Specimens of Languages of India Including those of the Aboriginal Tribes of Bengal, the Central Provinces, and the Eastern Frontier Cambridge Library Collection - Linguistics Series

This 1874 work by Sir George Campbell, a British government official whose Scheme for the Government of India is also reissued in this series, presents a survey of the diverse languages of India, using material obtained usually by British army officers trained by Campbell to collect 'specimens' in the course of their normal work. The tabular material is presented with the English words or phrases in one column and their equivalent in the Indian language under discussion in another: most of the languages are represented by more than one dialect, such as the 'Punjabee of Lahore' and the 'Punjabee of Mooltan'. In his introduction to the work, Campbell emphasises that the survey is not scientific, and his main conclusion is that in addition to the broad division of Aryan and Dravidian language types, India contains a huge number of 'aboriginal' languages which will require further study.

Introduction; 1. Aryan languages of Bengal, Hindustan, and the Bombay territories; 2. Languages of the Punjab and neighbouring countries; 3. Dravidian languages of Southern and Central India; 4. Dialects of Behar; 5. Aboriginal languages of Western Bengal (Kolarian type); 6. Further aboriginal languages of Western Bengal (chiefly Dravidian type); 7. Aboriginal languages of the Central Provinces (Kolarian and Dravidian); 8. Further aboriginal languages of the Central Provinces (Dravidian, chiefly Gond); 9. Thibetan and Bhootea languages: 10. Cooch Behar, Darjeeling (Sikhim), and Nepalese languages; 11. Assam languages; 12. Languages of the Tipperah, Chittagong, and Cachar frontier; 13. Further languages from Tipperah and Cachar; 14. Languages of hills surrounding Assam and Cachar; 15. Languages of the North-East of Assam; 16. Dialects of Naga tribes of the Seebsaugor frontier; 17. Languages of the Khasi and Jynteah Hills; 18. Languages of Burmah compared with others.