Department of Linguistics

INTRODUCTION

The Department of Linguistics aims at promoting the intrinsic and scientific study of language, with particular focus on the structure of the indigenous languages of Assam.

OBJECTIVES

The Department of Linguistics aims at promoting the intrinsic and scientific study of language, with particular focus on the structure of the indigenous languages of Assam, including Assamese.

It seeks to foster, promote and establish a sound tradition of documentation, description and analysis of the indigenous languages of the linguistically rich and diverse region of Assam, through teaching, research, training, consultancy and collaboration with institutions at the regional, national and international levels.

HISTORY

The Department was established in 1972 through the initiative of Professor Rohini Kumar Mahanta. Prof. Mahanta had trained at the School of Oriental and African Studies where he completed his Ph.D. in Firthian Phonology under the supervision of Prof. Eugenie Henderson.For about eight years since the inception the department ran a one-year PG Diploma course in Linguistics. In 1980, this was replaced by a two-year M.A. course in Linguistics.

Linguistics was introduced as an elective subject at the undergraduate level from 1995.

In 2001, the Department collaborated with the allied department of English Language Teaching to run a joint M.A. programme called LELT (Linguistics and English Language Teaching) with a provision for interdisciplinary intake.

In recent years, the department has worked collaboratively with linguists from international organisations such as Summer Institute of Linguistics, RCLT of La Trobe University, Australia and CNRS, Paris. Such collaborations have resulted in a training workshop on linguistics software and opportunities for students to conduct linguistic fieldwork under the guidance of Australian and American scholars.

ALUMNI

Information about a few Alumni of this Department are given below:

Munin Das (1993-94); Faculty, Hajo College, Hajo.
Safiur Rahman (1993-94); Faculty, Jaleswar College.
Kashlnath Chakravarty (1994-95); Faculty, Sankardev College, Shillong.
Chandan Goswami (1996-97); Faculty, City College and Part-time Teacher.
Sattyakee Bhuyan (1998-99); Freelance Journalist, TV anchor.
Paromita Purkait (1999-2000); Research Scholar, G.U.
Seuji Sharma (2000-2001); Research Scholar, G.U.
Nivedita Malini Barua (2001-2002);Junior Research Fellow, Dept. of Linguistics, G.U.
Prafulla Basumatary (2001-2002); Faculty, Ramswarup Agarwalla High School, Udalguri.
Zeenat Tabassum (2002-2003); Facilitator, Minority language development; Ahom manuscript project.
Palash Kumar Nath (2002-2003); Project Assistant, Endangered Language Documentation Project on Singpho.
FACILITIES & ASSETS

The Department has a library with no. of books : 1057.
Besides, The Department has one desktop Computer and one laptop Computer.