Language in South AsiaBraj B. Kachru, Yamuna Kachru, S. N. Sridhar South Asia is a rich and fascinating linguistic area, its many hundreds of languages from four major language families representing the distinctions of caste, class, profession, religion, and region. This comprehensive new volume presents an overview of the language situation in this vast subcontinent in a linguistic, historical and sociolinguistic context. An invaluable resource, it comprises authoritative contributions from leading international scholars within the fields of South Asian language and linguistics, historical linguistics, cultural studies and area studies. Topics covered include the ongoing linguistic processes, controversies, and implications of language modernization; the functions of South Asian languages within the legal system, media, cinema, and religion; language conflicts and politics, and Sanskrit and its long traditions of study and teaching. Language in South Asia is an accessible interdisciplinary book for students and scholars in sociolinguistics, multilingualism, language planning and South Asian studies. |
Contents
Language in historical context | 31 |
Typological characteristics of South Asian languages | 49 |
HindiUrduHindustani | 81 |
Persian in South Asia | 103 |
Major regional languages | 121 |
Minority languages and their status | 132 |
Tribal languages | 153 |
Sanskrit in the South Asian sociolinguistic context | 177 |
Language modernization in Kannada | 327 |
Language in social and ethnic interaction | 345 |
Language and the legal system | 361 |
Language in the media and advertising | 377 |
Wimal Dissanayake | 395 |
Language of religion | 407 |
Language and gender | 429 |
Dalit literature language and identity | 450 |
Ashok Aklujkar | 189 |
Contexts of multilingualism | 223 |
Language contact and convergence in South Asia | 235 |
Pidgins Creoles and Bazaar Hindi | 253 |
Orality and literacy | 271 |
Writing systems of major and minor languages | 285 |
Language politics and conflicts in South Asia | 311 |
Language and youth culture | 466 |
South Asian languages in the second diaspora | 497 |
South Asian diaspora in Europe and the United States | 515 |
References | 534 |
| 588 | |
| 597 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Aryan Bangladesh Bazaar Hindi Bengali Bhatia Bhojpuri Bihar bilingual Brahmanical Brahui Buddhist Census century chapter cinema communities consonant context creoles culture Dalit Dalit literature Delhi Devanagari developed dialect discourse discussion domain Dravidian languages English ethnic example express films functions gender grammar guage Gujarati Hindi Hindi-Urdu Hindu Hindustani identity ideology India Indian languages Indo-Aryan languages Islam Kachru Kannada Kashmiri lexifier linguistic literary Maharashtra major Malayalam Marathi marker minority languages modern mother tongue MSA languages multilingual Muslim Nagamese native Nepal noun number of speakers official language oral Pakistan Pāṇini percent Persian pidgins political population Pradesh Prakrit pronoun Punjabi regional languages religion religious role S. N. Sridhar Sanskrit script Sinhala social sociolinguistic South Asia South Asian languages speech spoken Sri Lanka subcontinent Table Tamil Telugu texts Tibeto-Burman languages tradition tribal languages Urdu variety Vedic verb vowels women words writing youth
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Page 8 - Committee that it is the duty of this country to promote the interests and happiness of the native inhabitants of the British dominions in India, and that such measures ought to be adopted as may tend to the introduction among them of useful knowledge, and of religious and moral improvement. That, in furtherance of the above objects, sufficient facilities shall be afforded by law to persons desirous of going to and remaining in India for the purpose of accomplishing these benevolent designs...
Page 8 - The true cure of darkness is the introduction of light. The Hindoos err, because they are ignorant, and their errors have never fairly heen laid before them.