Professor Anvita Abbi is a distinguished researcher specializing in minority languages, and she holds a unique distinction in the Indian subcontinent as the only scholar to have conducted firsthand field studies on all six language families spanning from the Himalayas to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
In 2003-2004, during her academic pursuits, she made a significant linguistic breakthrough by identifying a previously unknown language family in India known as the Great Andamanese. This groundbreaking discovery was subsequently confirmed by population geneticists in 2005. Her pioneering work in the field of linguistics earned her national recognition, and she was honored with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India in 2013. Furthermore, her exceptional contributions to the documentation and description of Indian languages led to her receiving the prestigious Kenneth Hale Award from the Linguistic Society of America in 2015. She was also elected as an honorary member of the society.
Professor Abbi has a remarkable academic career, having taught linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University for an impressive 38 years. During this period, she made significant contributions to the field of linguistics. She held the position of President of the Linguistic Society of India and was sought after as a visiting professor and researcher at esteemed institutions across the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia. Her expertise was also enlisted by UNESCO, where she served as an expert on language-related matters.
With a substantial body of work to her name, Professor Abbi has authored 22 books, including notable works such as the "Dictionary of the Great Andamanese Language: English-Great Andamanese-Hindi" (2011) and "A Grammar of the Great Andamanese Language: An Ethnolinguistic Study" (2013). Her extensive research and dedication to preserving and documenting minority languages have left an indelible mark on the field of linguistics and continue to inspire scholars and language enthusiasts worldwide.
