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FOREWORD |
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The
Central Institute of Indian Languages is
concerned .with the promotion and development
of Indian languages for meeting the challenges
'of the modem age. The development of Indian
languages can take place by their use in
new domains which requires development of
materials, methods and manpower for work
in the areas of codification, standardization
and modernizations. The work of the Institute
encompasses basic research, material production
and. in-service training. The Institute
is also entrusted with the responsibility
of assisting and improving the teaching
of Indian languages at various levels by
developing new math's, models and material
& and by making use of modern technology.
The six Regional Language Centers of the
Institute are engaged in regular language
teaching programes. The seventh viz., NEREC
at Guwahati is entrusted with the responsibility
of conducting various programmers in the
languages of the North-East The Institute
is also a clearing house of information
relating to Indian Languages. |
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A major programme
of the Instable is the study of tribal and
other minor languages resulting in writing
of ~mars and dictionaries. This study helps
in codification of these languages and also
in standardization, which Me; primary steps
for the development of any language. The linguistic
description is also a pre-requisite for preparation
of language teaching materials. It thus forms
part of the Institute's work to improvise
the language education. The Instable is also
engaged in finding out shared features between
tribal languages and major languages which
is an important component in the making of
India as
linguistic area |
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The
grammatical description of tribal and other
minor languages prepared by the staff of the
Instable do not raise and discuss theoretical
questions. These questions are dealt with
by the authors in papers in various national
semi~. The grammars try to give a basic knowledge
of the structure of these languages with the
hope that they will be useful to language
teachers and to linguists interested in macro
studies of languages. These grammars also
fill in the gaps in the knowledge of the linguistic
heritage of the country by describing the
lesser known languages. The Hmar Grammar is
our latest effort in bringing Out a book of
grammar in a lesser known language like Hmar
spoken in Assam, Manipuri and Mizoram. |
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Data for the Hmar
Grammar were colleted in the field primarily
form three informant by elicitation through
word and sentence lists. To our advantages,
one of the co-authors is a native speaker
of the language. The data, however, were again
cross-checked with some other informants.
The description may not be exhaustive and
there might be gaps to be filled by future
researchers. There might be possibilities
for alternative analyses. Comments and suggestions
passed on to us will be useful to improve
our future publications in this series. |
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While congratulating
the authors, I look forward to see that the
book is well received among Hmar readers and
the community of linguists. |
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Mysore |
Dr N. Ramaswamy. |
December 31,1996 |
Director I/c |
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