Peggy Mohan - Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages

This book demonstrates the ways in which migrations bring about changes in the languages used by both the host population and those who come to settle among them. Studied analytically, languages reflect a range of historical changes. The subcontinental Indian languages, when analysed from a linguistic perspective, have indicated new dimensions in aspects of Indian history, some of which are revealed so ably and accessibly in this book, in addition to its providing new questionsRomila Thapar, professor emerita, ancient history, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Peggy Mohan takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the world of Indian languages. Weaving linguistics and history tightly together, she explores how waves of migration over millennia have left their mark on what we speak and how we speak. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants is an accessible account of how Indian languages may have evolved over time and it is a necessary read for anyone interested in our linguistic history
Tony Joseph, author of Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From

Peggy Mohans Wanderers, Kings, Merchants is a highly welcome addition to historical sociolinguistics. Human languages are as mobile as the human communities that speak them, and the languages reflect the interactions of these communities across time and space. From the ancient migrations of peoples into the Indian subcontinent to the migration of Mohans own ancestors to Trinidad, Mohan weaves the accounts of migration with the changing forms of languages. Besides her astute linguistic observations, this book, unlike the typical books in linguistics, reads like a fascinating story of the languages and the communities, and in that respect, offers an enjoyable experience to a wider readershipMadhav Deshpande, professor emeritus, Sanskrit and linguistics, University of Michigan

This is the most fascinating book on historical linguistics ever written. It revolves around the narration of migration, settlement in a new region, intermarriages and the admixture of population leading to the genesis of diverse languages and dialects, each borrowing from the other and then further innovating to become independent languages. Mohan weaves her narration so vividly that each character in the play of language evolution and mixed languages appears in front of your eyes on the stage called India. Her findings reinforce the possibility of the existence of prehistoric language group/s similar to Austroasiatic/Munda in the north-west of Asia, which were in contact with pre-old Indo-Aryan community. She quashes several myths in this little work about the pidgins and creoles, the foremost one being that Nagamese is not a pidgin or even a creole, but the newest member of the Magadhan language family.

Peggy goes through the maze of settlements of Indo-Aryans exactly la mode Sherlock Holmes finding small pieces of evidencethat may appear perfunctory to ordinary historiansand identifies the root source of inner structures of the present languages and dialects. Her arguments in describing the evolution of creoles emerge as a silver lining in the scenario of dying languages.

This is one of the most lucid books on linguistic diversity that I have read in many yearsAnvita Abbi, professor emerita of linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

To migrants:

our ancestors

our children

(India) was like some ancient palimpsest on which layer upon layer of thought and reverie had been inscribed, and yet no succeeding layer had completely hidden or erased what had been written previously.

Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India (1946)

:

iti varavida prahrnipua ta nibodhata

Thus the linguists have spoken;
Understand this wisely.

Pinya-ika