis in the form of individual language descriptions, presented family wise.
About one hundred years have lapsed after Sir G. A. Grierson undertook his monumental survey of Indian Languages and more than fifty years have lapsed after India attained its freedom from foreign rule rendering a lot of changes in our society as also in our languages, thereby making it imperative on the part of the linguists to see what changes have taken place in Indian languages after Grierson's study. While some of the languages have attained the status of developed languages, some are in the process of being developed, some more are yet to develop, some others have lost their status (demographic and developmental) what they had achieved. Oriya, the official language of Orissa state, for example, had attained the status of a Scheduled Language; some languages like Santali etc, have got introduced into such areas of language use as mass media and education whereas some other languages like Bhumij etc., have shown a trend of stagnation. In this way, it can be said that the present survey, indeed, can help in taking stock of the linguistic situation prevailing in the country by providing a platform to researchers and interested people to compare it with the linguistic situation that was prevailing roughly a century ago.
The report on the survey has been presented in the following chapters:
1. Introduction
2. Indo-Aryan family (that is, mainly Oriya and its dialects)
3. Austro-Asiatic family and
4. Dravidian family
The introductory part of the survey report discusses the infrastructural facilities that were made available for carrying out the present survey, the methodology adopted, the significance of the survey as also the scope and limitations of the survey. The report begins with the description of Oriya and its dialects, namely, Sambalpuri, Relli, Bhatri, Desia (Proja), Bhuyan and other Oriya tribal dialects including one community dialect (KeLa) and three Hindi dialects i.e. Laria, Binjhia and Sadan/Sadri. This presentation provides ample scope for a comparison of these speech forms. Finally, the report presents the descriptions of other languages, namely, Khond/Kondh, Kisan, Kui, Koya, Kuvi and Gadaba (Ollari) belonging to the Dravidian family and Bhumij, Bonda, Didei, Gadaba(Gutob), Ho, Juang, Kharia, Mundari, Parengi, Santali and Savara belonging to the Austro-Asiatic family.
The second part entitled Indo-Aryan family presents a description of Standard Oriya. It gives descriptions of the following five dialects of Oriya language also: 1. Sambalpuri, 2. Bhatri, 3. Desia (Proja), 4. Relli and 5. Bhuyan. A comparative word list of one thousand lexical items of the four dialects is appended in the section to provide a scope for comparing the lexical items of these dialects of Oriya. Further, this chapter includes a section on the tribal dialects of Oriya also. Besides, a brief account of the phonological isoglosses, ploted in maps are included in this section.
The third part of the survey report entitled Austro-Asiatic family comprises of the descriptions of eleven languages, namely, 1. Bhumij, 2. Bonda, 3. Didei, 4. Gadaba(Gutob), 5. Ho, 6. Juang, 7. Kharia, 8. Mundari, 9. Parengi, 10. Santali and 11. Savara. The descriptions of these eleven languages include a brief sociolinguistic account as well as a word list consisting of two hundred and fifty 'basic vocabulary' items.
The description of languages, belonging to Dravidian family, is presented in the fourth part. The languages whose descriptions are included in this part are 1. Khond/Kondh, 2. Kisan, 3. Koya, 4. Kui, 5. Kuvi and 6. Gadaba (Ollari). The descriptions include a brief sociolinguistic account of each of the language as also a word list of two hundred and fifty 'basic vocabulary items.
Since the bibliographical information for each of the section is presented separately it was decided that no general bibliography need to be given in the end of this report.
The languages covered in this survey include the following five languages as referred to earlier, although their speakers strength did not appear in the census reports since 1971. Accordingly, only 1961 census figures are given for these languages in these descriptions. The five languages are 1. Bonda, 2. Didei, 3. Gadaba(Gutob), 4. Parengi (Austro-Asiatic family). 5. Gadaba (Ollari, Dravidian family).
The sociolinguistic descriptions of the languages included in this survey in general and that of Oriya language in particular give a glimpse of the dynamics of the sociolinguistic situation as found in Orissa. Moreover, the description of the bilingual situation prevailing in Orissa throws some light on the linguistic mobility of the people, especially the tribal communities inhabiting the Orissa state.
Considering the space limitation of the survey report, it was decided that the description of the Oriya language, descriptions of its dialects and those of other languages would be presented in the survey report in condensed form, although most of the descriptions are made in an elaborate manner and are available with the Language Division. The comparative word list of Oriya and its four dialects included in this survey, namely, 1. Sambalpuri, 2. Relli, 3. Bhatri and 4. Desia (Proja) presents 1000 items together with their gloss, arranged in the order as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and particles. The report on Bhuyan, another dialect of Oriya, has been adopted from a published article and hence the word list on Bhuyan could not be furnished in the table. The word lists for the rest of the languages in this survey contain 250 'basic vocabulary' items together with their glosses.
Only a brief attempt has been made to compare Grierson's survey reports on the languages of Orissa state with that of the present report, leaving ample scope to the readers to make comparison and draw conclusions.
It is a well established fact that when languages belonging to two or more families are spoken in a geographically contiguous areas, then it will result in convergence. The convergence of features may take place in all the levels of the language such as phonology, morphology, syntax and lexical items. In this survey, while preparing the descriptions across the family boundaries some of the features on convergence have been identified, although there is scope for making an elaborate study on the quantum and nature of linguistic convergence prevailing in Orissa.
It is inherent in human conditions to err and we make no claim to being an exception. Although the same questionnaire containing the word list, sentence list and a story along with a standard format developed for the survey, were given to all the researchers those who participated in the linguistic survey of Orissa, subjectivity in the descriptions and thereby uniformity in presentation could not be achieved. However, an effort has been made to reach the goal of uniformity as much as practicable.
Of all the human inventions, language is the most ancient and yet the most important and indispensable one for the survival and development of mankind. It won't be an exaggeration if it is claimed that it is this invention which distinguishes human beings from other beings. In other words, man becomes a fulfledged species because of the capability to use both the spoken and the written form of language for communication.
Several languages richly endow the Indian social panorama. Languages belonging to four families, namely, Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman are spoken in this vast land. Our country has a very rich and long tradition of description of languages. Ancient treatises like Panini's Astadhyayi and Tolkappiyar's Tolkappiyam bear clear evidence to the pinnacle achieved in giving accurate descriptions, par excellence, of languages. A unique characteristic of the Indian tradition of description of languages is that it prescribed the norms for different roles to be played by human beings in a society, the domain, where language is used.
Despite such a rich tradition, unfortunately, all the Indian languages did not have had full descriptions. Even today quite a few spoken languages remain as non-literary languages, languages without script, as a result of which they are without proper development. The efforts undertaken by Sir George A. Grierson and his team, led to a comprehensive study of the Indian languages and the descriptions of languages was published in several volumes during the years 1896-1927. It may be mentioned, however, that this survey, despite its usefulness and popularity at the national and international levels, had certain inadequacy, owing to the fact that the tools of research available at that time were not as developed as at present. It was only during the early years of the previous century that the subject of linguistics started to emerge as an independent field of study at the global level and India lost no time in establishing in several universities, linguistics as a field of scientific pursuit. This eventually gave a boost to the study of Indian languages and dialects as a consequence of which scientific tools and designs for description of Indian languages evolved. Moreover, with the gaining of independence and reorganization of states on linguistic basis, the geo-political boundaries of India have undergone a radical change after Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India.
With a view to overcome these constraints and to view the Indian languages from a technically advanced perspective, the Language Division of the Office of the Registrar General, India submitted a proposal for the conduct of a fresh Linguistic Survey of India to the Government of India which was duly approved. Though the original proposal envisaged simultaneous survey of all languages of the country, later it was decided that the survey would be carried out state by state in view of certain administrative and technical constraints. Accordingly, this volume on Orissa presents a description of the various languages/dialects spoken in the state of Orissa besides giving the basic information on the sociolinguistic aspects of each of the languages included. It is believed, that now this volume presents a comprehensive picture on the linguistic composition of the Orissa state and fills in the long standing gap in this sphere of social sciences.
India has been rightly described as a museum of languages. This nation showcases languages belonging to four families, namely, Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman and some unidentified languages like Andamanese, Onge etc. The enormous variety of languages and their dialects spoken by millions of people inhabiting the country, cach having its own characteristic features and peculiarities distinct from others and also at the same time having certain common linguistic traits that have developed over a long period of co-existence and resultant contact, bear a clear testimony to its rich tradition.
The vast heritage and rich tradition of the country can be understood completely and comprehensively by more and more extensive and deeper synchronic studies of languages and dialects which are but the manifestations of the culture found in the length and breadth of the country.
The scholarly achievement of ancient India in the field of linguistics is a well
acknowledged fact. If one views from the point of view of exhaustiveness, internal consistency and economy of statements, Panini's grammar of Sanskrit Astadhyayi and Tolkappiyar's grammar of Tamil Tolkappiyam are contributions without any parallel. It is to be emphasised here that vyakarana, the grammar, was developed as an independent discipline for the study of language in ancient India.
Describing the high calibre of Panini's work Bloomfield (1953) observes that Panini's work is "one of the greatest monuments of human intelligence". Similarly, Tolkappiyam, the earliest extant Tamil grammatical work, has won the appreciation of one and all in the world of linguistics.
The division between ancient and modern times came as a result of scholarly contact with the west. The classical period in ancient times that saw the rise of linguistic science is undoubtedly the one associated with Panini, his predecessors on the one hand and Tolkappiyar, his predecessors and successors, on the other hand. A close scholarly contact with India and the west resulted in the recognition of the existence of Indo-European family with the introduction of Sanskrit as a serious object of study, and the emergence of comparative philology. There are many aspects of the 19th century linguistics as well as the linguistics of the 20th century which derived inspiration from the rich heritage of linguistics in India.
The first attempt towards a systematic study of Indian languages was made in 1816 by W.Carey and other fellow missionaries giving 34 specimens of 33 Indian languages. But they were all treated as Sanskritic in origin. It was only after Carey's report, the Non-Aryan languages received the attention of the scholars. In 1837 A Comparative study of Indo-Chinese languages was published by Brown and in 1847 A Comparative Vocabulary of the sub-Himalayan dialects was published by Hodgson. Later on, he produced the Vocabularies of Munda and Dravidian forms of speech. In 1854, Maxmuller, for the first time, established the existence of the Munda family of languages independent of Dravidian group. Two years later, in 1856, Caldwell's Comparative grammar of the Dravidian languages was published This was for the first time that a group of Indian languages was studied systematically in a holistic manner by a single scholar.
The two important contributions, namely Beam's Comparative grammar of the Aryan languages of India (1867) and Hoernle's Grammar of Eastern Hindi compared with the other Gaudian languages (1880) had laid the foundation for further research on mutual relationship of languages of Indo-Aryan origin.
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