How many languages are spoken in India<\/strong>? Chances are that no one has the accurate answer to that question: the country\u2019s authorities account for 234 languages spoken by 10,000 speakers<\/strong>, and a total of 1,600 languages and dialects<\/strong>… there\u2019s obviously a long way to go to describe and document these hundreds of languages, a large portion of which is likely to be endangered.<\/p>\n Attempts to list these languages have been carried out; a first time in 1923<\/strong>, then a second time during the sixth five-year plan (1980-1985)<\/strong>, and finally in 2006<\/strong> led by the Central Institute of Indian Languages. Yet none of these studies ever yielded a comprehensive result, and the work remained unfinished…<\/p>\n This time the survey has been launched under momentum of Ganesh Devy<\/a><\/strong>, founder of the Adivasi Academy<\/a><\/strong> (state of Gujarat) and the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre<\/strong> (also in the state of Gujarat), away from any kind of governmental interference. As it happens, the study has been entitled People’s Linguistic Survey of India<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The project involves over 2,000 people<\/strong>: linguists of course, but also authors, activists or simply volunteers. Ganesh Devy<\/strong><\/a>, well known at Sorosoro for guiding our first steps in India, plans on ending the survey and publishing its results on over 800 languages within 4 or 5 years<\/strong>. The whole outcome should come in the form of 11 volumes<\/strong> (one per state), the first of which, centered on the languages of Gujarat, should be issued in January 2012.<\/p>\n \n \n