The Munda Languages (Hardcover)

The Munda group of languages of the Austroasiatic family are spoken by so-called 'tribals' in central and eastern India. They are the least well-known and most poorly documented languages of the Indian subcontinent. This work - unprecedented and original - draws together a distinguished group of international experts in the field of Munda language research, presents current assessments of a wide range of typological and comparative-historical issues, and offers agendas for future research. Never before has there been the real possibility of putting together a volume such as this one, for there is now greater interest in the Munda languages than ever before, and good descriptions of almost all of the languages in the family can now be offered, as well as broader studies on such topics as the typology or historical phonology of the Munda language family, and how Munda fits in the greater South Asian linguistic area.
The Munda language family is old in eastern and central India - older than the Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages now found in their territory. The ancestor language of Proto-Munda and the cognate Mon-Khmer (Khmer-Nicobar) languages, viz. Proto-Austroasiatic, is at least as ancient as Proto-Indo-European, and is as important culturally and archaeologically for Southeast Asia, South China and eastern India, as Proto-Indo-European is for its part of the world.
The Munda Languages consists of 21 chapters, and Introductory Chapter and a Preface. The book is divided into three parts. Part I presents synchronic descriptions of the eleven main Munda languages. Part II offers a range of sociolinguistic and literary/philological studies of the Munda languages, while Part IIIdiscusses an array of typological, a real, and comparative-historical topics in current Munda linguistics, presenting an assessment of past successes (and failures) in these domains, the status of current work, and suggested paths for future research.