Padma Shri Rashtriya Lok Bhasha Sammaan All India Institute of Advanced Study Fellowship Gold Medal - Delhi University SOASLeverhume Professor Max Planck Institute Visiting Scientist/> Kenneth Hale Award - Linguistic Society of America (2015)
Website
www.andamanese.net
Professor Anvita Abbi (born 9 January 1949) is an Indian linguist and scholar of minority languages, known for her studies on tribal languages and other minority languages of South Asia.[1] In 2013, she was honoured with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award by the Government of India for her contributions to the field of linguistics.[2]
Biography
Anvita Abbi was born on 9 January 1949, in Agra[3][4] to a family that had produced a number of Hindi writers.[5] After schooling at local institutions, she graduated in economics (BA Hons) from the University of Delhi in 1968.[3][4] Subsequently, she secured a master's degree (MA) in linguistics from the same university with first division and first rank in 1970[3][4] and continued her studies to obtain a PhD from Cornell University, Ithaca, USA, in 1975,[6] with a major in General Linguistics and minor in South Asian Linguistics.[3][4]
She worked as professor of linguistics at Centre for Linguistics, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies.[7] She currently lives in New Delhi.
Legacy
Anvita Abbi is credited with extensive research on the six language families in India[7] and the languages and culture of the Great Andamanese[8] which she did as a part of the Endangered Languages Documentation Project (ELDP) project on Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese (VOGA),[9][10]SOAS, University of London.[11] Her studies of 2003-2004 have helped in identifying the distinct characteristics of two Great Andamanese languages, Jarawa and Onge which promoted the concept of a sixth language family of India.[8][12] Later researches on Andamanese people by other scholars have reported to have confirmed Abbi's findings by discovering two distinct haplogroups of the region, viz. M31 and M32.[7]
She resumed her research on the topic in 2006, concentrating on the morpho-syntax and lexicon of three dying languages of Andaman Islands and unearthed evidence proving that Great Andamanese belongs to a linguistically different language family.[3][4][12] She has also compiled an English-Great Andamanese-Hindi Dictionary.[13] Her current project covers the grammar and the evolution of Great Andamanese languages and its people.[3][4][7]
A teacher at the JNU, Abbi has assisted 20 PhD and 29 MPhil students in their researches.[3][4][7]
Positions
Abbi has held many positions of importance, both at administrative and academic levels. Current position: Director, Center of Oral and Tribal Literature Sahtiya Akademi, New Delhi India. Adjunct Professor, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and the President of the Linguistic society of India.[14] She has served as an advisor to institutions such as UNESCO (since 2002) and Sahitya Akademi. She is also a life member of the Linguistic Society of India at their Dravidian Linguistics Association wing and has also sat on the editorial board of two journals, Indian Linguistics (1991–95) and the International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics[15] (1992–96).[3][4][14]
The list of academic and organizational responsibilities Professor Anvita Abbi has carried out may be listed as:[3][4][14]
Chairperson, Centre of Linguistics and English, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi - 1995-97 and since 2007
Anvita Abbi has presented papers and delivered keynote addresses at various platforms and at many institutions of repute.[3][4][7] A selection of her lectures are:
Anvita Abbi is credited with 19 books, authored, coauthored and edited.[3][4][5][17][18] Her writings cover the typology, structures and ethnolinguistic aspects of languages and their documentation.[7] Her work has spanned the entire Indian subcontinent[19] and the most known among her works is her project, Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese.[3][4][5][9]
Semantic Grammar of Hindi. A Study of Reduplication[30]
A Dictionary of the Great Andamanese Language: English-Great Andamanese-Hindi[13]
A Grammar of the Great Andamanese Language. An Ethnolinguistic Study. 2013. Brill Publications. Leiden. ISBN978-90-04-23527-4 (hardback); 978-90-04-24612-6
Unwritten Languages of India (edited) 2017. Sahitya Akademi Publications, Delhi. ISBN978-81-260-5266-0
Her Hindi short story anthology, Mutthhi Bhar Pahcaan, was published in 1969.[31]
Mutthhi Bhar Pahcaan (A Handful of Recognition). A collection of short stories 1969. Radhakrishan Prakashan, Delhi.
Anvita Abbi has also published over 80 articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals.[3][4][5] Some of her notable articles are:
Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese (VOGA)[9]
Universal Grammar, Language Evolution, and Documenting an Ancient Language. Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory[32]
Is Great Andamanese genealogically and typologically distinct from Onge and Jarawa?[33]
Kenneth Hale Award by the Linguistic Society of America. 'For outstanding lifetime contributions to the documentation and description of languages of India, with particular note of her extraordinary contributions to the documentation of the Great Andamanese language, a moribund language that is a key isolate in understanding the peopling of Asia and Oceania.' 2015.
^"Terra Lingua". Terra Lingua. 2014. Archived from the original on 14 April 2012. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
^"ELDP". HRELP. 2014. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
^ ab"JNU Research". JNU Research. 2014. Archived from the original on 28 October 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
^ abAnvita Abbi (30 October 2011). A Dictionary of the Great Andamanese Language: English-Great Andamanese-Hindi. Ratna Sagar. p. 480. ISBN978-9350361252.
^Anvita Abbi (1 January 2006). Endangered Languages of the Andaman Islands. Lincom Europa. p. 117. ISBN978-3895868665.
^Anvita Abbi (1 January 2001). A Manual of Linguistic Fieldwork and Structures of Indian Languages. Lincom Europa. ISBN978-3895864018.
^Anvita Abbi; R.S. Gupta; Ayesha Kidwai; R. S. Gupta; Ayesha Kidwai (1 January 2001). Language Structure and Language Dynamics in South Asia. p. 432. ISBN978-8120817654.
^Anvita Abbi (1 July 1997). Languages of Tribal and Indigenous Peoples of India. The Ethnic Space. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 508. ISBN978-8120813748.
^Anvita Abbi (2009). "Is Great Andamanese genealogically and typologically distinct from Onge and Jarawa?". Language Sciences. 31 (6): 791–812. doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2008.02.002.
Anvita Abbi (1 January 2006). Endangered Languages of the Andaman Islands. Lincom Europa. p. 117. ISBN978-3895868665.
Anvita Abbi (1 January 2001). A Manual of Linguistic Fieldwork and Structures of Indian Languages. Lincom Europa. ISBN978-3895864018.
Anvita Abbi; R.S. Gupta; Ayesha Kidwai; R. S. Gupta; Ayesha Kidwai (1 January 2001). Language Structure and Language Dynamics in South Asia. p. 432. ISBN978-8120817654.
Anvita Abbi (1 July 1997). Languages of Tribal and Indigenous Peoples of India. The Ethnic Space. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 508. ISBN978-8120813748.