Tribal Languages of Ladakh (Part 3)

The present volume on Tribal Languages of Ladakh is the third part of Vol. VI of the Series Studies in Tibeto-Himalayan Languages. In the first part of it, which appeared in 1998, a detailed account of Brog-skad, a little known language of the Dokpas of the upper Sindh Valley was presented and a detailed descriptive and comparative account of Ladakhi and its prominent dialects had been presented in the second part of this volume. Now, in this part, a comprehen-sive account of two other prominent dialects of Ladakhi, viz., Purki and Balti, along with notes on their linguistic sub-strata and interrelationship with Ladakhi and other speeches of this region, is being presented. It needs no emphasis that publication of this book along with the two previous ones is bound to present a complete picture of the linguistic scenario of an important linguistic region of Tibeto-Himalayan languages and is sure to afford an opportunity to linguists interested in the linguistic studies of the Himalayan regions in a wider perspective.

Prof. D.D. Sharma (b. 1928), a renowned scholar of Sanskrit and Linguistics, served Panjab University, Chandigarh for nearly 28 years. He obtained Ph.D, in Sanskrit from the Banaras Hindu University in 1958 and later on Ph.D. and D.Litt. in Linguistics from the Panjab University, Chandigarh, besides the highest Oriental title, viz. Sahity¯ach¯arya (Varanasi) and Diplomas in French, German and Persian. Prof. Sharma is well acquainted with nearly two dozen Indian and foreign languages and has to his credit 30 research volumes and scores of research papers. In Linguistics he has made substantial contribution in the fields of descriptive, historical, comparative, contrastive linguistics, sociolinguistics and semantics. It was in recognition of his contribution to Linguistics that he was awarded the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship (1984-86) to undertake the linguistic survey of the Himalayan languages from Ladakh to Bhutan. In the field of Sanskrit language and literature too his contribution is equally substantial. His research work on Kalidasa bagged him an award from the Sanskrit Academy, Uttar Pradesh and was awarded ‘All India Vidvat Samm¯an’ by the Gy¯an Kalyan D¯atavya Ny¯as, Delhi in 1998, and ‘Yugabda Vidvat Samm¯an’ by Samp¯urn¯anand Sanskrit University, Varanasi (1999) and ‘Akhil Bharatiya Sahasrabdi Vidvat Samm¯an’ by Govt. of India (2000) and ‘Certificate of Honour’ by President of India (2001). In May 1989 he was awarded Emeritus Fellowship by the U.G.C. for the completion of his 12-volume research project on Himalayan languages, of which nine volumes have already appeared. Currently, he is actively engaged in the completion of the remaining volumes of the abovementioned project and is also working on an eight-volume project on ‘Socio-Cultural History of Uttar¯akhand’ and ‘Cultural Encyclopaedia of Uttar¯akhand’, being the recipient of the first ‘Indira Gandhi Memorial Fellowship’ (2000-2003) by Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.