Dictionary of Tribal Languages (Historico- Comparative)

About the Book This book represents on attempt to elucidate the environmental and ethnic causes of lexical diversity. It postulates on evolutionary develop ment of tribal languages with an ethnic under current as old as tribe itself and a profound subterranean web of continuous historic relationship between a tribe and its language.

The present multi-lingual dictionary is the result of twenty years of intensive work with tribal languages on the basis of ethno-semantics, i.e. it systematically explores the knowledge of Halbi group of Bastar by investigating relationship between Halbi language units and Halbi know ledge units.

This approach could stimulate new directions in the social disciplines, opening up avenues of social thought hitherto submerged in a distorted universalism in which the tribal human communication has been totally suppressed.

About the Authors Born in 1939, Dr. H.L. Shukla got his Ph.D in Sociology of Modern Sanskrit Literature in the year 1964. Thereafter in 1967 he did his M.A. Linguistic and in 1974 he was honou red with Ph.D in Linguistic Geography. An erudite scholar, he did his D.Litt. in Socio-Cultural History of Tribal Bastar, in the year of 1978. He is now Professor and Head of the School of Comparative Language and Culture at Bhopal University, Bhopal (M.P.). He has a great number of articles and books to his credit.

His major field of research in which his keen interests are widespread, covers psycho-linguistic, Semitics, socio-linguistics, ethno-semantics, style-linguistics, folk music and social and cultural history. His academic excellence has earned him name roués honors.

Preface Languages constitute the core values of many, probably of most cultures. If these are lost or destroyed, the cultures become residual and intellectually de-activated. In this way, they become reduced to mere fragments that can then be regarded as sub-cultural variants upon the majority culture.

It would follow that the most obvious casualties of residual multiculturalism would be tribal languages. Once destroyed, these languages can hardly ever be activated again, and the lofty ideals of multiculturalism would then be reduced to a hollow sham. For language-centered cultures at least, removal of the linguistic core can be compared to an operation that removes the heart from the body. The corpses of cultures that are littered in such a multicultural society may then be disinterred and dressed up in the clothes of cultural diversity or tribal identity. They then have as much chance of 'enriching' or 'enlivening' the tribal society as dead people have of participating in social and intellectual activities of the living.

Introduction So obvious is the close correspondence between tribes and their languages that the significance of the relationship has been generally overlooked by those who might be expected to be most concerned-scholars in the relevant disciplines. In fact, however, an idea ingrained in the popular mind is more likely to lend itself to scholarly contempt. A form of hyper-criticism rejects the concept unless a direct, one-to-one or parallel correspondence can be clearly recognized between the language and the culture of the given tribal people of Bastar, a proposition that might encounter variable receptions. That there could be an intimate relationship between the tribe itself and its language is usually left in tenuous suspension, if it is considered at all.

Traditional lexicographical definitions usually consist (as they often do) of mere lists of meanings, they are not particularly informative about linguistic usage in the socio-cultural context. In this dictionary we have adopted the socio-cultural approach to tribal languages. The cultural interpretation of lexicons, signs and information, when combined with an anthropological interpretation, leads to a socio-linguistic situation whereas anthrop lexicology practically functions as cognitive an chronology. or ethno semantics, or cognitive linguistics. The cognitive interpretation of lexicons from the positions of ethno-semantics is another principal topic of critical analysis in the present work. In this connection it might be useful to start with a few definitions of terms that will recur in this chapter, namely, lexicology, lexicography, and dictionary.

Lexicology is the study of words and their meanings in one language or a group of languages. It is basically concerned, with the lexical systems of the language such as sememic syntax, sememic components, idioms, synonymy, polysemy, and leximic components. Lexicography is the making of dictionaries, which involves five principal steps: gathering of data, parsing and excerpting of entries, filing of en tries according to a certain arrangement, writing of articles, and publication of the final product or storing it in a computer. In other words, lexicography: is the practical application of lexicology.

**Contents and Sample Pages**