Linguistic Survey of India to begin in April next year

Billed as the biggest linguistic study of its kind in the world, the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), located at Mysore near here, will begin the first linguistic survey of free India from April 2007, eighty years after the first such exercise was completed in 1927 by the then British administration.

CIIL Director Udaya Narayana Singh told reporters that mega survey was expected to examine different speech varieties in the country and throw up exciting new dimensions to the linguistic diversity in India.

The previous exercise, which began in 1898 and completed in 1927, had identified 188 languages and 544 dialects in India. The fresh survey assumes significance in the backdrop of complaints that South India including the erstwhile Hyderabad state, Mysore state and Madras province had been completely left out in the previous exercise.

The proposed linguistic survey of India, which will be listing out microscopic aspects of all languages in the country, will be conducted over a period of ten years with the involvement of more than 2,000 experts and 50 institutes. The survey is expected to cost Rs 6 billion.

Although the survey will be carried out for ten years, every year the progress report on the survey and the remaining work will be presented to the Federal Government, Singh said.

Unlike the statistical survey, the proposed linguistic survey of India will include features like audio and video recording of languages, people, who speak these languages and their traditions, customs and rituals, besides the statistical data. “This survey will be useful for planners and linguistic experts for the next 100 years”, he said. The survey will help in the formulation of the country’s language policies in addition to helping the Govenrment prepare its development plans for various linguistic groups, he added.