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PREFACE |
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The tribal people in India have for long lived in isolation except
to be exposed for exploitation. They have not participated to
their benefit in the socioeconomic development of the country. To
come out of their isolation, it is necessary for them to learn the
language of the majority people around them and a number of them
have done so. But this bridges the communication gap only in one
way and the whole burden of building up this bridge is carried by
the minority group. It is necessary, however, for developing
mutual understanding and goodwill, to increase bidirectional
communication between the tribal people and the majority of people
of the region. For this purpose, the majority people, especially
those who come in contact with the tribal people for various
reasons such as civil administration, security, social service,
trade, etc., should learn their language. The Grammar, which forms
part of the package consisting of phonetic reader, bi- or
tri-lingual dictionary and teaching manual is prepared to help
them in their learning of the tribal language.
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The organization of the Grammar is based on
grammatical functions rather than on grammatical forms. This
will help the new learner to find easily how the different
functions, which he already knows and wants to express, are
formalized in this Language. Since this Grammar is primarily
meant for pedagogical purposes, theoretical discussion's and
justifications for a particular analysis are kept to a minimum.
The Grammar is divided generally into two broad categories of
noun morphology and verb morphology. A description of adjectives
and adverbs follows verb morphology. The chapter on syntax
describes the order of the constituents at the surface level.
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Though the Grammar is primarily aimed at the
language learner and the teacher, it is hoped that it will also
be useful to Linguists interested in typology and universals.
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Data for the Grammar were collected in the field
primarily from one .informant by elicitation through word and
sentence lists. They were then cross-checked with some other
informants. The description may not be exhaustive and there
might be gaps. There might be possibilities for alternative
analyses. Cerements and suggestions passed-d on to us will be
useful to improve our future publications in this series. |
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E.ANNAMALI
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