Peoples’ Linguistic Survey of India (PLSI) is all set to release 70 volumes on Indian languages, including the volume on Karnataka, on September 5, 2013.
PLSI Chairman Ganesh Devy has said that copies of all the 70 volumes will be carried to Gandhi Memorial, Rajghat, New Delhi, and dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi.
“The completed volumes of Odisha, Assam, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, the Sign language and a general introduction to PLSI will be launched at a function to mark the 125 birth anniversary of the former President and philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan,” he said.
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The other 65 volumes, which are in the process of getting printed, will be released later.
The volume in Kannada is expected to run to 400 pages, while a dummy copy that will be launched on September 5 will have about 300 pages.
The final English version will be ready in one month and the Kannada version will hit bookstores in three months.
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As many as 24 scholars from Karnataka and other states have contributed their scholarly articles to the Karnataka volume.
H.M. Maheshwaraiah and Rajeshwari Maheshwaraiah of Karnatak University, Dharwad, led the PLSI team which conducted the survey in the State.
Prof. Rajeshwari Maheshwariah said: “We are planning to include chapters on technology and journalism.”
On the contents of the Karnataka version, Dr. Maheshwaraiah said that the Karnataka volume focussed on 42 spoken, subaltern, scheduled and tribal languages.
The Karnataka version has dealt with Kannada grammar texts, dictionaries, dialects, oral culture, different genres of Kannada literature, translations, printing and publishing sector and usage of Kannada in judiciary, administration, he added.
The Karnataka volume has three sections.
The first section includes the basic demographic details of the State, the number of speakers, genetic affiliation, antiquity, stages of the development of Kannada, mutual influence of Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, Dhakkani, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, English and other languages, besides a detailed description of phonological, morphological, syntactic features, spoken and written variety, regional and social dialectics.
The second section covers the description of minority languages spoken in Karnataka.
“The salient features of Karnataka State languages such as Tulu, Kodava, Konkani, Dhakkani, Banjara, Sanketi and Byari are discussed in detail,” he said.
The third section is devoted to Tribal languages and their speakers in Karnataka. The focus is more on the neglected languages such as Adiyan, Bardha, Bhavacha, Jodhara, Gamit, Kaniyan, Kattunayaka and Paniyan Solaga.
“Some scanty description of languages of the speech communities such as Gonds, Hasalars, Chenchu Iliigas and Koravas are given in the volume, besides mentioning the few sample speech forms of non-scheduled and non-tribal speech communities such as Sudugadu Siddha, Mogaveera, Yanadiga, Kappeholeya, Kudiya, SindMadiga, Mastikar, Agera, Dakkaliga, Bhaira and Mukhari,” he added.
While Bharatiya Bhashegala Jana Pariveekshane, Karnataka, that captures the glory of Karnataka’s languages would be released shortly by Akshara Prakashana of Heggodu, the English version is being brought out by Orient BlackSwan.