Father tongue, mother land : birth of language in south asia / by Peggy Mohan.

By:

Mohan, Peggy [author]

Language: English Gurugram : Penguin Allen Lane, 2025Description: 361 p. : ill. : 22 cmISBN:

9780670099740 (hbk)

Subject(s):

Linguistics

DDC classification:

491.4 MOH

Summary: How do languages mix? Does it begin in chaos, new migrants and old inhabitants needing a pidgin to communicate? Or does it happen more smoothly, in stages? And what is a prakrit? Why do we hear only of prakrits, and never of pidgins, in South Asia? In Father Tongue, Motherland, Peggy Mohan looks at exactly how the mixed languages in South Asia came to life. Like a flame moving from wick to wick in early encounters between male settlers and locals skilled at learning languages, the language would start to ‘go native’ as it spread. This produced ‘father tongues’, with words taken from the migrant men’s language, but grammars that preserved the earlier languages of the ‘motherland’.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Home library	Collection	Call number	Status	Notes	Date due	Barcode
General Book	Chanakya University Knowledge Centre Chanakya University Knowledge Centre	Chanakya University Knowledge Centre	Chanakya University	491.4 MOH (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available	MIR : 59		CU12559

Includes index.

How do languages mix? Does it begin in chaos, new migrants and old inhabitants needing a pidgin to communicate? Or does it happen more smoothly, in stages? And what is a prakrit? Why do we hear only of prakrits, and never of pidgins, in South Asia?

In Father Tongue, Motherland, Peggy Mohan looks at exactly how the mixed languages in South Asia came to life. Like a flame moving from wick to wick in early encounters between male settlers and locals skilled at learning languages, the language would start to ‘go native’ as it spread. This produced ‘father tongues’, with words taken from the migrant men’s language, but grammars that preserved the earlier languages of the ‘motherland’.

English

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