Anvita Abbi

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. 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.

Biography Anvita Abbi was born on 9 January 1949, in Agra to a family that had produced a number of Hindi writers. After schooling at local institutions, she graduated in economics (BA Hons) from the University of Delhi in 1968. with a major in General Linguistics and minor in South Asian Linguistics. She currently lives in New Delhi.

Legacy

Anvita Abbi is credited with extensive research on the six language families in India which she did as a part of the Endangered Languages Documentation Project (ELDP) project on Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese (VOGA), SOAS, University of London. 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. 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. She has served as an advisor to institutions such as UNESCO (since 2002) and Sahitya Akademi. He is a / She is 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 (1992–96). She has taught at the following universities: Her writings cover the typology, structures and ethnolinguistic aspects of languages and their documentation. and the most known among her works is her project, Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese. A Manual of Linguistic Fieldwork and Structures of Indian Languages Language Structure and Language Dynamics in South Asia (Select papers from the SALA XVIII) Languages of Tribal and Indigenous Peoples of India. The Ethnic Space Language and The State. Perspectives on the Eighth Schedule Semantic Universals in Indian Languages India as a Linguistic Area Revisited Reduplication in South Asian Languages. An Areal, Topological and Historical Study Studies in Bilingualism Semantic Theories and Language Teaching Semantic Grammar of Hindi. A Study of Reduplication A Dictionary of the Great Andamanese Language: English-Great Andamanese-Hindi A Grammar of the Great Andamanese Language. An Ethnolinguistic Study. 2013. Brill Publications. Leiden. (hardback); 978-90-04-24612-6 Unwritten Languages of India (edited) 2017. Sahitya Akademi Publications, Delhi.

Her Hindi short story anthology, Mutthhi Bhar Pahcaan, was published in 1969. 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. Is Great Andamanese genealogically and typologically distinct from Onge and Jarawa?

Awards and recognitions Anvita Abbi has been honoured by several institutions and establishments. She has held the position of the Visiting Scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany for three years, 200, 2003 and 2010. She was a Leverhume Professor at the SOAS, University of London in 2011 and a fellow of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Cornell University, New York, US in 1990 and a visiting fellow of the La Trobe University, Melbourne in 2003. Abbi was a visiting professor at the Cairns Institute, James Cook University, Australia during 2010–2011. Some of the other honours she has received are: 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. Rashtriya Lok Bhasha Sammaan - Gandhi Hindustani Sahitya Sabha - 2003 Fellowship - All India Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla - 2001 Gold Medal - Delhi University - 1970

In 2013, the Government of India honoured Anvita Abbi by awarding her the civilian award of Padma Shri.