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Linguistic Survey of India

work by Grierson

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The Linguistic Survey of India was a monumental work undertaken by Sir George Abraham Grierson. Published between 1903 and 1928, it meticulously documented 364 languages and dialects across India. Grierson, an Irish scholar with a background in Sanskrit and Hindi, dedicated much of his career to language research in Bengal.1

His survey was a significant undertaking in historical linguistics, aiming to gather comprehensive data on the diverse linguistic landscape of the Indian subcontinent. The survey covered major language families, including Indo-European, Chinese, Austroasiatic, and Dravidian, providing vocabularies, skeletal grammars, and texts. This work remains a crucial resource for understanding the linguistic history and diversity of India.12

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