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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 socio-economic
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 good-will, to increase bi-directional 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.
The
organisation 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 formalised in this language. Since this Grammar is primarily meant
for pedagogical purposes, theoretical discussions 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. There is
also a chapter on word formation, which describes the ways in which words
are formed and new concepts are expressed.
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.
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.
Comments and suggestions passed on to us will be useful to improve our
future publication in this series.
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