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INVITED SPEAKERS
THE SARVA ONLINE DICTIONARY PROJECT
1. Problem and Approach. Etymological research in South Asian languages has turned up large
numbers of words in languages of all families which are of unknown origin, many of which are
probably remnants of otherwise unknown ancient languages. In addition, there are language
remnants (such as Nahali/Nihali) and isolated languages (such as Burushaski) which may
possibly belong to formerly more widespread language families. The goal of the SARVA (South
Asian Residual Vocabulary Assemblage) Project is to bring together this material for the purpose
of revealing as much as possible about the earliest knowable South Asian linguistic strata.
2. Background. The SARVA Project has been under discussion among a group of South Asian
scholars since it was initially discussed at the Fourth Harvard Round Table on the Ethnogenesis
of South and Central Asia in May 2002.. The website, when ready to go online, will be hosted by
the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) at the Tokyo
University of Foreign Studies (TUFS). Some sample entries can be found on the web at
www.people.harvard.edu/~witzel/sarva.htm
3. Plan of the Dictionary. Over time, the dictionary will attempt to incorporate all words of
unknown or uncertain origin in all South Asian languages into an online file known as the
SARVA Database. This database will include, for example, (a) appropriately designated entries
(unsicher, unerklärt, etc.) in Mayrhofer 1986, (b) the asterisked entries in Turner1966, (c) all
entries from Burrow and Emeneau 1984 which are not reconstructible in Proto-Dravidian, (d)
similar materials from Munda and, when available, Tibeto-Burman languages; (e) words of
unknown origin from isolated languages such as Nihali (Mundlay 1996) and Vedda (de Silva
1972), as well as other South Asian languages. Using this database as a source, the SARVA
Dictionary will consist of multi-family entries indicating possible or probable connections
among the words in the database with languages inside and outside of South Asia. Several
examples of entries will be provided
.
4. Current State of the Project. Though there have been delays because of problems with fonts
and copyrights, it is expected that the Project will go online in June of 2005. The paper will
report on the progress of the Project since that date.
REFERENCES
Burrow, T., and M. B. Emeneau. 1984. Dravidian etymological dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon
Press
De Silva, M. W. S. 1972. Vedda language of Ceylon: texts and lexicon. München: R. Kitzinger
Mayrhofer, M.1986. Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen. Heidelberg: Carl Winter,
Universitätsverlag
Mundlay, Asha. 1996. “Nihali lexicon”, Mother tongue 2.17-40.
Turner, Sir R. L. 1966. A comparative dictionary of the Indo-Aryan languages. London: Oxford
University Press.