The Linguistic Survey of India’s Experiment in Mapping Languages, 1896–1927

Philip Jagessar

doi:10.1080/03085694.2023.2225984

The Linguistic Survey of India’s Experiment in Mapping Languages, 1896–1927

Philip Jagessar

Global Health & Social Medicine

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Abstract

The Linguistic Survey of India (LSI), supervised by the Anglo-Irish linguist and civil servant George A. Grierson, surveyed and classified more than seven hundred languages and dialects. An integral part of the state-funded survey was mapping where languages were spoken in India, which resulted in the publication of 45 language maps between 1899 and 1927. As individual maps they are comparable to other thematic maps of the period. As a series of language maps, however, they are inconsistent in scale, colour, use of relief and labels, and depiction of boundaries. This paper argues that the inconsistency in presentation reflected the LSI’s experimental approach to mapping language, trying to reconcile the approximate representation of a complex geographical phenomenon with the colonial state’s expectation for accurate and up-to-date language maps.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	72-89
Number of pages	18
Journal	Imago Mundi
Volume	75
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/03085694.2023.2225984
Publication status	Published - 24 Aug 2023

Keywords

Asia
ethnolinguistic maps
George A. Grierson
India
language mapping
linguistic geography
Linguistic Survey of India
statistical surveys

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10.1080/03085694.2023.2225984Licence: CC BY

LSI Experiment in Mapping Languages_Imago Mundi_JagessarFinal published version, 7.39 MBLicence: CC BY

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title = "The Linguistic Survey of India{\textquoteright}s Experiment in Mapping Languages, 1896–1927",

abstract = "The Linguistic Survey of India (LSI), supervised by the Anglo-Irish linguist and civil servant George A. Grierson, surveyed and classified more than seven hundred languages and dialects. An integral part of the state-funded survey was mapping where languages were spoken in India, which resulted in the publication of 45 language maps between 1899 and 1927. As individual maps they are comparable to other thematic maps of the period. As a series of language maps, however, they are inconsistent in scale, colour, use of relief and labels, and depiction of boundaries. This paper argues that the inconsistency in presentation reflected the LSI{\textquoteright}s experimental approach to mapping language, trying to reconcile the approximate representation of a complex geographical phenomenon with the colonial state{\textquoteright}s expectation for accurate and up-to-date language maps.",

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AB - The Linguistic Survey of India (LSI), supervised by the Anglo-Irish linguist and civil servant George A. Grierson, surveyed and classified more than seven hundred languages and dialects. An integral part of the state-funded survey was mapping where languages were spoken in India, which resulted in the publication of 45 language maps between 1899 and 1927. As individual maps they are comparable to other thematic maps of the period. As a series of language maps, however, they are inconsistent in scale, colour, use of relief and labels, and depiction of boundaries. This paper argues that the inconsistency in presentation reflected the LSI’s experimental approach to mapping language, trying to reconcile the approximate representation of a complex geographical phenomenon with the colonial state’s expectation for accurate and up-to-date language maps.

KW - Asia

KW - ethnolinguistic maps

KW - George A. Grierson

KW - India

KW - language mapping

KW - linguistic geography

KW - Linguistic Survey of India

KW - statistical surveys

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The Linguistic Survey of India’s Experiment in Mapping Languages, 1896–1927

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