This work provides a synoptic treatment of the Indo-Aryan languages, a language family with a historical documentation of language change over a longer period than any other subgroup of Indo-European.
The Indo-Aryan languages are spoken by at least 700 million people throughout India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldive Islands. They have a claim to great antiquity, with the earliest Vedic Sanskrit texts dating to the end of the second millennium B. C. With texts in Old Indo-Aryan, Middle Indo-Aryan and Modern Indo-Aryan, this language family supplies a historical documentation of language change over a longer period than any other subgroup of Indo-European.
This volume is divided into two main sections dealing with general matters and individual languages. Each chapter on the individual language covers the phonology and grammar (morphology and syntax) of the language and its writing system, and gives the historical background and information concerning the geography of the language and the number of its speakers.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Part I: General Articles 1. General Introduction George Cardona and Dhanesh K. Jain2. The Sociolinguistics of the Indo-Aryan languages in the Indian Subcontinent Dhanesh K. Jain3. Alphabets and Writing Systems (Historical and Descriptive) Richard SalomonPart II: Language Articles A: Major Languages1. Sanskrit (including Vedic) George Cardona2. Early Middle Indo-Aryan (Ashoka and Pali) Thomas Oberlies3. Later Middle Indo-Aryan: Prakrits and Apabhramsa Vit Bubenik4. Hindi Michael Shapiro5. Urdu Ruth Laila Schmidt6. Bangla (Bengali) Probal DasguptaB: Other Languages7. Asamiya (Assamese) G. C. Goswami and Jyotiprakash Tamuli8. Oriya Tapas S. RayLanguages of Bihar9. Maithili Ramawtar Yadav10. Magahi Sheela Verma11. Bhojpuri Manindra K. Verma12. Panjabi Christopher Shackle13. Nepali Theodore Riccardi14. Sindhi Lachmann M. Khubchandani15. Gujarati George Cardona and Babubhai K. Suthar16. Marathi Rajeshwari Pandharipande17. Konkani Rocky Miranda18. Sinhala James W. Gair19. Dardic Languages Elena Bashir20. Kashmiri Omkar N. Koul
