Why LIS? | What is LIS?

History and Linguistic Classification | Structure | Variation | Script and Spelling | Speech Community | Demography | Language Management | Literature | Language Use | Language and Culture | Technology | Information Resources (Annotated Bibliography)

Language Information System / Services (LIS) – India The proposed LIS-India or Language Information Services of India is envisaged to provide answers to all possible questions that one would like to ask about any or all Indian languages including Indian English – their history, grammar, functions, scripts, the number of speakers, spread including diasporas, bilingualism, literacy and education, digitaracy, literatures including translations and translators and litterateurs, all linguistic artifacts from sign boards and place names to books, news papers, periodicals and the other mass media, etc. that would be useful to a layman as well as a linguist or any other specialist interested in the Indian linguistic landscape, its dynamics and vitality.  It is envisaged to be useful for language planning and social development with a scope for social engineering.  It is to provide several additional utility packages such as on-line language learning, lexical resources and language corpora, spelling and grammar checkers, pronunciation patterns and translator’s dictionaries. Creation of a comprehensive database on all the Indian Languages and its constant updating is a long felt, primary and crucial part of Language Information Services (LIS)-India.  Huge as the task is, it can be done only with the involvement of as many linguistics scholars as possible.  As a first step in this direction, a content list for the creation of such a database was developed by a group of scholars during a workshop at CIIL.  The work is in progress to create database based on the content list in about 55 languages.  It will be put on-line in a suitable format for proper search and retrieval.  The work of collecting information based on the content list is entrusted to different scholars in the field who as Chief Resource Persons-cum-Supervisors (CRPSs) will monitor the progress.  The CRP’s in turn have engaged Resource Persons (RPs) to work on these languages.     Why LIS-India Now the century old Sir George Grierson's monumental Linguistic Survey of India (LSI) remains to date the only pan Indian survey giving descriptive account of the grammatical and other aspects of most of the Indian languages. In the post Independence period, there have been several other pan Indian surveys but limited in scope e.g. the survey of the written languages of India, dealing with the degree and modes of use by B.P. Mohapatra and G. D. McConnell; a survey of Indian languages and scripts as part of the People of India project on Indian communities by the Anthropological Survey of India under the leadership of Kumar Suresh Singh; a survey of English in India by Rama Kant Agnihotri and A.L Khanna, problematising the status of English in India; and some regional surveys such as the linguistic survey of the Punjab by Harjeet Singh Gill, dealing with dialect variation in Punjabi; Dialect survey of Marathi by A. M. Ghatge of the Deccan College, Pune; a survey of language use in Himachal Pradesh by the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, under the leadership of Bal Gobind Misra and H.R. Dua; an encyclopedic survey of the Dravidian languages by the International School of Dravidian Languages, under the leadership of V. I. Subramoniam; etc. apart from the numerous studies of various kind on many of the specific Indian languages in pre and post Independence period in India and abroad. Grierson's LSI, though monumental is, nevertheless, often found partial, inadequate and outdated in terms of coverage and content. A replication of the Survey, a dire need though, in the changed circumstances at the beginning of this new millennium, would mean an entirely new enterprise in form, method and content. Language Information Services (LIS)-India, a major Project of the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) started under the country's X Plan is envisaged to meet this need. Taking advantage of the fairly vast pool of linguistics expert human resources developed over the decades in the country, advances in knowledge and the developments of digital technology, it is envisaged as a national, ongoing and a cumulative process as compared to once in a period of time phenomenon. LIS-India is development, and not surveillance, oriented.         What is LIS-India? Language Information Services (LIS)-India is a web based, on line, multi- media, authentic, comprehensive information source in the public domain on the Indian languages. In terms of its coverage of content and languages, it is envisaged to provide answers to all possible questions that one would like to ask about any or all the Indian languages including English- their grammar, history, functions, scripts, the number of speakers and their spread including diasporas, bi or multilingualism, literacy and education, language technologies and digitarcy, literatures and litterateurs including translations and translators, all linguistic artifacts from sign boards and place names to books, news papers, periodicals and other mass media, etc. that would be useful to a layman as well as a linguist or any other specialist interested in the Indian Linguistic landscape, its richness, dynamics and vitality. It is envisaged to be useful for language planning and social development with a scope for social engineering. It is to provide several additional utility packages such as on-line language learning, lexical resources and language corpora, spelling and grammar checkers, pronunciation patterns and translation tools and services through macro level linkages The list of languages taken up is as follows: Austro-Asiatic Gadaba, Ho, Juang, Kharia, Khasi, Korku, Mundari, Nicobarese and Santali. Dravidian Gondi, Kannada, Kodava, Kolami, Kurux, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu.  Indo-Aryan Assamese, Bengali, Bhili, Bishnupuria, Dogri, Gujarati, Halabi, Hindi, Kashmiri, Konkani, Kuluvi, Kumauni, Lahanda, Maithili, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi and Urdu. Germanic:  Indian English Tibeto-Burman Angami, Ao, Bodo/Boro, Galo, Kinnauri, Kok Borok (Tripuri), Kom, Lahuli, Lepcha, Manipuri, Mao, Miri, Mizo/Lushai, Nyishi-Nissi/Dafla and Rabha. The information is collected on the following topics: (i)History and Linguistic Classification (ii) Structure                                      (iii) Variation                                      (iv) Script and Spelling                                 (v) Speech Community                            (vi) Demography                                       (vii) Language Management              (viii) Literature                                   (ix) Language Use                                       (x) Language and Culture                            (xi) Technology                                 (xii) Information Resources (Annotated bibliography)  Methodology Creation of content list: in house workshop Scholars from Different Institutions and Universities Selection of CRPs Selection of RPs Discussion with CRPs and Training to RPs. Collection of data from Primary and Secondary sources –RPs Collation and editing of data- CRPs Evaluation and Editing of final Report- Editors and co-ordinators Transfer of data in the HTML format Language Search Languages could be Searched alphabetically and selectively on the Basis of their Status Scheduled/Non-Scheduled Major/Minor/Tribal Written/Unwritten , etc. Function Official/Non-Official Religious/Secular Digital/Analog Type Typological Aerial Size Demographic Topology Geographical Contiguity