Project description
Investigating the Konkani language sociolinguistic prehistory
Konkani is a south-western Indo-Aryan language spoken in Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Maharashtra. Historically, it held a lower status compared to dominant regional languages and lacked written records before the 16th century. Recent research reveals significant historical contact between Konkani and Dravidian languages. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the INSPIK project will explore the sociolinguistic prehistory of Konkani using innovative methods. It will analyse inscriptions in Kannada, Prakrit, and Sanskrit from Konkani-speaking areas, examine oral migration histories drawn from Sanskrit Puranic texts, and study modern dialects alongside comparative linguistic data. Interpreting this data with the help of the sociolinguistic typological model, the project will also develop a new methodology for studying languages with limited written documentation.
Objective
INSPIK aims to investigate the sociolinguistic prehistory of a language called Konkani, which is spoken in scattered pockets across four states (Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala) on the western coast of India. As a southwestern Indo-Aryan language neighbouring Dravidian languages such as Kannada, Tulu, and Malayalam, Konkani is intriguing from a language-contact perspective. Konkani has, until recently, remained in a diglossic low relationship with other local and colonial literary, more powerful languages. In the absence of any written materials in Konkani prior to the 16th century, resources to undertake historically-oriented research on the language have been limited. INSPIK proposes an innovative use of Sanskrit/Kannada/Prakrit inscriptions discovered in todays Konkani-speaking regions, oral histories of migration recorded in Sanskrit Puranic texts, modern dialectological documentations of Konkani and other neighbouring languages, and comparative analysis of contemporary linguistic data to reconstruct a sociolinguistic prehistory of Konkani. Recent research has revealed that the Konkani language structure shows robust traces of prehistoric long-term, stable Dravidian and Indo-Aryan language contact. INSPIK will develop the idea further by examining previous language documentations complemented with new data collected for the project. Drawing on these linguistic data, and the insights gathered through inscriptions and ancient literary texts, INSPIK will then critically apply the sociolinguistic typological framework to identify the possible prehistoric sociolinguistic settings during the formation period of Konkani. At the end of the project, INSPIK will introduce an innovative methodology for undertaking historical research on languages with limited written materials, apply the sociolinguistic typology framework to a lesser-known language and test its limitations, and contribute data on Konkani to the Kiel South Asian Typological Database.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history prehistory
- natural sciences computer and information sciences databases
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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24118 Kiel
Germany
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