Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Languages in South Asia
Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Languages in South Asia
Couldn't load pickup availability
Worldwide Delivery
30 Days Easy Return
Secure Payment
- Author: Peggy Mohan
Product Description
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’. Looking first at Dakkhini, spoken in the Deccan where north meets south, Mohan goes on to build an X-ray image of a vanished language of the Indus Valley Civilization from the ‘ancient bones’ visible in the modern languages of the area. In the east, she explores another migration of men 4000 years ago that left its mark on language beyond the Ganga-Yamuna confluence. How did the Dravidian people and their languages end up in south India? And what about Nepal, where men coming into the Kathmandu Valley 500 years ago created a hybrid eerily similar to what we find in the rest of the subcontinent? One image running through this book is of something that remains even when the living form of language fades. Tucked away in how we think and speak now are echoes of our history, and the story of ancestors who lived hundreds and thousands of years ago. Read more
Customers also viewed
System Design Interview: An Insider’s Guide – 2 Volume Set by Alex Xu
The Mirror of Infinite Endings: The highly anticipated return to the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling Once Upon a Broken Heart series and the epic love story of Jacks and Evangeline
Psychology (7th Edition) | Pearson | NEP 2020 Aligned | By Saundra K. Ciccarelli, J. Noland White & Girishwar Misra
The 100 Year Blueprint: An Indian Doctor's Guide to Longevity
Maa Amma Anadha | ?? ???? ???? | Telugu Novel by GANA
Mahaprastanam - (Telugu)
Jujutsu Kaisen Manga Box Set 2 Vol. 22-30 - Complete Collection Series 8 Books Collection Set (Jujutsu Kaisen books box set Vol 22-30) By Gege Akutami
Jujutsu Kaisen Manga Box Set (Vol. 0-30) - Complete Collection Series 31 Books Collection Set (Jujutsu Kaisen books box set Vol 0-30) By Gege Akutami
Ayodhya Cherina Krishna - Telugu Novel
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
Death: An Inside Story
The Laws of the Spirit World
Cims India Medical Reference Book for B.Pharm/M.Pharm Students and Medical Representatives
Bratva Bride (Bratva Series)
Ncert Biology Text Book for Class 11 and 12 (Set of 2 Books)
Pathoma
My First 100 Animals Stickers
My First 100 Animals And Birds | Ages 0–5 Years | Early Learning | Padded Board Book For Kids | Wild Animals | Farm Animals | Pets | Vocabulary Building | Toddlers & Preschoolers | Latest Edition
My Favorite Things
Collections
View all-
Bestselling Books Collection
Explore our top-selling books loved by readers worldwide. This collection features the...
-
Most Ordered
Explore the Most Ordered books at UniversalReads. Featuring top-rated titles across fiction,...
-
Children's Books
Discover the best Children’s Books at UniversalReads. From bedtime stories to early...
-
Arts & Photography
Discover inspiring Arts & Photography books at UniversalReads. From painting guides to...
