IT IS rare that Johnson is compelled to respond to comments. But my last post, about the fun parallels in the hybrid development of English and Dravidian languages, seems to have stirred the passions of our readers. Many of them commented, dismissing the post as (at best) misguided and (at worst) a piece of neocolonial rubbish. That is a shame. Studying the history of India’s languages can be immensely fascinating. With so much linguistic diversity in the subcontinent, Indian languages can provide a primer on nearly every major aspect of historical linguistics: the ways in which sound systems and grammars change over time, the impact of socioeconomic, ethnic and religious divides, the influence of foreign languages, and the development of writing systems, to name a few. India is home to 22 constitutionally recognised languages and hundreds more unrecognised ones. India is also home to sizable communities natively speaking major world languages like Farsi, Arabic, Chinese, Tibetan, English, Portuguese and French. India should be fascinating, to Johnson readers especially, because it is a microcosm of the world’s language diversity.

The central focus of language studies in India is, of course, Sanskrit. As a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, Sanskrit has played an…Continue reading

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