Indo-European Linguistics

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This monograph on Indo-European Linguistics is the revised and enlarged version of my two lectures delivered by me at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Janpath, New Delhi, on the 23rd and 24th of November 1998. I was asked by the authority concerned to deliver the Suniti Kumar Chatterji Memorial Lecture on two topics on i) Professor Chatterji’s approach to Indo-European linguistics and ii) the Origin and Development of the Grammatical Thoughts and Ideas of the Indo-European Peoples. In the second lecture I have discussed the origin and development of the concept of Parts of Speech among the Indo-European peoples. I have mainly tried to trace the concepts of parts of speech as were current among the Indians, the Greeks and the Romans. The others are incidentally mentioned. On analysis, it is found that there was no uniform concept of IE parts of speech which varies from two to ten or even eleven. The concept of eight parts of speech started from the 17th and 18th centuries A.D. in England and these ultimately travelled to all parts of the globe

The first lecture contains Suniti Kumar Chatterji’s approach to Indo-European linguistics. While doing so, I have culled out materials on Indo-European linguistics on the basis of the statements made by Chatterji here and there in his writings. It is a difficult task to do so. Firstly, Professor Chatterji has not written any book on Indo-European, and so it is not easy to form some ideas about Chatterji’s approach to IE linguistics. Secondly, in his different writings while talking about other things he, inter alia, mentions something about IE, and naturally those things are considered as his approaches to Indo-European linguistics. Thirdly, he has not made any systematic study on IE, except one or two articles where IE materials are found abundantly. Lastly, I had to base my arguments on the basis of some books, such as, The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language (1926), Indo-Aryan and Hindi (1942,1960) Languages and Literatures of Modern India (1963), Baits and Aryans (1968) and On the Development of Middle Indo-Aryan (1983) and some other articles. It is seen that a small treatise on IE can easily be outlined on the basis of his writings. I have tried my best to do so and to give a picture of his approach to the subject. I hope the reader will get a fairly good knowledge of IE linguistics from this book.

I am grateful to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Janpath, New Delhi, for asking me to deliver a course of two lectures on the above mentioned subjects. These lectures are now going to be published, with revisions and additions, as a book by the Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, Calcutta. I am exceptionally grateful to Professor Dr Kapila Vatsyayana, the former Director of IGNCA for taking interest in the subject. Dr M.C. Joshi, the former academic secretary of the said centre, is to be thanked for his initiative in the matter. Pt. Satkari Mukhopadhyay, a coordinator and a versatile genius, is to be thanked for his kind arrangement for the lecture and for his persistant pressure for delivering the lectures. My words may not be adequate enough to express my sincere gratitute to all of them. Shri Mukhopadhyay is to be specially thanked for his pressure and encouragement that have made me give a final shape to this monograph.

I am also grateful to Shri Debashis Bhattacharya for coming forward to publish this monograph.

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my brother-in-law, Shri Barun Kumar Mukhopadhyay lAS (Retd), for going through my proofs and making necessary corrections here and there for the betterment of the language. I am also greatly indebted to my elder brother, Shri Chitta Ranjan Banerjee, M.Sc. for his constant vigil to my work and for keeping me away from house-hold tasks and thereby giving me enough scope for my work.

Lastly, I can say that if this monograph proves useful to scholars, I shalLconsider my labour amply rewarded and the desire of th ublisher will also be fulfilled.